Mano was our tour guide during our stay in Florence. It was well-organized, and filled with so many historical and fun stops along the way. We started early around 7AM, grabbing a bite to eat at the train station where we met up, before embarking on our adventures. Our first stop was at Pisa where we spent about an hour taking pictures of the leaning tower, as well as the Duomo cathedral. Next stop was the Cinque Terre, which we got to visit and see 3 out of 5 islands since 2 of them were closed off. The tour did not include lunch, but there was an option to prepay for our lunch or to venture on our own. We opted for the prepaid one since we knew we were limited on time, so that Mano could put in our order for us. Cinque Terre was breath-taking, and words could not sum up the feeling when you come there. It is crowded for sure, but take a moment to be still and look around you. All of the colorful houses were unique and quirky, which made for great background in photos. There is enough time to shop around for souvenirs, and eat gelato (omg, the best)! I only wished we booked lodging here so we could spend more time to explore, but until next time. This tour was amazing, and the group of people we were with were engaging and chill. We each did our own thing, and only met up at each designated spot when it came time. We ended the tour around 8PM, so it was well spent to say the least! Highly recommended!! read more

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My boyfriend and I booked a half day WINE NOT tour with Italy on a Budget and as it was low season in January, we ended up being the only ones on the tour! We were very pleased with the outcome of the private tour and was quite glad the company did not cancel our booking due to the small amount of people. The office itself was very easy to locate, just 5 minutes away from our hotel. Eduardo was our tour guide/driver and he did an excellent job providing useful information and answering all of our questions. The countryside of Tuscany/Chianti region is a beautiful place that is best reached by car. As we all know driving in Italy can be scary if you're a foreigner so we were glad we had Eduardo to drive us. Not only was Eduardo a wonderful tour guide and driver, he also was our photographer during the tour. This man is a jack of all trade! We visited 2 wineries on the tour. The owner of the first winery gave us a wonderful overview of how his winery works and we got to sample cheese, bread, and olive oil along with our wine tasting. The second winery we visited was a smaller, family-owned winery. Here we also got to sample olive oil with bread and wine. In the end we enjoyed both wineries so much my boyfriend and I ordered wines to be shipped back home to the U.S. After a few hours of wine tasting Eduardo drove us back to Florence. We had a nice chat along the way and learned a lot about Italy. If we had more time I would not hesitate to book with this company again. They offer many other great tours at a very reasonable price. Thanks again Italy on a Budget and Eduardo for a wonderful time! My last bit of advice to you is to be sure to have eaten prior to this tour as you will be tasting quite a bit of wine. Enjoy and have fun! read more

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We didn't know much about this tour when we booked it but it ended up being a great because we went to a great winery that didn't disappoint (Tenuta Torciano). read more

The Grape Escape Wine Tour was excellent. Nad was our tour guide and was very accommodating. We enjoyed stopping at two Chianti Region vineyards and San Gimignano, Siena for shopping and a bite to eat. I highly recommend this tour. Great value! Unbelievable views! read more

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My cousin and I booked this tour shortly before arriving to Italy. We are so glad we booked with this company. Our tour guide, Mariana, was amazing. She is friendly, prompt, funny and sweet. We felt like we were touring with a friend. She made sure we had enough time to explore Pisa and 3 villages in Cinque Terre and gave us bits of history and background as we walked. Cinque Terre is truly amazing and we also appreciated the stop in Pisa to have a chance to climb the tower and tour the church. Mariana's wonderful personality made us all feel at home and our small group of 9 people got along really well. I'd love to do another tour with Mariana or Italy on a Budget Tours next time I return! read more

Wonderful tour of wine country from florence. We left around 10 am and headed out to the Chianti region to a wine school. The drive out was quite beautiful, but i was crammed into he front seat of a van. We took 2 since its winter and I wish I could have been in the van that did not just include a whole family so that it would be easier to make friends and talk with others. It seemed like the other van ride was pretty great. At the wine school the staff were amazing and we sampled so many different wines with foods. I wish we would have had more time there to take pictures and see the scenery. Afterwards we headed to a winery where we had a small tour. This winery was great. I wish we had more time here so O could have purchased some wine. I felt pretty rushed and we left with little warning. Lastly, we headed to San Gmiango which is a small but beautiful medieval town. Here there are a bunch of shops and some nice view points. Honestly, could have done a bit less here as the tour is meant for wine tasting and not shopping. Overall excellent tour. Definitely got my moneys worth. read more

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The reviews for Italy on a Budget on Trip Advisor's website are all great (which is why we chose them for our tour), and since there are so many amazing reviews on there, I thought I would instead review via Yelp. My husband and I traveled to Italy last September and it was by the recommendation of several friends and family members that we researched visiting Cinque Terre. We also wanted to see Pisa, so when we saw that Italy on a Budget offered a tour that included Pisa and Cinque Terre in one day, we were sold. It was so wonderful to visit Pisa and Cinque Terre without the stress of figuring out the train and bus system. The guide Alex was absolutely incredible, he is very knowledgeable and very talented at coordinating the tour. We also really enjoyed the style of the tour, and we met some really fun people. At each stop, Alex described some history, information, and his reccomendation on what to do, and then you were free to explore as you desired. This tour is definitely for travelers who are up for fast paced walking and stairs as you do have to move pretty quickly to catch trains and buses. The tour was by far our favorite tour during our visit to Italy, and Cinque Terre is a must see, it is so beautiful! read more

