help me plan a trip
 

i would love to plan a trip for my boyfriend to vistit italy. can someone help me with the details, neither of us have been before. It a cruise a good idea??? i would love to see everything, and not just the major sights in italy. thanks in advance Meg

megster:

No, I don't think anyone can help you plan such a trip until you've done some elemental research (such as going on the net or to the library or a bookstore and seeing what Italy has to offer) and provided some elemental information such as:

How long a trip?
What's your budget?
What are you interested in?

As for "i would love to see everything and not just the major sights in italy," realistically you would need a lifetime to do that. Keep in mind that many Italians haven't seen "everything in Italy."

I would suggest picking up a Fodor's or Frommer's Italy guide and begin to learn about Italy,get a feel for what you'd like to do.Come back with specific questions We love to help,but we're not travel agents. Happy Researching!

You have my sympathies for the slamming you are about to receive.

Although some people could care less how general a question is, the regulars on here will want to know details, dates, EXACT activities you are interested in etc. And don't get me started on the "I would love to see everything" sentence. Words like these do not go unpunished here.

Good luck!

How long are you planning on being there, and what time of year? Are there some specific cities/villages you especially want to see? Are you museum/art people, like walking, or just what are your interests?

I do not recommend a cruise, as the things you see will be more limited. However, have you concidered an escorted tour? If that is a concideration, I recommend Insight Vacations here:

http://www.insightvacations.com/us/

Note: if you are not in the USA, remove the "us" from the URL given above.

We have used Insight Vacations as well as several other tour companies, and like Insight very much.

Whether you go with a tour or on your own is a matter of personal preference. BOTH are excellent ways to travel, depending on what you are after.

--Marv

oops....that is, "consider" with an "s"

:)

--Marv

I don't think a cruise would allow you to see enough of the country. You have to realize that you can easily spend a week in ROme alone, with never a dull moment.

Please give an approximate time frame and some kind of budget for the entire trip, or at least a hotel budget. If your trip is a week, I suggest Rome maybe with a day trip or 2 (Pompeii, Orvieto). Also figure, at least 3 nights in any major city where you want to do site seeing and just experience the surroundings.

no offense stcirq im not on here to be lectured to, i just wanted some practical advice, im not asking you to plan my trip, i do know how to search for my own trip, i just wanted someones advice, who has been there!

thank you to the people who gave me suggestions, and not criticsm. I am planning a possible week. as for possible money that i would want to spend, maybe a thousand to two.

See, megsterl, that's the problem. You initially said you wanted to "see everything and not just the major sights" and you are talking about Italy, not just one city. You must understand that you simply cannot accomplish your initial goal in the timespan of one week.

Now, you can start planning your trip, which will be wonderful, by doing some simple reading right here on Fodors. Use the &quot;Destination&quot; guide to get some ideas of what you can do in a week or so. Go to a bookstore or the library and find a Rick Steves &quot;Italy&quot; guidebook and see what he describes for a week's travel. Also, check the library for travel videos - they are fun and very informative. Frankly, for one week, it will be difficult to do more than Rome and <i>maybe</i> Florence.

Also, I doubt that you could do a cruise for $1000 - have you looked at any brochures? Are you flying from the US? Expect airfare to be around $700-900 most of the time, unless you get a really good deal. Decent inexpensive hotels might cost around $100-150 a night for a double (75-100Euro).

Here is a good package website for you to explore to help with the budget:
www.go-today.com
Many people have used them and were satisfied (although I personally have not done so).

I hope some of these ideas will get you started.

Meg, seriously, Italy is a vast and varied place. You couldn't possibly see everything you'd want to see in a year with $100,000 budget. Plus, time of year is a major factor...are you thinking of spring/summer?

Assuming a June or July trip for 7 nights and $2000 per person (excluding airfare), you could have a good time in the northern Lake Country with possible day-trips to Venice and Verona.

Or...stay on the Ligurian coast with day-trips to the Cinque Terre, Pisa, Lucca and Tuscan hill towns like San Gimignano.

Or try to find a good deal on a value-priced B&amp;B in Rome...there's more than enough to keep you busy there for a solid week.

Actually, Venice is my favorite city in the world. There's nowhere else like it. But it ain't cheap. Maybe split time between there and Florence?

