Cooking Vacations - Positano, Provincia di Salerno

PATRICIA WEG

PSA:
I recently did a 2 month trip to Italy , including Sorrento. This is a sensitive post, but I really hope I help someone avoid the experiences I had.
My hardest experience was the travel company I used: Cooking Vacations Italy Cooking Classes & Market Tours.
I planned a 50 plus day trip entirely with them, for convenience. It was anything but. From being insanely overpriced, to not even knowing my itinerary until close to a week before each place, and I couldn’t checkout my hotels online until after they accepted payment. And no refunds, so you’re stuck. And worst part, as a solo female traveler, one of their vendor used tour guides not only asked me out during my tour, solo, but when I said no thanks, he tried to kiss me in a closed elevator on our way to meet my driver. And they’re covering it up. Said they’d never use him again, but I ran into two ladies on a different island on another
tour who said they had him as well after mine! Don’t send your wives, daughters, sisters and girlfriends to this company!!!
I sincerely hope this post helps someone from making my mistake.

Kayla

RUN AWAY FROM THIS COMPANY!!
Let me start by saying this is maybe the second negative review I've ever written. I have so many warnings for this company and I will post here daily just for the hopes that no one else goes through what I did, and pays way too much for what you receive. I spent 53 days on a cooking vacations itinerary, as it has always been my dream to spend 2 months learning to cook Italian cuisine. I trusted Lauren and her team because she seemed to have so much knowledge and information about the country. I told her my budget was $40,000 (based on her prices online, they're not even close) and she had already taken a $1000 deposit to start researching and planning for my trip. So when she finished her planning and told me the total was $59,500, I was shocked but she said it was the "trip of a lifetime."

As a single female traveling solo, the first three hotels she put me at were completely isolated, with no restaurants, shops or activities within a 35 minute plus walk, and sometimes no access to anywhere without the host driving me personally. It was hard sometimes to figure out where I would have dinner.

IMPORTANT!!! This pertains to my privately driven, private city tours of Amalfi and Ravello (solo tour), where my tour guide Alessio ASKED ME OUT while still on my tour, at the lunch that includes wine for the last part of the paid tour. He told me he could send my driver back to Positano, and he would personally take me back. This is an hour drive away. I declined, and luckily my driver called right at this moment to see if I was ready to leave. Alessio proceeded to take me to the hotel elevator to take me to garage to meet my (female) driver. When the elevator doors shut, he attempts to kiss me. I had to push both hands against his shoulders and turn my head to deflect this unwanted advance. The doors opened and I saw my driver, and he still attempts to hug me goodbye. I was in utter shock. I told my driver how he asked me out and she was appalled. This happened on a Sunday afternoon and I emailed Lauren Monday to tell her about the incident. Apparently, my driver had reported it Sunday, but Lauren acted like it was the first time hearing it on Monday, saying she wished I had told her Sunday so she could check on me. But she told me on a later phone call (accidentally I'm sure) that she knew Sunday about it. She wanted to get ahead of it with her law offices. Oh, and later offered me a complimentary lunch because of this. She also said they would never use him again but I coincidentally met two ladies later in the week on another cooking vacations tour that found out my story and realized they had Alessio as their guide as well after Lauren said she'd never use him again.

This is just the beginning of my posts, and I will continue to write about the experiences I had daily, in the hopes that someone might take them seriously. I wish I had read the reviews first and maybe I could've saved 60k and not had some of these horrible memories.

Deborah Lucci Team

Cooking vacations was on my bucket list for a long time. It was the perfect balance of cooking, exploring and downtime. Lauren set us up with an amazing chef and we did two full days of cooking and the experience was wonderful. The third cooking day we went to a pizzeria and learned more of a local pizzeria style of cooking. Both experiences are wonderful. We were also set up in a beautiful hotel with stunning views. We went on three day trips to balance out the cooking and also had a little down time on the beach. It was the perfect balance and I can't wait to book another region. Maybe Sicily. Highly recommend. Thank you Debbie

Suzanne Friedman

We were charged 580 euro for Lauren to make a reservation at a school for us in November. The charge at the school was 130euro pp. when I questioned the fees, I was served up a very nasty reply along with a threat of lawsuits.
If you want to save a ton of cash- Do ask Lauren directed me to do, “Google It Yourself”

Linda Hoffman

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

We recently returned from what was supposed to be an 8-day cooking school at Irma’s Country Kitchen on the Amalfi Coast. My husband and I have participated in many cooking vacations over the years, and this vacation was a “mixed bag”.

First, the good:
- The Market Tour with our guide Ana was amazing. We visited the artisan shops of makers of cheese, bread and salami. Ana was personable and knowledgeable. This excursion also included a pizza-making lesson at Da Nando in Agerola that was absolutely the highlight of the trip.
- The visit to Marisa Cuomo Winery and the wine pairing dinner that followed were lovely.

Next, the bad:
- There were a few days in the program in which we were served breakfast but lunch was on our own. That doesn’t sound like a big deal, but the B&B is literally perched on the side of a mountain, and the nearest restaurants are at least ½ mile away – uphill on steep roads with hairpin turns. If you aren’t in top shape, you need to hire a car.
- The excursion to Positano and Praiano was a waste of time because it was off-season and there were only a handful of shops of shops open. If you’re expecting to be able to do shopping, don’t go to the area in the off-season. I wish we’d been so advised.
- Irma is a relatively good teacher in the kitchen, but it would have been more enjoyable if she had spent more time interacting with us instead of chatting (in Italian) with her kitchen helper and a friend who stopped by. We take cooking vacations because we learn so much about a culture and region through its food. However, our interactions with Irma were generally limited to cooking instruction.

Finally, the ugly:
- My husband became suddenly ill on Day 5 and it was necessary to return home early. We asked if we could switch our program to the 5-day program and get refunded the difference. The answer was no. (Mind you, there were no other guests in the B&B or in the cooking class, so it’s not as if they had to turn away other guests because we had booked an 8-day stay instead of a 5-day stay.) Our hotel in Rome and the tour company we had booked in Rome were happy to refund our money. Even Delta was changed our flights and waived the change fee because of my husband’s illness. Cooking Vacation’s response was that they “do not provide money back for any unused part of the trip”. I understand the need for policies - I’ve been an entrepreneur for the past 30+ years. I also know that it’s compassion and empathy that builds customer loyalty, not standing rigidly behind a policy, regardless of the circumstances.

Think twice about booking your next vacation through Cooking Vacations. At least from our experience, the minuses far outweighed the plusses.

Jon Wollenhaupt

I would never use Cooking Vacations again. Bad experience.

Tara Horvath

Brynn Anderson