INFOS & F.A.Q. • THYBRIS

MAIN INFORMATIONS

In this page you will find main informations about our company, how transfers & tours work, some rome tips& tricks and F.A.Q. If you need all the legal infos go ahead and visit Terms & Conditions

AIRPORT ARRIVALS

Once you have collected your luggage and cleared customs, head outside the sliding doors and look for big NCC Limos signs where all drivers are standing with a signboard. There is where you will meet your driver. He will be holding a sign with the name shown on your reservation confirmation. It normally takes 1 hour from the moment your flight touches ground that you physically meet you driver. He will be there normally 45 minutes after your flight has landed. If you are early please wait or give us a call, if you notice it is taking longer to collect your baggages, please call the driver or Francesco at +393207627174 or ask custom police officer to let you come out for a second, to tell your driver you’ll be late. If we do not hear from you, your driver might not wait longer than one hour after the flight has landed. After 1 hour extra time could be charged. Please remember that the driver is not allowed in the baggage claim area.
If you miss your flight or experience a long delay, please contact Francesco at his number. If we do not hear from you may be charged for the time we have to wait for you at the airport. If you miss your flight or your flight was cancelled and we do not hear from you, you will be charged for the full amount of your transfer (and tour if requested).
If you have a data fare for Italy or you have a chance to connect to the Internet, we strongly appreciate if you will be in touch with your driver. Communication is the easiest way to avoid mistakes and have the whole meeting process solved smoothly.

CRUISE ARRIVALS

If you have booked a shore excursion your driver will be waiting for you as you disembark the ship. He will be holding a sign with the name shown on your reservation confirmation. If you need assistance please call Francesco +393207627174

WHAT IS INCLUDED IN TOURS?

Tour price includes a private car or van with an english speaking driver guide that will give you a live commentary of sites seen but without going inside sites with you, since he/she is not a professional licensed guide.
For those of you who are booking private tours for the first time, perhaps a little clarification would help.
A driver guide and a tour guide are not the same. It is to your advantage when booking a private tour to be sure that you understand the difference and know in advance what you are paying for.
A tour guide has a license, usually issued by the state. He or she has attended school to learn all about the sites you will see.
A guide is permitted to go into the historical sites with you and tell you about the history. Naturally, their services will cost more.
A driver guide is not licensed, has not necessarily attended art or history school, and is not permitted inside sites to tell you about history. Naturally this service is cheaper.
The fact is all drivers we propose are carefully selected to be passionate in history and sites as the guides and being in streets everyday they also know a lot about habits, places, secret gems and can advice you on how to act and flow as locals, instead of being just a regular tourist. Years of experience made them really knowledgeable!
Our prices do not include any admission fees, lunch or tip unless otherwise expressed.

PAYMENTS

Our payment process is slightly different from other companies. We firmly believe in price transparency and safe transactions are a must to us. We only use Paypal payments, so you will never have to give us your credit card data.
What we ask as a commitment is a 50% mandatory deposit of your payment. Then you’re free to pay the last 50% by cash the day of your tour or complete payment by Paypal. This has to be decided at the time that you book.
Of course if you don’t wanna be stressed by payments, you can pay all of it upfront.
If you have several tour days, we ask only 50% deposit of your first day, don’t worry.
Consider on the day of your tour we will accept only €€€ euros cash payments.
We don’t accept dollars or any other currencies for a simple reason, when we go to change prices are so expensive and then we would need to overcharge your price to cover these costs.
If you change them by yourself  instead before coming to Italy, you will save money!!
About credit cards on the day of your tour, unluckily a lot of drivers still don’t have a mobile pos, so we can’t assure you can pay that way.
If you have special requests by the way, please ask at the time you book to us.
We remind you that unlike any other option, Paypal is the safest and most versatile way to pay if you do not know the other parties.
You can get a refund easily if something goes wrong, you can use all main credit and debit cards, and you are covered by purchase protection.
Said that we hope you never have to ask a refund, but sometimes happen that people change plans or can’t come so it’s better to be covered.
Talking about changing plans, let’s have a look at our cancellation policy below.