These are a few starter thoughts. I'd recommend reading up some more. Enjoy!

megsterl - If you're bothered by StCirq's answer, you won't last long here. That's the best advice you've gotten - do your basic research and come back with specifics.

You actually do seem to want people here to plan your trip. Your subject is &quot;help me plan a trip&quot; and you've given no information except that you want to go to Italy.

Please, do go get some books on Italy and read on this forum about Italy, then come back with questions. Many people have gone to Italy and have lots of information to share. But they need more from you to make that information worthwhile. Why would someone want to go on and on about their favorite museums in Florence, only to have you come back and say you don't really like museums and would rather go to Venice anyway?????

With 1 week and $1,000-$2,000 you will be limited in how much you can do. So, read and choose the 1-2 cities or areas that appeal most to you, then research them in more detail. Come back with specific questions and you're sure to not be so disappointed in the answers.

Cruise ships are more expensive than your budget, plus you are not inland enough to see highlighs, like Rome.

Many first timers do group tours. But if you read up on the hundreds of choices, you can do it on your own. One week is short timing to do more than 2 areas or cities.

One week might be enough time to see quite a few of the major sights in one single city, or to get a quick, very superficial taste of two cities, or of one city and bits of the surrounding area. It's a little hard to believe this inquiry is for real.

Dear meg,

Your request is far to general for us to be able to help you. All you would get would be N+1 opinions, where N is the number of people replying.

Except that I think we would all agree that a cruise is not a good idea if you wish to see Italy. Ships are limited to the coastal regions.

Does your $1000-2000 (a 100% difference)include airfare? Is it for one or two people.

Should we include the major sights or would you be content visiting Bibbiene for a week?

Meg, You can see that many people want to help but simply can't at this point due to the broad nature of your request. If you have one week, I suggest you do research on the &quot;Big 3&quot; - Rome, Florence and Venice. You won't be able to visit all 3 but might be able to visit 2 of them. Start with &quot;destinations&quot; on this site - there is a page for each of the cities. When you have specific questions, use the search box on this site or ask on this forum. Many of us have learned so much from posters here but as you see, the more you can tell us about your plans and dreams, the more help we can be to you.

I have the same questions as Ira regarding budget. I suggest if you have 7 nights, do ROme a Venice with maybe a day or 2 more in Rome. You can book an airfare flying into one and departing from the other. You can take a train between the 2 cities.

Dear Megsterl: there is a whole section at the library devoted to answering your question in your original post. Nobody here could possibly give you better advice and information than what is at the library. We do have individual and specific knowledge about many places we have been. The problem in telling you these pieces of information is where to start? At the airport, hotel, Sicily, Bari, Venice, Rome, customs, police, telephone, tipping, restaurants, fountains, mountains,trains, taxis, bicycles, hats, gloves, Italian, French,swimming, hiking, walking, sleeping, oand on and on and on. Part of your first post says &quot; I would love to plan a trip&quot;. Do so, go to the library.

Got to be either a troll or an airhead, or maybe both.

megsterl, you asked for advice. You got some darned good advice. It made you huffy! Lady, pay attention to the advice and follow it instead of complaining.

Stop dogpiling on Meg. She's a noob and she asked a noob question. I'm sure she's starting to see the error of her ways. I would like her to come back when she has better questions in hand, but you guys are going to scare her off. Ease up.

Meg, I won't pile on. Here's a starting point. Look up Rome and Venice, and maybe Florence if you are an art lover. Do a little reading on those and go to Expedia and Travelocity to get an idea of airfares. For a round number figure it will cost you $150/night for a hotel. Food, fun and shopping are the rest of your expenses. Try to plan to stay in each place a minimum of 2-3 nights. Look to trains or cheap airlines to get you between places. Enjoy the planning part of your trip because this is where you really get to dream grasshopper.

What's a noob? Doesn't sound very nice.

If you want to go cheap, though, you can get hotels with double rooms for 60-80 Euros per night ($80-100 USD), and may be able to go even cheaper with a double room in a hostel.

noob = newbie = a poster who is new to this forum, and perhaps to the Internet.

I don't think this was a TYPICAL newcomer's question, by any means!

This is how I would recommend you start, some of this are repeats of suggestions above

1st, figure out budget, total
2nd, figure out a time range, as short as X days, as long as X+Y days (may depend both on time available and on budget). Knowing time of year will also help, days are shorter in the winter, but gardens are in bloom and coastal resorts are at their best during the summer.

