Delve Deep: Italy was amazing!! Italy is a stunning country and although it felt a bit rushed, it was a great way to see a large amount of the country in a small amount of time. For what we got, it was pretty cheap too!
The group was like travelling with family. We all made great friends and got along so well! We often had to come together to organise our own activities and it was so much fun (especially the Karaoke bar in Florence)!
I can't fault the itinerary at all. All included activities were fabulous and the included meals were delicious - I definitely ate my way around the country...
Our trip leader although was not great. He was unorganised, made us pay for 'optional extras' that weren't in the itinerary, would disappear to visit his friends without providing any guidance on where we were or things to do in the area - often with our bus driver.
During our included walking tour of Rome, we would arrive at (for example) the Trevi Fountain, and there was no history provided, nothing to say where we were and why, and at the end he left without giving us a tip on how to get back to the hotel - I know we are adults, but this would've been extremely helpful, especially at night and that is what we were paying him for.
We then arrived in Sorrento (would highly recommend going here, it is stunning). Some of us expressed interest in using our free day to go and explore the island of Capri and the Blue Grotto. Our trip leader then sent us a link saying that he could book us a boat tour of the island including the Blue Grotto for 120euros. Unknowingly, we were excited and agreed, thinking it was maybe through a group that TopDeck knew. Turns out, we had to give our cash (we couldn't pay by card or online) straight to our trip leader (there was about 10 of us total). He then told us to wait while he took our money, handed some over to a man on a boat, then we got on. We were then expected to to pay extra to go into the Blue Grotto, even though our trip leader assured us it was included.
In hindsight, we probably should've done some research and checked the optional extras before committing to the 120euros for the boat tour, but we thought we could trust our leader and that it was a TopDeck approved activity - none of us had previously been on a TopDeck trip before, so we didn't know exactly how things were meant to run.
After Sorrento, we headed for Naples, where our trip leader made us pay him 10euros for a walking tour of Naples and ONE slice of pizza. Naples was not included in the trip itinerary.
From there, the group decided to not trust our trip leader when it came to 'optional extras' and would do our own thing. Because of this, he would get visibly annoyed with us and do his own thing.
It wasn't until I went straight to another TopDeck trip in Greece where I realised what he was doing was not normal and we were being ripped off. The final thing he did, was ask us all for a cash tip at the conclusion of our trip.
Would highly recommend this trip, with hopefully a different trip leader.
