We really liked the ABD. We're comfortable traveling on our own in Europe, so the value in the Italy ABD for us was not *having* to transfer our bags and the little touches (like things we got to do at the Vatican that aren't available to the general public). (This was our second ABD after the Southern CA in 2019.)
I think the value of ABD also depends on your comfort level in traveling. For instance, the Gran Melia listed a laundry room on their website when we looked before our trip, so we had planned to do laundry there. However when we arrived we discovered that the laundry room closed during the pandemic and is now someone's office (only send out laundry available). My husband found a laundromat about 1 km away from the hotel and went over during "on your own time." He said our guides were commenting on how "adventurous" we were, saying that in their experience most ABD guests aren't comfortable leaving the hotel/immediate vicinity on their own. Most of our fellow guests arrived in Rome the day of or day before the ABD, and flew out of Venice on the last day. We spent time in Italy before the ABD and then afterwards we switched hotels and stayed in Venice, and then rented a car and drove through Austria to Germany.
I'm doing the Greece ABD next summer with three of our kids. I don't speak any Greek at all (I do speak bad Italian), so there's more of a language barrier there; and I won't have any other adult help with the kids. I'm more comfortable traveling around Greece with three kids on the ABD than I would be on my own (other adult family members are meeting us after the ABD and we will explore Athens and Venice on our own before a cruise).
Other ABD trips we're planning on are Egypt, the Galapagos, China,... places where we aren't necessarily comfortable traveling to on our own.
- How comfortable are you traveling to whatever place;
- How much do you value not having to struggle with transporting your own bags and arranging transportation;
- Are there experiences ABD can offer that you simply can't do on your own/by arranging a normal day tour? (I read "spoilers" for the Italy tour so I knew the special things the ABD offers.)