dreamer320

I need a shove to get started again! We found a great airfare to FCO, but it was from IAD (two hours from here), and my husband was unsure of hiring a car to get us there and back (still would have been cheaper than flying from our home airport). Well, while we dithered, oil prices went up and the fare's gone.

Ever since, I've been so uncommitted to planning. Buy now? Wait a little to see if someone has a sale? Meanwhile, the clock's ticking, and I need to start making decisions!

This is a trip in mid-April for two weeks, well, 12 days on the ground. First week or so in Rome, then the remainder in Umbria. It looks like around Assisi may be the best place to base ourselves, based one where we want to go. I've started a Rome spreadsheet and an Umbria spreadsheet to help choose an apartment/hotel. And there's the car rental to think about, too.

No reason really to post this, except maybe to get myself in gear. Or maybe one of you have a crystal ball for airfare! Once I get back into trip-planning mode, I'll post our draft itinerary for suggestions.

Send trip-planning vibes my way, please!

Michel_Paris

I have flown to Europe a couple of times from an airport that is ~2 hrs from the house (and in a different country). I am willing to make that effort if I can save money. I drive and park in long term parking. Bonus is that the airport is smaller than my home town one, so secutiy and boarding are immensely faster.

So...I would book your plane fare now. Prices may go up they may go down, but that is hindsight not foresight. April is not far off, you are risking not getting a flight or, getting a flight and perhaps finding it harder to get accomodations. Book plane now, spend more time finding nicer accomodations. Flight is only one part of the equation.

Dayle

Dreamer - get yoursself in gear! You're late and procrastinating. No one has a crystal ball for airfare. I usually book hotels 8 months in advance so I can stay where I want as opposed to what's left.

There - does that help?

bfrac

Dreamer, get on it! Trip planning is fun. Seriously, what is your home airport? I am in MD and always fly out of PHL because the fares are better than IAD and of course no beltway traffic headaches. Is that possible for you? Oil prices are going to keep going up so act now in my opinion.

Lily

You've probably got post holiday dithers! Try reading your guidebooks again or re-reading some of the posts here about Rome and Umbria and looking at posted pictures. That should get you in the mood. And ask Aramis, the poster here who is offering assistance with finding airfares, to help. I get into a slump sometimes when planning a trip and just need a break then reading guidebooks and the posts here usually gets me going again!

dreamer320

Thanks, everyone! Hopefully this provides a kick in the butt for me to get cozy with my laptop and recliner this evening! One bright spot is that all of the accomodations that I've checked so far are pretty wide open (but I know that won't last for long!).

bfrac, I'm in Richmond, so I'm open to anywhere - I figure a cheap flight to Philly or NYC would be cheaper than flying out of RIC.

bfrac

Post again and let us know what you come up with.

RJD

In similar circumstances with a major airport exactly two hours from away, I have used rental cars at either end to get back and forth. Proved in my case to be the cheapest alternative.

It's hard to predict airfares. Try often; you could get lucky. While I don't much like IAD, it does have a lot of flights and direct is so much better than changing planes.

RJD

Where's my secretary to keep me from typos.

lovisa

Where I live in Los Angeles, a lot of airport hotels have "park and fly" specials to fill up their rooms. So for the price of one nights lodging, you can usually get free parking for 2 weeks, often less than you would pay to park the car. When I google "Dulles Airport Hotel Park and Fly" I see a bunch of offers, so maybe that would work for you out of Dulles.