… ABOUT DISCOVER YOUR ITALY … ABOUT TOURS AND TRAVEL IN ITALY

WHO ARE YOU?

You are an Italian Tour Operator … Can I trust you?

We believe that being Italians and working from Italy is our strength because we sell tours in our Country, we sell what we personally know, and we work with local partners with whom we are in close contact.

We realize that in a world dominated by the internet, distances seem closer but relationships are too often depersonalized and trust become key.

At “Fuoritinerario – discover your Italy” we are “real” tourism professionals  who may be easily contacted. We work in compliance with the laws that regulate the tourism sector in Italy and Europe. We have all the necessary authorizations and the insurances required by such regulations. Our travel conditions are approved by the main Tour Operator and Italian Travel Agents associations, in accordance with the national and International legislation. We are proud to be members of the ENIT Club ITALIA (Italian Tourism National  Agency) and ASTA (American Association of Travel Agents) Industry Partner.

Are you a large tourism company?

We are a young and relatively small Tour Operator. We base our work on our passion for travel and a deep love for our Country: Italy.

We firmly believe that these are necessary requirements in order to organise interesting and exciting travel experiences.

We don’t operate on a large-scale, all tours are directly planned and experienced by us and we know all our local partners intimately. At the same time our professional experiences and our network of local partners enable us to guarantee you professional organization, expertise and reliability.

Where are you located and how do you operate?

Our main office is in Perugia, a beautiful town in the centre of Italy, located between Rome and Florence. From here we operate tours all over Italy through an extensive network of national and local partners.

How can we contact you?

You can find our contacts on the page “contacts” of our website.

WHICH SERVICES DO YOU OFFER?

Do you offer group or individual tours?

Fuoritinerario – Discover Your Italy is specialist on SMALL GROUPS EXCLUSIVE TOURS. We offers tours for very small groups with exclusive and high-level services: “Group tours with the same level of service as individual ones”.  Let’s make that clear: the tours we offer are designed for very small groups (minimum 6, maximum 12 people), with guaranteed departures on fixed and frequent dates.

This way, we believe, offers you the advantages of the Group Tour together with those of individual tours: we organize for you a unique and original holiday for you so you won’t lose your way trying to understand the myriads of fragmentary pieces of information when arranging your holiday yourself. A very small group allows you to:

• Enjoy services and activities that can be very hard to organise by yourself and, at the same time,  benefit from  services (charming small hotels, small typical local restaurants) that are impossible for larger groups (even those composed of 20 people)
• Benefit from exclusive and top-level services (private driver for the whole tour, specialized local tourist guides, exclusive  special openings of museums and private places that aren’t usually accessible), with good value for money.
• Be delighted by the personalized care of our suppliers (hotels, guides, etc)
• Personalize the activities organized on the basis of the interests of the participants and have maximum  flexibility in your free time
• Choose among a wide range of frequent departure dates.

If you are already a group  of 6 people (family, friends, acquaintances), we can really offer you a tailor-made individual tour with special departure dates or personalised itinerary, without supplement (except for changes of the required services) to the price of our  group tours!

Do you also sell standalone services?

No, we don’t sell hotel reservations or similar services standalone.

We believe that our strength lies in planning original itineraries  in which the combination of the services (accommodation, guided tours, excursions, cultural events,wine and food activites) provides you with unique travel experience which is unique and above all…unforgettable!

Do you offer a Tour in a specific area/ region or all over Italy?

We only deal with Italy but we can offer everything about it. Our tours cover all Italy, art cities and small villages.

Our staff are constantly committed to searching for new, charming destinations and planning fascinating itineraries through the “mille Italie” that give life to our “Bel Paese”. The “FuorITinerario-Discover your Italy” catalogue is always being enriched with new itineraries created by on-going research and exploration of the beauties of the country.

We can offer elaborate and long itineraries as well as simple and short ones: you have only to choose the one that best meets your interests, your expectations and your time-availability … so you can discover “your” Italy.

