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We
pride ourselves for being the specialists for self-guided walking
& sightseeing holidays here in Liguria and along the Italian
Rivieras. We are based here, we breathe the air daily and have
a great passion to share with you our local knowledge to make
your holiday just that little bit special.
Click
here to VIEW GALLERIES OF CLIENT HOLIDAY PHOTOS. |
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Holiday: NP017 - LAIGUEGLIA SEASIDE HOLIDAY |
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Dear Mike,
We had a lovely week in Laigueglia and the hotel was really pleasant and the family very kind and welcoming. Hopefully, I will have another holiday there at some time...... I just wanted to thank you for all your help and advice.
kind regards,
Louise |
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Louise, Versoix, Switzerland |
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Holiday: WC01 - WALKING the CINQUE TERRE |
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Mike
We had a fantastic holiday and will certainly use Xtrallusion for any future walking holidays in Italy. Train journeys (except for the day we arrived when there were serious rail delays from Genoa) were excellent, both hotels were extremely good, the walking was outstanding, and the weather superb.
We found your walking notes took just a little while to get used to but as soon as we realised that they covered all the walking options we found them generally very good and easy to follow.
The only exception was on the "High Ways to Portovenere" walk. We chose to do Itinerary 3 and had no trouble until leaving the high coastal trail when it meets the asphalt road at the hairpin bend. We took the right hand side of the hairpin bend as instructed and the walking notes then say "continuing down along the road until you arrive at a junction with a road going left to right". But how far away is this? 100m or 2k? Whatever the distance, we never found the convergence point with the inland trail. We carried on walking down the road and eventually ended up in what we assumed was Portovenere but which turned out to be Le Grazie. A couple of suggestions: perhaps paragraph 46 of the walking notes could indicate the approx distance to the convergence point and it would also have been useful to have an area map with the notes so we could have worked out just how far Le Grazie is from Portovenere and whether it's a walk or a bus ride (definitely the latter!). [ Route notes now updated ]
On almost all of our walks we found your walking times for each section pretty much spot on. The only exception was on 2 on the sections of the Mountain Trails of the Cinque Terre where it took us much longer than 45 mins to get to the Chapel of St Mary Magdalene and much longer than 1 hr 15m to get to Reggio Sanctuary (but maybe the wine had been particularly good the previous night!).
I have only been on group walking holidays before but found the self guided walking gave us greater freedom and will certainly choose this type of walking holiday again.
Thanks also for taking time out to meet us at the airport to hand over the hotel details and walking notes etc. Appreciated.
Best wishes
Derek and Val |
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Derek and Val Spicer, Weymouth, England |
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Holiday: ER003 - PONENTE RIVIERA TOWNS |
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Hello Mike
Sorry for delay in responding.
Yes we very much enjoyed the holiday. The Hotel Gandolfo was a bit simpler than I was expecting from the website, but was perfectly fine. Elaine thought it was great. The owners and staff were very friendly and they were very helpful when we had to stay over the extra night. We had a top floor room near a terrace which we used a lot to sit out - we didnt use the beach sunbeds. The itineraries were useful to provide some structure to the day, but we just enjoyed bumbling about.
As to suggestions: a map of Alassio would have been useful on arrival and it night have been easier to walk with luggage along streets rather than along the seafront. We managed to miss the tourist office in San Remo, so didnt find a street map until we had walked most of the town!
After Alassio we went to Apricale - staying at Apricus Locanda. We had booked this directly on their website, and it was only when we got back that we found we could have arranged them through you! We liked the Locanda very much indeed.
We are quite likely to use you again, for the short city breaks or for exploring holidays, particularly if you have trustworthy car rental with companies who wont try to rip us off.
Thanks again
Elaine and Simon Liddle
Dear Simon,
Thank you very much for taking the time to write and provide us with your feedback - it is much appreciated.
