Independent trip to Italy
 

Really want to plan our own trip to Italy, but don't want to pay too much. Has anyone planned a trip themselves? We would like to go to Rome, Venice, and Florence of course, but also want to spend a week in a farm house in Tuscany somewhere. Help!

Start by reading trip reports on this site. Lots of trip reports. I have found so many good ideas this way. Do your homework, read some guidebooks. Figure out the things that are important to you and set your budget limits. Come up with some possibilities. Then post your questions and you will be AMAZED at how helpful you will find these forums!

Most people on this board plan their own trips. State your budget per night if you want suggestions on places to stay. How many days/nights in Italy?

Yes, you can totally do it. Go for it!

I hope you have more than two weeks for this trip.

Read guidebooks to decide what you want to see everywhere and how long you think that might take. Plot out the activities/sights each day of your city stays, and pay attention to the days and hours that museums, churches, etc., are open. Don't just list a bunch of things you hope to do in a day, but actually develop a timing schedule, noting how much time you'll spend and how much time is needed to get from place to place. Consult a map while you're planning so as to avoid repeatedly criss-crossing the city. Don't forget to set aside time for meals and add an extra hour here and there to account for over-staying somewhere or being distracted by something interesting.

Planning the first trip can feel daunting, but it's completely doable. It just requires research. The hardest part is realizing you can't see everything and making the hard choices of what you'll see/do on this trip and what you'll see/do on the NEXT trip.

What the folks have posted above is correct. These forums here have provided many helpful, accurate recommendations for me and others and are often more current that what you might obtain at an online site or travel agency. As the contributors say: most important for focused feed back is a idea of your budget and how many days you will be traveling/staying in each location. Also, other than your stay in a Tuscany farmhouse, are you planning to rent apartments in any city? Do you think you'd like to be able to prepare any of your meals yourself? My suggestion is that you should take advantage of the great Italian cuisine in the local restaurants but perhaps you seek to limit your expenditures. Let us know.

We are thinking $16,000 for everything from airfare to sightseeing, to the farmhouse. That is for 2 weeks with 7 people. Anyone have any ideas on how to get a steal on airfare, the farmhouse, or sightseeing? I am so new to this, I don't even know how to find trip reports on this site. Help!

If you click on "Change Forum" at the top of this column, and choose "Europe", and new page will open. The top of this column will now be labeled "New Topics". Part way down the column you will see "Trip Reports" (note the little notebook icon next to it that help identify trip reports wen you see them listed in the column at left). at the bottom of the Trip Reports list is another link "View more trip reports" and you will get a list that continues for pages and pages.

First things first, we have no idea of your departure airport, so we can't begin to guess what your airfare will be. Based on your wish list, you might use a website like kayak.com to test price an multi-city itinerary that has you fly from home-Venice and then Rome-home. Once you determine a range that your airfare might cost, you will see how much money you have remaining to actually travel, eat, and sleep in Italy.

When do you plan to travel to Italy? Prices vary by high season and low season. Are your 7 people adults? How many rooms will you need? Can any of the travelers share beds? We can't help without knowing your requirements.

$16,000 divided by 7 is $2285 per person. Not going to even come close to cutting it. Airfare alone, no matter where you're coming from, will probably be about $1200-$1500 a person, leaving you next to nothing for a villa rental, travel expenses, entry fees, and food. Really...impossible.

We live in Atlanta and can get a flight to NYC for $200 or less. Flights from NYC look like they run anywhere from $560 - $800 to Milan or Venice. We would be going in May 2014, so we have some time to raise some funds. Yes, we can share beds and $16000 is all we are going to be able to raise. That is why I was looking for deals and ideas of how to go on a budget. Is that really impossible even if we stay in a Farm house in Tuscany for a week of that time?

Yes, I think it's really impossible, as a villa for 7 people is likely to cost a few thousand dollars, at least. And I don't know where you're seeing flights from NYC for $560-$800 - I'd love to know about those.

Plus, how do you plan to get to this farmhouse? A car, I suppose. Even a week's rental of a 9-person van ( or two cars for flexibility), which is what you will probably need if folks have luggage , will set you back a thousand dollars or more, plus fuel and taxes. Plus train expenses and museums and food and so forth...that $16,000 isn't going to go very far even if you scrimp (and I'm no stranger to scrimping these days).

Kayak.com is the sight for the flights for round trip in May, NYC to Milan. I have found a few farmhouses that show about $2000 for a week in Tuscany (for 7), but not sure about them. Thanks for the info.

