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FAQs

FAQ

We know your time is valuable. So we've created this list of common questions along with relevant responses.
In most cases you'll find a quick and comprehensive answer to your question. In case you are not fully satisfied please free con contact us.

- How can I book your services?
- Can I use PayPal with you?
- Are bank wire transfers payments welcome?
- How can I change, amend a booking?
- What is your cancellation policy?
- Can I book over the telephone?
- Are phone inquiries welcome?
- When and till what time are phone calls welcome?
- Are there standard pick up locations or times for your services?
- How long in advance should I be picked up for a departure transfer?
- How do I get on a train after you drop me off at the station?
- Are there any dates when your service is not available?
- How early in advance should we book your services?
- Can I book this when I get there?
- What languages do you speak?
- Are there discounts for booking more than one tour?
- I have not received a reply to my emails, what do I do?
- Can I book Air / hotels / car rental through you?
- Where can I get Travel Insurance?
- We have more than 8 people in our party, how can you take care of us?
- How long does it take to receive transportation quotes?
- Where will my chauffeur meet me?
- Are tips or gratuity included in your prices?

How can I book your services?

Since our service is customized, we intentionally don't want that a client may book services which are not suitable to his needs, just on a “click and pay” basis. We want to make sure that what our customers buy is really what they need and nothing more.
Therefore before we let you pay, we’d rather verify your needs and possibly give you advices if our experiences tells us to.
Once your plan is finalized we will require an authorization letter to debit the services on a Visa/MC, (not Am-Ex), we will email you a form that you can fill out and fax it back to us to the following numbers:
- International Toll Free Fax from US/CAN: +1-877-329-4348 (1-877-FAX4DGT) dialled as if our fax were based in the US.
- Main Fax: +39 055 6511507
- 1st Alternative Fax: +39 36 3356579545
- 2nd Alternative Fax: +39 02 700533718
If you don’t have a fax machine, you may scan/digitalize the document and send it to us as an email attachment as a doc, pdf, jpg, tif, etc.
We ask you to fax it or to email the attachment since we need to have on this letter the same signature which appears on the credit card.
In case you book services more than 2 months away we will only charge your card about 1 month before the beginning of the services.
If you are trying to send us a last minute booking, and are 100% certain about its total cost you may download the form from this link and word process it, making sure you indicate the amount you want us to charge your card.

Can I use PayPal with you?

Yes we do have a PayPal account the related email is dguide@ats.it.

Are bank wire transfers payments welcome?

Naturally yes, we prefer this method for payments which exceed Euro 2000,00 but in case you cannot pay by credit card, bank wire transfer can always be used.
In this case we will email you the bank data necessary for you to process the payment.

How can I change, amend a booking?

You may email us at booking@drivingguidetours.com with the specifics, providing we have the availability for the amended booking we will make the needed adjustments on the rates and we’ll send a new confirmation.
We can accept as amends, variations which don’t decrease the overall chargeable amount of service of more than a 20%, and as long as such requests are received by phone, email or fax at least 48 prior to the beginning of the service being changed.
In case the decrease exceeds the 20% of the total amount we will apply our cancellation policy (see below).
For services up Euro 99,99 a variation is considered equal to a cancellation unless it’s notified to us and we have responded at least 4 Hrs before the Service.
If you send us an email 5 hrs before the service, it is not guaranteed that we will see it right away, therefore if you don’t received an immediate ask sent by a person (not an automated replay) please call to make sure we are aware if the change.
Example 1: You have booked 2 Full day Tours at the value of Euro 500,00 each for a total chargeable of Euro 1.000,00. you decide to shorten one of the days which would bring your total to Euro 900,00 and request this change 3 days before.
We will do without any penalty since the change is inferior to a 20% reduction of the total charges.
Example 2: You booked an Airport arrival Transfer at Euro 90,00 you miss the connection and call us 3 hrs before the schedules arrival, the value of the transfer is lost.
If you had called us 5 hrs before we would have rescheduled the service with no penalty.

What is your cancellation policy?

- For Services up to 99,99 euro at least 4 Hrs before the Service: 0% Penalty
- For Services up to 99,99 euro less than 4 Hrs before the Service: 100% Penalty
- For Services of 100 euro or more Cancellation at least 1 week before the services: 10% penalty
- Cancellation at least 72 hours before the services: 30% penalty
- Cancellation at least 24 hours before the services: 50% penalty
- Cancellation less than 24 hours before the beginning of services or No Show: 100% penalty
We reserve the right to change above policy when we may deem necessary, in which case we will notify the customer before the customer will confirm the booking.