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My Husband & I booked 3 tour with Italy on a budget 1- Vatican & Sistine Capel tour 2- the Colosseum & Roman forum 3- day trip to Pisa & Cinque Terre Highly recommend day trip to Pisa & Cinque Terre. Our guide Alex was wonderfully knowledgeable & available to answer all of are questions. He gave great recommendations on what to do & where to eat in the villages of Cinque Terre. The tour is worth the money to not have to worry about buses & train schedules. If we had to plan & have a back up plan for the public transportation we would not have been able to enjoy ourselves as much as we did!! Colosseum & Roman forum guide tour. Felt the tour of the forum could have been longer or if our guide would have wrapped up her tour inside the forum so we could have explored more of the forum on are own that would have work too. Felt we didn't see all of the forum. Both colosseum & forum were very rushed read more

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Horrible service, they don't care about experience just about getting the money. If you are late a minute at any stop, they don't wait or call you, they just leave you wherever you are, even in the middle of random vineyard (as it states in their description). I have never seen guides that care so little about client's experience. Wasted 160€. Avoid at all cost! read more

They say you get what you pay for, but I feel that I got more than I paid for. My friend recommended the grape escape tour strongly, and I'm so glad I decided to not be cheap and invest in this experience. For one, it's kind of hard to enjoy the Tuscan scenery and do wine tasting if you have to do the driving and the drinking. So why not have someone else handle all the logistics so that you can drink and enjoy all the wonderful colors while slightly tipsy? I have never had so many wonderful flavors to try in one day with all the different wines, olive oils, and balsamic vinagrettes they served us. The highlight of the day was the truffle oil that we got to sample. Simply divine. After doing two winery tours, we were brought to San Gimigiano for the afternoon where you can try out the worlds best gelato. I feel so lucky that I was able to attend this tour of Tuscany, and it's one of my best memories on this trip. read more

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We booked multiple tours through Italy on a Budget and were not disappointed! We did the Amalfi Coast tour, Bongiorno Italy tour, and a few day tours (Grape Escape and Murano, Burano and Torcello). Our tour guides, Gabby the Brazilian, Lorenzo, and Elena were all so knowledgeable, friendly and fun. We highly recommend this for anyone trying to see as much of Italy as possible while not spending an arm and a leg! Veronica in the office was a fantastic resource and very quick to respond to all of my excessive questions. The hostels were all very nice and transportation was great too! Don't hesitate to book with Italy on a Budget! Your future self and wallet will thank you! read more

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I was with a group of friends and we decided to book the grape escape wine tour. This tour was a lot of fun!! It was great to travel with italy on a budget. Our guide was very knowledgeable but also very humorous with that Italian zest for life. We visited two wineries. The first one was a family run vineyard where we were taught how to taste the wine (not in a pretentious way) and got to taste 6 wines, 3 olive oils and a 20 year old balsamic. We then visited another small vineyard where we tasted 3 different wines, all really good and they also provided us some delicious Bruschetta. The views at the second farm provided a panoramic view overlooking the vineyards and valley below. The third stop was the beautiful town of San Gimignano where we had the famous gelato from Dondoli! This full day tour had a good balance of a guided tour and free time.If we had more time, we would have booked Pisa, or another tour with their company. This was a great deal for a full day of wine tasting. read more

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Our 3rd trip with Italy on the budget tours - this time Milan and lake Como. Highly recommended - Milan and Lombardi richest part of Italy and capitol of world fashion, lake Como - please have a look at the photos - my words won't give it justice and you need Eduardo - our tour guide for the history and interesting facts. read more

My husband and I stumbled upon the small Italy on a Budget store and signed up for the Grape Escape. It truly exceeded our expectations! Our guide Alfonso was funny and informative, the views were beautiful, the transportation was prompt (although some of the other guests were not! Luckily Alfonso was able to coordinate with the vineyard so that we could wait for the other guests and still complete our itinerary) and the wine and olive oils were phenomenal! The first vineyard has a shipping center in Chicago so we were able to purchase and get our oils and wines sent to our home in New York with only a $5 shipping charge. The first vineyard was our favorite and the tasting was more than generous. It was nice that they had us sit at round tables because we were able to mingle and chat with other group members. The samples at both were way larger than a typical US wine tasting - and they tell you that it won't give you a hangover - but we were definitely out of commission for a good 12 hours after all of the wine we drank. The stop at San Gimignano was really nice and the gelato was the best we had between Florence Venice and Paris, creamy and flavorful! This trip was definitely well worth the money, we felt like we got a lot for the price we paid. read more

