Hello everyone! My family and I will be staying at Il Borro in Tuscany next Summer. I was wondering if anyone here has stayed there and if you can make any recommendations on activities to do in the area. Would also like to get your thoughts/feedback on the hotel...maybe if you can also give some advice on anything we should know prior to arriving. Would appreciate anything you could offer..thanks in advance!

hi! I went there 2 years ago with my husband and my parents.
We had rented an apartment , that had a swimming pool ( common to that apartment complex). It also had a common kitchen, great if you were a large group and wanted to cook near the swimming pool.

It was ok, I think it depends on where you are staying. The breakfast was a short drive away, breakfast kept running out of food and was a little chaotic.

We drove around a lot, took the train to Florence, went to the Prada SPACE outlet ( a must if you like shopping and bargains), did a lot of different cities as we stayed in 2 places- Borgo di Vagali near Cortona and Il Borro.

We did some wine tours etc- there is lots to see and do, but it does get hot and hard to walk in the heat...so keep that in mind. We had a TOM TOM for navigation and that was splendid.

I think you will enjoy the trip, as there is so much to see and do. Must do Siena and Montepulciano if you can.

Enjoy!!

ash- thanks for your help. I didnt realize breakfast is included..or did you have to pay for it? Just curious- also, was there a local market in the area where we could buy groceries? We are a family of 11 and plan on cooking on a few days to cut costs.


We too plan on visiting the local areas like Siena and Montepulciano. We also want to see Assisi and Perugia and most of the Chianti region.

Our apartment is in the medieval village- did you stay in an apartment there?

Also- we plan on taking the train to Florence/Venica/Pisa for some day trips. What train ststion did you take? The Montevarchi or Arezzo? Which one is better? Do you think there's plenty of parking at the train station? Any advice?

I appreciate it so much

Those day trips will not be easy from that location. Have you looked at the driving times and the train schedules?

Siena will be about 3 hours driving RT from your location.
Pisa will be almost 5 hours RT---from Arezzo by train
Venice will be over 7 hours RT by train

I would stay close to home and enjoy Arezzo, Florence, Cortona, and maybe Assisi.

Thanks Bob- we were planning on taking a train. I looked into travel times through the rail europe site- and found Venice to be the longest trip and we plan on leaving early on those days. I realize its far- but everyone in my family voted to make the long train rides because we they all really want to make it to there. We were planning on leaving from Montevarchi train station...any other suggestions?

In that case, Siena will be even longer---by way of Florence.
And, there is no train service into Chianti. I am curious why you picked that location if you wanted to visit those places?

actually, we are renting a car to drive around the Tuscany area so i think we should be ok for Siena, right? We only plan on taking the train into Florence/Venice/Pisa.

Our trip is primarily focused on visiting the Tuscany areas like Cortona/Assisi/Siena, etc..but when we started planning our itinerary we thought we'd do Venice and Pisa and see if it was possible. We spoke with a group coordinator at Rail Europe who said Venice/Pisa would be possible if we made it to the train really early. She had a train departing Montevarchi at 7:20AM and arriving at Venice by 10:33am so we thought it would be worth it...would love your thoughts/advice.

For trains, look at the Italian rail company, Trenitalia, website, not Raileurope which is a railpass website.

I agree with Bob. You are going to be spending big chunkcs of time on the road or on trains.

Assisi is not in Tuscany.

Well, the current schedule is a bit different---7:01 to 10:33--but the point is the same. Door to door to San Marco and return will take you 5 hours each way and have you driving home on country roads in the dark--and cost you more than 100E each. Venice day trippers come away often hating Venice. We always try to avoid the mid -day hordes--just too many people. Consider an overnite if you do have to see Venice.

Meanwhile, read about Cortona, Siena, Montepulciano, and Arezzo.

Hi,
In the package that we got, breakfast was included. There were grocery stores (small ones) that we went to, I can't remember which one.

We only took the train to Florence- anywhere else, we drove. There was plenty of parking at the train station, so that was not an issue. I think I took Montevarchi train station.

You know, in order to do Sienna, Arezzo, Montelchiano we stayed in a a small village near Cortona, called Borgo di Vagali. It was a medival village- great prices ( 200 euros for a 2 bedroom , 2 bath suite), with kitchen, dining and living rooms. That made the driving easier.

Consider going there after Il borro. Your trip will be spent driving otherwise, way too much.

just a though.

ash

Thanks for the tip ash! Unfortunately, the package i bought was for a 7-night minimum so im stuck at Il Borro- but my family is used to driving though so i dont think we'll have any complaints. We all live in South Florida and have done plenty of quickie trips to Disney (4 hours each way/8 hours round) in one day! Call us crazy- but we're used to it i guess. I looked online and saw Arezzo and Cortona is only about 45 minutes away which i dont think is too bad (my work commute is double that time- LOL!).

We stayed in the apartments in Il Borro (8 yrs ago) & LOVED it. They had an on premise restaurant for meals but we ate in a lot. You can arrange meals as well to be served in the apt. we took trains from both but found Montevarchi easier. The furthest we traveled by train was Pisa & it was a hike but we did it in a day with SMALL kids. we drove to Perugia, Siena, an Gimaniano. i am recommending Il Borro to friends who are planning a trip. I think it is a beautiful place in a great location.