Tuscan & Umbrian Countryside featuring Italy's Charming Hill Towns

11/07/2019

Dario was wonderful

Service

The tour manager was amazing. Dario was personable, responsible and helped get the whole group excited every day. He told us stories about the people and culture and made sure we all always felt safe.
Tour

I loved seeing how olive oil was made! It was so fun to spend time on the farm and learn from the people who are doing it.

11/01/2019

Really wonderful experience

Service

This is my 3rd Collette tour and, as usual, it was excellent. The tour guide, Antonella Regi, was exceptional and the small group excursion was very nice.
Tour

All of it; small group, exceptional tour guide/manager.

10/13/2019

Disappointed as I convinced 15 other people to take this trip.

Service

Entire tour did not meet expectations. 2 of the 3 hotels were located remotely requiring long trips on the bus. Food was average which is difficult to do in Italy. Local guides were weak. I have provided a more extensive review to customer service.
Tour

See above comments. Tour was disappointment.

Thank you for traveling with Collette on our Tuscan & Umbrian Countryside tour. A member of the Guest Relations Team will be reaching out to discuss your feedback.

Collette Support

10/13/2019

Service

Choice of hotels and meals
Tour

Wine tasting and cooking class plus meals

10/10/2019

Service

Tour manager excellant. Hotels and meals great
Tour

The history , wine and cooking class.

10/03/2019

Service

The Tuscan-Umbrian tour was delightful! Well tought out and fun excursions. Please be sure to stress that there is a LOT of uphill walking on uneven surfaces....a consideration for older tourists to take into account.
Tour

Luciana Lyons was a huge part of the success of this excursion. Her bubbly personality was infectious and she made everyone feel special. Her commentary throughout the trip was interesting and informative. We all loved her!!!

07/27/2019

Very enjoyable trip! i would highly recommend this trip.

Service

This trip was very well planned. Our tour manager, Alessandro Bindi was exceptional. Since he was from the area, he was able to give us additional information on Italy and the Tuscany and Umbria regions. I was very pleased to have a group of 16 rather than the much larger groups I have been in before. I particularly liked having only 2 hotels after we left Rome. Both hotels were ideal. Two high points were the Umbrian cooking class and the lunch provided by a local family at their country home. With the exception of one night in Rome and one day in Florence we were in much smaller towns, which gave us a different view of Italy.
Tour

I bought 4 bottles of wine, olive oil, soap made with olive oil, and two blouses. i am very happy with all my purchases.

07/15/2019

An excellent tour of a very beautiful part of Italy.

Service

Our 9th tour with Collette and, as always, excellent service and a very good tour. Sadly our last as the Collette UK office is closing next year.
Tour

Excellent tour of smaller, less visited hilltop towns.

07/14/2019

Service

The tour was very well organised. The booking, by phone, was easy and the documents arrived in good time. The tour manager was exceptional!
Tour

Every day was busy, hot and tiring but absolutely fantastic. We had good local guides at each of the towns we visited. The hotels were very good and the included meals were excellent. The cookery class was really good.

07/11/2019

Service

The trip and activities planned were great. Our tour guide, Alessandro, was fantastic...very knowledgeable and accommodating. The only really negative thing was the heat, but that was not in your control! I would definitely recomment Collette.
Tour

I like the smaller group. This is the first tour I've been on. Most of my travel has been with one to four people with a personal tour guide. It was fun to meet new people and learn about them.

06/15/2019

Italy is beautiful.

Service

The activities they planned were great.Such as the meal prepared by an Italian lady.They made us feel like family.Also their son played the piano for us.We also had a cooking class and then ate the food.We learned how to make olive oil ,cut alabaster and make cheese. Our guide Matteo was incredible and went the extra mile for us.Our bus driver Giuseppe was excellent.
Tour

Countryside breathtaking.

05/09/2019

Service

I am primarily impressed with Chuck Cinelli, who uses Collette as his travel agency.
Tour

We were treated with great love and caring by our guides.

05/02/2019

Service

The included experiences and the local experts created a rich and immersive experience. The accommodations were fantastic. I would definitely travel with Colette again.
Tour

The tour moved smoothly from one experience to the next. Our tour manager was full of valuable suggestions for interesting ways to utilize our free time. Staying in the smaller towns allowed me to feel less like a tourist and experience the daily life of a local.

11/16/2018

Service

This was one of my best trips. I must thank our tour guide Siblia. She went above and beyond. Our bus driver Luigi was great and kept us safe. Everyone on the bus was out to have a great time and we all did. We all got along. Our accommendations were the best and the tours were exceptional. We had plenty of free time to explore. I would definitely recommend Collette especially the small group tours.
Tour

This was of the best tours I have taken. From the minute we met our tour guide Siblia I knew my friend and I were going to have a fantastic time. All the hotels, the tours, the people on our tour and the people that we met, to the bus driver Luigi and the local guides it was a win win tour. No wonder Collette is celebrating 100 years in the travel business. Happy Birthday Collette and thank you for a wonderful trip.