What kind of tours do you offer?

We propose cultural tours in the broadest sense. We want to show you the artistic beauties that make our country famous worldwide, but also guide you discover our lifestyle, our food, and our traditions so that you can really live the atmosphere of our land. For this reason, in every tour we carefully try to visit either must-see places, the icons of our land, and the small villages and towns that are the true cultural fabric of Italy; art and archaeology together with artistic crafts and local traditions; landscape and territory with the unforgettable wine and food events!

What is the best period to travel to Italy and to participate in your tours?

There isn’t a preferable season to visit Italy. The mild and temperate weather of the Country is one of the characteristics that make you enjoy a holiday in Italy in every period of the year.

Our tours cover the whole year because we believe that Italy is always beautiful and in every moment of the year we will be able to find the specialities that will support our point.

ABOUT YOUR TOURS

How big are your groups?

Our tours are designed for very small groups with top-level exclusive services: we are specialists of small groups exclusive tours.

The tours we offer are designed for very small groups (minimum 6, maximum 12 people), with guaranteed departures with fixed and frequent dates.

Are the tours “escorted”?

Our tours are semi-escorted: during the whole tour you will have at your disposal a minibus with private English speaking driver who can easily take you to all the places to be visited. In each and every place to be visited a local guide will welcome  you and private guided tours are arranged exclusively for your group. When  necessary, a local tourist escort will also  join the group.

This will guarantee you the reliability given by an expert local tour guide, who will be able to take you to places unknown to you, to lead you to their most wonderful points and help you to understand and appreciate their special nature while at the same time keeping the flexibility to travel freely, without having to follow a tour guide and the group for the whole trip

Do I have time to go round freely, to relax and to go shopping during the tour?

The programmes of our itineraries are carefully  created to balance guided tours, cultural activities, wine and food events, handicraft tours, participations in cultural artistic events and free time to freely enjoy the atmosphere of the places visited so you can immerse yourself in the local life, do shopping and “discover your Italy”.

What is the intensity of your tours?

Our tours are cultural and designed for the curious traveller willing to learn about the heart of our country in all its aspects. So we plan trips, excursions and visits. The historical centres of our cities, the centres of art, the villages, the museums and the archaeological sites include walking guided tours,  with moderate pace sustainable by everyone in normal health conditions. The programmes are carefully created to balance between guided visits to historic city centres and characteristic areas of great artistic cities, visits to villages and the countryside, museums, churches and archaeological sites, cultural activities and wine and food events, shopping, leisure time and moments of relaxation…

Having said that, the rhythm of our tours can be considered as MODERATE.

Most of the tours include –except some special cases –two or three overnight stays in every place visited in order to give the opportunity to visit them in depth and enjoy  their atmosphere. and at the same time to visit different places during the whole tour.  For some shorter tours focusing on a more restricted territory, we have adopted the formula to accommodate you 5 or 6 nights in the same place (charming hotels in dream places!) and to guide you every day on a different trip. Every transfer is carried out by means of private minibuses, you will be always picked-up and dropped at the hotel and  baggage handling is included.

Which kind of hotel or accommodation do you offer?

We guarantee accommodation in personally selected high standard hotels that perfectly illustrate the charm of the Italian style. Their location will enable you fully to immerse yourself in the atmosphere of the place in which you are spending your holiday.

In the art cities our tours guarantee accommodation in boutique hotels, with at least 4 stars, located in the most charming spots in the city centre. In the smaller cities or in the country villages we choose historical mansions, period style villas  and luxury relais providing 4 or 5 stars services.

Which tourist guides do you use?

In order to offer an exclusive and original service, the tours we offer always include original and thematic guided tours led by local tourist guides.

Our tourist guides have been selected according to their experience with places and works of art, their skills to involve the tourist and the originality of the itineraries they suggest.

We only cooperate with professional tourist guides, officially authorized to perform their duties in compliance with Italian regulations.

