My wife and I had an absolutely delightful trip with Amber Road, visiting Lucca, Pisa, Cinque Terre and Genoa. This is our third tour with Amber Road. Our tour manager, Tiziana, was attentive to everyone’s needs, very knowledgeable about the places we visited, quite helpful along the way and a lot of fun. The itinerary was varied and interesting and the hotels and restaurants were great. The mix of group activities and free time is perfect for us. Thanks Amber Road for another wonderful adventure.

We thoroughly enjoyed the tour in all aspects. In particular, our wonderfully funny and yet professional tour manager Saverio and also the guide in Taormina whose acting skills and humour gave her the status of fantastic local guide.

We prefer small group tours and have had incredible guides and services and we think this was by far the best European tour we have experienced. The itinerary and hotels are what first caught my eye. And it exceeded all my expectations. Out tour manager Mariaelena was so awesome, fantastic person, knowledgeable, caring, organized, great relationships with local guides and restaurants, and great sense of humor. Not any less was our driver Guisseppe who knew the roads and traffic so well. His humor and laughter I will never forget, along with his singing. The pace of the tour, 13 days/12 nights with the day trips provided plenty of time (not rushed) and we saw so much of these beautiful regions. The lunches and dinners were unbelievably tasty and plentiful. Many different local and regional dishes with great wines at every seating. The hotels, all within a little walking distance to center of town and our favorite, in San Gimignano, is right in front of the cistern, smack in the center.. What a view from the rooms! All local guides were extremely interesting unique personalities of joy! If I had to pick a favorite it would be Marco in Spoleto. So passionate and expressive… What a character! Our group was small and had a great time and fun. It truly was as good as it gets and I can not make even one recommendation for improvement. Thank you so much and hope to travel again with you, and especially with Mariaelena as she is leading tours also in Sicily!

An avid traveler that searches actively for small group and thoughtful itineraries, I can’t imagine how I overlooked Amber Roads before this first trip to Northern Spain. It is well paced, with exceptional food and accommodations and engaging guides. Start here and set the bar high for your next travel plans.

Our best trip ever. We’ve traveled to Europe in the past but never a tour. The tour was top notch. Saverio, our guide was amazing. He was on top of everyone’s issues. The hotels were excellent. All of the local guides were very knowledgeable. We will surely use Amber Road tours for our future vacations.

A Great trip. Sean was a fantastic guide. He was very knowledgeable, clear, understandable and always helpful. Our accommodation was all 5 star. Northern Spain is a beautiful part of the world and we totally enjoyed being shown it. In particular we enjoyed the “side” trips. The trip across the river estuary with all the mussel platforms was most interesting & the mussels were great. The cheese tasting ( with wine) was interesting and the visit to the winery & wine museum captivating. The pace of the trip was good & we had sufficient time to ourselves to see & do things that interested us.  We enjoyed the food especially the dinners. The lunches were good quality but very large & we would have liked some tapas instead. The group was 13 strong which was a really good size of lovely people. We can recommend this trip most highly.

We ate, drank, walked and laughed our way around the island of Sicily! The hotels were all great and the food was fantastic. One included meal was better than the next. Some of the restaurants included were places we would never have found on our own. All the local tour guides were very knowledgeable. But our tour director, Saverio, was amazing. He was interesting and fun. He paid attention to the small details, not only including dietary restrictions. Since my husband and I had challenges with stairs, he made sure our hotel room at each hotel was easily accessible. He took care of all the details in advance so our hotels and restaurants were always ready for us when we arrived. When a short illness caused me to miss the morning tour, he rearranged the tour schedule to meet back at the hotel prior to the afternoon tour so I could rejoin the group.

This was a wonderful trip. Hotels were great, itinerary interesting. Perhaps a little more down time. Saverio our tour director was the best part of our tour. He was so accommodating and a lot of fun!

Excellent tour. Our tour guide was Tiziana. She was above and beyond in all respects. Very concerned we were getting to see and enjoy everything available. She made dinner reservations and even was downstairs at 4:00 am to see us off and make sure our taxis was there. Simply
The best tour guide possible.

This was our second Amber Road trip. Tiziana is an absolute joy – she is a wonderful guide and a lovely person. I would definitely seek out another Amber Road tour on which she is the guide. She has a great personality, is very knowledgeable and took care of all of us.

Amber Road tours are a good mix of scheduled and free time. You learn a lot from the local guides at each location on the tour but then have plenty of time to explore on your own. The small group size is also a plus and gives you the chance to get to know other participants. Transitions between hotels are seamless, and the hotels were lovely. We enjoyed each location on the tour. Genoa was a pleasant surprise – the Hotel Bristol Palace is beautiful and full of old world charm and it’s a great city with lots to explore.

Looking forward to another Amber Road tour.

