Hello everyone. I have a couple of questions regarding a trip to Italy. My father has always wanted to go there. A few weeks ago we decided to take a father/daughter trip. Our first thought was a trip to California later this year. But then he reminded me how he's always wanted to go to Italy. Neither of us has ever been and I'd love to go too. We figured we could do CA for less than $2000 for a week. I suggested to him today that we could forget the trip to CA and save our money for Italy next year. So I guess my question is what do you think would be the avg. cost of an 8-10 day trip be? We don't require the most expensive experience but don't want anything cheap either - so I guess middle of the road.

My second question is where do you even begin to plan such a trip? Is travel outside of the US best handled by a travel agent?

Thanks very much for your help.

The costs of a trip like this can vary so widely, that it's nearly impossible to guess what it will cost for you to get what you want out of it.

That said, the early planning should be relatively easy (and fun) and will give you a better idea of what things will cost.

You should start by getting some guidebooks and picture books on Italy from your library to determine what areas you'd like to see. The guidebooks, if they're recent, will also list hotels with prices so that you can determine how much that will cost you. For meals, you can find them in all ranges, but budgeting similar to what you would spend in the US is probably a reasonably close starting point.

The time that you'd like to go and where you are traveling from will influence your airfare costs, but if you post back with those, people can help you determine what a good airfare might be.

There's no reason that you have to use a travel agent, as there is plenty of information in books and online. But, if you don't have the time to plan, or don't enjoy it, then a good travel agent could do the legwork for you. Most of the people that you find at this site prefer planning their own trips (that's why this site exists!) and are happy to help others plan theirs as well!

Happy planning!

This question merits a 1500 words answer, and I just wrote another lengthy one to another question.

Can't answer you without knowing: what city of origination, and is there one month (or two?) that you MUST travel?

From NYC in November (and maybe even March or April, with proper planning), with the two of you sharing a room, the trip can be very comfortable on $2000 (i.e., $1000 per person - - is that what you mean?)

From Honolulu in July, it might require camping.

As to where to start, there is a strong bias on this forum towards doing it all youtrself - - with the help and in pout of all of "us", veterans of this forum and Italy travel (and from newcomers and anyone else in the peanut gallery as well; they often know a heck of a lot, more than the "regulars&quot.

Come back with more info, for the longer answer.

Best wishes,

Rex Bickers
Floyds Knobs, Indiana

Thanks very much for your responses. I do prefer to plan myself. I'm a regular here at Fodors for years now but don't post on Europe board since I've never been there!

We would either be flying from DC area (Philly, Baltimore) or Charlotte. I live in NC and my dad lives in PA. Either way we would be flying from the east coast. We are open to the time of year and don't necessarily need the peak tourist time.

Is there a time of year that is preferable over others?

Hi Deb,

Does your $2000 include getting to CA?

If you don't count the airfare, you can do a week in Rome or Florence or Naples, or the Amalfi Coast for about $2000. If you share a room, you can include Venice.

For a week
Air Fare 1400
2 single rooms 1400
meals etc 1000

This is my estimated budget for a week in Paris this coming May. Italy is about the same.

Of course, a lot depends on how much gelato you eat and limoncello you drink.

Oh and yes, I was thinking $1000 pp. We can go higher if need be. It sounds like its doable. Wow! He will be so happy to find that out!

This is a trip I have planned for Sep/Oct 2004. 6 nights Rome/7 nights Tuscany/3 nights Cinque Terre. Flights ORD-FCO / MXP-ORD / Group of 8

BUDGET PER COUPLE

Airfare $1044.00
Apt in Rome $476.00 ($68/night)
Villa in Tuscany $412.00 ($59/night)
Room in Vernazza $227.00 ($76/night)
Rental Car $317.00
Daily Expenses - Meals - Admission Fees -Gas- $120/day X 17 days $2040
Total Trip Cost per Couple - $4516

Enjoy your trip.

Keep a watch out for sales on air fare.

Preferable times to go for cost (particularly airfare) would probably be March/April or September/October. Of course, if beach weather is needed, those would be out for the most part. May might also still be reasonably inexpensive.

You should be able to find decent airfare from DC I would think, though maybe not non-stop. But for starters, you can peruse the airfare websites now to see what they're running for April of this year. You never know what next year will bring, but it's a start.

Of course, if the cold weather isn't a problem, you could probably go even cheaper in Jan/Feb or Nov/Dec, though very close to Christmas costs may go up.

This sounds like a wonderful trip! I bet your dad will be thrilled!

In general, we've found traveling in Europe (Paris and England only so far) to be not too much more expensive than traveling in the US.

Deborah,

My daughter and I are going to Rome on March 1. We bought a package deal from Go-today.com for roughly 2100.00. This included the following:
R/T air from ATL
Guided Day trip to Capri, Sorrento & Naples
Ciao Roma Trolley tour (hop on, hop off tour bus)
7 nights at the Hotel Nazionale, standard/double room w/free breakfast each day
Airport pickup and drop off service

While it is entirely possible that you can find a cheaper way to do this, I felt more confident purchasing this package because I was clueless about what I wanted to do on my first trip to Italy. Next time, I can do the planning myself. Good luck to you!

It looks like that so far, I am the only one who understood that you meant ONE thousand per person, not TWO. some are going to take issue with my saying that can be quite comfortable, but I believe that you can.

All the same, you still did not say from where, nor what month.

How can we help you?

Ahem, Rex.....our trip is about 1050.00 per person....so I'm not that far off the mark either.

Rex - did you miss Deborah's first reply?

Author: DeborahB
Date: 02/20/2004, 03:47 pm

Message: Thanks very much for your responses. I do prefer to plan myself. I'm a regular here at Fodors for years now but don't post on Europe board since I've never been there!

We would either be flying from DC area (Philly, Baltimore) or Charlotte. I live in NC and my dad lives in PA. Either way we would be flying from the east coast. We are open to the time of year and don't necessarily need the peak tourist time.

Is there a time of year that is preferable over others?

Wow, Deborah! What fun you can have planning this trip. Is there a reason for just one week? Could you do 10 or 12 days? May 2003 was beautiful in Italy, and there are many who say fall is just as enjoyable as spring. I think I'd leave the summer months to those who have no other choice.

Whoops - yes, Rookie, clearly I did. And sorry Renee, guilty of jumping to conclusions about youy 2100.

I think I would recommend November, but that might mean staying further south. Missing Venice? Ouch, I don't know. Or just tolerate poorer weather.

For what it's worth, others are far more expert than I about

Oops - I need to pay more attention as well. Your initial post says a trip of 8 - 10 days. I got caught up in the "cost per week" stuff. Sorry about that.

whoops again...

...about Italy south of Rome.