A Vespa goes where the tour bus gives up.
What a Rome sidecar morning costs. Which Chianti ride actually stops at a cellar. How Hanoi looks from the back of an army-green Vespa. Reviews of every Vespa tour you can book, with the licence rules spelled out.
Four Vespa days worth building a trip around.
Tuscany, Rome, Hanoi and the Amalfi coast road. The rides travellers take most, and what a seat on each one costs.
01TuscanyFlorence Vespa Tour: Tuscan Hills and Italian CuisineChianti back roads out of Florence, with lunch somewhere with a view. The one ride nobody regrets paying for.
02RomeExplore the City by Vespa with an Optional PhotoshootRound the Colosseum, up the Aventine, through Trastevere. Photographs at every stop because the light does the work.
03HanoiHanoi Vespa Tours: Food + Culture + Fun on Army VespaOld army Vespas, a pillion seat and a rider who knows which alley the good bun cha is down.
04Amalfi coastThe BEST Private Amalfi Coast Vespa TourThe corniche road with a driver who has ridden it a thousand times, so you can look at the water instead.
Italy is where the Vespa still runs the errand it was built for.
An Italian Vespa day splits cleanly four ways. A city loop behind a driver, an afternoon out in the vines, the coast road with the hairpins handled for you, or the handlebars to yourself. Pick the shape of the day and the price follows.
The one to ride firstVespa Sidecar Tour By Night with Pickup
★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 1,803 reviews · from $146
RomeSidecar or pillion, two hours, seven hills worth of viewpoints.
The Tuscan hillsCypress lanes, a cellar stop, lunch that runs long.
FlorenceOut of the city by nine, back before the evening passeggiata.
The Amalfi roadSomeone else takes the hairpins. You take the photographs.
All 267 Italian Vespa tours →
Four rules decide which Vespa tour you can actually take.
Nothing here is small print. Whether you need a licence, whether a child can come, whether you are allowed into the middle of the city at all. Each one has a kind of tour that answers it.
- 01You do not want to driveRide pillion behind a guide and you need nothing but a helmet, which the operator hands you.
- 02You want the handlebarsSelf-drive means a licence at the desk, a deposit, and reading the road signs yourself.
- 03You are three, or one is smallA sidecar rig carries the extra passenger a pillion seat cannot, and everyone faces forward.
- 04You want the historic centreRome keeps its middle closed to most traffic. A guided Vespa is registered to go in; a hire scooter often is not.
The Vespa tours more travellers take than any others.
Every Vespa tour we have reviewed →Across four countries, these are the rides that fill up first, and the reason each one earns the slot.
1
Vespa Sidecar Tour By Night with Pickup
See Rome by vintage Vespa at night, with a driver-guide, Colosseum views, Aventine Hill, gelato, coffee, and hotel pickup.
From · $146
Read our review →
2
Rome Morning Vespa Sidecar Tour in Rome with Cappuccino
from $163
3
Chianti Vespa Tour with Lunch from Florence & E-car Option
from $125
4
Highlights Vespa Sidecar Tour with Coffee and Gelato
from $141
5
Chianti Wine Region Vespa or Fiat Topolino Tour
6
Vespa Ride with Pictures and Sweet Tastings
from $34
7
Tuscan Countryside Vespa Tour with Tastings
from $176
8
Rome Afternoon Sightseeing Vespa Sidecar Tour with Gourmet Gelato
from $163
A Vespa day can be lunch, a portrait session, or a city after dark.
The machine is the same everywhere. What changes is what the rider stops for, and three shapes of day account for most of the riding. They cost very different money.
What an hour on a Vespa costs, and what a whole day does.
Grouped by what a seat actually costs. The cheap end is not the thin end here: a good number of the best city loops sit in it.
Short city loops, an hour of train-street Hanoi, a Saigon food run after work.
The standard half-day: a Rome sidecar morning, a Tuscan lane with lunch, Hoi An by dirt road.
Private riders, the whole Amalfi corniche, and full days with a cellar and a photographer attached.
Six cities and a coast road that suit a Vespa better than a bus.
Cobbles too narrow for a coach, hill lanes with no bus stop, and an old quarter where a scooter is simply how people get about. These are the places the corpus is deepest.
Three rides no other vehicle can hand you.
A car cannot fit down the lane. A coach cannot stop for the photograph. A bicycle will not get up the hill before lunch. These three exist because the Vespa does.
The Sidecar Morning
A sidecar turns a two-person machine into a three-person one, and it changes the whole feel of the ride: nobody is behind anybody, you all watch the same street go past at knee height. Operators in Rome built their whole business on the rig, usually with a stop for a cappuccino standing at the bar. It is also the answer if one of the party will not sit pillion, or is too small to.
- 1Vespa Sidecar Tour By Night with Pickup★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 1,803 reviews
- 2Rome Morning Vespa Sidecar Tour in Rome with Cappuccino★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 1,771 reviews
- 3Highlights Vespa Sidecar Tour with Coffee and Gelato★★★★★★★★★★ 4.9 · 747 reviews
The Old Machines
Some fleets are not Primaveras off the showroom floor but restored bodies from the fifties, sixties and seventies, kick-started and loud. They are slower, they smell of two-stroke, and they turn every stop into a conversation with whoever is passing. Ask before booking whether the vintage bike is the one you actually ride or the one in the photographs.
- 1Hanoi Back Streets Vespa Tours: Hanoi Vintage Vespa Tours City★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 82 reviews
- 2Hanoi Back Streets Vespa Tours: Hanoi Insider Vintage Vespa Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 56 reviews
- 3Hanoi Vespa Tours: Hanoi Vintage Vespa Food Tours★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 23 reviews
The Photograph Ride
A rider takes the corners while a second person follows with a camera, which is the only way to get a picture of yourself on a Vespa with the Colosseum behind you. The good ones send back edited files within a day or two and know which fountains are empty at eight in the morning. The weak ones hand you a phone gallery. The review says which.
- 1Explore the City by Vespa with an Optional Photoshoot★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 1,103 reviews
- 2Rome Vespa Scooter Tour with Professional Photographer★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 857 reviews
- 3Vespa Ride in the Streets with Photography★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 361 reviews
Just reviewed: the newest Vespa rides.
Newer rides, further down →
Food tour & Vespa tour & Photo tour! All included
Read our review →
Vespa scenic tour: Trulli and Countryside with tastings in Itria Valley
Read our review →
Full-Day Self-Guided Garda Vespa Tour departing at Bardolino
Read our review →
Full-Day Self-Guided Garda Vespa Tour departing at Malcesine
Read our review →