Thank you Amber Road once again for a wonderful tour to Galicia and the Basque. It was a real treat to travel the Spanish coast and witness “green Spain” first hand. Highlights for us were seeing the incredible Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao. experiencing first hand the incredible beauty of La Rioja wine region, all the beaches and being treated to a sojourn to France at the end. All the hotels were wonderful and of course we enjoyed travelling under the guidance of Sean, whose passion for and knowledge of all things Spanish really augmented the experience. This was our seventh tour with Amber Road.

Wonderful trip under the capable guidance of Federica. She was just terrific as our tour guru. Accommodations and itinerary were excellent. Will join another tour soon!!!!

This was my fourth tour with Amber Road. This tour was particularly enjoyable as we had a very amiable group of 17. This area of Spain is incredibly green and has the most amazing mountains that come right down to the sea. Our luxury hotels were a delightful mix of old world style and modern and in very good locations. I enjoyed some of the smaller towns where we stopped – charming Comillas, Santillana del Mar where we had lovely cakes at a 4th generation family business, and La Guardia, where we tasted wonderful wines. And then to add to all of that was our most congenial tour guide, Sean. He brought enthusiasm to each day’s adventure, as well as an encyclopedic knowledge and obvious love of all things Spain. Having my college degree in history, I so enjoyed the stories he told us of medieval Spain. If you are looking for a tour that is unique and enjoyable Galicia and the Basque Country will fit the bill very nicely.

We really enjoyed the Galicia & the Basque Country Tour with Amber Road. This was our 9th tour with Amber Road and as usual was a fantastic adventure. The beautiful Northern Spain scenery, the delicious meals and nice central accommodations all enhanced the trip. We have found in the past that most Amber Road clientele travel well together. This trip was no exception. As an added bonus, it was fun having Sean Retana as our guide again. The quality of the tour was enhanced by his enthusiasm, knowledge, and genuine love of Spain. His storytelling as we traveled along the highways was quite enjoyable. Sean went out of his way several times to ensure we had a wonderful trip – going so far as to organize birthday celebrations for three in our group.
We highly recommend Amber Road Tours. Having traveled extensively in Europe we have found them to be of top quality. Their itineraries, guides, and accommodations are spot on. You can’t go wrong selecting any of their many trips – all are unique and enjoyable.

We decided on a trip to Italy for our 25th anniversary. We could not have been happier with our choice!! This was our first group tour. We chose Amber Road because of the smaller groups and the authentic itinerary. We wanted to spend more time getting to know a smaller region of the country and the Amalfi to Apulia tour hit the mark. We especially loved Ravello, the Amalfi coast and Matera but all the locations were special and unique. The hotels and food were amazing! We loved the local tour guides – they brought the history and culture of the places we visited to life – along with a laugh or two! We met some great people and being newbies to the travel tour experience, we really enjoyed hearing about everyone’s world travels. We also enjoyed the balance between structured and unstructured time.

Last but not least, our tour manager Laura was fantastic!! Her knowledge, passion, love of people and genuine concern for everyone’s experience made us feel special. We would do another tour just to have her again. Thank you Laura and Amber Road for a special 25th anniversary!

This was my second trip with Amber Road Tours and it was just as enjoyable as the first one. Our tour guide, Tiziana, was not only knowledgeable but she was also conscientious. When I came down with laryngitis she found a doctor in town to pay a visit to my hotel room.   As for the trip, the hotels were first-class and the food exceptional. That said, I had a great time and I will continue to take tours with Amber Road.  Cheers to Amber Road Tours!

This was our first experience with a small group tour and it turned out to be a perfect fit for us. The ten other travelers, as well as our tour manager, Andrej, were fun and interesting. The tour was a perfect blend of historical information and site-seeing. There were activities every day, but also down time to fill with whatever activity suited each traveler. I especially loved the personal interaction with the Bosnian family and the two wine producing families. I feel like a better person for knowing more about the Homeland War suffered by these countries in our recent past. A highlight for us was the time at Plitvice Lakes – an incredible natural wonder. Everything was taken care of in the most professional way with no waiting in lines, and alternate plans were made when the weather didn’t cooperate. Thank you for a great adventure with little to no stress!

The Portugal tour was wonderful. Claudia da Costa our guide was exceptional. She made her country come alive for us especially in Lisbon her home city. She looked after the group members with care and sensitivity and always with a smile and a wry sense of humour. We learned so much about history, geography, cork, wine and port production, and how people live in this lovely country. What a great experience for us all.

