DA vs On our Own?

[CPM]

So, I'm just getting started with planning our European Adventure in 2009. I have a 12 day cruise booked already, but wanted to add a week of Italy beforehand. I was thinking with the way the Euro is right now, AD might be the way to go.
I was looking at the Taste of Tuscany tour.
Any thoughts? There are 4 of us, 3 adults and a child.
I'm torn between a tour or doing it on our own.

 

[KLondon]

CPM.... That kind of decision depends on a number of criteria that are likely specific to your own situation. Here's a cut/paste from another thread that tries to highlight a few points to ponder:

- if you break the costs down as if you were going to do the same stuff on your own (i.e. same tourist sites, meals, some hotels, etc.), the ABD costs are actually a bargain. That said, we likely would have cut corners on accomodations and meals (for example) had we put together our own 'tour'. In essence, ABD is well-priced for those people who appreciate going 'first-class'.

- following on to the first point... If we had tried to do-and-see all of the things we saw-and-did on the ABD tour, we would have run out of time. Plain and simple, we saw more on the ABD tour than we could have managed on our own. And obviously there was less hassle involved since we were 'taken care of'.

- We looked at other tour companies besides ABD for 'family friendly' tours. For us that meant *not* spending half the day on a bus, *not* being dragged through 'gift shop stops', keeping active, etc. We just did not find anything that we considered family friendly. That doesn't mean other tours don't exist - we just did not find them.

- the Disney name - to us - means exceptional service, etc. We're willing to pay a premium for this. As well, the fact that ABD has low tourist/guide ratios was a big plus.

Anyways, some of this is pretty subjective, I know. As someone who was *very* skeptical of the premium price for the ABD tour, I came away a believer. It really was worth the cost - so much so that we've booked ABD Costa Rica for later this year.



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[CPM]

Thanks.
So much to think about. It's too early to know the 2009 prices, so I have time.