CANCELLATION POLICY

Our cancellation policy is quite kind. Since we commit so hard to provide tour & transfers and supply a quality service to all of our clients, we kindly ask to bear in mind this is an hard work that requires time.
Last minute cancellation or no show is something not nice for anyone waiting for you, so if you change plans and don’t wanna tour with us, we gently ask you to tell us minimum 7 days before.
This way you will get a full refund of your deposit, 100% guaranteed.
We don’t accept phone or sms cancellation unless otherwise expressed. The only way you can cancel is to send an email to us and wait for a cancellation email that confirms the process.
We know sometimes things get complicated last minute, so if you change your plan 72 hours before we will do our best to refund you the deposit, but this is not guaranteed. Imagine you booked us 4 days tour, if you will cancel it only 72 hours before, you just left us without 4 days of work all of a sudden, we can’t really reorganize ourselves and it’s quite possible we refused other services, so we will need to charge the deposit to cover our costs.
If you change your mind less than 72 hours before, full price will be charged.
If you pre-paid completely your tour, these conditions apply:
7 days and before: full refund 100% guaranteed.
7 days to 72 hours: 50% refund guaranteed. (based on our assessment could be something more)
72 hours and less (or no show): no refund guaranteed.
Please note these are our main conditions but we are not robots, we know sometimes plans are not easy to manage, so we will always do our best to refund you if you can’t come. We really base our service on real time communications, so we will glad to help you not wasting money.
We don’t want to put salt in the wound so if the ship does not make it to the pier for bad weather, you will not be considered responsible so NO CHARGE will be made.
Same if your flight is cancelled or plane will not depart for any reasons, you will not be considered responsible so NO CHARGE will be made as well, as long as you contact us straight away to notify us.

ROME TIPS & TRICKS

In this section we will try to write down a list of advices, tips & tricks you better know when booking to come to Italy/Rome.
They are quite random, since we try to update the list every now and then:
  • As in  a lot of cities, almost all Museums are close on Mondays!
  • Vatican is closed on Sundays!
  • A strict dress code is enforced in Churches (and Vatican Museums) so please make sure shoulders and knees are covered during the visit.
  • If you wanna visit sites, avoid first Sunday of the month because they are FREE ENTRY that means they’re super packed!
  • If you wanna get into Basilica di San Pietro, it’s better to do it visiting the vatican museums as well, you pay a ticket, but museums are really beautiful and then you don’t have to worry about the 1 hour queue (if you’re lucky!) to get inside, because you skip it, entering from a side door.
  • Beware of pickpockets!! Especially inside major sites like Colosseum or Vatican! Rome is a safe city but small crimes still happens. Please keep your wallet with documents and money in a safe place. Hide them, don’t keep them in a bag behind your back!
  • About Electricity, it’s generally 220 volts, 50 Hz AC, but you might find 125 volt outlets, with different plugs and sockets for each. Pick up a transformer either before leaving home or in any appliance shop in Rome if you plan to use electrical appliances.
  • Restrooms are near many of the major sights. If you don’t see any around you consider that bars, nightclubs, restaurants, cafes, and all hotels have facilities, just go inside and gently ask for a toilet. Someone could ask you to buy something (coffee, bottle of water) to use them.
  • Tips/gratuity are not mandatory, do that only if you appreciate the service provided.
  • If your passport, driver’s license, airline tickets, are lost report to the nearest Carabinieri or Polizia station to fill out a report (in italian “denuncia”).

F.A.Q. (FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS)

Main questions should be already gone by now, but feel free to check these frequently asked questions, and if you don’t find an answer, send us a mail or a message on facebook!

Our process is quite easy. We have requests forms all over our website where you can place your questions and give us details of your trip.

Once the form is filled and sent to us, you will receive shortly an email from Francesco that will reply to your questions and organize your tour.
Then he will also ask if you wanna confirm it or make changes to it.
You can exchange several emails, once you’re happy with all details, Francesco will send you an email to confirm the booking and ask for the deposit.

Once you have paid the deposit, the service is confirmed!

Consider this is the only way you can book a service, not over the phone. We need your best email to complete the process.

We want this to be very clear so please read carefully this article!

Tours we offer are a transportation service with a knowledgeable driver, that will drive you around.

So you are provided a private tour with a Driver who is NOT a Licensed Tour Guide and will not provide services of a guide.

Italy has strict laws and regulations in place to protect licensed tour guides, this it makes it unlawful for Tour Drivers to offer commentary about sites outside the vehicle. In order for us to comply with Italy’s laws, Tour Drivers may not tour our guests near or inside monuments, museums, churches or piazzas.

