Italian countryside and olive oil (CV27)

[FamilyHolidayPlanner]

Any feedback on this excursion? It's one of the shorter ones for the port of civitavecchia, so i think it may suit us with young children.

I'm also looking at cv42 BRACWINE, but this involves a longer drive.

 

[aggiedog]

I've not done that one, but I'll just suggest you look at doing your own tours. TripAdvisor and Cruisecritic are great resources. We've done it both ways and the tours we arrange ourselves have always been better, less crowded, better use of port time, and cheaper. With young kids, you could find something to tailor to their interests, and have the ability to stop and take a gelato break if they need it. You can find advice here or on CC on how to find and arrange tours.

That said, I hope you find someone to give you some feed back. When is your cruise?

 

[FamilyHolidayPlanner]

That said, I hope you find someone to give you some feed back. When is your cruise?

Thank you. Our cruise is end of August. I've looked at private excursions, but it's not really working out much cheaper once you factor in the fact that we only want half days, and our 2 yr old is free with dcl on most trips

 

[eva]

We did that excursion last September. It is a very relaxing day. The olive farm is pretty and they give you a nice spread of cheeses, bread, meats, olives, and a bit of wine. The inn on the farm is cute and fun to look around. There is a lot of open ground for kids to run around. The guide we had was very good. We went to a small hill town to tour and it happens to be where she lived. So she knew a lot about the quaint little town. There isn't much to do there other than to walk around and listen to the guide explain the architecture. It was very interesting to us. But I could see that a few were bored. The drive is a big portion of the trip. I would say about 40%. So if kids like to drive around and look at the countryside, they will like it. If they hate sitting still for an hour at a time, I would skip this tour. The drive is close to an hour each way. But the guide does a good explanation of the area during the drive. Oh, strollers would be pretty pointless on this tour. The hill town is very uneven with few sidewalks and the streets are all cobblestone. We are a couple in our 50's and we really enjoyed the day. Hope that helps.

 

[FamilyHolidayPlanner]

. The drive is a big portion of the trip. I would say about 40%. So if kids like to drive around and look at the countryside, they will like it. If they hate sitting still for an hour at a time, I would skip this tour. The drive is close to an hour each way.

This is very useful information/ thank you. The dcl site lists the driving time to Tarquinia as being 30mins. An hour would likely be pushing it with a 2yr old. Tarquinia looks lovely - I guess we will have to return when kids are older!

 

[aggiedog]

You can try http://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?f=452 which is the roll cal for DCL Magic. You can sometimes find groups to spread costs with. Several companies also do small group tours. You may be able to contact them and ask what would be best for your family. I've found the majority to be very prompt and honest with their communications.

I understand, though. We travel in a group of 8, which makes private tours very doable cost wise.

 

[eva]

This is very useful information/ thank you. The dcl site lists the driving time to Tarquinia as being 30mins. An hour would likely be pushing it with a 2yr old. Tarquinia looks lovely - I guess we will have to return when kids are older!

Tarquinia is closer to the port and about 30 minutes. But the olive farm is around an hour away. After you leave the farm it is about 30 minutes to Tarquina and then another 30-40 minutes back to port. Total time on the bus is around 2 hours.