We love private tours and can often include extra fun elements that aren’t available to individual travelers. If you’d like a bilingual escort or driver, just let us know. We’ll happily design your Custom Tour of Italy to include them..
This is a great question because there is sometimes overlap amongst the three which leads to confusion. To keep it quick though, a travel consultant is a local expert, meaning she only focuses on a specific part of the world, in some cases one country, in other cases (like mine) part of one country. This person usually lives (or has lived for an extended amount of time) in the place she consults on and has an intimate knowledge of the area.
A travel agent is similar in that she helps her clients put their trips together. A travel agent can specialize in a country but oftentimes hasn’t lived there and/or may not have traveled to all of the places her clients are going. A travel agent can search for and book flights and cruises that travel consultants can’t or choose not to book.
I often work with travel agents who want to ensure they are offering the best service to their clients. The travel agent will contact me and together we’ll put the Calabria/southern Italy section of their client’s vacation together.
A tour operator packages trip elements into travel packages that they either sell directly or through travel agents. Some travel consultants (like me) are registered as a tour operator for legal business purposes.
When you book a custom vacation, there is more going into your trip than simply recommending a hotel or a cooking class. I am invested in my clients’ trips and I work with them to choose the right base locations, to map out their ideal route and to ensure the hotels, guides, excursions and activities are right for them.
It’s been estimated the average person spends 100 hours researching, planning and booking a vacation. My clients either don’t have this kind of time to devote to planning their trip or they want to ensure they are making the right decisions for their vacation.
Besides the fact that I’m being paid by my clients to plan their trips, I choose not to accept commissions from hotels, car companies, chefs or other vendors because I don’t like the potential conflict of interest. If I don’t accept commission from anyone, then my clients know I always have their best interest in mind.
I don’t – but I can either coordinate with your travel agent, recommend an agent to you for group travel or tell you about the airlines I personally choose when I’m traveling.
All of My Bella Vita Travel’s private tours are customized, and we work together to tailor the itinerary to your interests and passions. Tours can include activities such as sailing, cooking classes, or wine tours; excursions like mountain hikes or archaeological visits; and carefully selected hotels, meals, expert guides, and more.
The price includes exactly what you want it to include. Some groups prefer an all-inclusive experience with hotels, meals, transfers, classes, and tours, while others prefer to include hotels, select group meals, and two or three important group excursions
Prices vary depending on the number of days, destinations, activities, and the size of your group.
To give you a general idea, many of our tours range from €3000 to €4000+ per person, depending on the number of people in the group and their preferences
If you have a budget in mind, just reach out and let us know. Knowing your budget helps us create the perfect tour tailored to your group’s interests and expectations.
I don’t – but I can either coordinate with your travel agent, recommend an agent to you for group travel or tell you about the airlines I personally choose when I’m traveling.
All of our Private Heritage Vacations in Calabria are customized and include as much or as little as you want.
That being said, travelers typically like to spend several days in their ancestral land. In this case, we’d include hotels, private transfers, train tickets to and from your ancestral region, your ancestry tour research and tour days, and other unique experiences such as cooking classes, wine-tasting, guided tour days, and more.
Keep in mind, we cover all regions south of Rome along with other regions throughout Italy, so we can help you with the logistics on other parts of your trip and help you determine the best way to get to and from your ancestral region.
Yes, there is. While we’d love to accommodate every request, we can only work on tours that are at least three days long and include a minimum of two nights’ accommodations.
Each heritage tour is fully customized to you, which means no two tours are alike. We will work with you in planning how many days and nights to include, whether you prefer a private driver or rental car, and what additional experiences, such as cooking classes, excursions, or wine tours, you’d like to enjoy.
On your dedicated heritage day, your personal Heritage Specialist brings your family history to life. They’ll have already reviewed the ancestral documents and family information you provided, visited your ancestral town in advance, and met with locals and city representatives. During the tour, they’ll guide you through meaningful places, introduce you to locals, and help uncover the people and stories that shaped your family’s past.
Our ancestry tours are booked and planned per our Custom Tours of Italy.
Each case is unique, and the scope of our research depends on how much information you provide and how accurate that information is. In general, our advanced research begins with your Heritage Specialist translating the family information you give us from English into Italian and contacting the local city hall(s) to confirm or correct those details. They then travel to your ancestral village, meet with locals, attempt to meet with city hall staff, and continue searching for additional documents, if needed.
With this information, your Heritage Specialist will try to locate the neighborhoods, streets, piazzas, or homes where your ancestors lived. We look for the church they attended (or were baptized or married in) and inquire about cemetery information. We talk to locals about the family, learn about what the town would have been like, and in some cases, we inquire about and search for Italian relatives.
