lramos30

My fiance and I are interested in taking a one to two week honeymoon in Italy; however, I would like to get some recommendations. I have two main questions: Is it better to focus more on few cities with a longer stay, or multiple cities with a shorter stay. I would also like some recommendations between using Italian tours or packages, or planning everything (hotels, flights) seperately on my own. Any information would be greatly appreciated, and any estimated pricing plans will also help.

Let me tell you a bit about my planning. The wedding will take place next year in June. We will take our honeymoon probably the second and third week of June 2007. We have a somewhat limited budget, so unfortunately money will be an issue. Me an my fiance will both be in our mid 20s. I am currently interested in going to Rome and Venice, any other opinions would be greatly appreciated. Please let me know if anyone needs any further information. Thanks.

JustSandra

I am currently planning my honeymoon for this July!

Feel free to check out any of my threads for useful information. The folks on these boards are really nice and knowledgable!

Congrats.
Sandra

SusanP

Iramos, you have plenty of time to plan, so I would definitely do this on your own. This forum contains a wealth of information to help you do this.

If you can only go for a week, Venice and Rome would be a nice combination. If you can do two weeks, you can add one or two other stops. You will find that most people here favor staying long enough in each place to be able to enjoy it without packing up and moving every couple of nights.

Here are some questions that you could answer to get a lot more helpful information:
Will it be one week or two?
How much do want to spend per night on a hotel? (Limited budget means a lot of different things to different people.)
If you have two weeks, do you want to rent a car for any portion (ie, between Rome & Venice to see some of Tuscany)?
Do you want all cities, or would you like some countryside? What are your main interests (art, history, architecture, food, shopping, etc.)?

Tell us more and we can help you plan a wonderful honeymoon!

nessundorma

If you have two weeks, then a week in each city would be lovely and you can rent an apartment in each city to save money. You can do day trips by train from each city (although both cities have more than enough to keep you fascinated for 7 days straight).

It's not difficult to rent an apartment and people here and on the Slow Travel website can steer you to all the right places.

I don't think you should spend money on tours or packages.

MaureenB

Because you are planning a full year in advance, you will have lots of good options. Do you have any airline miles accrued, that entitle you to some free flights? If so, check into availability first thing-- sometimes the free flights will help you decide on a plan, and you have to snag them far in advance. For example, this May I could get Mileage Plus tickets into Rome and out of Nice, so I planned two weeks within that framework. It worked out great. Check out my recent trip reports of Rome, Florence, Venice and Nice (Santa Margherita Ligure to come), for good and reasonably priced little B&B-type hotels. Have fun planning.
The question of how much moving around you want to do is purely personal. I myself don't like to stay anywhere less than three nights. Preferably more, in order to enjoy a place from the inside out.

SusanP

One other thing I was going to mention, be sure to look into an open-jaw flight (into one city and out of another).

lramos30

Thanks for the help. As of right now, let me plan with around 8 days, with a budget of about three to four thousand estimated total for total flight and hotel stay. I currently don't have a budget for food or travel since I realize that everything depends on personal preference. I would like to be able to travel between cities using the train, other than using a car for my travel but that can always change.
I would like to focus on a good amount of sight seeing (history, arch., art) with the larger areas; however, I would like to also see go somewhere romantic and peaceful ( or as peaceful as possible during a tourist season). I read one of the forum topics mention the Amalfi Coast. Again thanks for the help. Hope this answers your questions.

lramos30

Sorry, I forgot to mention that I currently live in the United States, San Antonio, Texas. Just in case anybody might need that information.

nessundorma

The Amalfi is expensive to get to and expensive to stay in. If you would like something peaceful and romantic, how about spending some days (in between Rome and Venice) on Lago di Como, or on the Ligurian or Tuscan coast? Would you be willing to go to a less famous but pretty destination, with easy train or ferry access to other towns?

lramos30

Thank you for the information about the coast. i am not set on any one location, and I am certainly flexible with city size and popularity depending on the location.

I am currently planning on using a jaw-open flight with about three night stay at Rome and Venice. I plan to schedule about one to two more days at locations that nessundorma mentioned or something similar. I also plan to travel between cities using the train. Again thank you for the help.

MFNYC

Do the 8 days include travel time? With that time frame, I'd focus on 2 cities/areas. Rome/Venice is a good suggestion.

I think airfare in June can run at least $1,000pp. That already blows about 1/2 your budget. A decent budget hotel will probably cost around $200/night (which usually includes breakfast). Venice is one of the pricier hotel cities. Smaller towns tend to be less. Hotels can cost much more than that, but if you plan well in advance, you can reserve a room at one of the better budget places.

Food doesn't have to cost a fortune. We ate very well, fairly inexpensively, although our last visit we were with our kids and didn't go to any 'fancy' restaurants.

You should start checking airfares as soon as they become available for June. There are occasional sales. If you catch one, you may get a really good deal. Hotels, you can always book and cancel if something better comes along (just make sure you understand the cancellation policy before you book anything). My ballpark for a Europe trip is to book 5-6 months in advance.

rosexmke

If price doesnt end up being a factor I would try and book into Venice and return from Rome. We just got back doing this trip and Venice is much more manageable compared to Rome when jet lagged. We rented an apartment in both Rome and Venice and could make our own breakfast have coffee, snacks etc. Train travel great and efficient and we arragned our tickets in advance on line and easily changed one of them the day of travel. Try these 2 sites for apartments - http://www.sleepinitaly.com and http://www.viewsonvenice.com A 4 day rate of 560 euros was recently quoted. Even if they say minimum 7 day rental you can always ask for less - we did and got it. Where ever you stay in Venice just know that you will be pulling/carrying your luggage to wherever you stay so its nice to be somewhat close to a waterbus or water taxi stop. We were about 4 blocks away and it was very manageable. If its 8 days total including travel days I would limit to 2 cities. Generally I would say a little longer in Rome than Venice, except that we really needed an extra day in Venice cause of jet lag. DO this yourself!! I did not at all have the luxury of time to travel our recent trip and everyone on this site made it a memorable adventure. The one thing you might want to think about is having a part day tour in Rome which also fodors posters can help with. Just post rome tours in the search section and tons of advice will come up. Also look at fodors.com 3 day schedules for each of the cities as a starting point.