Budget Advice for Northern Italy trip
 

Tomorrow I go to the bank to open my special Italy trip account, but I'm wondering if you all could give me some idea of how much my trip goal should be. This will be my first trip to Italy, my boyfriend and I are planning on going for 10 days in May or June of 2006. We will be flying out of Boston, probably to Milan. Our hope is to fly into Milan, spend a couple of days there, rent a car and drive to the Piedmont region staying somewhere near Asti/Alba, then a trip to Genoa but we're not sure if we should fly home from Milan or Genoa. We'd like to stay in a B & B in wine country, not sure about Milan. What would people suggest for staying in Milan? Anyway, any helpful advice on what this all might cost would be appreciated.

Thank you!

I'd budget at least $700 for airfare for each of you. You could get lucky and get a deal, but summer airfare even from the east coast has been incredibly high this year with people paying $900 to $1000 for roundtrip to Italy and back.

You can look at rental car rates at www.autoeurope.com. That ought to give you an idea of how much to budget for a rental car.

www.viamichelin.com has driving directions and it even tells you the estimated petrol cost for gassing up the car.

Rick Steves (though hated by many on this site) has good budget accomodations in his guidebooks. I've used the Let's Go Europe books in college and some of those places were unsafe and miserable. I'd assume you will spend at least 70€ per night on lodging, and possibly up to 120€ per night in Milan. Of course, if you want nicer accomodations, the sky is the limit as to what you could spend!

P.S. Top this message on Monday morning and you will get more replies

Texas Aggie, how do I "top" a message? I'm new to the forum.
Thank you for your help on budgeting, I appreciate it!

"topping" a message simply means adding any new reply to it... any message... even "x"... takes a message back up "to the top" where it will have freshly renewed visibility. You just topped this one when you asked your question, and I am topping it too, by answering it.

Best wishes,

Rex

p.s. - - to find it again, "click on your own name".

Thank you for the explanation on topping Rex. How about any budget input?

I agree with $1200-1800 for two airfare.

Spartan:

Lodging - $60-90 per night/double; $80-120 for Milan
Meals - $30 per day per person
Car rental - $200-400 for a week
Attractions and "pocket money" $15-30 per day

"Comfortable" - - for example, this equates to a couple living on $35,000/yr in the Boston area

Lodging - $80-130 per night/double; $120-200 for Milan
Meals - $50 per day per person
Car rental - $300-500 for a week
Attractions and "pocket money" $25-50 per day

"Princely"

Lodging - $100-160 per night/double; $150-300 for Milan
Meals - $60-90 per day per person
Car rental - $400-700 for a week
Attractions and "pocket money" - the sky's the limit

Unsolicited editorial: the curmudgeonly dad in me says that if you can afford "princely"... then why aren't you two getting married? You're past the stage of being "kids" in your life!

;)

Thanks for the budget advice Rex, and the unsolicited curmudgeonly dad editorial!

We can probably pull off comfortable, princely doesn't seem like a real possibility.

My boyfriend and I have only been together for 21 months, but who knows what the romance of Italy might inspire!

ttt

dear goingtoitalia,

try www.bancotel.com for the dates you will be in italy. many times they have great hotel deals for 50 euros night/ plus tax. sometimes they are not perfect location.. but when on a budget.. a few extra blocks to metro, or transfer is better than paying double.

and some times they are just perfectly located and trying to fill rooms after a group has cancelled, or whatever.

( i have seen the UNA hotel in bergamo for 50 euros up to 150 euros depending on date. so.. one good example.

b+b's in small towns is the way i would go since you will have a car. much cheaper than cities, usually, and you can always visit those cities as day trips from small town.

try not to jump around a lot.. get a comfy b+b in the major areas you will be visiting and take side trips.

you have been given some good advice. i don't think you can spend much less on food unless you really try and picnic a lot. don't forget to mentally add to your italy account what you would spend on food / gas in your hometown .. to be realistic.

where you can save most initially will be if you are lucky and find an inexpensive airfare. this one successful feat is what usually instigates a sudden weekend away for me!


only rent the car for exactly the dates you need it.
if you can get to lakes by train.. or bergamo by bus/train form airport, and then walk and bus it around.. you might will save enough to make a difference. transport is so good , and a car for two gives a lot of independence for the wine country, but if other towns are on your list.. maybe you can deal with a car for fewer days.

with full coverage insurance ( zero responsibilty)we were surprised at how expensive it was and very happy to be splitting the bill with another couple.

good luck.

lincasanova, thank you for that information.

I checked out the website for Cascina Christiana that you had recommended in one of my other posts, it looks fantastic. I emailed Peter and he suggested booking as soon as possible, they seem to have been "discovered". Do you know of any other "jewels" in the area. Perhaps a B&B near Genoa also so we can keep staying in B&B's instead of hotels, I think that's what I'd rather do.

