Unique 8 days in Tuscany Adventure

Customer Reviews

• AC

  Alexander

  · October 17th, 2022
  Tuscany tour: Bad, very bad, the worst ever! We have just returned from a three-week trip to Italy, one week of which was spent with one of your tours entitled “Unique 8 days in Tuscany Adventure with a local” provided by Tuscany Untouched Tours, and I am now in the process of submitting reviews for the various components of our trip. I feel that this is a worthwhile endeavor as I rely heavily on published reviews from others to make informed choices. The text that follows (copied to Tuscany Untouched Tours) covers several aspects of the tour. Individual components of this review will be submitted in due course to other sites. While the technical aspects of our web-based interaction with TourRadar went well, such as pre-tour information, acceptance and processing of payments for deposit and final balance, my several BAD on-line reviews for TourRadar will be based on my opinion that TourRadar must take responsibility for the overall quality of the tours they promote and sell. My wife and I had the unfortunate experience with your tour “Unique 8 days in Tuscany Adventure with a local” provided by Tuscany Untouched Tours. Yes, it was a unique experience, but it was uniquely BAD for several reasons. We have travelled extensively and have had multiple trips in Italy in recent years (Sicily, Venice, Capri, Florence and Rome),as well as elsewhere (Antarctica, Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Belize, Cambodia, Chile, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Easter Island, England, Ecuador, Galapagos, Hong Kong, Hungary, Kenya, Maldives, Mexico, Morocco, Netherlands, New Zealand, Panama, Peru, Portugal, Scotland, Spain, Tanzania, Thailand, Vietnam and more),many trips being in the “small group” style. Based on this recent experience, we feel that your tour was the worst ever, for a number of reasons! 1. Accommodation (Residence La Ferriera): We were accommodated at what seemed to be a great location according to on-line information and past reviews, but the place was a disaster. It is reported to be a renovated foundry; unfortunately, those renovations look like they were completed in the 1950s. More importantly, the rooms at Residence La Ferriera were cold and damp. Yes, it rained a lot while we were there, but the staff did nothing to mitigate the cold and the dampness in our rooms. There was no daily housekeeping so our towels remained damp from day to day and were only exchanged once during our 7-day stay. Bed linens were never exchanged during our stay. No heaters were made available. In an attempt to warm the room and dry our towels, we resorted to turning on all four hot-plates on the kitchen stove, as did many other guests. Huddling around a cooktop to stay warm is not my idea of a good time. Things got worse when we turned on the hair dryer in an attempt to dry some items – this overloaded the electrical system, blew the fuses/breakers, and plunged the room into darkness. Intervention by a senior member of the hotel staff was required to reset the breakers. We were severely and rudely chastised by that staff member who ranted at us – “No heat, no heat” as he pointed at the cooktop. We were informed that central heating at the hotel does not start until November! I pity their October guests. Final verdict on this hotel accommodation in my Google and TripAdvisor reviews will be to warn others to avoid completely this establishment. 2. Restaurant (Ristorante la Ferriera): Breakfast (with lukewarm cappuccino) and a limited-choice dinner (but not water) were included as part of the tour at the restaurant within the accommodation. In contrast to many positive on-line reviews for this restaurant, I felt the food was of very poor quality and often inedible. The pictures posted on-line have no resemblance at all to the “food” we received during our stay so clearly there has been a major change in the kitchen. Surprisingly, the amount of food being returned from our group did not seem to concern the cook or the serving staff. A real professional chef would have surely investigated. I learned from a fellow guest a new way to describe a piece of dry pork that we were offered – “dry as a biscuit” – most appropriate! Also, the restaurant has strange rules; e.g., a single person in our group purchased a bottle of wine one evening for dinner. Unable to consume all of it, the bottle was re-corked but when that same partially-consumed bottle was brought back the next evening, the guest was informed that it must not be consumed! Although our meals were already paid for as part of the one-week tour, we escaped, along with guests from at least three other rooms, to restaurants in the small adjacent town (Loro Ciuffenna). Despite a long walk in the rain, we enjoyed the wonderful and flavoursome food in these local restaurants on three separate occasions – such a marked contrast from our hotel restaurant. Finally, by our last evening the hotel seemed to have got the message (possibly in response to our written complaints to Matteo at Tuscany Untouched Tours) that we were informed that the hotel restaurant would like to try to make amends for their poor meals by offering our group dinner selections from the more expensive à la carte menu. So instead of going into the town for our final night group dinner, we cancelled our reservations at the much-appreciated previous location, and decided to give the hotel restaurant one final chance. What a mistake, the meals were no better – still the same types of cold plates and bland, tasteless food. We walked out before dessert. Final verdict on this hotel restaurant in my Google and TripAdvisor reviews will be to warn others to avoid completely this establishment. 3. Tour Organization: Our tour “Unique 8 days in Tuscany Adventure with a local” provided by Tuscany Untouched Tours seems to have been managed by Matteo Piccardi, who was located in Australia! Communication with him was via WhatsApp and worked OK and was mostly cordial. However, possibly due to his absence in Australia, the actual tour organization was poor and our daily schedules did not proceed as advertised. Changes were made without informing us, and sites were missed. Numerous messages to Matteo from our group seemed ineffective, at least until the attempt to upgrade our final dinner. Also, as our hotel was not centrally located relative to our daily destinations, we spent far too much time travelling to and from the various sites of interest. These journeys were made worse by our driver (Emiliano) whose high-speed driving in seriously wet road conditions while on his iPhone was stressful and resulted in many muted screams of panic from his passengers. As Emiliano is not a licensed “Tour Guide”, he was unable to provide any information on our daily excursions. He simply dropped us off at some location, disappeared for a few hours and then picked us up at a predetermined time and location. He was unable to specify in advance our arrival times at specific locations, so we were unable to book proper Tour Guides that were available at the major sites of interest. It would have been easy for him, and useful for us, if he could have dropped us off closer to Tourist Information Offices, or even if he could have provided tourist-style maps of our various destinations. One day, our driver was Paolo, who is described on the Tuscany Untouched Tours website as being a tour guide. While more informative than Emiliano, he really did not provide much detail. This tour could have been a wonderful experience, but the combination of poor organization, unappetizing meals, and cold and damp accommodations are the reasons that my final verdict on TourRadar and Tuscany Untouched Tours in my Google and TripAdvisor reviews will be to warn others to avoid it completely.
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  Trip date: September 2022
• RB

  Regan

  · October 10th, 2019
  I spent 35 days in Italy and this was the best.
  Trip date: September 2019
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  Mariya

  · July 4th, 2019
  This 7 day tour of Tuscany was everything and more than what we hoped for. The villa is beautiful with the most gorgeous view of the valley, the chef is great and the staff super accommodating. Paolo is a great guide and extremely knowledgeable about what seems like everything! I do hope we see him again on our future adventures in Italy. The different towns were interesting and unique in their own ways and the wineries and lunches at the farmhouse were super! Of course, the hot springs were special and definitely worth the visit to Tuscany in of themselves. Overall, we had a romantic and relaxing getaway in this beautiful part of Italy that I think everyone should visit! Mariya and Andrew
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  Trip date: June 2019