Regarding the Hotel Gandolfo, I have stayed there many times and agree that it is quite simple. However, I have visited vitually all the hotels in Alassio, which is one of the most expensive resorts on the Riviera, and it does offer good clean facilities in an excellent location at almost half the price of many others. For this type of holiday in the summer, when it is nice to be by the sea but not wanting to use the beach facilities, it is I feel one of the better options.
The walking and sightseeing itineraries are supplied as a suggestion and as you said, provide a good start for planning your day to day trips. Bumbling around is as you say a great way to see and enjoy the Riviera. Your comment about a map of Alassio is well received and we will in future provide a map to give people a sense of bearings. The train tickets used to be sold for either weekdays or weekends but they changed the system before you arrived and there is just one type of ticket sold now valid for every day of the week - the tickets you had should have been accepted.
I am pleased to hear you enjoyed your stay in Apricale, it is a quite magical place and you chose a very nice place to stay - I like it there very much. As far as car rental are concerned, we try to make our holidays as convenient as possible for taking trains and public transport and for those who do prefer a car, leave this for them to arrange directly since overall, dealing with car rental companies here is often a good source of hassle and admin problems.
Once again, thank you for booking with us and please do keep us in mind for your future travel plans to Italy.
Yours sincerely,
Mike
Xtrallusion holidays for the independent traveller. |
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Simon Liddle, Wokingham, England |
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Holiday: AA02 - SUMMER ACTIVITY BREAK |
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Hi Mike,
I'm so sorry that I didn't contact you after we returned from our holiday with you in the summer and didn't respond to your email - no excuses, just time running away!
I hope you and the family are well and looking forward to Christmas!
My sister and brother-in-law were asking us about our 'activity break' with you recently as they are thinking of doing something like that this summer. I highly recommended you and I think she might be contacting you soon. It reminded me that I had never emailed you to thank you for the fantastic time we had, despite the weather! Both us and the Leeds family really enjoyed the activities (even the canyon walking in the pouring rain!) and have been highly recommending it to others. We asked the kids which was their favourite bit and they said all of it. Rain didn't bother them at all - they loved the canyon walking, and the inner tubing day for them will always hold special memories of how they tried to catch fish with sticks! We thoroughly enjoyed the bike riding day - such a fab cycle path along that coast and needless to say the kids loved the very long dark tunnels.
Arenzano is a lovely town - we had great meals at all the restaurants we tried there and especially liked the one you recommended down the little alleyway. Thanks also for your help and advice re the day trip we did to Portifino which worked really well.
I've attached a couple of photos to remind you of the fun we had, which you are welcome to use if you want to (not sure you'd want to use the canyon walking lunch shot - not good publicity!!!).
We are determined to do a girls walking trip at some time so no doubt I'll be in touch again in the future.
Thanks again
Fiona Lay |
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The Lay family, Tunbridge Wells, England |
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Holiday: NP001 - SAN MINIATO TUSCANY HOLIDAY |
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hello mike;
as we are now in belgium until end of month, we will send you an e-mail upon return to canada, we had a fantastic time.
ken and silvana |
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Ken and Silvana, Canada. |
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Holiday: AP02 - ITALIAN RIVIERA SOARING |
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We would just like to thank Mike for a fantastic few days, with superb accommodation, great para gliding guidance, and all set in the most spectacular surroundings. This would be a great holiday for flyers of all levels of experience, and as we were fairly low air time pilots, we appreciated Mike's advice and patience.
On non flyable days there is still lots to do, i.e. hill walking, quad biking, cycling, and a number of water sports.. or just lazing on the beach.
We will definitely be back!!! |
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Dave & Kim Harris, Northampton, England. |
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Holiday: SB026 - PISA CITY BREAK |
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Hello, Mike,
Just got home last night, having spent a couple of nights in Edinburgh en route.
Yes, thanks, we got the airport transport sorted out with no problems- were just worried that it might have to be ordered in advance, being such an early start.
The hotel location was brilliant - just glad it was on that side to the tower, and not the direction of the 'lean', in case the tower finally gave in to gravity! Seriously, it was the closest hotel to the tower - less than 100 metres, I think, and we got the whole view, tower + duomo, from our window. Particularly magical at night.
