Greenline Tours — Local services in Rome

This review is for the Capri Day Trip. I booked this trip through Viator. Greenline Tours was the tour provider.

I purchased an english speaking tour. The tour provides you with round trip transportation to Naples, round trip ferry to the island of Capri, lunch, transportation on the island to the top of Capri, and a guide. The tour departed at 730 and returned at 2130

There are some extras you can purchase which aren't included, tour around the island on boat, and visit to the blue grotto. Drinks during lunch are not included and those are extra which you pay for.

The bus had two groups visiting Naples. One group was visiting Pompei, and the other group was visiting Capri. Additionally the groups were mixed English and Spanish speaking. The tour guides provided the same information in English and Spanish for all parts of the trip.

The Greenline Tours bus was clean, smooth ride, and seats were comfortable. The driver was professional and drove us to and from Naples safely and without incident. On the way to Naples and also on the way back the bus stops off at a hotel/souvenir shop for people to take a break, use the restroom, get a snack, or buy souvenirs. The ride each way was approximately 3-3:30 hours.

Our tour guide which took us from Naples to Capri was informative. He managed a group of 11-15 of us. The boat ride from Naples to Capri was approximately 1 hour each way. He made sure he kept a head count of all of us. He could have done a better job ensuring the group was aware of his location by carrying a stick with some identifying cloth on it. Many of the guides use this. There are a sea of tourists when you get to the island, and it's easy to lose line of site of people in your group. For the most part, the group was able to find each other and our guide well without getting lost.

The optional Blue Grotto visit/tour was not available because of the high tides that day. It made the narrow entrance inaccessible.

The group, as a whole, decided to take a boat tour around the island. This was optional and an additional cost which the group as a whole decided to do. Group members were given the option for not going on the boat tour and instead, taking an hour to explore the island, but meet back at a meet point by a set time. The boat tour around the island took approximately an hour. The coolest part was seeing the Capri Faraglioni, the three towering rock formations just off the islands coast.

After the boat tour we took a very compact bus up to the top of the island. At the top of the island we departed from the bus and took lunch. I can't remember the name of the restaurant, I wish I did, but the seafood risotto dish was absolutely disgusting. You had two courses, and a desert. For each course you had two food options.

After lunch, we had approximately 45 minutes to explore the top of the island. At the top of the island there is a ski lift type ride which takes you to the highest point of the island, ANACAPRI and some shops and other areas to explore.

I believe the ride to anacapri was less than 10 euros? Some of us opted to take the ride up, some of us decided to just explore the shops. If you take the ride to the top of anacapri, be mindful that it takes approximately 18 minutes to go up, and 18 minutes to come back down. Plan accordingly if you opt to do that so your tour guide isn't scrambling trying to locate you.

I'd recommend this tour if you don't have a lot of time on your itinerary and want to cram in as much as possible while you are staying at Rome. If I were to do a tour from Rome to Naples/Capri again, I'd opt for the Pompei trip instead. It seemed like that group really enjoyed that tour.

Factoring in the time of transportation to Capri and back, transportation to the top of the island, time for lunch, an all day trip turns into just spending 4 hours on the island for exploring or doing additional activities. I don't fault Greenline Tours on the itinerary or little time you have on the island. It is what it is when you have to factor in all the...

This review is with special recognition to Marra. Forget about the fact she sucks as tour guides but she refuses to accept her errors and will lie thru her f---- teeth .. why? Just because we are dumb American tourists eager to see Capri and will submit to anything? Marra gave us a time of 245, we showed up at 246- I accept we were one minute late but you figure Marra would do a head count, possibly wait one minute, not completely vanish from the meeting point. I called GLT who said Marra is coming in 2 minutes. Waited 30 minutes before a private driver was sent to pick us from Anacapri and bring us down to Capri for lunch. Upon meeting Danilo back at Capri, he asked "where were you?" As if it was my error that I left. No apologies. I told him Marra gave us a time of 245 but she must have left early because the meeting point did not have other members of our group and the group bus stop had no members as well. So he brought us to The next cartoon Marra. Here is what this child had to say: Where were you? Were you in Danilos group? I counted 20 people in my group so I left.

My responses to her: Why did you leave earlier than 245? Marra, we were in your group all day as we did the boat tour and you were the only one responsible for leading those in a boat tour. So now we are suddenly in Danilos group after being with you all day. How do you get from 18 to 20 with the absence of 2 people?

