Enchanting Southern Italy

Would do any trip with Michele

Absolutely 10/10. Every day was a new experience. Lots of "pinch me" moments. Awe gasping. Fantastic. Loved every moment.

A fantastic tour that I’d totally recommend. Lots of variety. Boat trip to Amalfi and Capri was great. A well paced trip.

This was our first tour experience. The pace was a little intense for us, but the size of the group was very appealing. The group was very compatible and the company was delightful. We enjoyed being the only Americans among Aussies and New Zealanders. The active experiences like cooking and painting tiles and access to local small farms and businesses were treats. The tour guide was such a pleasure to be with and extraordinarily knowledgeable, organized, competent and charming. The local guides and the driver were also outstanding.

The tour indeed takes you to back road places with excellent local guides to explore the area. The primary tour guide was very capable, kind and informative. Our fellow tour members were an affable group of mostly retired folks from Australia, curious and friendly. One plus is staying five nights in one hotel. That hotel is in a delightful Amalie town but has rather small rooms. One caution- be prepared for some full days with lots of walking.

A fabulous tour guide who knew her stuff.

Annalisa was a wonderful Tour Leader and added the X Factor to a terrific tour.

The Tour Guide, the Driver, the Quality of the Bus and the opportunities to experience a variety of activities were just right for me.

Guide was great , driver was excellent. I and loved the trip and was going to recommend it to my sister. However I think she would struggle with the roads in a bus. Just want to give the heads up for people the may get travel sickness.

I thought the tour was excellent. My first ever!!!. The hotels were mostly great, although one room was quite small.
Our tour leader Annalisa and driver Guilio were excellent, fun and very experienced. Annalise was readily available for any event, loads of laughter and fantastic recommendations for food amd places to go. I also felt the activities were really great, guideswere very knowledgeable and great senses of humour. The activities were varied and fun.
Having a small group was also great, with us all mingling with tales of travels and home.
Would definitely do it again.

Excellent tour. Enjoyed all the visits, and variety between countryside and city. Capri was a long day but enjoyable. The highlight was our guide Annalisa who was just great!
Only letdown was rooms at Minori Palace not having a view.

This was a great tour. Full of excursions and covered the Amalfi coast and island of Capri in perfect style
Our tour manager and driver were great and fun to be around.

Great places
Good guides
Well organized

I did not enjoy staying in Miinori for five nights.
The Hotel Royal Continental in Naples where Backroads tour company booked our stay lost my big luggage/suitcase that I had left at the hotel while I went on the Southern Italy Backroads tour. I was given a storage baggage ticket by the hotel porter but is seems that the hotel receptionist did not do her job correctly and she was suppose to complete and inform me that she also needed to fill out a luggage storage form. The hotel is taking no responsible in the lost of my suitcase/luggage. I have had no help from the Backroads tour company in this matter. If a Hotel loses your suitcase/luggage then you must involve the police and fill a police report. I returned to New Zealand without my big suitcase.

Well organized, safe, informative and a great mix of people. The sites and scenery were awesome.

Interesting itinerary...Roman and Greek ruins, cooking class, Amalfi Coast.
Enjoyed the people on the tour... from several countries.
I felt that the tour leader was not experienced enough. New to Blue Roads
and had never done this tour before

Great exploring experience. Full of attractions and activities. I enjoyed my tour to the fullest.

our guide Roby was fun and friendly and always checked to see if we were all okay with everything…the trip itself was varied and gave us an insight into other aspects of italian life .. thankyou roby for a great trio

The tour of the Amalfi Coast and surrounding areas displayed the amazing environment in which the locals live and work. There was also the historical area of Paestum to visit. Our guide, Loredana, did an excellent job explaining the sites and keeping us all on track.

Loredana was a fabulous tour leader. What I loved about this tour was the local experiences. Also loved the history of Pompeii and the dramatic scenery of the Amalfi coast.
Highly recommend.

This tour was a delightful expereince in every way. It gave me the feel of life along the beautiful Amalfi coast: its unique culture, its warm and resilient people, its long history and present day concerns. I LOVED it!

Back Roads Brilliant ! My first trip & Solo to Italy it was the best - I loved that we did some things not on the usual tourist route. Best Tour Guide Flavio & our very safe Bus Driver Guillio. Totally looked after, great local info & cultural experiences on our travels combined with lots laughs & fun with a great group of people !!!

Back Roads Tour company is Absolutely Fantastic. From experiencing the wonderful local culture, food and wines, exploring amazing out of the way places and So much more. I can't recommend this tour highly enough. Our Absolutely wonderful Tour Guide and extremely experienced driver made me feel safe and truly cared for in every situation.