In which language are your tours led?

By default our tours are in English. Upon request, for groups composed of 6 participants, it is possible to organise tours in most other foreign languages.

Which means of transportation  do you use?

Consistently with our philosophy of offering  only “exclusive” tours for very small groups, we only use brand new Minivans and Minibuses (Mercedes Sprinter or similar), equipped with every  comfort and a vast range of accessories to make your travel pleasurable, while  guaranteeing top safety.

In order to optimize your comfort, we use a 9 seats minivan for groups composed of 6 people and a 16 seats minibus for groups composed of 8 to 12 people.

The drivers distinguish themselves for seriousness, expertise and politeness, and they all speak English.

How are groups formed?

The groups are formed when   travellers book themselves into one of the tour departure dates we propose. Our system is based on transparency concerning the number of places still reservable for any tour. The departure is guaranteed when a minimum of 6 participants is reached and the group is closed when the maximum of 12 book in.

• In the rare case that a group doesn’t reach the number of 6 participants, the travellers that booked will be contacted well in advance to find alternative solutions: alternative departure dates and similar itineraries. We will do our best to find a solution that makes you realize your dream trip … and in the very rare cases that we do not succeed, your deposit will be fully refunded.
• When the tour you want to book is sold out because the maximum number of participants has already been reached, please don’t hesitate to contact us and we’ll search for a new solution for you!

If you are already a group of 6 or more people (family, friends, acquaintances), we can really offer you a tailor-made individual tour  with special departure dates or personalized itinerary, without any supplement (except for changes of the required services) to the price of our group tours!

Where is the group’s meeting-point? Where do people meet on the first day of the Tour?

The group meets in Rome, at the hotel, during the afternoon of the first day of the Tour ( participants will receive all the details at the time of booking). Our tour guide will welcome you at the hotel with a welcome cocktail and the detailed trip briefing. If you need it, we would be glad to organize the transfer from the airport to the hotel for you.

Why do all the tours begin and finish in Rome?

In Italian there is a widespread expression:  “All roads lead to Rome”!.

Our tours begin and end in Rome to allow you to arrange, easily and at a low cost, your International air transport or more in general your pre-tour and post-tour arrangements. Consistently with our philosophy of offering you an exclusive service, we don’t find it appropriate to leave you in the end of the tour in a place far away from the starting point obliging you to organize the transfers by yourself.

Moreover, we are confident that the farewell dinner we arrange for you on the last evening in Rome, will be a worthy closure of an unforgettable travel experience!

However, if your travel programme requires transfers from/to other cities please contact us and we will be glad to meet your needs.

What is included in your tours?

Our tours are really “all included”! … there is everything you need to enjoy an unforgettable holiday:

• Accommodation in exclusive and fascinating 4 star or higher Hotels during the entire trip, centrally located, in the most suggestive spots of the city.
• Full American breakfasts with a delicious buffet or with exclusive table service, all included; Lunches in different typical Italian restaurants; Dinners in characteristic and exclusive restaurants (meals include drinks).
• In addition to breakfast, on average we include one meal per day and leave the traveller free for the other meal, but specifics may change according to the itinerary (all included meals are well studied according to the itinerary and they are specified in the programme).
• Private minibus, with English speaking private driver, available for the entire Tour, as indicated in the programme and all the transfers during the Tour, as indicated in the programme.
• All Transfers to/from the hotels as indicated in the programme (luggage handling is included too).
• All the guided visits indicated in the programme, with professional local English Speaking Guides (exclusively for our groups) and including the entrance fees to the visited sites.
• All the tips for guides, drivers, restaurant and hotel staff
• Supporting Trip information for the itinerary

Why isn’t the flight included?

We are an Incoming Tour Operator and we focus on what we can handle better: to organize you a memorable Tour of Italy! We believe that you can very often find more attractive prices more easily by booking the flight directly from your Country of origin, through the many websites, specializing in the sale of flight tickets or through your travel agency. Moreover, you can have more flexibility to arrange your travel to Italy or Europe.