Can I book over the telephone?

In case of last minute urgent bookings, we can record all the info pertaining to the booking by phone, this is extremely important especially to make sure no important information is omitted.
But we do need the phone call to be followed by immediate payment (see above) we cannot consider a booking finalized unless full payment is received.

Are phone inquiries welcome?

We invite you to call us in case you are uncertain on what you need.
It’s often a lot faster for both you an us to go over certain services by phone rather than emailing back and forth many times.
In a 5 minutes phone call we can normally let you understand our service better and we will understand more what you need and want, than emailing back and forth many times for days.
Phone calls are welcome from anywhere, if you call from the USA or Canada you may use our international toll free number +1-866-746-4348 (1-866-RINGDGT) dialled as if our office were based in the US.

When and till what time are phone calls welcome?

Calls to our office phones are welcome from 10.00am to 7.00pm which is our ordinary operation schedule.
There is normally a minimum of 2 staff in the office during office hrs, but since we are a service company in case of emergency there might be nobody in the office even during office hrs, in such cases feel free to contact the mobile emergency number.
The mobile emergency number is on 24 Hrs a day 7 days a week, but we don’t have personnel on night shifts, therefore we appreciate if you could postpone a non-urgent call to regular hours.

Are there standard pick up locations or times for your services?

No, we provide only private services, therefore we can pick you up and drop you off wherever and whenever you like.
If you are not certain what your hotel or pick up / drop off location will be when you make the booking, we can still accept it but it will be your responsibility to provide this information before the starting time of the service.
We will charge in full for any wasted time deriving for failure of our customer to notify us with the relevant information for carrying out the service.
Ideally we should be notified of any changed pick up and drop off location at least 24 hrs in advance.

How long in advance should I be picked up for a departure transfer?

Florence Airport "Amerigo Vespucci" Departure Transfer: Pick Ups for Florence airport night time (from 8.00pm to 7.00am) should be done 1,5 hrs before the flight (with no traffic the airport is only 10 minutes from the center). It is required to report at check in at least 1 hr before the departure time of the flight) Pick Ups for Florence airport day time (from 7.00am to 8.00pm) should be done 2 hrs before the flight. (with traffic the airport is 20 to 40 minutes from the center)
Florence Central Station "Santa Maria Novella" Departure Transfer: Pick Ups for Florence main train station should be done 45 minutes before the train if the hotel is located in the center and 1 hr if it is outside of the center but still in the city of Florence.

How do I get on a train after you drop me off at the station?

Florence central station is a transit station, 95% of the trains that international passengers will ever use don’t originate or end in Florence train station Santa Maria Novella (SMN) if you go to Rome, the train may come for Milan or Venice stop in Florence for 8 minutes and continue on south.
If you go to Venice the train will come from Naples or Rome stop in Florence for 8 minutes and continue on north.
There is no luggage check in on Italian Trains, and trains are not well equipped with luggage storage.
Porters are not available on the spot at Florence station, they should be booked ahead of time.
If you are not familiar with our train system, ask for advice to your driver and he will explain you how to handle the train.
Time permitting he will park and walk in the station with you to show you how to use the departure board etc, but this cannot be guaranteed, the driver may have another run right after.
In case of particular needs or uncertainty, assistance can be booked aside so that either the driver will stay with the passenger till they have boarded the train, or we will provide a separate person to do it.

Are there any dates when your service is not available?

No, we operate 365 days a year, yet on main national holidays we may have shortage of personnel availability, therefore for such dates, early bookings are highly recommended.

How early in advance should we book your services?

We pride ourselves in offering excellent availability, but like every successful business we are indeed quite busy, therefore late requests should not be made by our customers assuming we will accept them.
Travel Professionals do know how important the above concept is and we don’t need to overextend on this point.
If you are not familiar with the high-season periods in Tuscany, the best solution is to always book as soon as you are certain of the dates of the service being booked.
When you give us your final plan and we email you the Credit Card Authorization Letter for you to sign and fax back to us (See relative question) we will option the services for 7 days, in case you send us the form 8 days after or later we may not be able to confirm the booking and they may have to be rescheduled.
If the booking is for services less than a week away, we will maintain the option for only 24 hrs.
Upon receipt of your Authorization Letter, we will confirm the booking in writing in timely fashion.
In case you book services more than 2 months away we will only charge your card about 1 month before the beginning of the services.
We kindly request that you make your reservation at least 2 month before the beginning of the services.
The earlier you book the smoother your service will be, since more easily we will be able to assign ideal vehicles and personnel.

