nycgirl1

Hi all.

We're currently booked on a cruise going in/out of Venice Thanksgiving week, and we're wondering if we should just scrap the cruise and spend 8 nights exploring Italy on our own.

The cruise is $1600 for both of us, and obviously doesn't include excursions/tours or beverages (we both enjoy drinking, so this is always a fair chunk of change when we cruise.) Airfare is already purchased so that's not a factor.

I'm thinking we would spend the 8-night trip traveling around the country, including train tickets, rooms no more than $90/day (is this possible?? Rick Steves says so but I'm not sure), and then go light on the souvenirs but enjoy a few nice meals on the way. We don't need high-class accomodations - Nothing fancy, but clean and safe places.

Do you think it's possible to do for $2,000 total for both of us?

I'm leaning towards no but thought I'd get the experts opinions. I know you can travel on any budget possible, but am wondering how much we'd sacrifice.

If it helps, we're married, very early 30's, last trip before kids. Lots of experience traveling through Europe but never in Italy.

Pros of the cruise is it involves very little planning. Cons is the only part of Italy we'd see is Venice, and while the Greek Isles sound lovely, I'd sure love to see Italy...even in November.

thoughts? Thanks in advance!

nycgirl1

shoot. my subject line is off - we're there for more than 7 days. Saturday through the following Sunday. Sorry!

ira

Hi nyc,

>..we're wondering if we should just scrap the cruise and spend 8 nights exploring Italy on our own.

A cruise is a totally different vacation from visiting Italy.

You have to decide which you want.

aucho53

If you've already paid your air fare and are willing to sacrifice slightly on meals and a little more heavily in terms of quality of accomodations then I think it's doable. I've stayed at crummy little cheap hotels in europe but it has yet to make my experiences less enjoyable. No matter what type of accomodation you are in your surroundings are still out of this world.
However, if hotel quality and amenities is something very important to you, then you may not enjoy this sort of trip.

If it were me I would pick an independent trip to Italy over a cruise anyday, but make sure you do your research. November is off season so you may be able to get good deals without having to sacrifice much

Let us know what you decide!

Layla

knickerbocker

Do the cruise when you're in your 60's and the kids have left home. While convenient to a certain degree, bear in mind that the cruise line is serving you up to local tourist 'hot spots' and you will pay accordingly more. Mrs. Knickerbocker and myself were in Venice for 3 days and each day there was a crowd from a different cruise ship. They will go to the stores and the sites recommended and not really get a sense of the real city.

As for the per/day cost, you can safely assume 200-300 Euros/day (accommodation included) and that's being reasonably economical.

The other thing to bear in mind is that, given that this'll be the last major before kids (presumably), don't completely cheap-out on yourselves. Do things you'll be talking about for years. You'll appreciate the memories; you won't remember the bills. I still reminisce about my 3-week trip to France and Italy that I told Mrs. Knickerkbocker all about when we were dating and which we just re-did (I'm now on the hook for Paris and Florence going forward but what the hey ).

HTH
k

nytraveler

I absolutely agree that a cruis is completely different than a trip to Italy. You need to decide which you want.

I would definitely opt for the latter - seeing europe rather than half the time in a floating apartment house.

But - I think you would have to up your budget. $90 a night rooms can be very dire in a lot of places (really far out - or bad neighborhood).

nycgirl1

Thanks, all. We talked last night and are leaning strongly towards spending 2 nights in Venice, and then renting an apartment in Tuscany as a home base for the remaining 5-6 nights. I'll do another post to get recs on specific areas since vrbo.com has a million options outside of Florence.