Syracuse Tours in Summer

I'm very grateful for the hard work and planning that everyone at Explore, especially the office, put into making this trip possible with all the ever changing rules around COVID. Congratulations to all involved.

The leader was excellent. The support person Giuseppe was also excellent. The bikes were good. The routes were very good and well planned. The accomodation was ok and variable. The starting accomodation had a disco night going till 2.0 pm just below our room! Meals provided ranged from poor to good.

The itinerary was excellent and some hotels were slightly better than the other ones. The last hotel in Giardini Naxos didn’t have the elevator which was bothersome; however, the location was good. The main tour guide though organized the transportation and made reservations for some restaurants she was a bit nervous about everything and majority of the time she was on her cell phone or talked to other tour guides in Italian. I am not sure whether she enjoyed being with us or not. When I got a bad mosquito bite she was telling me where the pharmacy was rather than coming with me. The members of the group suggested to come with me and then she was embarrassed and came with me! The next day the mosquito bite got worse and the same thing happened and one of the members who used to be a pharmacist insisted that I should go back to a pharmacy in Palermo where we were at and the pharmacist said that I needed antibiotics and had to see the Dr. The tour guide though had made a reservation for a restaurant was more worried about the rest of the group to be fed than taking me to the Dr. And they were all saying that they were adults and fine. So, we saw the Dr and sure enough she wrote a prescription that we had to get it at 9:00 pm. The tour guide seemed to be annoyed as if it was my fault even though she pretended that she was the one who initiated to take me to the Dr!

Very good trip with excellent very knowledgeable and helpful tour leader. Need a reasonable level of fitness as the various sites require a lot of walking. Many highlights particularly Monreale and Villa Romana. Poor hotel in Siracusa