This was our first trip with Amber Road Tours. We both agree that this was a first rate trip. We usually go off to somewhere and do our own thing. This was a change of pace for us; from the many activities, such as the visits to the ancient town of Lucca/Pisa, the hike through the idyllic Tuscan countryside, the visit to the olive oil processing farm, the studio in Carrara, the Carrara marble quarries, the romantic towns of the Cinque Terre, the most informative tour of Genova and all the new friends we made. Our most fabulous tour leader Tiziana was breath of fresh air who was most knowledgeable and cared for her flock with deep affection. She led us to many places most of us had never been to or did not know much about. She was well prepared to tell us about her country and gave us a deeper understanding of her country’s character and culture. The hotels were best of class and the food was great (too bad we ate so much). Kudos to you Tiziana, we will never forget you, you were a good shepherd. Let us not forget the person who set up this glorious trip. Thank you Lisa, you did yourself proud.

This tour was the best combination of all things—each day brought new surprises. It had an unexpected and wonderful mix of physicality and culture—walks, bike riding, boat and train travel, great food and all the history and art. Our shepherd was the amazing Tiziana. She’s so very caring and so well prepared. This is a woman who does her homework—in each city she was prepared with handfuls of business cards, recommending restaurants we’d enjoy. It’s my fourth trip with Amber Road and I look forward to traveling again as long as Tiziana’s on the bus.

This was our 2nd trip with Amber Road (first was to Tuscany/Umbria) and we loved it! We chose the lakes region tour because we were hoping to experience much natural beauty… and it certainly did not let us down. We really liked the combination of city activities (art, history, culture) in Milan and Mantova, and the natural beauty and interesting history on Lakes Como and Maggiore. The 2 hotels on Lakes Como and Maggiore had incredible views of the lakes. Our tour leader, Federica, was terrific and the local guides were so passionate about their localities. A few highlights included… a viewing of DaVinci’s Last Supper in Milan (awe-inspiring), being part of the Alpini’s 100th anniversary celebration in Milan (with 600,000 Alpini!), visiting the opera house in Milan, the incredible gardens and villas of the lakes region, wonderful food, a violin making demonstration and short concert in the Cathedral Baptistry in Cremona, and so much more!

Our 6th Amber Road Tour was as successful and pleasurable as previous tours. Tour Director Tiziana was fun, organized and involved with her diverse travelers. She was helpful in each location with restaurant suggestions and reservations. We were pleased with her choices and it made “on your own” a fun experience. Our hotels were very comfortable and in great locations. Everyday provided a variety of experiences. Local guides were interesting and the use of ear buds was very helpful. Lucca is a favorite with its wall that can be walked on. The Puccini concert was excellent. Another highlight was a trip to Carrara to a marble sculpturing studio followed by a trip to quarries to see how marble is extracted. Cinque Terre is a very unique area that Tiziana arranged a variety of ways we could travel, explore and hike between towns. The boat ride along the coastline was the best way to see all five. Genoa is a large busy city but our hotel was close to the historical area for easy walking. Our week of many experiences, good travel companions, tasty Italian food and Tiziana made it all work.

Having loved my trips in central and southern Spain, I was curious to explore the north. It turns out that this verdant, hilly region is a wonderfully handsome and unspoiled part of the country; the mass tourism that afflicts many beauty spots elsewhere in Spain is yet to arrive. Even the lovely coast and the beaches are uncrowded! One explores distinctive cultures that offer rich and ancient histories, fine monuments and museums, and delectable local cuisines without having to fight mobs of other tourists. The bigger cities are models of elegant urbanism; strolling through the older sections is an unmitigated pleasure. The luxurious hotels, both ultramodern and historic ones, offer splendid accommodations. The quality of our adventures was enhanced by the enthusiasm and knowledge of Sean, our energetic and outgoing guide. I was very glad to have headed up north! (But do bring a rainproof jacket with a hood; the rain in Spain seems to be concentrated along the northern coast.)

Our tour of Sicily was fantastic! The itinerary was generally excellent with daily activities that were both enriching and fascinating. The hotels were all unique, in older but well-renovated palatial buildings in the center of towns. But what made the tour truly top-notch was our tour director, MariaElena. We have been on at least a dozen tours, and she is as good or better than any other directors we have had. She is enthusiastic, cheerful, well-organized and informative, while making each and every person on the tour feel special! Virtually everything happened during the tour exactly as in the itinerary and on schedule, and when quick changes were needed on a rainy day, she made the arrangements seamlessly. We felt very fortunate to have MariaElena as our tour director. Our very positive experiences throughout the tour definitely makes us want to eventually go on another Amber Roads tour.

Superb Trip. Hotels are well placed, so you can reach the places of interest easily. Pace is moderate, with time out to search what you want. The places selected to see are what you need to see, with an emphasis the most beautiful churches in the world. Taormina is like being on the French Riviera. The guide, MariaElena is there to see that your journey is smooth, pleasant and informative. She helped when needed. She made everyone feel at home and relaxed. Local guides are good, especially those in Ortigia, Villa del Casale, and Taormina. This is the way to see Sicily.