I Absolutely loved everything about this tour. 10/10.

The hotels were very nice mostly smaller boutique style, which we loved. Our tour guild was amazingly helpful with a lot of knowledge of the area. Great at offering option of extra activities available and food options as a group or as individuals. The local guilds we had were very passionate about their areas which seemed to make the specific areas more enjoyable. The smaller group size with a smaller bus was really nice.
One suggestion would be to possibly split the 2 boat trip days in the Amalfi coast.

From the begining to the very end, this tour was fantastic. Our Tour Leader Flavio was very professional, friendly and made the tour every enjoyable for everyone. The standard of the hotels were all great, with the added bonus that this tour stays in the same hotel in Minori for 5 nights, meaning that we could stay settled for a decent duration without packing up and moving hotels.
The itinerary of this tour covered all of the top spots on the Amalfi coast. The mix of mini-coach & water taxi travel, was a real treat too, as both methods of transport meant that we could see the Amalfi coach from two perspectives, land & water.
All of the included meals were of a very high quality standard and as we were in such great areas, the meals that we had to purchase ourselves were superb too.
I highly recommend this tour and would like to add once more, that our Tour Leader Flavio made the tour for us. He is a top class leader and Back-Roads are very lucky to have him lead tours for them

A very well organised and led tour of southern Italy
A great group of 10 travellers, majority from NZ and Aussie who all enjoyed the week’s experiences
Highlights included Pompey and tours from Minori

The tour leader. commented on historical social and cultural aspects of each place visited. As well it was fun. A great group of people. Thoroughly recommend

Well, what can we say about our tour - Terrific, Fabulous & more. The itinerary was great, we ventured & experienced some truly magic places off the beaten track. This is exactly why we choose the Back Roads Tour. It lived up to its reputation & we visited every Southern Italian Town we wanted. The Tour Guide Luca Sica was amazing, not only knowledgeable but very personable in ensuring everyone on tour had a memorable time. Our small group all got along thanks to Luca. We stayed at some unique Hotels, visited some amazing historical sites as well as stay & tour the Amalfi Coast. We laughed & cried in joy with our tour group including navigating the roads on the Amalfi Coast. Special mention to our Bus Driver Carmine, what a legend traversing those roads & keeping us safe.

We would thoroughly recommend this Tour - we loved it.

All the Best
Brett & Maree Thompson
May 2024

I experienced the most wonderful holiday with Back Roads and will recommend them to anyone thinking of travelling. Michele our guide was very professional but also gave so much of himself as though one of a big family. He showed concern for each of we travellers needs and made sure they were met. Highly recommend 10/10
Paulo was an extremely capable driver with whom I felt very safe. , he took great pride in his position and also the bus which he kept spotless , He also added to our fun a great deal.

A great trip all round, excellent driving on the narrow roads. Excellent guide who kept everybody informed. All places we visited were very interesting.

A great way to see what the Amalfi Coast has to offer. From the ruins of Pompeii and Paestrum to the island of Capri. Enchanting mountain top villages like Ravello to cooking and ceramic classes. Under the caring direction of our guide, Michele, we sailed on ferries, ate and drank to bursting the culinary delights of the area. Minori was the perfect place to stay, central to everything but a quiet refuge away from bustling, busy crowds found at Positano and Sorrento. Highly recommend this tour if the Amalfi Coast is on your bucket list.

Michele and our driver whose name I can't spell were brilliant. They were professional, informative, funny, a font of local knowledge and made sure that everyone had a great time. The places we went to were fascinating and where we stayed was lovely. I would do it again in a heartbeat.

I highly recommend Michele who was our tour guide due to his superior knowledge about the history of the areas we visited.
Michele was kind, patient and generous with his time and made everyone feel comfortable and happy.
Pauli our coach driver was great and conveyed us through the extremely challenging road network that is the Amalfi Coast.

Flavio was a fantastic tour leader.
His knowledge was awesome and the towns and accommodation was fantastic.

Excellent guide, route and accommodation.

This tour was excellent and I loved that we really got to see and spend multiple days in several towns that make up the Amalfi Coast. So much better than other tours that only offer a few hours. The small group and smaller vehicle was also a plus and we really did travel on back roads that a charter bus would never be able to go. It was a huge plus that we got to stay 5 nights in one place and travel out each day from there instead of packing up and moving every couple of days. Our tour director as wonderful. He went above and beyond any other tour director I’ve ever had. I highly recommend Blue Roads tours for anyone wanting to experience destinations off the beaten path.

