1) The tour managers on every tour were excellent. No matter what happened, the tour managers took care of what were otherwise difficult situations. Two examples: In Morocco, most of one couple's luggage was misplaced. We moved quite a bit in Morocco, but the tour manager kept tabs with Royal Air Maroc and managed to have it find us about a third of the way through in Fez. In Cuzco, Peru, a man on our tour was mugged, losing (I know you won't believe he was carrying it on his person) his passport and credit cards. We were on our way from there to Bolivia, but the tour manager took care of things with little or no delay to the rest of the tour.

2)They always have local guides who are well educated in the history and culture of their countries and their regions.

3)Most meals are included. Frankly, in Italy, I would not be happy about that, but it might be just right for your mother.

4)Hotels are always the best in the area, i.e., as Peter mentioned, the Danieli in Venice.

5)The people I have travelled with on those tours ranged in age from 40s to 80s, but a little more toward the upper age ranges. They also generally stay in one place more than one night so the packing and unpacking is not quite as bad as it might be. They also do a pretty good job of baggage handling.

6)Groups used to be fewer than 25, but I think that has changed to somewhat larger groups.

7)They do a lot of motorcoach travel, but my experience has been that they use the largest buses available, so even with 35 people on a tour there would be room to spread out.

Lisa in Chicago