It’s important to note that although we refer to this as “advanced” research, research continues up until and including the day of your ancestry tour to ensure you receive the most complete and meaningful experience possible.
Our Heritage Specialists are more than guides, they have been trained and have experience with ancestral cases and know the ins and outs of dealing with the local city halls and churches. We have successfully led more than 100 ancestry tours and our company was the original heritage tour company for southern Italy. No other company or independent guide can match our experience.
Once you are here, your Heritage Specialist will meet you, introduce you to the people he met during his research day and show you the home(s), neighborhoods, streets and churches from your family’s past. You will have a chance to talk to locals about your family and meet people in the village. You can visit the church or cemetery, if you like. You’ll have a full multi-course lunch, with wine, either in or near your ancestral village.
In a word… yes! The difference in those two services came down to how much advanced, hands-on research travelers wanted or needed. Most travelers chose the Premium Tour, which allowed us to spend one day in their ancestral village prior to their arrival in Italy. Over the years we noticed that travelers who had booked advanced research had an enhanced experience and a more memorable tour. We are still available, on request and based on availability, to do one-day tours for travelers who are on a budget or don’t require advanced research.
I don’t – but I can either coordinate with your travel agent, recommend an agent to you for group travel or tell you about the airlines I personally choose when I’m traveling.
Our Calabria Tours cater to English-speaking travelers with Calabrian heritage who want to fully immerse themselves in authentic Italy. Many of the excursions in our itinerary are exclusive to this tour, offering experiences you won’t find elsewhere online. In fact, many of these activities are so exclusive that we can’t even offer them to our private clients or guarantee they’ll be included in future tours.
We believe the most memorable travel experiences happen in small groups. Many of our hotels, restaurants, chefs, cooks, and guides are either part of a family-run business, an independent provider … or, in some cases, someone’s mamma, all of which cater specifically to small groups. For this reason, our Small Group Heritage Tours are typically limited to 11 to 14 travelers.
Calabrian cooking is loved throughout Italy and is gaining in popularity abroad. However, when you really examine Calabrian cuisine, you’ll see that it is as diverse as the region from which it hails. Although strong wine, homemade bread, fresh pasta, seasonal fruits and vegetables and the famous peperoncino are seen throughout the region, each area has its specialty. It is the unique ingredients and traditional dishes that we explore in our tours.
We hope everyone can make it to the airport in time for the group transfer to our first hotel. However, if you can’t, we will help you arrange a private transfer so you can catch up with the group. Additional fees apply.
To reserve your spot, email Cherrye at [email protected]. We’ll send you a registration form and a copy of our terms and conditions. Your reservation will be confirmed when we receive your deposit.
Payments are made in US dollars to My Bella Vita Travel, LLC. We accept all major credit cards and US checks and are happy to set up an installment plan for you.
Detailed information and a payment schedule will be sent with your registration form.
I’ve written a variety of posts on packing for Calabria and southern Italy, including How to Pack a Carry-on Suitcase, Carry-on Packing List, Essential Travel Gear for Your Trip to Southern Italy, Five Things to Pack for Your Trip to Italy and Five Things to Skip When Packing for Italy. Additionally, a packing list will be sent to you in your final packet.
If you’d like to extend your vacation, we’ve got you covered. We design Custom Tours of Italy and we’d be happy to assist you in adding days either before or after any of our group tours. Additional fees apply.
We are open to exploring additional dates, or even helping groups who contact us in finding a mutually convenient time that works for everyone. If you have a group of six or more, we can do the Small Group Heritage Tour of Calabria as a private tour – exclusive for your group. Contact us for details and availability.
Each case is unique, and the scope of our research depends on how much information you provide and how accurate that information is. In general, our advanced research begins with your Heritage Specialist translating the family information you give us from English into Italian and contacting the local city hall(s) to confirm or correct those details. They then travel to your ancestral village, meet with locals, attempt to meet with city hall staff, and continue searching for additional documents, if needed.
With this information, your Heritage Specialist will try to locate the neighborhoods, streets, piazzas, or homes where your ancestors lived. We look for the church they attended (or were baptized or married in) and inquire about cemetery information. We talk to locals about the family, learn about what the town would have been like, and in some cases, we inquire about and search for Italian relatives.
It’s important to note that although we refer to this as “advanced” research, research continues up until and including the day of your ancestry tour to ensure you receive the most complete and meaningful experience possible.
I don’t – but I can either coordinate with your travel agent, recommend an agent to you for group travel or tell you about the airlines I personally choose when I’m traveling.