The tour was well paced, everything we saw and visited was wonderful. The activities were fun and interesting. The tour leader, Annalisa was amazing. Our driver was also wonderful safely getting us to each destination. The local guides provided a deeper understanding of the local culture and the farm cooking class and the local ceramics class where lots of fun and provided the opportunity to participate in the culture.

Flavio our tour guide was fantastic. He was so personable and friendly and he made the tour so enjoyable.

I loved this tour, the Amalfi coast is so beautiful but navigating it in our own would have been hard. Our tour leader Flavio was superb.

We had so much fun on this tour. Flavio was a wonderful guide. We saw so much with busy days but it didn't feel overwhelming. We would definitely recommend this tour.

We had a most wonderful, knowledgeable, caring leader in Flavio.
We saw beautiful sights and did fun things like a cooking class at a Buffalo arm with a most gracious countess.
We also had a ceramic class with a lovely, talented and patient master.
Wonderful hotels and delicious food.

Our guide Flavio was fabulous. Authentic and humorous while also respectful towards all.
I loved staying at the one small hotel in Minori on the Amalfi coast for 5 of the 7 nights. It was so great to not have to pack up every day or two. That is a super strong point of the tour!
It was great to go to family run places and have some meals and drinks that were made right there - something that we wouldn’t be able to do on a bigger tour.

Great tour Excellent caring guide. Visited magical places. Consider great value for money. Thoroughly recommend.

Well, what can we say about our tour - Terrific, Fabulous & more. The itinerary was great, we ventured & experienced some truly magic places off the beaten track. This is exactly why we choose the Back Roads Tour. It lived up to its reputation & we visited every Southern Italian Town we wanted. The Tour Guide Luca Sica was amazing, not only knowledgeable but very personable in ensuring everyone on tour had a memorable time. Our small group all got along thanks to Luca. We stayed at some unique Hotels, visited some amazing historical sites as well as stay & tour the Amalfi Coast. We laughed & cried in joy with our tour group including navigating the roads on the Amalfi Coast. Special mention to our Bus Driver Carmine, what a legend traversing those roads & keeping us safe.

We would thoroughly recommend this Tour - we loved it.

All the Best
Brett & Maree Thompson
May 2024

Our guide was so very knowledgeable and his love for Italy was infectious.
Our driver was both skilful and we felt very safe with him at the wheel.
Loved all the villages we saw and thoroughly enjoyed our Italian cooking experience. Thoroughly recommend.

An excellent tour with a perfect balance of guided and directed activities as well as time to explore on our own. The tour director Luca and driver Carmine worked tirelessly to ensure our activities were seamless and both were equally generous with their time and energy to everyone in the group. As a group we got on exceptionally well. A wonderful experience!

Our Tour Leader Luca Sica is the highlight of the trip !!!
He is very accommodating, patient, fun, professional, caring for everyone’s requests , knowledgeable and To be honest, the best Tour Leader I ever had.
He made sure that we ate properly at the right times, that we would make the best out of our time In every site that we went visiting. And we still have plenty of free time to do activities on our own.
The Amalfi coast It’s truly remarkable. Super stunning, super fun, romantic and very safe!
Also, our Bus driver Carmine is Outstanding, he knows how to ride those windy roads and made it fun. He is an incredible driver !!! Very safe.
The hotels are very nice and breakfast are delicious and plentiful.
The itinerary is fascinating! We learnt how to make pasta, we went to a ceramic class, we ate at a delicious farm with Baroness Cecilia !
We went to a farm area, Went to the beach, Visited Capri Island I know this was fantastic.
I totally Recommend this tour, Luca and Carmine To everyone!!!

Excellent tour. All our tour guides were great. Mariza Leva, Naple/ Pompei
Maria Cascio , Paestum
Allessio Amato, Ravello were very knoweledgable. They made the tour very interesting and also looked after the group with the crowds.
Annalisa our leader and our driver Pierpaolo Consalvo were excellent

Wonderful short tour with excellent & balanced mix of historical, scenic and life-style experiences. .

This tour was fantastic, the tour guide Annalisa Turturiello went above and beyond expectations and made sure all arrangements were seamless throughout the 8 days. Transportation and Accommodation met our expectations and Annalisa's Italian heritage and knowledge gave us plenty of insight into the areas we visited. Other tour guides to specific sites were also very good. It was a pleasure to meet everyone in our group. Thanks for the memories, and we recommend this tour to everyone! 10/10

We had a fantastic time exploring southern Italy. Our guide, Michele, was fantastic and the tour showed us all that we could have wanted to see, in a small bus, using backroads. We were based in Minori for 4 nights, which made the tour more enjoyable because we weren’t having to pack up every night. It was also wonderful having a small
Group of like minded people to explore with!
We would thoroughly recommend Backroads and this tour!