10/17/2018

Service

Well organized trip. Tour guide very knowledgeable and supportive to the needs of the traveling group. Bus driver was very friendly and courteous. Also a good driver.
Tour

Loved the regions we visited and the ability to obtain a intimate perspective of the culture and people that lived in the country and hill top towns. Beautiful vistas and experience.

10/14/2018

Service

Great small group tour of italy. I feel like I saw the real Italy! The service was great all the way from pickup at my door to hotels, experiences of the people we meet and that cooked for us. The tour manager was well organized and great with people and vey informed on all places we traveled. I can't wait for my next adventure with Collette.
Tour

Meeting the people at the wineries and the cooking class and at the olive oil grove and the wonderful food.

10/14/2018

Service

Only changed hotels 3x. Smaller group. Excellent tour guide.
Tour

Dinner with Umbrian family. Tour of the winery & olive oil farm.

09/27/2018

Service

Everything about the tour was excellent. The places we visit was wonderful and guided both Steve Walker and private guides was informed.
Tour

Everything to cooking class and visit the family farm.

06/21/2018

Want to see “Heaven on Earth?”

Service

Tour manager was exceptional. Well versed in local history and made experience the best tour that I have traveled. She made sure everyone was comfortable and able to ascend the terrain. This is my second Collette tour- and I have been extolling my kudos to all.
Tour

Lunch at local Italian family. American husband / Italian wife that rebuilt a stable into a lovely home. Delicious meal prepared by Italian grandmother.

06/15/2018

Service

As usual they knocked it out of the park. The tour was awesome and our Tour Manager Mari was outstanding!
Tour

Lunch with a local family in the Umbria Region.

11/13/2017

Perfect itinerary and size of group

Service

Tour guide Jovanka was wonderful. The planned activities were better than we hoped for. Collette app was helpful. Had no snags at all with Collette service. They had taken care of every detail.
Tour

Lunch hosted by Italian family at their country home.

11/02/2017

Wonderful Italian Vacation

Service

Collette put together a great view of the Italian countryside and culture. Excellent tour guides, great accommodations and a wonderful knowledgeable tour manger. The small size group made it possible to explore many areas a large group would never be able too.
Tour

Everything about the trip was perfect, very talented and knowledgeable local guides made all the visited sites memorable. The tour manager was able to make the tour a very pleasurable experience.

10/05/2017

Not a tour company that we will use again.

Service

Our tour guide was very substandard. She had more interest in her smartphone than her job. English language skill seriously lacking. The hotels were ok, lots of things broken in the rooms.Pretty setting though. Our guide knew nothing of our Leonardo da Vinci tour and just ignored our repeated requests UNTIL we had left the area. Tour guide didnt show up until the day after we arrived from the airport! Arrived at 6:30 Am at airport...arranged by Collette. Got to the hotel at 8:30am, the lobby was jammed with check-in groups. Couldnt get a room until 3:15pm. It was raining heavily so couldnt explore. Couldn't leave our luggage because the hotels security room was full. So much more to be said. Lets not forget Luigi, our bus driver, an employee of Collette. Rude, discourteous and arrogant until two days before the end f the trip? Wonder why? We were testing Collette tours in preparation for a Kenya Africa trip that we are planning next fall. Collette loses that one bit time.
Tour

Read our review. We were an English speaking group and our Collette guide seemed to ignore that fact, so did the bus driver. The countryside was beautiful and the 1st wine tasting was nice. The 2nd was unacceptable. Florence and Assisi are beautiful places. Local guides were ok but seemed to think the only thing we wanted to see were churches! The home hosted lunch was very nice.

Hello, thank you for sharing this feedback with us about the tour. We have passed this along to members of our team for review. We appreciate you and value your insight as it helps us to improve our tours for future guests. \n\nA member of our guest relations team will be reaching out to learn more about your experience.

Collette Support

10/05/2017

Worst tour service we have encountered! Won't use Collette again.

Service

Your tour service is the worst we have ever been with! Your tour leader could have cared less about the travelers. She was busy texting and using her phone. Not to mention she was unable to communicate in English. Never bothered to talk about sites along the way....just busy with her phone. Airport service was terrible. We had to hunt through the airport to find someone. We arrived at 6:30 Am got to hotel at 8:30am and had to wait in the lobby until 3:00pm to get a room. It was raining heavily so we couldnt even go exploring (not your fault). Our tour guide never even showed up until the next day!
Tour

Siena and getting to the airport! We were signed up to see the Leonardo da Vinci museum and the tour guide said she knew nothing about it!

Hello, thank you for bringing this to our attention. We have passed along your feedback to our team for review and a member of our guest relations team will be reaching out shortly to hear more about your experience.

Collette Support

06/15/2017

Fabulous trip through Umbria and Tuscany!