Which are the included meals? Why don’t you include all the meals?

In our idea to make you “taste” the purest Italy it is a must to make you taste Italian food, the local one, the traditional one, the high-quality one!

Our tours include many meals (lunches or dinners) in typical restaurants – no touristic restaurants or menus! We don’t apply a mass tourism formal (HB) even if a meal per day is usually included, but we take you to the best restaurants according to the route and the specialities of the visited place: it can be an agriturismo, a local trattoria, a typical restaurant or (at least once every tour) a top-quality gastronomic restaurant.

Moreover, in any Tour, we plan tastings of local wines, cheese and other delicacies; and last but not least, every tour includes a brief activity to introduce you to the real secrets of Italian cooking (demonstration cooking lesson suitable for all the participants).

We have not included all the meals in order to give you the flexibility to do some more sightseeing, to try those restaurants that arouse your curiosity or maybe sample some street food, to discover “your Italy”.

Are entry tickets included?

In our tours we always include all the entry tickets to the places we visit: so you will not have extra hidden costs, and you will have the opportunity to benefit from preferential entries in the most important (and crowded) museums.

Do you include a travel insurance?

We recommend taking out a travel insurance. Nowadays there are several options on offer that cover both the risks and the expenses if you have to cancel the tour and the health expenses during your stay abroad. It is very easy and convenient to find, on-line or through your preferred insurer, the arrangements that best meet your needs and which is most advantageous to you.

SPECIAL REQUESTS

Can I have any personal arrangements concerning the itinerary that you offer?

Our tours are arranged following careful research to offer a balanced mix of experiences in our Country; the themes they are linked with try to meet travellers’ interests: art, architecture, history archaeology, territory  and landscape, food and wine, handicrafts, etc..

However we are always interested in considering suggested modifications to our itineraries.

For groups made of 6 or more people we can easily meet the requests of itinerary modification/personalization to suit individual preferences.

We will do our very best to meet the needs of the travellers that join one of our groups and have specific requests.

You have many tours and many dates … but I cannot find a date on which I can leave. I would like to leave one day before, to come back one day later, etc.…

Our tours cover all the year because we believe that Italy is always stunning and any time during the year we can find the characteristics that will confirm our words. Our prerogative concerns “very small groups and frequent departures” so we can meet travellers’ needs.

For any tour we try to plan on average a departure every month and the departures of the various tours are alternate each other. The first and the last days of the tour have been planned in order to optimize the use of possible holidays for the travellers and match the openings of the places to visit.

If, in spite of everything, no date among the ones we suggest meets your needs do not hesitate to contact us by submitting your requests.

For groups made of 6 or more people we can easily create special departure dates.

We will do our very best to meet the needs of the travellers that join one of our groups and have specific requests.

Can I extend my stay in Italy?

Sure! We already plan extensions for some tours. In any case, submit your request to us with the additional services you need and we will certainly be able to find ad hoc solutions for you.

What can I do if I need medical care during the trip?

In all the cities we visit there are organisations able to give you an appropriate medical care or first aid.

In the information pack we provide to all participants to our tours, you will find all the appropriate details. Moreover, our local escorts and our drivers will be always available in any case of emergency.

EU Citizens have free access to public medical assistance in Italy, provided they are travelling with the appropriate “European Medical Insurance Card” (or similar) issued by their National health Authorities.

Non EU Citizens are recommended to take a travel health insurance before leaving.

We are on our honeymoon.…

Congratulations! We believe that Italy is a charming destination to spend your own honeymoon!

Feel free to book the Tour that best meets your interests and send us a message to inform us that you are on your honeymoon: we will amaze you with details that will make your trip even more special!

I have walking difficulties …

The rhythm in our tours can be considered as moderate, butthe guided tours are mainly carried out on foot even though they are not at a cracking pace.