Thank you!

so glad you are going to cascina christiana. see if you can get the corner room. it was a litle bigger than the other one, and had views on two sides.
i tell you.. you will not want to leave this place.

can't imagine how wonderful it is in summer with the pool to use.

getting back home at night from outlaying villages can be tricky if you try to take the back roads instead of the main one back to nizza monferrato.
believe me.
we tried in fog and rain, and to this day,we can howl in laughter about what an episode adventure that was.. and it was NOT funny at time.

maybe peter knows a colleague for genoa area, as i have never been there. there were a lot of nice places i had in mind in general in piemonte, but only had a few nights, so, was unable to explore too much.

good luck. the breakfast, as i said, was ample, generous, but we only had it the first day to get acquainted and off to calm start with full stomach.

peter sent us to fab restaurants everywhere. take his advice.

do try to go to the lakes for a couple days at least to the north of milan. they are so near, and spectacular.. we loved it. and so much closer than you think.
we went there in morning, drove all over the place.. san gulio orta,(villa crespi for coffee) stresa, went to a wine cellar , just had a lovely easy going time, and then off to piemmonte with no problem at all.

you might want to stay up in that area a couple days, then piemonte, then genoa and save milan til end?

Cascina christiana is definitely my first choice, so I hope we will be able to book there. We haven't decided exactly what dates to go yet, but as soon as we do I'll be letting Peter know! Thanks for the great advice on driving, I was wondering about that.

We hadn't really thought about the lakes region much, we were thinking more the riviera de lavante, possibly finding a place to stay in San Margherita or near there for a couple of days then fly out of Genoa to go home. Now I'll have to do a little research on the lakes.

Any other Fodorite's want to weigh in with an opinion...lakes or riviera?

Thanks!

Re the airfare: I would check every reasonable source, both consolidators and aggregators as well as the usual Orbitz, Expedia, Cheaptickets, etc. These would include www.mobissimo.com, www.onetravel.com, www.kayak.com, and www.itasoftware.com.

You might also consider flying into and out of Milan instead of into Milan and out of Genoa although if you could do the latter and it is more convenient for you, why not. Generally an open jaws arrangement isn't much more, if any more, expensive than a closed jaw itinerary. But sometimes it can make a difference in price. In this case (leaving from genoa) I suspect you'd almost undoubtedly be flying to Milan first and then home.

If you book early enough you should be able to get reasonable prices but you have undoubtedly read all the posts here about when the best time to book airfares is and it includes &quot;after midnight on Tuesdays and Wednesdays&quot; and &quot;about three months out&quot; etc., etc., and none of those are backed up by <b> consistent </b> evidence.

Another possibility is flying to a different &quot;gateway&quot; which has budget flights back and forth to Milan (such as flying in and out of Gatwick and changing to an EsyJet flight to Milan Linate) but you <b> must </b> factor in the cost and time it takes to possibly change airports, etc., if you are going to do that.

Even though a year out seems like a long time, IMO it is not too early to start planning (I do it all the time). One problem may be getting hotel/overnight accommodations. Sometimes when you try to book on indivdiual hotel/etc. websites the site won't let you book way in advance (often because rates for the next year haven't been loaded in yet). Do <b> not </b> be deterred by this; e-mail the places directly and ask how soon you can book and also ask them for their best rate.

Some will tell you that you have to fax or phone; I agree that is sometimes expedient but I have yet to have problems doing this by e-mail.

Have a wonderful time planning and an even better trip.



You can start booking a maximum of 331 days out and that is when I would at least start looking.

Guide books..if you are looking for budget types of places and experiences another good source, IMO, are the Lonely Planet guidebooks; I've also gotten useful information from the Rough Guide series.

Wow intrepid, so much great advice, especially on the airfare and when to book issue.

Thank you!

I'm ready for more advice! Overwhelm me Fodorites!

Okay here's a new question for you all, my boyfriend is wondering if it might be better to go in October, rather than May/June. He's thinking there may be more to see/do in October, with the harvest and the truffles.

Any opinions, advice or suggestions?

well, your airfare **should** be less in October than in May/June, that is for sure :-)

However, it seems like the off season has been shrinking so the savings might not be very substantial.

do you really have your heart set on milan and genoa???? milan is nothing more than an italian new york city with 2 attrqctions- the duomo and the last supper or a side trip to bergamo. genova there is not much there except the cemetary(yes really) and a small old distrifct. there are soo many wondrful places in italy to go why not consider going elsewhere???

Where do you suggest Peter? We're open to advice from seasoned Italy travelers?

Do you have an opinion on the Spring vs. Fall question?

Texas Aggie, why would the airfare be less in October? Is that considered off-season? We'd probably go mid-September, rather than October. Of course, it wouldn't be until 2006, so who knows what airfare will be by then.