Only licensed Tour Guides may accompany or guide you at the sites you visit.

  • For your safety inside the vehicle, drivers provide commentary only when it is deemed safe to do so while driving. When your driver must concentrate during various driving conditions, please refrain from any distracting behavior as your safety during the tour is our top priority.

When it’s not possible to offer commentary while driving, the driver will provide commentary once the vehicle is stopped near the sites you will visit.

  • Your tour driver is native Italian, therefore will speak basic English bearing the accent of his or her native language and English will not always be spoken with the perfection or fluency of a native English speaker.
  • Drivers are not licensed tour guides, therefore they have very limited and basic knowledge of history, architecture, art, culture and other information pertaining to the places in the tour.  If you seek in depth or detailed information during a tour, we recommend hiring a private licensed tour guide.

WHAT IS INCLUDED IN THE TOUR PRICE:

The price of the tours includes private deluxe vehicle with a professionally licensed English speaking Driver, Italy VAT tax, fuel, insurance, and parking fees.

WHAT IS NOT INCLUDED IN THE TOUR PRICE:

Tour prices do NOT include entrance fees to monuments, museums, or any other sites visited, lunch, gratuities,  private tour guides, or other client personal expenses.

The tours are priced per vehicle.

As soon as you have your flight information. We require at least 24 hours to process your reservation, therefore we cannot guarantee service for bookings made less than 24 hours in advance.

For visits during peak travel months (May through October) we recommend you book as far in advance as possible as we get booked fast during those months.

Standard pick up is always 3 hours before departure. If your flight leave at 9am, we pick you up at 6am. Of course according to your location we can adjust times

All of our cars are non-smoking and air-conditioned.

Your Driver Guide will meet you just outside the entrance of your rental apartment or B&B at the exact time of your pick up.

In case your place is in an area where parking is hard, your driver will park as close as possible and meet you at your door to escort you to the vehicle.
If you wanna speed up the process, just stand outside your place exactly at time you need to be picked up, so if the driver pass on the street but can’t park (sometimes in Italy streets are super tight, and you can’t really park the car), he will stop for a minute to let you in, trying not to block traffic so much.

Please keep in touch with Francesco at +393207627174 if you can’t find your driver.

Of course! Please let your driver know about it and send us a text at +393207627174
We will be happy to confirm it on the fly. Normally every extra hour costs 50€.

If you know you will be late meeting your Driver Guide than the planned pick up time, please call us immediately at +393207627174 so we can notify your driver of your delay. You can make up for your delay at the end of the tour if it starts from an hotel/b&b/apartment.

For ship tours, to be sure you will be back on time we can’t extend tour time at the end, so it’s better respect schedule you planned

We have many tours that we offer in different regions of Italy that you can choose from, so definitely yes!
Please note that there might be a price variation for different tours. The price difference will be adjusted appropriately when you choose a different tour.

Our professional licenses allow our vehicles to stop as close to sites as legally possible. For example in Rome, we will drop you off next to the Coliseum and Roman Forum, drive past the Spanish Steps, at Trevi’s Fountain corner and pick you up next to St Peter’s Square.

When visiting Italy’s small medieval towns, we are allowed to drive you through the narrow streets to your destination.

We can’t drive into museums, archeological sites and inside churches yet, but we’re working on it!! 🙂

Consider sometimes unpredictable events like traffic/rains/strikes could slow you down a little bit, but all of our tours are conceived to let you see all of it without feeling rushed. If you want to spend more time on some sites, always consider to buy some extra hours if possible asking to us by mail/message/whatsapp even while you’re touring.
Your Driver will be more than happy to accommodate your desires and do his best to make your tour experience as best as possible.

Normally our tours are planned to make the best of it, and what sometimes could seems something casual or not planned, is quite possibly organized for a specific reason.
Working on the go in the streets with a lot of different things that may change plans is not easy, so if you wanna make some changes on the fly, ask to your driver if it’s a good idea. Years of experience make all of our drivers conscious if something could be done or not!

We always respond to all inquiries within 24 hours. If you have not received a reply from us, please check your spam box in case our reply email ended up there. We also check our spam box regularly. Otherwise please send us another inquiry immediately.

Actually all tours are suggestions.
You ask, we suggest, you choose!