If you have walking difficulties or special needs, please do not hesitate to contact us and we will try to recommend the tour that best meets your needs or to suggest specific solutions.

I am on a special diet …

Italian food is extremely variegated and offers several possibilities of choices. Usually, travellers that come to Italy and need special diets can meet their food needs very easily.

If you have special request please do not hesitate to submit them to us in advance. We will do our very best so that the menus of all the meals included in the tour meet your needs and we will give you useful suggestions so that you will thoroughly enjoy a trip to Italy which meets your food needs.

I am a smoker …

FuorITinerario-discover your ITaly Tours are usually “no smoking” tours.

Anyway, if you are a smoker you are welcome to participate in our tours but you are invited to respect some basic rules: we can book for you hotel rooms specifically designed for smokers and you can find in the hotels common areas for smokers; it is usually forbidden to smoke in the restaurants during the meals (many restaurants don’t have smoker lounges so it is very common to see groups of smokers smoking during the meals outside the restaurant) and it is forbidden to smoke inside the minibuses.

ABOUT PRICES

What is included in your tours?

Our tours are really “all included”! … there is everything you need to enjoy an unforgettable holiday:

• Accommodation in exclusive and fascinating 4 star or higher Hotels during the entire trip, centrally located, in the most suggestive spots of the city.
• Full American breakfasts with a delicious buffet or with exclusive table service, all included; Lunches in different typical Italian restaurants; Dinners in characteristic and exclusive restaurants (meals include drinks).
• On average we include one meal per day and leave the traveller free for the other meal, but specifics may change according to the itinerary (all included meals are well studied according to the itinerary and they are specified in the programme).
• Private minibus, with English speaking private driver, available for the entire Tour, as indicated in the programme and all the transfers during the Tour, as indicated in the programme.
• All Transfers to/from the hotels as indicated in the programme (luggage handling is included too).
• All the guided visits indicated in the programme, with professional local English Speaking Guides (exclusively for our groups) and including the entrance fees to the visited sites.
• All the tips for guides, drivers, restaurant and hotel staff
• Supporting Trip information for the itinerary

In which currency are your prices shown?

Our prices are indicated and billed in Euros. We are an Italian firm that sells and purchases services in Euro, so we find it honest and fair to use only this currency, without perhaps speculating on a floating exchange rate.

Are the prices you publish safe and the same for everyone?

The prices we publish are safe and final. In our policy it is not planned to use very low base prices “ such us “from…” and then always sell at a much higher price. We think that our prices are fair and competitive considering the genuinely high value of our service.

Moreover, as a matter of transparency, in which we firmly believe, our prices are the same for everyone: for the customer that purchases directly through our website or for the person that makes purchases through his preferred travel agency. The only differences can occur are for the customer who decides to take advantage of our special offers.

Are there additional fees like booking fees, taxes, extras?

The prices we publish are fix, safe and final and include all the specified services. At the time of the booking we, do not add any hidden fee or any kind of extra cost.

What are the published prices based on?

Our prices are per person and are based on a stay in a double room.

I travel alone but I would not like to pay the single room supplement…

For every Tour we also publish the single room supplement. If you travel alone you have the opportunity to choose whether to ask for the single accommodation and so paying the supplement on your total amount, or not. In this case we will contact you and upon your agreement we will try to find a solution in a shared room with another traveller. If this is not possible we will apply the scheduled supplement.

We are in a group of 3 or 4 people and we want only one room: is it possible? Do we have the right to a reduction?

All the hotels we use are high-quality and can offer you the solutions you prefer: triple rooms, quadruple rooms or interconnecting rooms. These solutions are available upon request, are subject to availability and very often can offer reductions on the cost per person. Contact us by submitting your requests to us and we will try to find the solution that best meets your needs.

Have you got special offers?

We plan special offers, applicable to the final price at the time of booking. Visit the dedicated section on our website to find the updated offers and the related conditions.