Our rooms were all small (although I did see into the room next door to us, which was quite spacious) - this wasn't a problem, as we were out and about all the time anyway. The beds and pillows were very comfortable, the shower had a good head of water, air con was efficient, and the whole place was immaculately clean. Breakfast was basic but plentiful.
The only criticism we would have of the hotel is the staff/family who all seem to have had a humour/hospitality bypass. Apart from one man who appeared twice at breakfast time, we got not a single smile out of any of them, the entire week we were there! Breakfast was generally slammed down with a scowl, and without even a muttered 'prego', and keys were handed over wordlessly. At first, this was really off-putting, but they were all SO dour, that it actually got to the stage that we found it hilarious - Fawlty Towers meets the Leaning Tower! Maybe they do understand English, as you were told, but they sure don't want to let you know it - although I don't think that Italian guests were faring any better, and I noticed a lot of similar comments on Tripadvisor.
We would happily use the hotel again, because of its location and comfort, but a re-think on staff attitude would just make all the difference to the holiday. It seems weird to go to all that trouble to make the place so comfortable, and not to at least make some attempt to appear welcoming?
Re trips or walks. Before our son and daughter arrived, we went to Lucca, which my husband and I had visited on previous trips to Tuscany - just wandered round, enjoyed lunch, walked round part of the walls. On the Sunday, we went to Viareggio, had lunch ( you can see a theme developing here, can't you!) walked along the beach, paddled in the Med, etc.. We also went to Florence, enjoyed the bus tour ( and lunch!) but found the crowds and humidity a bit uncomfortable, so were glad to return to Pisa. We used the railways throughout - as on our previous trip, we found this a good way to get around, and amazingly inexpensive for those of us used to British Rail prices.
The rest of the time, we just wandered around, enjoying the atmosphere - especially early morning and evening, when the day-trippers had gone, and it was easier to imagine the Field of Miracles of 600 years ago. One must-see for anyone interested in the history of art is the Museo Nazionale di San Matteo on Lungarno Mediceo - the most amazing collection of 12th & 13th century paintings, and not all that well-publicised.
Thanks again for all your efforts to get this set up for us, Mike - I know that we gave you a very complicated remit, with all the different lengths of stay, etc., and without too much notice. You came up trumps again, and I expect we'll be in touch with you again in the not-too-distant future.
Thank you to all at Xtrallusions for another great trip!
All the best,
Janice. |
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Janice Menzies, Scotland. |
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Holiday: WC06 - LEVANTE RIVIERA WALKS |
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Dear Mike,
Thank you we had a wonderful time. The weather was sensational and the area quite beautiful. We found the walks strenuous but manageable. Our only complaint was that the breakfasts at our hotel were rather unexciting, something cooked other than cold hard boiled eggs would have been welcome.
We will recommend your company to our friends, thanks again.
Regards
Maxine Long |
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Maxine Long, Surrey, England |
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Enjoy
relaxed, independent walking holidays
in Italy
along the Italian Rivieras using self-guided itineraries. Explore
the beautiful mediterranean countryside and coastal mountains
by foot taking in some of the regions most famous and magnificent
towns and coast - the Cinque Terre, Portofino, Genova (Genoa), Santa Margherita, Rapallo, San Fruttuoso,
Camogli, Chiavari, Sestri Levante, Vernazza, Manarola, Riomaggiore, Monterosso al Mare,
Corniglia, Portovenere, Savona, Spotorno, Noli, Finale, Alassio, Imperia, San Remo and it's national parks to name but
a few. |
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www.xtrallusion.com |
Xtrallusion
Holidays |
info@xtrallusion.com |
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UK
0845 0944 669 |
...with
local knowledge 'in the bag' |
World
+44 1212 886044 |
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Holidays & Adventures
in Italy and on the Italian Rivieras |
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Xtrallusion offers
a selection of self-guided & escorted walking holidays in
Italy. |
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