3rd, when you think of Italy, you must have some dreams in mind:
seeing the Sistine Chapel?
Seeing Michelangelo's 'David'?
Seeing Venice?
Amalfi Coast?

Click on Destinations at the top of this screen and you can get to lots of basic Fodors info on the major destinations in Italy, highlights of sightseeing, travel tips, etc.

Then, realize you only have X amount of time and money, and you have to limit what you will see. Also, every time you go from one city to another, you lose at least half a day, between the travel time, geting to and from train stations, etc. It can also be as much as 2/3 of a day if the travel is longer. For example, Rome to Venice by train is more than 4.5 hours. Rome to Florence about 90 minutes. It helps, really, to take a look at a map of Italy and see that you really ought to limit yourself to Rome and north, or Rome and south, on a first trip. If you will have 8-9 real days (not including transatlantic travel days, for example) then I'd say limit yourself to two major cities and take a daytrip or two. If you will have 10-12 real days, then 3 or possibly 4 stops at most. The train travel and packing and unpacking every few days isn't just time consuming, it's annoying.

Narrow some things down, not to a final decision, just with some ideas in mind, and then come back here. But don't be surprised or hurt if even your next set of ideas are criticized. However, if you want great advice, even if it's a bit heavy-handed sometimes, this IS the place.

That's right, it wasn't a typical newcomer's question. I think Meg is acting on a sudden whim...which isn't all bad.

Meg, if you're serious about such a trip, only you and your boyfriend can say what kind of trip you want. Do you want big city and exciting(Rome)? Tuscan countryside, charming and romantic, maybe in your own little farmhouse? Art museums (Florence) or cliffside beach towns dripping in vines and terraced gardens (Amalfi Coast or Italian Riviera)? You can't do them all in a week.

Like the others said, go read the &quot;destinations&quot; sections, then Google the ones you find interesting. You'll find web pages with many photos and descriptions of each area. Get some library books. The forums here contain many trip reports from people who've just returned from those areas.

One warning: Get your Christmas shopping done BEFORE you start all this research! It's addictive! :)

OK for a 7 day trip I would suggest Venice and Florence, or Venice and Rome taking the train between the two. Book open jaw ticket so you don't have to back-track on land.

$1,000 or $2,000 is quite a range in budget low to high. Is that for one person or two? Does that need to cover airfare and hotels or just food and siteseeing?

Once you subtract your arrival and departure days you will only have ~5 days for touring so you definitely need to review the &lt;see everying&gt; idea.

meg, &lt;no offense im not on here to be lectured to, im not asking you to plan my trip&gt; Actually when you post a question you are in fact inviting people to lecture &amp; further you DID ask for us to plan your trip (re-read the title of your post).

meg, I am a little new here too and I am planning a trip to a place in Europe for the first time too. You really do have to accept the advice of the people who have written to you. You have asked a very general question and these Fodorites can not help you without some more information from yourself.

I would love to see everything too and I have longer time than you do but we have to be realistic, only in Fantasyland could we see all of Italy in a week.

meg, Please don't be discouraged or defensive. As you see there ARE many people who want to help plan your trip! But for us to give answers we do need to know what your budget per person is, what it needs to cover, and how much time you have. Not to mention, what you are interested in doing and seeing is very important.

For example you could skip the cities mentioned above and simply rent a house in the countryside for a week, if that suits you better.

As for a cruise, I'm not sure they are within your budget. But that is easy enough to find out by pricing a package in a travel magazine, with a travel agent, or on the internet somewhere.

I think 'meg' has decided she doesn't need our help.

I think maybe taking a cruise was more the point of the question.

meg is fairly new but has posted a lot, especially on the cruise forum -- so I think you may be right, suze.

A cruise is not an economical way to see Europe and with so little time on land isn't a good choice for major sightseeing either. But meg seems to really enjoy cruising - so maybe we should just leave her to it . . . .

thank you janis and suze that was my point, i just phrase it wrong, but now im getting all these messages, next time i will state my question better

Meg, Dear -- go to the bookstore and purchase a travel book on Italy (can be Fodors, Rough Guide, whatever). Read it. Digest it. Write out a rough plan. Post it here. We'll then comment. You'll revise your plan. You'll have a great time.