Can I book this when I get there?

We don’t advice to wait till you arrive as per above question. But if you are willing to take the risk and not to find us available, you may.

What languages do you speak?

All the tours and services provided by Driving Guide Tours are available in English. Upon request, we are able to provide services in Spanish, German, French, Portuguese and Russian.

Are there discounts for booking more than one tour?

Our prices are already as low as our market place and wages of our personnel allow them to be. We cannot give you any further discounts.
We have state of the art vehicles and top class personnel, we offer competitive prices but if we told you that we are the lowest it would not and could not be true.
Best does not go along with cheapest, in no industry in no product.
You always pay for what you get and get what you paid for.
We endeavour keeping prices as low as possible but with the quality of what we offer we could never be the cheapest on the marketplace.

I have not received a reply to my emails, what do I do?

Some email internet providers can mark general emails of “unknown” accounts such as "spam" - please check your spam folder for previous email replies.
If you have your spam filter set on the highest ranking, only emails from senders in your address box will go into your inbox.
Any other emails (such as replies from internet sites you have booked on) will go into a "spam" folder.
These emails can sit in this folder for many days, but eventually your email system may automatically delete them.
If in doubt, please call us.

Can I book Air / hotels / car rental through you?

We are not a travel agency, but a Transportation and Guide Service company.
We can organize everything that falls in the category of "ground service": transport of all kinds, guiding assistance etc. but are not legally established to reserve hotels, this is what agencies and tour operators do.
If you need an Italian Tour Operator to book hotels and restaurant we will put you in contact with one of the companies we work with and we feel is the most suitable to your needs, most competitive and competent in the areas where you will be staying.
Often a Local Tour Operator knows the hotels better than someone thousands of miles away and can get better deals for you, but we don’t want to be involved in hotel bookings nor want to be held responsible for any outcome of any advice we may give on them.

Where can I get Travel Insurance?

As a local transportation company, we normally deal with customers who already have pre-purchased a travel insurance. We don’t deal in this.

We have more than 8 people in our party, how can you take care of us?

Having operated as tour guides for years and years, our owners had the chance to evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of travelling with busses versus minivans.
Since our activity primarily revolves around Tuscany Touring, Driving Guide Tours has decided to owns vehicles only up to 8 passengers, since this is what we consider ideal in our area, but we could certainly book bus services with one of our most trusted associate bus companies, for those parties of 9 or more persons who want to travel in a single minibus or bus, but before you request a bus, we advice you read through the following points.
A. Ideal Touring Solution: There are certain areas of Tuscany which are best visited using small vehicles therefore you may consider diving your group in 2 or 3 minivans.
There are areas where you can also easily use a bus. We will advice case by case what’s best to do depending on your needs and preference, but since the factors involved in such a choice are too many to list them all, if you are interested in evaluating the specific advantages of using multiple minivans versus a bus, you necessarily have to call us and we will competently help you understanding what’s best for you.
This type of evaluation would take too long if done by email and would not take into account all the needed factors.
Nevertheless in the following point we will give you an idea of what you may want to consider.
B. Less Walking. More Sightseeing, Less Stress and Tiredness. Licensed Limo Service Minivans up to 8 Passengers, per our traffic law are considered equivalent to taxis, can enter all the restricted areas of each city center all throughout Italy, reducing to zero the walking time otherwise required to go from the Bus Pick Up/Drop Off Point to the city centers, and vice versa at each visit.
This is HUGE advantage when you go to places like Siena, San Gimignano, Pisa. where using a 16 seater or bigger, passengers would be forced to walk long distances to just reach the center from the drop off point and back for the pickup.
This means a lot of saved time therefore more sightseeing within the same number of touring hours.
C. Guidance and Assistance. Driving Guide Tours as a company has always believed that the best way to tour Tuscany is indeed with a Driving Guide but in Italy Driving Guides can only drive minivans up to 8 passenger, there are no Driving Guides in this country licensed to drive busses, because for traffic reason is too impractical to be done.
A guide needs to follow the group at all times, and while it’s relatively simple to park a minivan, a bus driver due to all the drop off, pick up and parking regulations cannot leave the bus park/unattended near a city center and is forced to stay with the bus at all time (or almost), and could never escort his passengers once they reach a destination.
D. More flexibility. Dividing 10 to 16 people in 2 vehicles, since they may be different families or friends groups with different needs will give more options for each party to do whatever they want without needing to compromise with the rest.
For example on a day where the plan was to visit A, B and C, it may be that one minivan would do only A and B and the other B and C making everybody happy.
E. Economy. Cost-wise there is no major advantage in using 1 x 16 seaters versus 2 x 6/8 seaters since 6/8 seaters don't pay pick up and drop off permits which are charged by most municipalities in Tuscany and main art cities in Italy only to 16 seaters or larger busses.
For instance on a typical tour to Siena and San Gimignano: a 16 passenger Minibus would pay = euro 100 Siena permit + euro 30 San Gimignano permit. Since 6/8 seaters don’t pay such permits, doing a tour to Siena and San Gimignano in total would cost only a little more than 1 single 16 seater.
F. Comfort. 6/8 seaters are more comfortable and better air conditioned than 16/25 seaters and can reach places in Tuscany (especially in Chianti) where 16 seaters cannot, or even where certain places could be reached by a 16 seater, sometimes the roads are so narrow that the driving time increases tremendously with such as vehicle, and the ride gets muck more rocky for the passengers.
F. Limousine Chauffeur versus Bus Driver. Even if you don't want a DG's but just a chauffeur service, it has to be clear that there is a substantial difference in the personability and customer care level of a bus driver versus a limousine chauffer.
Chauffeur service drivers are trained and used to deal with the needs of the most discriminating and demanding clientele, since they mostly deal with wealthy travelers who travel at 5 star level and expect the best of every service.
While a bus driver, is primarily there to “conduct the bus” a chauffeur is there to primarily “take care of the clients’ needs while driving”.

