The Magic of the Italian Lakes Reviews

Relaxing visit to the Lakes District, lovely weather, lovely boat trip to Bellagio. Easy paced trip with an excellent tour guide.

Our third and final back to back tour with the Globus/Cosmos group. Again, this tour went very smoothly and was well organised. Tour director, Andreas, was very good and very knowledgeable and Driver, Vito, was excellent. The coach again, under Vito's care was spotless. The Italian lakes region is simply beautiful and a must see if you seriously want ...read more to see all of Italy. This Cosmos tour was very good value for money. Food in one of the included tours was not as good as what we've been spoiled with, but a minor issue. After doing 3 back to back tours with the Globus Group, we definitely recommend them.

I really enjoyed this trip, it was the perfect pace to discover the Italian Lakes area. It was not too rushed, with minimal driving between destinations and there were always things to see and do. Our tour guide was very nice and knowledgeable and the driver kept us safe on the roads. The hotels were excellent too. I would recommend this tour for someone ...read more looking for a relaxing end to a Europe holiday.

A small group, which enabled a more casual approach. Our Tour Director was excellent, as was the bus driver. This was a tour that exceeded our expectations. Included meals were excellent, but some of the optional meals were over priced.

This was our first Cosmos tour and it definitely will not be our last. We thoroughly enjoyed visiting the Italian lakes. Our guide, accommodation and included meals were all fantastic. Cosmos is definitely great value for money.

Once again an excellent tour with great tour guide. Good excursions, hotels and coach. Exceeded expectations. Well done.

The overall price was very good, but that may have explained why there were so many optional excursions attached to the tour. This is something that we have not experienced before despite opting for realistically priced tours and travelling widely. As it turned out we went on the tour from Lake Maggiore which was really good, but unfortunately, the ...read more tour of Verona, which we were prepared to do, was cancelled due to lack of numbers. Whilst the optional excursions were on they were in areas where there was not a lot to do for those not participating (perhaps that is part of their strategy!!). We probably needed more suggestion of where we could go and what to do. The planning of having two lunch/dinner optional tours on the one day was short sighted. Clearly though we loved the area, the accommodation and company and would still do another Cosmos tour. But get rid of the optional tours.

This could have been a wonderful trip however in an attempt to keep costs down I think the company penny pinched on the quality of provided meals. Dining is such an integral part of the travel experience, the provided meal in Lake Garda was an insult, especially when some people dined there the night before and knew the standard of food they were capable ...read more of, and the breakfasts in Stressa were basic even by Italian standards, without even croissants or a toaster. I am certain the participants would happily paid a little more for the trip to enjoy better food and the cost would still have been very competitive to other tours. (Or is the poor food a ploy to encourage clients to choose the more costly option in the future.)

This Cosmos tour had a good itinerary but there was too much unguided free time in some places where there was not enough to do. We would have done more homework ourselves on the destinations beforehand if we'd known how many hours we'd have to fill in for ourselves. The tour guide had a pleasant personality but her generally 'couldn't care less' attitude ...read more didn't add anything positive to the experience - this was in direct contrast to our previous Globus tour in 2011 where the tour guide was excellent. The accommodation was variable in standard and some people were allocated much better rooms than others. However, the accommodation, food and service at Lake Garda Resort in Lake Garda (where we spent two nights) was simply unacceptable. The service was chaotically slow and the food below par. The out of town location made it very difficult to go elsewhere and it was too dangerous to walk anywhere as the roads didn't have footpaths. It's unsuitable for a coach tour of this type.

I rated the accommodation down because of my experience at the hotel Milan au Luc in Stresa. All the other hotels were lovely, even if the Lake Garda one was nowhere near the lake. My hotel room in Stresa was small, with a lowered ceiling to 6 foot high only with a 2 foot wide x 2 foot deep shower. It was claustrophobic, to say the least, and far from ...read more relaxing. Also, this European thing about single travellers and therefore single beds is archaic and out-of-date. What sane adult sleeps in a single bed by choice and gets a good night's sleep? We don't at home, so why when on holiday are we subjected to such stupid conditions? I roll over and fall out of bed, so doesn't make for a relaxing night's sleep and feeling refreshed when on holiday. And the Stresa hotel gave me a choice of a room with a narrow (child sized) single bed or a room with a slightly larger bed, but not double size. Also, the tour guide touting for his and the driver's tips at the end, to me as an Australian, frankly embarrassing! I think how, when and what to tip is up to the discretion if the individual making the tip. However, the driver did an amazing job on those narrow, windy Northern Italian roads and was a gentleman in assisting us off the coach each and every time we disembarked. The tour guide was pretty good - funny with an almost British sense of humour. My only other disappointment was the amount of time spent on Isola Bella - I personally would have loved more time. The optional tour highlights for me were the Lake Garda day, Mt Tamaro and the dinner on Isola dei Pescatori. Whilst I enjoyed the 3 island cruise and stop on Isola Bella and Isola dei Pescatori, it was too short - maybe do the cruise bit and drop people off at Isola Bella and dovetail in with the lake's ferries for passengers to pick their own time to leave and go to the next island, and what time they choose to be back at Stresa. Just a thought. Overall, I really enjoyed the tour especially as this was the first time in 23 years I did a big group tour and not a speciality small group tour. The lakes are beautiful and this tour provided the opportunity to see the best of all the 3 lakes.

I would have liked the accomodation to be closer to the towns we stayed in, so that I could do my own thing if I wanted, rather than do the optional tours. Overall the tour was value for money and I would definitely do another one. Thanks!

This tour was very scenic. Not very impressed with some of the optional tours and especially value for money. Tour leader was a little hard to understand at times.

We thoroughly enjoyed this tour. Our Guide was terrific as was our Driver. Accommodation was very good. Our hotel room was really good in Slasomaggiore. Dinner was excellent with good variety however breakfasts were basic with the same for each of the five mornings with no variety. Content of the tour was very good and accommodation in Lake Maggiore ...read more was excellent. Optional excursions were enjoyable.

The Magic of the Italian Lakes coach tour was very good. Wonderful scenery and very nice accommodation. Tour guide was a bit difficult to understand at times, but his knowledge of the area was excellent and he was very helpful to all on the tour. I and many others thought the optional tour for a light lunch at Monte Tomaro was over priced @ Euro 50pp. ...read more I would also prefer Tour Director and Driver tips to be included in price. (Ed. These can be included, if requested at the time of booking).

Good coach and driver, good tour director, good hotels and a very well planned itinerary. What more could one expect? And all for a very modest price. No long tiring drives and lots of free time and the optional excursions were also very good.