Her response that followed: Well anyways, you still I think have time to eat lunch.

Ok, we had 10'minutes to stuff down pasta after it being given to us incorrectly the first time. We requested vegetarian instead of non vegetarian.

So while she was comfortably warming her chair stuffing down her 3 course meal over the course of 1 hour, we had just pasta and single bottle of water for 5 euros over 10 minutes. The ad on Viator does not tell you this but no drinks whatsoever are included in the lunch. The drinks are all on you, cash.

Marra also said the price for the blue grotto is 28 euros per person and that the boat ride is 14 euros per person. We took the boat ride which would cost us 28 euros altogether but Marra never collected the money from us. Furthermore the boat operator said the blue grotto is 14 euros per person, not 28 euros per person as Marra had mentioned. FYI ladies and gents the GLT as on Viator mentions 30 euros per person. Lots of discrepancies. Marra did mention she would collect the money from us for the boat tour at a later time. I do not know why she never did.

Marra, I do not apologize if you cannot understand all this as the truth is beyond you especially the word responsible. I don't think you were able to grasp that.

I took this same tour back in 2013 from GLT and it was much better back then than it was on March 2017.

If you are looking for any tour in Rome or from Rome to another destination please do not use this scam company. Use citywonders or dark Rome.

FYI read the google reviews prior to me and you will see how special this company is. Tourists, please do not book thru this company just to see Capri. It is absolutely not worth it at any price.

Business advice for GLT: it is your misfortune that you hired Marra. Shall you continue to keep tour guides like her your business and reviews will continue to go down.

Marra as a tour guide: no passion, not enthusiastic at all. What goes around comes around and you decided to cheat us, you will get cheated as well. What were you planning on just leaving us in Anacapri?

Off to TripAdvisor and Viator this...

This tour was recommended by our hotel. Now, our hotel experience had been great so we trusted their recommendation.

We were told to be at the hotel lobby at 1:30pm. We were there on the dot and was picked up by a mini bus. We then picked up other guests and then we were brought to the Green Line Tour head office to pay for our tour £66/person. After paying we were told to get on a bigger bus (coach) and we waited for about 40minutes for other guests to join. We then drove to the Vatican and for the "English" speakers we were told to "follow Ray" with the yellow flag. We were also advised that the Vatican had decided to close St Peter's Basilica at 1pm due to being Easter Sunday the following day.

We got to the Vatican only to find out that the "skip the line guided tour" is to join "another line"... we were patient as we were eager and excited. When we finally got to the security check, the group (about 35 of us) went through security. However, after security we had lost our tour guide "Ray" and half of our group! We were in panic mode as there were hundreds of people in the museum! Our "lost group" decided to stick together, 2 people with telephone access called the tour operator and one of them was told that the "rest of the group" was already inside! So there was more panic! Then finally we spot "Ray" with the yellow flag! We all rushed to him and told him that we had lost him. Instead of him apologising for "losing us" we were smeared at as if we "should have known" where to go.

So again we brushed that aside and went merrily in the tour. Mine and my friend's audio didn't work and I went and told "Ray". Again, instead of offering his help and apologising he told me "yeah! yeah" as if it was my fault that my audio wasn't working. So he took me to the counter and the people at the counter begrudgingly swapped our audios. Once more, NO customer service!

We go through the tour and it was HORRIBLE!

The group was too big - about 35 of us and with a big crowd of other tour operators (advertising and competing for that "skip the line" which is Bullshit!) is just NOT manageable! We couldn't hear "Ray" clearly and coz the group was too big he had already gone into the other room before we even got there and he had finished explaining the artwork! NO customer service! We were herded like cattles! And constantly reminded to "return" our audios after the tour - as if someone would even try to nick those crappy, disgusting things! We could have been told earlier that the St Peter's Basilica was closed - we paid for the whole tour and we were tricked! We shouldn't have had to pay full price if they weren't gonna do the full tour. The ATTITUDE - the tour operator and the tour guide did not treat guests with respect. They had NO manners nor customer service. They are money makers! Advertised as "skip the line" - but all the other tours were also "skip the line"?!?!?! They should have advertised as "one of the lines of the skip the line"! FALSE advertising!

We were so TRAUMATISED by this "guided tour" experience that we have now decided to NEVER join any tours for the rest of our trips within Italy.

DO NOT join this tour! And although I haven't experienced the other tour operators, I'm sure they're all the same - money makers taking advantage of innocent...