Service

The trip was great. Little problem with the transportation from the airport to the hotel in Rome. My flight changed at the last minute and I called the transportation service to alert them. When I arrived in Rome, I was told I would need to wait an hour and a half so I took a cab to the hotel. The tour itself was great. *Personal Details removed by Feefo* was a fabulous tour guide.
Tour

Lunch at a private home with an Italian family.

05/14/2017

Excellent service, we are very happy customers

Service

The service was excellent. While we planned our own flights, Collette did the rest and it was all very well coordinated. Our tour manager, *Personal details removed by Feefo*, was very good. He managed all aspects for ultimate enjoyment and was, himself, a great addition to the tour. One area of improvement is product knowledge by those who provide phone customer service. I asked more than once on how many people or bus size indicating number of people on the tour. I received responses of up to 44 people. However, this was an Explorer tour so the maximum is 24.
Tour

We loved the smaller group and focus on small hillside towns! Highlights include the visit to the olive oil farm, Carletti, where the intimate setting was marvelous as was the olive oil. The cooking class in Vallo di Nera was a lot of fun and laughs. The small town is worth walking around too. The meal at a home near Bevagna was spectacular! What an idealistic home and place to live! The small towns and history the represent was also fabulous like the fortress town of Monteriggioni. Assisi and its history, cathedral are amazing and inspiring. Saint Francis is fascinating as he didn't start off as such a nice young man, but he certainly grew into a very special person. Learning of the painter Giotto who painted fresco's in the Assisi cathedral and was also the architect of the Florence bell town was beyond description. We also made some very nice and fun trip friends, Mary and Nancy, who made the trip more enjoyable with many laughs. Our tour manager was exceptional, *Personal details removed by Feefo*, and in addition to his tour management capabilities, he can sing beautifully. The weather during our tour was cooler than I expected so it's a reminder to be very prepared for expended cold weather or it could have gotten warm and Italy mandates no A/C until 6/1. We recommend this tour and Collette.

11/04/2016

Loved it, we will always go with Collette.

Service

Very good tour thanks to Steve our guide.

11/03/2016

If you can't sleep, you can't enjoy touring when your weary.

Service

Hotel's did not meet the expectations presented within you marketing materials. We felt like we got the second tier rooms were we stayed. Rome we too noisy, Spoleto had no heat the first night and I got a cold, and Mannaioni the room was too hot and with the window open were attacked by mosquitos.
Tour

If you can't sleep, you can't enjoy touring being weary! Tour seem to be pinching pennies as you had to buy water on the but.

10/16/2016

"This is it !" and you will love it !!!

Service

This tour was everything we hoped for and more. Our guide was so knowledgeable and caring. We learned and we laughed - a lot. The hillside towns that we visited in Umbria and Tuscany were exquisite villages frozen in time and Florence was truly where the Italian Renaissance was born. We were treated to wine often and the wineries we visited were interesting and generous. In the words of my favorite wine that we discovered there - Est!Est!Est! -translated This is it ! This is it!, This is it ! - you won't be disappointed. Thank you
Tour

The tour of Siena was wonderful and informative and the city is beautiful and different. I really enjoyed this day.

09/30/2016

Tour guide exceptional. Fire the transit company at arrivals Rome airport

Service

Tour guide exceptional, organized, personable and knowledgeable. Sites interesting, full experience. Farm house afternoon interesting experience. Hotel staff very helpful. transport company that was to meet with me at arrivals Rome Airport failed me and should be fired. Other participants of tour who were to be transported also struggled to find them.

09/29/2016

Excellent service by Collette US

Service

Great wineries and hotels

07/09/2016

Loved this tour!

Service

Would definitely take another Collette tour!
Tour

Best vacation we have ever taken! Our tour manager, was very knowledgeable, organized and entertaining. We were able to go to places that we would have never found on our own. Loved the local guide, Romana. Lunch at the private home was outstanding. Everything about the trip exceeded our expectations!

06/30/2016

The most amazing vacation of my life

Service

They are fantastic. We just came off of our own individual pre-vacation, and it was nice to relax and let Collette take care of all the arrangements and problems. I would recommend the company.
Tour

My favorite day was the trip to the olive oil factory and the cooking class.

05/11/2016

professional

Service

well organized

05/11/2016

Two great weeks in Umbria and Tuscany

Service

We got great service from Collettte. A minor complaint is confusion about whether it is a Canada or US based company - I was sent the US-based form to review my trip. Due to a family health emergency, my travel companion could not travel so we are very glad we purchased cancellation insurance. However, in the end, I went alone and had a marvelous time.
Tour

A very well planned tour with a varied itinerary. Nice pace. Wonderful guides. Excellent hotels. It may have been luck that the group was small and particularly congenial. The entire experience was delightful. My favourite part was the stay in Umbria where we stayed in lovely Spoleto and visited places I doubt many tourists find.