Great to go to places off the tourist- busy route and hear their story of their produce - limoncello, wine, mozzarella, vegetables used in their restaurants.
A wonderful guide Annalisa and Carmine our bus driver ensured an enjoyable and successful tour due to their care and attention.

The tour is full on, but there is a lot to see and enjoy. Annalisa, our guide, was very helpful and entertaining, and kept us informed about the culture of the people of southern Italy. Well worth the experience, and recommended!

We enjoyed the small group atmosphere. Tour was action packed. A lot to see and experience. Tour leader and driver were both absolutely marvelous!!!! Very accommodating for all levels of people on the tour. Strongly recommend Blue/Back Roads!

Fantastic guide and a great introduction to the region. We would have liked more time at historic sites but appreciate this must be limited in a tour of this type.

+tour guide and driver were the best covered all interesting places just a great experience, be in condition to walk!!!

We had a fabulous time and really enjoyed the places we experienced and everything we learnt along the way through our wonderful Tour Leader. Being part of a group of 18 was brilliant and we really loved the whole experience.

Back Roads Tours endeavour to offer one off experiences such as a Limoncello maker or one off wine tasting etc. Our tour leader was delightful and helped me as I have a slight walking problem.

Our 5 day accommodation was changed at the last minute with no notice to their customers. The accommodation was initially described as a special boutique hotel in Menouri. It was changed at the last minute to a very dated mediocre hotel in a city (Maouri) that was not even on our itinerary! The hotel in Maouri was obviously one that catered to tourist groups. This is not what we expected or wanted. We would have never booked this hotel ourselves. One person in our group described it as "ghastly!' It was a big disappointment to take a 10 hour flight to spend most of our time in this hotel.

We had a fabulous tour guide, but I felt the tour was too structured. It left us little time to explore the various locations on our own.

Tour leader Annalisa Turturiella and bus driver Carmine Sorrentino were EXCELLENT A+++!!! All the local guides were also Excellent!! Also the Itinerary was FABULOUS!!! Every day was filled with wonderful activities and events..cooking class making and cooking ravioli and pizza, tile making class with a professional ceramicist and we got to take home the recipes, exploring Pompeii, Paestum archaeological sites, exploring the stunning serpentine Amalfi coast and learning about the fascinating and complicated history and culture from our Italian tour leader, Annalisa Turturiella, going to a water buffalo farm and exploring cavernous wine cellars, all the while enjoying sumptuous Italian cuisine!! Accomodations were excellent. This tour was TERRIFIC!!! A++ in every way

The tour was very well organised an our tour guide (ASIA) was very experienced , I would highly recommend this tour -Enchanting southern italy and would definitely tour with back roads again , every detail was great , and the whole trip was a highlight

I rated at a four star rating due to some of our stops being a bit too fast and not allowing time to wander a bit. Seeing multiple places and cities was fabulous but having two back-to-back garden tours in one morning was too much. Start with a brief tour of a garden, castle, etc and then allow a bit of time for the travelers to tour the shops and town on their own.

Great tour. That's all i need to say

Our tour guide and driver were excellent they both couldn't do more for you even if you asked.

Good value. Experiences of the usual the usual tourist circuit. Accommodation was charming. Transportation (bus and driver) were excellent.

Great as always but more schedules this time and not as many inclusions

Fabulous experience with a wonderful guide!
I would definitely consider another Back Roads Tour!
Loved going to the smaller less touristy places.

Some parts were excellent eg activities on days 3, 4 and 8. The final group dinner on day 7 was enjoyable - but it was odd the leader and driver did not sit with the group.
But the local guide for Naples and Pompeii was not good and did not engage well with the group. (In contrast the local guide at Paestum was brilliant - the best we have ever encountered.)
Far too much time was allocated for the group to wander around Amalfi Coast towns. On day 7 we seemed to be just filling in time.
While Minori was a nice quiet town to stay, in the hotel has problems. Our bathroom had an unpleasant "sewer" smell. The fruit juice at breakfast was watery and hard identify.
Capri is a beautiful island but was marred by the swarm of day tourists. Would it be better to have an overnight stay on the island with perhaps some guided activities as well as free time?

Please see response to previous question.

It was a. Great value for the price

A good mix of organised local activities and experiences.

Great itinerary and tour guide and not too fast paced. Great accommodation as well

Good itinerary. Well planned, Good accomodation. Capable and knowledgable tour guides

We had stated we were fine with one room for us (three people) but there was some miscommunication and at every hotel, there were two rooms assigned, yet one room always had three beds. We didn't need the extra room. We believe we would have saved over $1000 if we had been understood.