Hello everyone, I will be going to Italy for the month of May and would like some suggestions for someone who is on a budget. I've never been before and don't really know what to expect. Also any ideas on what I have to see. I might also be going to Croatia, Hungary and the Czech Rep, so any suggestions there would also be helpful. Thank you

Hi<BR>If you do a Search right here on Budget, I hope you will find a recent thread on general hints for saving money on European trips.<BR><BR>However, if you indicate which cities and towns you will be visiting, people can suggest specific hotels, hostels, cafes, etc.<BR>You might also look at other websites like frommers.com, rickesteves.com lonelyplanet.com and others that specialize in budget travel.<BR><BR>As to what to see, you need some good guidebooks. If you are visiting major cities, go elsewhere here on fodors.com for itinerary suggestions for major cities in the countries you have mentioned. Also look at the Hotel and Restaurant Rants &amp; Raves comments for more ideas.<BR><BR>I have files on Rome, Florence, and Venice; if they interest you, email me at<BR>[email protected]

Hi Felissa, <BR> It's a bit late to start planning a one month trip for this May.<BR> Have you looked for tickets yet?

I am an airline employee and will be flying standby for a low fare. This is a last minute trip, one that I didn't know I would have the time for before. Thank you for your advice, I will be doing some searches here on this site and many others. The cities that I know I want to go to are Florence, Venice, Budapest, and Prague. I am not sure what city I should go to in Croatia. Any ideas? Thanks, Felissa

Felissa -<BR><BR>Enjoy your wonderful oppotunity! I cannot help you re Croatia, but for all the other cities you mention, you will find good info on www.timeout.com, as well as in the Destinations section of this site, frommers.com, and other travel-related sites.

you can try www.chatarea.com/backpackers for general budget travel info and more specific suggestions on Italy.

The most hilarious budget stretching tip I have read was on the thorntree.<BR>The suggestion was to make your macdonalds paper coffee cup last as long as you can.<BR>They apparantly give free refils. This way you can drink coffee for several days for the price of one cup.

It might be helpful if you can tell us what kind of budget, being on a budget for somepeople may mean having to stay in a $200 per night hotel and to others may mean a $50 hostel. And either way, I am sure that someone here could recommend a good one of each, just depending on what you are looking for.

There will be two of us, sharing a room, lets just say that the cheaper the better. I was thinking maybe in the range of hostels or lower range hotels.

WE always travel on a budget. Haven't been to Italy in years, but have been in Hungary &amp; the Czech Republic in the last couple of years. Finding a cheap room in those countries will be no problem. I perdonally think you have plenty of time to plan your trip. Unless you are super super picky and want a top hotel you are not going to have a problem with lodging. Speaking of lodgin, if you stick with small family run places rather than hotels you will invariably end up with cheaper and more interesting lodging. Try to get some old issues of Arthur Frommer's Budget Travel magazie. They usually have great articles that feature inexpensive lodging.

I 2nd that suggestion... to post &amp;/or read Lonely Planet's BB called Thorn Tree. Their idea of &quot;budget&quot; is more similar to yours (&quot;the cheaper the better&quot than usually ever comes up on Fodors.<BR><BR><BR>

Try RickSteves.com, he has some good (and some strange!) budget ideas...

Thank you all for your responses and suggestions, I am so excited about my upcoming trip. Every day I add places I want to see. I hope I don't get out of control.

As for Croatia - I've been to Dubrovnik, which is beautiful - and can be done very inexpensively - but I'm not sure how far south you can go. The Istrian peninsula (northern Croatia) is accesible by train from Budapest.<BR><BR>http://www.croatia.hr

Another travel board that's geared towards backpackers/hostelers is eurotrip.com

Thanks again for all of the info. Does anyone know of any good low price places to stay in Florence, Venice or Rome?

Venice: Ai do Mori (10 yards from San Marco square)<BR>Rome: try a convent<BR>You definitely need to get some guidebooks, if you don't have them already (Rough Guides &amp; Lonely Planet). Try their websites as well. You might also want to post questions at<BR>www.virtualtourist.com<BR>There are a lot of budget travellers there and some dynamite information and suggestions, organized by city/country.

Hi<BR>The recent thread I referred to above has the heading<BR>Money Saving Tips<BR>Just scroll down on the left to find it; it wasn't very far down this morning