Dominique Rizzo Food Tours Archives - Dominique Rizzo

As a businesswoman who wants to travel, have time to relax and be part of unique food wine and cultural experiences this is why I personally would choose an escorted organised tour.

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I recently organised my own research trip flying into Rome, then onto Naples, the Amalfi coast, Puglia and Malta.

I am then heading to Sicily, meeting two tour groups to host a couple of my Sicilian Food Tours.

As a businesswoman, running my restaurant/cooking school, co-owner of a Wine Bar and organising my own Food Tour Business, I found the whole process of also having to organise this tour for myself exhausting and extremely time-consuming.

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As I am not 100% confident with driving around Europe nor did I really want to, trying to coordinate all of the times for trains, buses, boats and planes to arrive, depart and transfer me around, plus the extra expense and tedious task of organising the transfers and taxis to get myself and my luggage to the trains, buses, boats and planes on time took much more planning and a chunk out of my budget than I had anticipated.

The domino effect of my precision planning for my travel itinerary relied heavily upon the timing and therefore I felt anxious that one missed train, delayed flight or cancelled boat and the whole trip would collapse. This was all before I had even started to look at hotels.

Next was researching the best areas to stay in each city, to then work out a ground itinerary to visit all of the main sights, attractions and places of interest. Firstly, I had to book the hotels, confirm, pay the deposits and ensure that these had all gone through successfully, calling or emailing each hotel individually to again confirm that the booking was there.

What next? Of course, I could buy a travel book and follow their written lead….who wants to walk around by themselves with their head in a book…not me… I would miss everything. I also had the added thought, how am I going to know what to see, where to go and the best of the best of each place I am visiting? Another couple of weeks of organising and costly bookings for day tours, private guides and ticket prices passed.

After my months of planning I had become quite stressed and anxious about it all and I had not even started to organise most importantly where I was going to eat, what activities or speciality unique experiences I wanted to see and be part of or how was I going to get to see behind the touristy side of each of these locations and get into the real culture.

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After I had accumulated a kilo of paperwork for confirmed hotel bookings, tickets, vouchers and transfer details, I then thought…this is precisely why I would choose to do an escorted tour.

There are so many travel tours on offer every year and it can be tough choosing the right tour for you. Dominique Rizzo’s Personally Escorted Tours are a great way to travel and here are the Top 10 reasons to book a Dominique Rizzo Food Tour:

A tour gives you an extra sense of security – strength in numbers, plus the expertise of a guide to help you through. Some people just aren’t interested in all of the finer details in planning a trip, and they don’t want to deal with changing them while they’re travelling. It’s all about relaxing, right? So if you want all the details taken care of for you – the hotel bookings, the transfers, the restaurant choices, the sights to see and things to do once you arrive – then an escorted tour is a perfect option.
If you’re really worried about the language barrier, however, particularly in places that don’t see too many tourists, it can be nice to have a guide who’s both a source of information and a translator. You will find you will gain a deeper knowledge of the area and it’s a great way of learning some of the language.
Since all the members of the group are experiencing the same sites, conversation and friendship are inevitable between members. New friends and relationships are easy to gain through escorted tours.
A tour guide is also provided for escorted travel groups- Tour guides can be a great benefit for members of a group because they can get more questions answered and can obtain in-depth history about certain sites, unlike those who may be viewing these sites alone. A tour guide can also be very valuable in cities that use a foreign language you’re not familiar with. The tour guide can help you with shopping and ordering food to make sure there is no communication breakdown between languages.
Planning of transportation, navigation, food and entertainment has already been taken care of. Your only job is to wake up in the morning and your day is laid out for you. The package price that is given for an escorted tour is also generally the full amount you will pay for your trip, not including any souvenirs or extras you pick up along the way. Most of the time, meals, site admissions, transportation and lodging are included in the price. We survey our past clients to get feedback on the tours which helps us to create new itineraries that include sites that have received good reviews and exclude sites that past travellers were not impressed with.
After running many tours Dominique understands the needs and requirements of travellers and is personally available to assist travellers in any way.
Dominique has personally designed the tours to include down time, understanding that we all need a holiday from the holiday sounds crazy but travelling can sometimes be exhausting and we all have different lifestyles and different reasons for taking time away.
Dominique has personally visited many of the attractions and worked closely with the guides to bring you a unique tour that is tailored to her tour requirements with a focus on exceptional food, showcasing all types of cuisine styles and not eating the same thing through out the tour.
Wineries
Dominique’s tours also include a focus on art, history, wine, experience and enjoyment. These tours are not a cookie cutter tour where you are only taken to places with hundreds of other people. Also she understands that a tour is not about seeing every church and museum in every town and with diversity of activities and having the days flowing perfectly into each other allows for a relaxed tour full of surprises.
Dominique’s innate hospitality and service means she is there to meet you on arrival and say good bye when you leave and we all know there is nothing better than a friendly, familiar face to greet you when you arrive in a foreign country and wish you well on your way home.