How long does it take to receive transportation quotes?

On average most quotes are furnished to you well within 24/48 hours.
However you may receive quotes within just minutes of your request and up to 72 hours at maximum.

Where will my chauffeur meet me?

Airports: Our drivers wait outside the luggage claim area, right outside of the custom, possibly many people will be holding signs and also your driver will be there posting your name on a board. That's how you identify your driver.
Our service and price includes parking and waiting up to one hour after the scheduled landing time.
Our passengers should be able to reach us or the agency they book us through since you never know what can happen when you are on planes… in a crowded and chaotic airports.
It can take about 20/30 minutes from the time when the plane lands until you actually get to the public lounge.
If it takes will take longer, for example due to lost luggage, passengers should come out for a second to tell the driver they will be late.
We normally start getting restless after 45 minutes and we don't wait any longer than one hour from planes landing time.
If you carry a cell phone registered outside of Italy you also need to dial the country code +39 so the whole sequence should be: 0039 055 632 930 or +39 055 632 930.
Ship: You'll find the car or van parked right on the pier where your ship docks at the time you set. Your name will be posted on its windshield or if allowed to park the vehicle the driver will walk with the sign at hand to the gangway, but since most large ships have more than 1 gangways, if you don’t’ see your driver right away, look around for him, ask where chauffeur service vehicles stand, before you get frantic and assume he’s not there.
Hotel: Some companies or agencies who deal with particularly important people, instruct us to let our driver announce himself to the concierge as he reached the hotel but DO NOT want that the passengers are called in the room to announce that the driver or guide has arrived.
The assumption is “The passenger knows at what time the service is booked, when he is ready he will come down, don’t disturb the passenger announcing yourself” but the majority of the people will expect that we do announce ourselves when we arrive, and so we will do.
The concierges of the small hotels know each and everyone of their guests so when we go in and ask for our clients they have no problem addressing me to them, but that doesn't always work when clients stay in a big hotel.
In this case it's a lot easier for the clients to spot the driver than it is for the driver to spot them.
Train Station: Arriving at the station, just as you come down from the train, follow the flow of the people leaving the train till you get to the head of the train and you'll see a person with a sign with your name right on the platform where the train pulls in. If you don’t see the person right away, please wait a few minutes right there, don’t run around the station to find him, you will NEVER find him this way. Sometimes trains arrive early, sometimes they arrive on a different track than the announced one, it may take a few minutes for the driver to locate where you are but he will.

Are tips or gratuity included in your prices?

No, Tips in Italy are not mandatory, but it's customary to give them in proportion to the quality of the service received.
It's not a fix percentage as it is in many countries such as in the US, we could say it's proportional to how much the service fulfils or exceeds the expectations.
So it's not given in case of a mediocre service, it's minimal in case of average and rises from there in a proportion the client decides. It is actually embarrassing to be asked how much tip is owed.