High School Graduation Trip $$?
 

My daughter and her best friend are graduating from high school in June. They have talked for years about a senior trip. We are wondering about the affordability of Italy for two weeks. We have been to Italy several times, but have never gone the youth hostel route. We have air miles and have tentatively put two round trip tickets to Rome on hold. Her friend's family have little money. Any ideas for a trip for $1000.00 or less? We don't really want to spend the air miles for any trip shorter than about 10 days and would prefer two weeks. I know they'd probably like to see several different places, including Venice (and of course Rome).

Expect youth hostels in Italy to cost 20-25 Euros per night. Otherwise they can do it as cheaply as they think reasonable in terms of food and attractions. There's probably little point in a rail pass for that short a trip.

You'd get a lot of good information geared toward your daughter's age group from the Let's Go and Lonely Planet series of guidebooks. That would give you a start on pricing out what a trip would cost for the girls. If you are planning on $1000 or under you'd best use those FF miles--June is not an inexpensive month to fly.

Nothing helpful from me, just kudos to you for allowing and encouraging the trip.

You might like to read over on www.lonelyplanet.com, their BB similar to this one called The Thorn Tree, Western European branch. It is a very active board with lots of well-informed, experienced, younger, shoe-string budget travelers giving advice.

Two weeks would give time to include Rome, Florence, and Venice. Great if you could book open-jaws air so they fly into Rome and out of Venice (for example) to save on back tracking expense and inconvenience and train in-between.

..shouldnt be a problem on a student budget if the flight is paid for (which you are doing with your ff miles). Would suggest your daughter and her friend (not you) start doing the leg work on the lonely planet site. The Lets Go guidebooks are great and she can get the info for hostels from the YHA. I think this site tends to be for those of us who did the grad trip 20 years ago!!

YHA hostels in Italy aren't always that great. I advise these forums as well:

http://www.bugeurope.com (particularly hostel reviews)
http://www.guideforeurope.com (particularly the message boards)
http://www.eurotrip.com/forum

topping

Thank you all for your responses. I will certainly refer my daughter and her friend to the websites recommended. I am guessing they can probably do a two week trip for $1000. each excluding airfare. I have tentatively budgeted $325 for lodging (13 nights @ hostels at $25.00 per night); two youth rail passes at $200 each (this gives them 4 days travel and allows for the possible need to purchase reserve seats on 2 Eurostar trains); $150. miscellaneous (local transportation in cities, entrance fees); and $260 for food ($20 per day). What makes me a bit nervous is that if I am to hang onto the tickets I must commit within about a week. If the euro really goes up I am afraid the tight budget might not work. I would be OK with a higher budget necessitated by rising Euro, but I'm not sure my daughter's friend's family would. Sigh!

Hi Marie,

How high do you expect the Euro to go? More than 5%?

>..two youth rail passes ....<

Not for Rome, Florence, Venice.

See www.trenitalia.com/en for schedules and prices. If you buy ES* tickets online you don't have to pay extra for the reservation.

Two kids should be going 2 cl on the IC, anyway. 36E Rome to Venice ea way.

Also enter any itinerary at www.railsaver.com before purchasing passes.

Also, travel on Saturday is no more than 15E to anywhere in Italy.

Marie, Sounds like a great trip for the girls. And with respect to the budget, if they know about it now, certainly they can earn nearly another thousand a piece between now and then themselves.

You might save money skipping the rail pass. $200 each is a pretty big chunk of the budget. If they travel 2nd class & are only going 2-3 places, point to point tickets might be more economical.

I do encourage as others have mentioned that the young women share in the planning themselves & earn extra pocket money for the trip themselves. Both families are doing alot for them, and no time like the present to begin to learn the realities of what it takes to get to Europe!

What a great adventure & I wish them both all the best.

A few thoughts - first, go to Railsaver.com and model the train costs. I'm almost certain point to point will be much cheaper than 200$. Second, 1000$ each for 2 weeks sounds more than adequate. I thought you meant a 1000$ combined. My son backpacked Spain last year after his Junior year in highschool - alone - and spent about 1000$ for 3 weeks(excluding airfare). With 2 people you can do better on room costs by sharing (and don't discount 2 star hotels with a double room over a hostel - it may be nicer and cheaper). Lastly, my kids have travelled a lot and love to travel - its a priority for them as well as me . They are willing to work jobs to save money for the trip too (over an above what they must make to pay for gas and clothes and those types of things). Not sure if you have an option for the girls to fund a piece. In any event, PLEASE... get the tickets. You can make this work.

..agree with the "no" on the rail pass. If the girls get involved i n the planning it will be their trip...In additon with babysitting or other partime job they can build a bit of a nest egg over the next 6 months.

..whoops another site eurocheapo which might also help with planning.

Thank you all again. The girls will certainly do the planning. I am only attempting to do some budget estimating so my daughter's friend's parents will have some idea of the cost. I will again look at the train ticket issue. The passes cost $162 each for four days travel, plus any reservation costs; this is for second class, of course. The only trains I see from Rome to Venice are either a night train or Eurostar. Eurostar second class is $59 each way (or 47.66 euros on trenitalia website). Seat reservation charges are $19 each. Obviously if those can be avoided that would help. But you can see that the cost adds up pretty quickly just for that trip. The tickets I am holding are in and out of Rome so they would have to return to Rome. In any event, the train ticket issue certainly bears further looking into. I know the girls can and should earn some of their own money. The complication there is they're both serious athletes and train about 3 hours each day. This would continue at least through March. Thereafter at least one of them might have more time available after school for employment.

There's a balance between under and over planning - and this may be outside your comfort zone - but I wouldn't make reservations before the trip. I typically find it's pretty easy to buy the departing ticket upon arrival. And you never know... once they are in Italy they may change their minds - hear about a better destination - want to stay longer in one place... and they will have that option. My son planned his next move a day or two before he was going to make it - and called the next hotel a few days in advance. He had no trouble this way. Depends on the time in June (early June is much less busy)and the destination (you may want to plan for a city like Venice).

There is no separate seat reservation charge for tickets purchased directly from trenitalia (well, for certain none if purchased there - - less certain about tickets pucrhased on line).

That charge exists only when purchasing from RailEurope (and/or maybe some other resellers).

Just say no to rail passes.

I agree with applauding your decision to provide support and guidance for your daughter and friend to do this trip.

Best wishes,

Rex

I used Let's Go extensively in 2002 when I went "backpacking" for a month after finishing grad school.
I stayed at Ostello Santa Fosca hostel in Venice and it was WONDERRFUL - about the nicest hostel I stayed in on our trip. I think it was about 18-22E per person (cannot remember exactly).

Here's an example from trenitalia. This for a trip from venice - rome. From rome to venice, their trip will probably be broken with florence in between.

Fare No. of Seats 1st Class 2nd Class
Full Price 12345 EUR 49,63 EUR 35,89
Train Seats description
709 del 21/10/2004
From Venezia Mestre (17:35) to Roma Termini (23:20)


The above is an IC train, and Venice is the start of the route, so they dont need reservations. I second (or third) the no rail pass suggestions.