Honeymoon in Italy, talk to a travel agent or plan on my own?
 

I have gotten great ideas of where to visit town wise, but not specific hotels, should I look at booking through a travel agent or just do more research and do it on my own?
Places we plan to stop:
Lake Como
Venice
Florence
The Amalfi Coast (Positano)
and Siena
am I missing anywhere super romantic?

well, how much time do you have to plan this? Do you have a budget? Do you have time to research hotels in fodors.com, tripadvisor.com, frommers.com? Have you ever been to Italy?

It all depends if you want someone else build the itinerary for you or do you want to do some homework/research and do things on your own if you have time?

We are going in June and I would say there is a budget of about $7000 or so. I have never been to Italy before but I just get the opinion that when travel agents plan the trips it is not authentic.

We went to Italy on our honeymoon this past June for 11 nights. We spent approximately $7,000 USD. Had a blast and planned the entire trip on our own. We're busy planning a 12 night trip for this coming May (2005) and will spend only around $5000 USD since this time around is a vacation and not our honeymoon.

Would you mind sharing some things we should to, places to go or places to stay while on our honeymoon since you have done it already?

Hi Lisa,

How long a visit?

Trying to do 14 days

For budget help, find my article at slowtrav.com under PLANNING. They also have good hotel reviews by locations.

Hi Lisa,
We stayed in Rome for 3 nights on our honeymoon (Hotel Oceania), Monterosso in the Cinque Terre region for 3 nights (Hotel Villa Steno), Florence for one night (Hotel Europa), and Venice for 4 nights (would not recommend Venice hotel - Locanda SS Giovanni e Paolo).

You can check out our hotel review here:
http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=34510188

On our trip this May, we will spend 4 nights in Sorrento (see Pompeii, Naples, and Capri), 3 nights in Positano (travel to Paestum and see Greek Ruins one day, and do a day-long boat tour on another day), 3 nights in Monterosso again, and 1 night in Rome.

We liked staying a minimum of 2 nights in a hotel before moving on to the next stop for a honeymoon trip - 3 nights was ideal for most places... So in 14 days I would see no more than 5 cities.
It looks like you plan on traveling all over the country right now (Lake Como which is north, to the Amalfi Coast - very far south). That is a LOT of travel time (= time you are on a train or in an airport not out enjoying yourself!) If you still want to see several different slices of Italian culture I would spend some time in Tuscany (Florence and/or Siena), Venice (2-2.5 days is enough), Rome (3 days minimum), and EITHER the Amalfi Coast (Positano) or the Cinque Terre region. But that is just what I would do... what things do you want to see the most?

Hi Lisa,

You currently have 5 destinations in 12 days (two are travel days).

This is sort of rushed.

May I suggest 7-8 days split between Venice and Florence with a daytrip to Siena from Florence and the rest of the time on tha Amalfi Coast?

Fly into Venice and out of Naples.
Fly from Venice to Naples for the AC part of the trip.

On the AC, we greatly enjoyed staying at www.lesirene.com in Praiano.

You might find my trip report helpful:
http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=34451044

Hi Lisa,

Reading through the posts, ira's suggestion of cities sounds even better than what we did on our honeymoon as far as relaxation AND romance are concerned. Rome is romantic enough, but not very relaxing when you are trying to rush through it in 3 days!! Cutting it out in favor of a week on the Amalfi Coast would be heavenly...

Thank you TA.

Lisa, you can also train from Florence to Naples.

See www.trenitalia.com/en

The last hour of the trip is very scenic.

To me romantic is not racing around place to place -airports, hotels, taxis, train stations, packing and unpacking, stack up quicker than you realize (unless you've done this kind of itinerary successfully before and enjoyed it)... even if each is a cool and different spot to visit.

I'd pick 2-3 (keep Venice!!) and book it yourself, as long as you've got some time to spend on the web, and throw in some time with a guidebook or two from your library.

Hi Lisa- I'm leaving for my honeymoon to Italy in four weeks and went through the whole struggle between deciding between a travel agent and doing it myself. I ended up planning and booking everything because every travel agent I talked to just didn't seem to listen to what I wanted. The final straw to giving up on them was when I found better rates and times on plane tickets than they did!

