I came across Hills and Roads while searching for info on a winery tour. I've been searchign for weeks for a private tour that is remotely affordable for 4 people. Anyway, I saw Stella's trip report that mentioned this agency. They sounded good from Stella's report. Any other experience with them?

I got a response from them which sounds good.

quote:

10 : Pick up at Your accomodation in Villa Torre a Cona

11 - 12.45 : Wine tasting + visit of the wine cellar in a winery ( included ) .

13 – 14 : Lunch in an Osteria or in a wine-bar ( Not included )

14.30 - 16.30 : wine tasting in a winery + visit of the wine cellar ( included )

17 - 17.30 : wine tasting in a winery ( included )

18 : back to Villa Torre



With 3 wineries It 's difficult to have time for castles or medieval villages ; normally I plan 1 or 2 wineries but we can also just visit wineries , that's not a problem . We could also visit 1 medieval village if I chose 3 wineries very very close to Your Villa but in this case You do not see a lot of landscape of Chianti .





For a tour of 8 hours for 4 people the rate is Euro 35 x 8 hours + 20 to come to San Donato = euro 300 including gas + van with air conditioning + wine tastings + driver/guide in english, french or spanish + road taxes + taxes + meal for driver.

I want to make sure there's not any confusion. Everything he says after "including" is, in fact, included? Meaning his meal is included and we would just pay for our own?


I also got a response after several weeks this morning from Dario, the author of "Too much Tuscan Sun."

I imagine that Luca means you are paying for your own lunch and the lunch of the driver.

Did you specifically request only visiting wineries? If so, I would reconsider. Unless you are nutty about wineries, you are missing out on a lot of other interesting things to see on your day with Luca.

To learn about wine, drink it! (I think Diva says that, too!) It is nice to visit one winery, but there is so much more to see and experience. I would take Luca's suggestion to balance out the winery visit with some time in a village or two. He knows mmuch about the history of that area, and is a wonderful guide, pointing out things you might otherwsie miss.

Thanks for the reply!
I feel like we can manage our own sightseeing, as we've wandered around a lot of EUrope with no help (except in Russia),it's the wineries we need help with. Though it would be nice to go to perhaps one village with him.

I'm just confused by this long string ...
= euro 300 including gas + van with air conditioning + wine tastings + driver/guide in english, french or spanish + road taxes + taxes + meal for driver.

Looks to me as if everything is included except our own lunch. I don't mind either way, I just want to know up front and not have any confusion.

I let Luca plan our day, after I gave him our initial requests. He took my mom and I to Vignamaggio, Montefioralle, Greve, Radda, Volpaia and Castellina. We had lunch in Volpaia. Along the way, we enjoyed spectacular scenery and Luca told us about the Chianti area. Within each town, we walked around and he told us about the history of each place, answered questions and gave us opportunity to pause and take pictures or just wander and take it all in.

We shopped in some places, ate lunch in Volpaia, and toured the Italian garden in Vignamaggio. In Castellina, we shopped in an enoteca, tasted some wine, and took away some bottles of wine and olive oil.

What a great day that was! I think of it as one of the best decisions I made for our trip, esepcially putting myself in Luca's hands and letting him help me decide where we would go and what we would see. I am a pretty seasoned traveler too, but it was completely unfamiliar territory for me, so I was happy to defer to his judgment. He adjusted things to suit some of my requests - I found him very easy to work with.

If you have questions about the price, I would email him about it and confirm exactly what is included, just to be sure. He is great about answering emails.

I am sure you are going to have a wonderful day too!

For what it's worth, a poster on another board who did two day trips with hillsandroads, one with Luca himself and one with an associate of his, reported that neither accepted her offer to pay for their lunches. This leads me to assume that, as the message says, "meal for driver" is included in the price you have been quoted.

Well, the meal was included in our tour price, we did not pay for the meal separately at the restaurant.

I guess I was confused by the "( not included )" in t-mac's post. Did she write that, or was it in Luca's email?

Eloise, do yuo happen to have the link to the report on the other board?

Stella, the included/not included wording came from Luca's email.

Here's the link you asked for:

http://www.fodors.com/forums/threadselect.jsp?fid=2&tid=34687434

Thanks all! I've discussed with it my husband and friends, and we're going to book Luca!

Hi

I am interested in doing wine tour too. How can I contact Luca? There will be 3 of us joining this tour. Are there other tuscany tours available? I don't mind joining another small tour group.

Thanks

His email is info@hillsandroads.com.
When are you going?

I'm not sure how large the groups are, but

http://www.caftours.com/en/chisiamo.htm

offers winery tours; I think both half-day and full-day ones.

quote:

Originally posted by t-mac:
His email is info@hillsandroads.com.
When are you going?

Thanks t-mac.

We are going to stay in Florence from May 1 - May 8. We haven't narrow down to our day-to-day plan yet. But 3 out of 5 in the group would like to join a wine tour in Tuscany. I have more questions but I will post it under a new topice.

^_^

Hi,
We used Luca in June of 2004 and we loved him. He was very knowledgable and was willing to accomodate any requests we had. We were my in-laws, our two children (8 & 5), my husband and myself. He took us to several small towns, castles, churches and a few wineries (we had to limit that part b/c we were with the kids). One winery that he did take us to was the highlight of our trip. It was a very small place, they don't distribute commercially, but it was pretty good. The best part was the lunch!!! Stefania cooked for us, and we felt like we were visiting family. We ate at a table in their backyard, walked around their farm, and had the best time. I can't remember the name of that place right now. I am at work, but I can look it up when I get home. The kids still talk about it!
I think his pricing he is giving you is the total price for everything he has listed. It's actually not that much more than what we paid when we went with him. I can check that too.
Have fun!

Thanks for the input Debi.
We booked Luca last night, and by the time I woke up this morning I had a nice email response from him. I look very forward to this!

We are going in May and have contacted Luca for a wine tour as we love wine. But he is not available. After a lot of searching I found an interesting web-site and wanted to know if anyone has had experiences with Tuscan Wine Tours (www.tuscan-wine-tours.com)? Thanx