Rome short escape reviews?

[emilymad]

We are doing a 5 day cruise out of England but have two weeks to travel. We will want a few days in London but we have been to London twice in recent years so having a whole week there seems too much. We are trying to decide which city to visit before London and the cruise. I was thinking of trying the Rome short escape. Has anyone done it? I understand that for this year the itinerary changed a little but looking for general thoughts. I thought the short escape might be good to try out ABD in general and to not have to plan an additional part of this vacation. We aren't sure group travel is for us so only 4 days seems to be a good starting place.

 

[lovetotravel]

How big are the Escape tours? We did ABD Italy and then went back to Rome many times on our own. We redid the ABD activities listed in the short escape, plus better versions such as the underground Coliseum, early breakfast at the Vatican, and other food tours. For that price, I would say do it by yourself. I think ABD is best when traveling logistics are difficult such as getting to Orvieto, Tuscany, Florence and Venice all in one trip. But for all Rome, I would suggest staying in one hotel and hiring your own guide or booking your own tours. This can be easily done in Rome, taxis and uber are easy to use.

 

[Woodview]

Why not fly to Ireland and visit & stay in Cork ..... take The Paddywagon day tours to see the sights

and we speak English so no language issues

 

[Amanda&Mike]

We did the Rome short escape last year. I would highly recommend it. We covered a lot of ground in a short time and felt it was totally worth it. Rome has a lot to offer which for us meant a lot of decisions to make which is why we decided to see the city via ABD. Even in the downtime the guides provided great options for places to eat and things to see making it a stress free trip.

 

[cedricandsophie]

I think Rome is very easy to do on your own. The hop on hop off bus takes you everywhere and you can easily jump off. Also I just read a rick Steves column where he said to definitely book tours of every attraction online ahead of time. Another Easy place to get to is paris.

 

[emilymad]

We did the Rome short escape last year. I would highly recommend it. We covered a lot of ground in a short time and felt it was totally worth it. Rome has a lot to offer which for us meant a lot of decisions to make which is why we decided to see the city via ABD. Even in the downtime the guides provided great options for places to eat and things to see making it a stress free trip.

How many people were in your group?

 

[emilymad]

We have been to Ireland and Paris in recent years. Our cruise goes to Amsterdam, Brussels, and Le Havre (France). We are looking for someone places to fly into that we can see in 3 or 4 days.

If we did Rome on our own I feel like we would book a bunch of tours. While this is doable on our own someone else doing the planning has some appeal when we are already planning the rest of the trip.

I also considered Venice but we have never been to Italy so Rome seemed more interesting. I am considering other countries but want to do something "easy" so it doesn't feel like a stressful, running around trip.

 

[cedricandsophie]

I think Rome is very easy to do on your own. The hop on hop off bus takes you everywhere and you can easily jump off. Also I just read a rick Steves column where he said to definitely book tours of every attraction online ahead of time.

 

[Amanda&Mike]

How many people were in your group?

I think we had 40 give or take a few. We were worried it would be too big of a group but we had no issues and made a lot of great Disney friends. Some things I appreciated about touring the city with ABD was some of the little details they took care of like making sure everyone had coins for Trevi Fountain and rubbing St. Peter's feat the the Basilica.

 

[leannak]

We did the Rome short escape last year. I would highly recommend it. We covered a lot of ground in a short time and felt it was totally worth it. Rome has a lot to offer which for us meant a lot of decisions to make which is why we decided to see the city via ABD. Even in the downtime the guides provided great options for places to eat and things to see making it a stress free trip.

Do you think it would have been worth it without the private Vatican/Sistine tours? They changed it to just general daytime group tours for this year on the short escapes..

 

[Amanda&Mike]

Do you think it would have been worth it without the private Vatican/Sistine tours? They changed it to just general daytime group tours for this year on the short escapes..

The private Vatican/Sistine Chapel tours were amazing but it was only a small part of what made the trip great. We saw so much, learned so much and the meals were a perfect introduction to all of the good food in Rome. To compare we added on a couple of days and went to Florence on our own, our ABD guides knew this was our plan so they slipped a map of Florence under our door with all the places to see and where to eat circled. When we got to Florence we signed up for another company's tour and it was awful compared to ABD.

 

[leannak]

We did the Rome short escape last year. I would highly recommend it. We covered a lot of ground in a short time and felt it was totally worth it. Rome has a lot to offer which for us meant a lot of decisions to make which is why we decided to see the city via ABD. Even in the downtime the guides provided great options for places to eat and things to see making it a stress free trip.

Was there some sort of craft activity in the Rome short escape? I think I saw mosaic frames or mirrors maybe? I’m wondering if that was fun or not - I bet my family would like that a lot but I believe it was missing in the full Italy tour because there is mask making in Venice.

 

[sayhello]

Was there some sort of craft activity in the Rome short escape? I think I saw mosaic frames or mirrors maybe? I’m wondering if that was fun or not - I bet my family would like that a lot but I believe it was missing in the full Italy tour because there is mask making in Venice.

From the ABD website:

Mosaics Class
Piece together your own masterpiece at this hands-on class on the art of mosaic-making. You’ll work with marbles, glasses and enamels as adult Adventurers will create their own frame or mirror with tiles, while Junior Adventurers will realize figures of animals, small frames or mirrors with tiles. After class, you will get to bring home the mosaic you created.

I've enjoyed every craft activity I've done on an ABD.

Sayhello

 

[Amanda&Mike]

Was there some sort of craft activity in the Rome short escape? I think I saw mosaic frames or mirrors maybe? I’m wondering if that was fun or not - I bet my family would like that a lot but I believe it was missing in the full Italy tour because there is mask making in Venice.

Yes, we did the mosaic class. We were a little hesitant at first but it ended up being a great experience. The building where the activity takes place has an amazing view of the Vatican from the rooftop. I remember our local guide saying how she had never had the opportunity to view the Vatican from there. The folks who taught the class also made lunch, it was nice having a homemade meal that wasn't like eating at a restaurant.