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We took the day tour from Florence to Pisa and cinque Terre in January with Italy on a budget. They are one of the only companies that do this in January. It suited our itinerary very well. Mariana was a very friendly guide who met us at Firenze Santa Maria novella station at 7 am for our 13 hour tour on local trains. It suited our budget very well as hiring a private taxi would have been too expensive. We got a local feel for the best spots for photo opportunities in 3 villages of cinque Terre. I highly recommend Italy on a budget if you want an authentic local experience from the Italian guides and be efficient with managing train schedules. It needs local knowledge to change 3 trains and go to cinque Terre through Pisa. read more

Not sure why Yelp removed my review into not recommended, but it is not appreciated. My wife and I took 5 tours in Italy during our honeymoon, and this one was by far the standout disappointment. Given the most time to work with, this tour squandered it away very poorly and gave me very little value for my limited time in Italy. The only exception was the first winery, which was so amazing, I wish we could have spent the whole excursion there. The family operated winery had an amazing selection of products that my wife and I absolutely loved and the family representative of the winery, Lido, was a natural talent at talking to a group with personality and flair that made the whole group happy and at ease. He even managed to get my wife and I in the spotlight as we tried a new wine first, as a couple, with intertwined arms. I usually dread being on stage in any way, and his perfect casual, but professional demeanor put me at ease (not to mention the amazingly delicious and generous wine tastings that came before). I wish I had booked a tour with Lido as my guide! Sadly I did not and what was to follow was a bitter disappointment. The second winery was, in my opinion, a total waste of time. The representative of this winery, Svetlana, had minimal skill in capturing the interest of the group. Not only that, but their wine was dreadful and a waste of time. I have bought $3 wine that tasted better. I only noticed 3 small purchases from our group of around 37. Everyone wanted stuff from the first winery. The last part of the trip was cut too short to really enjoy thanks to poor logistical planning and a lame bus driver and tour guide. Our tour guide was beautiful and friendly on the surface, but could not get through a sentence without a repetitive ditzy laugh that annoyed many of us and she did not listen very well at all, and received negative feedback even worse. Avoid this tour and just go to Tenuta Torciano and or San Gimignano without the rush or waste of time in the middle or hope your tour goes much better than this one did. read more

So I was very unimpressed by this whole experience. We did the Tuscany Wine Tour that is supposed to leave Florence and takes you to two wineries in the Tuscany area. Such a disappointing tour. It started with us walking to the bus, that's right, to the f'ing bus. After days and days of walking around Italy, this was the tour I was looking forward to just sitting and drinking. But oh no, walking a half hour from the meet up point due to (fashion week) which they know of very early on, made us walk about 1.5 miles from where we were supposed to meet the bus, to the opposite side of the city. We started moving almost an hour after we were supposed start. The guide was ridiculous. She had good English, but every other word or sentence was met with a nervous laugh that unfortunately left me and other individuals in the tour looking around at each other being like "this is what we have for the rest of the day"? I know, I am coming off very petty but if you could only hear what we have had to listen to for the last couple of hours, absolutely annoying. To top it off, of the two wineries we go to, the first is the best. Great artifice, energy and scenery. The second was pitiful. I have had better wine from the 2 buck chick from TJ's. And the character of the second tour just was not there. It was like having a cold RBF women give you an hour long tour and then give you the crappiest and thank god smallest portions of wine. For the price we paid, almost $200 for two ppl, this was a waste of my time. And when I spoke with the guide about the fact that we were almost Manipur behind schedule, but had to then make up for it by rushing through the little town they take you too, ridiculous. Such a disappointment. For being a "budget tour" I one, didn't feel like it was a budget and second, thought this was a waste of time. Disappointment to the max. read more

Choosing this tour company was probably one of the very best decisions I have ever made. They made my experience in Italy a once in a lifetime experience! Our guide Gabriela was informative, kind, knowledgeable, and was instrumental in us seeing parts of Italy we would have never experienced had she not given us such great recommendations!! The place that they booked us to stay was also lovely! I would recommend this company to anyone wanting an active, amazing tour in Italy!! They are incredible!! read more

Came to italy for the first time right after graduating college with a friend. We really wanted to go on a wine tour, but everything we found was too expensive. We came uptown this and loved it! We did the Grape escape tour, so went to 2 wineries and another little town. The people were nice and the wine was amazing! I would highly recommend. read more

My husband and I booked a day tour for Wine tasting in Tuscany and it was our favorite experience in Italy! We met our guide in the morning and one other couple. We then piled into a small van and drove about 45 minutes outside of Florence to the first winery. We tasted about 6 wines, and were given a small lesson on wine tasting, as well as a plate of small bites, and tastes of several olive oils. We then drove another 15 minutes to the second winery, where were were given a tour of the facilities and the wine making process. We were served bruschetta with olive oil and 3 more wines. We then drove 10 minutes to the small medieval village of San Gimignano and had 45 minutes to explore the old streets. The day was perfectly laid out, enough time at all stops, and our guide was wonderful. She kept the day flowing, conversation going, offered to take photos of us, and presented plenty of knowledge of the area, as well of Firenze! If we had more time, we would have booked Pisa, or another tour with their company. read more