How much would you say we need to raise per person for this type of trip?

Sharing beds is helpful, but how many separate rooms will you need?

I, too, am wondering about where you saw flights for$560-$800, unless that was for the price each direction. I just did a quick pricing on Kayak for departure dates in October 2013, since that is a similar season to May. For ATL-VCE plus FCO-ATL (one stop in each direction) I found totals right around $1400 per person, $9800 for 7 people.

That leaves $6200 of your budget for accommodations, food, admissions, and transportation, about $900 (€687) per person.

If your two weeks includes your travel days, then you really have 12 days on the ground. So your budget per person per day would be about $75 (€57).

I spend about twice that, $150 (€115) per day, when I vacation in Italy (not including souvenirs). Half of that is my accommodations cost, the other half is food, admissions, and train/bus tickets. If you used that guideline, you would need about $22,400 total for your group of 7.

One could spend less than I spend by staying in true budget accommodations or hostels and eating very simply, and not traveling around too much.

Let's say you were able to add $25 per person per day to your budget, meaning $100 (€76) per person per day. That would increase your total budget to about $18,200. If you could increase your budget to $20,000, that would provide about $120 ( €92) per person per day.

Also keep in mind that much depends on the exchange rate. I've given euro equivalents for rates as of today since your research on hotels will be in euro. Next May who knows what the exchange rates will be?

Think about how much things cost where you live, or rather in big cities where you live, since Rome, Venice, and Florence have big-city prices. Could you get accommodations, food, admissions, and transportation in Atlanta for $75 per person per day? (I have no idea of Atlanta costs, but this might be a good way to begin thinking about your budget.)

Here are some budget guidelines on slowtrav by one of our long standing posters
http://www.slowtrav.com/italy/planning/budget.htm

Slowtrav has lots of articles to help you plan and reviews of farmhouses etc.

Tuscany is one of the most expensive places to rent a farmhouse...there are othe lovely areas to consider that will be cheaper...Umbria, le marche, abruzzo etc...

deb, I know it already looks discouraging, but don't give up! You may just have to make some adjustments.

Generally, apartments are cheaper than hotels. But to fully take advantage, you may have to cut out a stay in Florence, and instead take a day trip to Florence while you are staying a week in Tuscany. (or make it a one-day stop while you are training from Venice to Rome)

Or you may have to cut out the farmhouse week, as getting to there and then providing day trips for 7 would not be budget-friendly.

Apartments allow you to cook some of your own meals, which can be a substantial cost savings, as restaurant meals can be expensive when you are on a tight budget.

I also recommend you read Trip Reports as often as you can. They really will give you ideas about where you can save money, etc.

Don't get discouraged, though. I loved planning my first trip to Italy and I was on a strict budget. It took six months of planning, but that just made the trip even more enjoyable!

Suggest you also go to your local book store and head to the Travel section. Look through all the Italian guidebooks and take notes and/or find one that appeals to you.

Good luck!

PS You have plenty of time. If these are all adults, try to think of some ways to get a little extra income. Things that might help: taking odd jobs/babysitting jobs/dogwalking jobs; Set up a savings account that takes $10/payday and you won't miss it; have a garage sale (ask friends to contribute things they want to get rid of-you keep a percentage); if you're crafty or artistic, you may find ways to use those skills (a friend of mine learned calligraphy as a hobby- when she was out of work, she started charging a small fee [$25 per 100] to hand-address wedding invitations).

Just wanted to throw that out there! (As a trip to Italy is well worth it, IMHO!) :)

Thank you so much for these helpful hints and encouragement. The flights I found on Kayak.com are for roundtrip out of NYC. I can fly to NYC for $200 and NYC to Milan or Venice is much cheaper than FCO. Who knows what that will be like next May. I used this May as a guide. NYC to Milan was showing anywhere from $580 - $860. I had to separate it into two trips ATL to NYC and then NYC to Milan. Otherwise I was getting $1100 for the trip. Another way to try to save $.

I will try all of the things you all suggested. They all seem very helpful.

Thank you for the encouragement. One last thing. When you have done sightseeing in the museums and such, is there a cheaper way to do that? Are tickets cheaper through the hotels? Same with train rides. I want to make sure that I have cut costs as much as possible.

For trains - the earlier you book generally the cheaper they are.

I dont think museums have different prices if you get tickets through hotels. But you may want to look at the Roma Pass to see if you can get some savings in Rome.