So I used this forum obsessively every lunch hour for months. I also got a lot of good hotel suggestions from eurocheapo.com. It was a very helpful site, much better than Travelocity or Expedia, and then cross referenced the places I was interested in with this Fodors site.

It's been a huge amount of work and full of a lot of pressure to get it perfect. In the end though it's a honeymoon and will be a hundred times better than stressing over reception seating charts!

Lisa,

Had honeymoon last year in Italy and returning again in 2 weeks. If you are a planner type, I would go ahead and plan yourself. You learn alot about each place by planning yourself but it can take a long time. We were able to make the tradeoffs with price and location and with all the advice on sites like this one, tripadvisor.com and ricksteves.com you have a lot of information at your fingertips.

I agree, Venice is a must. We stayed at Locanda Sturion, near Rialto Bridge and requested Canal View....and loved it, although a little pricey. Thought location near St. Marks Square was first choice, but they were booked up. Altough loved our room.

I will give you another suggestion, check out http://www.weddings-in-italy.com/hon...moon_italy.htm

I almost used this site as a way to plan everything out..they have a sample itinerary with alot of individualized stuff. I didn't go with it becuase it was a little pricey for me.

We also went to Florence and stayed at Torre Guelfa. The best part about it was the hotel had the tallest private roof terrace in town....great view of the city and they set up a bar for the hotel guests each evening.

To get to Florence we took the high speed train from Venice to Florence and then rented a car in Florence to drive to Siena and stayed outside of town. Also needed to rent a car becuase I arranged for a balloon ride over Siena. Awesome. Check out Robert Ethrington, an english guy who has been ballooning in tuscany for many years now. Check out his website www.ballooningintuscany.com

Finally we drove to Rome, dropped off the rental car and spent several days there. Great to see, but a very 'hectic' city. Not as relaxing as other places.

Anyway, best of luck and let me know if you have any questions. BTW, for our upcoming trip we are going back to Venice and Florence...also visiting Cinque Terre (five coastal towns in the Italian Rivera) for the first time.

Whether to plan your own trip or to use a travel agent depends on a few different thing. I find the planning process fun and I love to search for the perfect hotel. Travels agents, however, are nice because it is quick and easy.

Either way, for 14 days I would stay at only 4 or 5 locations, no more. I just finished planning a 10 day trip to Italy for next summer, so I can tell you what I would do. For a two week trip to Italy, I would suggest Rome for 5 nights, Venice for 3 nights, Florence for 2 nights, and Sorrento for 4 nights. This will give you enough time to see more than just the highlights of each city, and it will be more relaxing than moving every two nights.

If you plan the trip yourself, I would suggest looking at www.fodors.com and www.tripadvisor.com. I just found tripadvisor last month and used it along with fodors to find all of my hotels.

The following are the hotels I plan to stay at (all are nice and in the midprice range):

Florence: Residenza Il Villino

Venice: Locanda Orseolo or Locanda Sant'agost -- depending on availability

Rome: I am renting an apartment from www.romebandb.com I used them 5 years ago and loved our apartment last time. They have many b&bs and some unhosted apartments.

Sorrento: Hotel Minerva

Hope this helps!
Congratulations and Have fun!

www.lacalcina.com is a wonderful 3-star hotel in Venice. Book early as it is quite popular. Ask for a canal view (Guidecca) corner double room. Heaven!

Work with a travel agent for the best overall price and don't settle with what they give you if you are the least bit happy. They are making a commission off of you, make them earn it. We went to Italy in May for 9 days. I booked my flight, rental car and hotels in three cities through her (Rome, Fano, and Florence). The Fano stay was a challenge for her, as it it not the "normal" tourist destination but she came through with better prices on everything then what I could book on my own. I did do research and knew exactly what my timeline was, the rating of the hotels I wanted, and the area of each city that I desired. The first time she came back with prices that were too high. I told her to try again as what she gave us was too much. She tried again and I can tell you the experience was wonderful. When we got there everything was what I wanted. We still did everything independently except a side trip to Pompeii/ Naples. I now know why I never do tour groups! One other thing. If you are with someone you love, anyplace will be romantic!!! Congrats and good luck!

oops... least bit UNHAPPY

Lisa,

Tell your husband-to-be that he's supposed to plan the honeymoon!

For hotel & restaurants I always start with the Michelin Red Guide.

I would consider Rome at night "super romantic."

Have a great trip.