Small-Group Tour of Hadrian's Villa and Villa d'Este from Rome

First, I want to say...

First, I want to say that our tour guide Lucy was excellent. She did a great job of communicating and keeping our group on track. The problem was with all the other aspects of the trip. I booked a small group tour with a maximum of 14 people. I paid extra for this. There were 25 people in just our group and another group of 25 traveling with us. My group of 4 were picked up at our hotel. I was expecting to be driven to the tour location. Instead we were dropped off at a metro stop and told to wait for our guide. We were dropped off at the wrong location. Luckily someone from another group noticed that we were supposed to be across the street. We were then loaded into a motor coach with about 50 people. Nothing about this situation was a small group experience. The tour itself was amazing and I was very satisfied. Upon our return we were dropped off at the metro station and there was not a car waiting to take us back to our hotel. We had to pay extra for an Uber. The tour details stated that we would be picked up at our hotel and returned to the original departure point. I assumed that was our hotel. There was no indication that I would be expected to arrange my own transport to the hotel. I felt that there was very poor communication about the details of this trip. I feel that I was sold a small group tour, but that is not what I received. I have been using Viator for years, and I am extremely disappointed with the level of service I received. I will consider this experience when booking in the future.

Response from the operator: Thank you for taking the time to share your feedback. We are delighted to hear that you enjoyed the tour and that Lucy provided such an excellent experience. We will be sure to pass along your kind words to her, as she takes great pride in ensuring guests have a memorable day. While we understand that some aspects of the logistics did not meet your expectations, we are pleased to know that you found the tour itself amazing and were very satisfied with the overall experience. Guest feedback is always valuable to us, and we continuously review our operations to improve communication and coordination wherever possible. Thank you again for joining us, and we hope to have the opportunity to welcome you back to Italy in the future.

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Hadrian's Villa is stunning!

Great trip and so interesting! Our tour guide changed the order of the tour to maximize the cool weather and minimize the crowds. The entire trip was amazing. Just be sure to wear comfortable walking shoes. Driver was great as well!

Response from the operator: Thank you for your review! We will be sure to tell both tour guide and driver.

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Small-Group Tour of Hadrian's Villa and Villa d'Este from Rome

We had no idea that Villa d'Este would be so outstanding-Our tour guide was great and very informative and we spent most of our time there; a moderately strenuous walking experience after an overnight flight from the US. Hadrian's Villa was outstanding as well and our tour guide again showed us ALL of the site with excellent descriptions. Our driver was very careful and considerate and promptly arrived at our hotel 15 minutes early with our most excellent tour guide

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Worst tour I've ever experienced

While the villa was beautiful, the tour was not enjoyable. At the last minute they asked if we would be able to change the time to afternoon but we replied we had another tour. They said it was either that time or not at all and changed the time of the tour from morning to late afternoon..we had cancel another tour to make the new time...The guide was not engaging and seemed disinterested in being there. At the beginning of the tour we were informed that Hadrians villa was closed to the public for renovations so the tour would only be of the Villa d"este and possibly a medieval castle instead of Hadrian's villa.. We boarded the transportation...which arrived late and was very unprofessional .. and were then rushed at breakneck speed (over twice the posted speed limit) to the site with not a word from the guide along the way. However the driver and the guide must have been great friends as their loud conversation in Italian was nonstop the entire ride. Any questions we asked seemed to be an interruption and was answered with one or two word replies On arrival the guide proceeded to rush through the Villa d'Este with us struggling to keep up and when she got ahead she proceeded to wait impatiently intently staring at her cell phone. She then dumped us off in the city center for an hour to "shop" even though most of the shops were closed (either due to the lateness of the hour or boarded up permanently). The Medieval castle they promised is occupied and not ever available to the public...But if we wanted we could "walk over" to the fence that surrounded and blocked the view of it. We were rushed back to town and were dropped off a couple of blocks from the hotel. We completed the five hour tour in just under 3 hours. We would not have booked the tour had we known in advance that Hadrians Villa would not be available and they were not forthcoming on this point until she arrived to pick us up and it was too late to make alternate plans.

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Do not miss this opportunity to step back in world history

This tour was one of the absolute highlights of our two weeks in Europe. Our guide and her driver were wonderful, incredibly knowledgeable and just plain fun, nice people. This was a top choice for our history major college freshman and we loved it. I knew little about the history and was overwhelmed with knowledge and appreciation at the end of the day. There were five us ages 50,45, 22, 22, 18. Perfect day - worth every dime.

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