Too soon to book hotel?
 

Ok, I think we've decided on the itinerary below for our October honeymoon. It may be a bit much for some people, but it gives us the chance to see everything we want to see. Of course after all that work, we realized that there's a trade fair going on in Bologna for 3 of the 5 nights we're going to be there. Since we're mainly planning on using Bologna as a central base in E-R, I'm not too worried about their being too many people in the city, I'm more worried about finding a place to stay. I contacted Julie and Gabriella at Cosy House B&B and they have a room available for 95E per night. The reviews on TripAdvisor seem almost too good to be true, so I guess my question is ... is there any reason not to secure this room before our provisional booking expires in 48 hours? This is the first major trip we've taken, so I'm a little nervous to make the jump from dreaming and planning to setting things in stone, but it seems like affordable rooms in Bologna will be going quickly during our stay.

I'm sorry this is so long, thanks for your help!

Itinerary
Sunday 10/22 – Fly to Italy
Monday 10/23 – Land in Florence, pick up car & drive to San G; afternoon, evening in San G
Tuesday 10/24 – Day trip to Greve in Chianti, Verrazano winery, evening in San G
Wednesday 10/25 –Day trip Volterra/San G, evening in San G
Thursday 10/26 - Drive to Florence; day and night in Florence
Friday 10/27 – Half day in Florence, train to Bologna, night in Bologna
Saturday 10/28 – Bologna, night in Bologna
Sunday 10/29 – Ravenna, night in Bologna
Monday 10/30 – Early train to Parma, parmigiano tour, night in Bologna
Tueday 10/31 – Train to Rome, day and night in Rome
Wednesday 11/1 – Day in Rome, night in Rome
Thursday 11/2 – Fly home

There's nothing wrong with booking now, as long as it can be cancelled if something better comes along.

Honestly, I do think this trip look exhausting and half the time will be travelling and settling in new hotels. There's not much time to really take it all in. Is this your first time in Italy? 1 full day in Rome is a tease.

A honeymoon? Where is the relaxing? You don't want to travel like Clark Griswald. I just spent 3 days in Rome and it wasn't enough. Would slow it down a bit - enjoy wandering, and your new hubby...

We've been together for over 8 years, we know each other pretty well. When we travel to new places we like to see and do things. I understand that many people do not feel this way, but if we wanted to spend our time doing nothing we would have taken our honeymoon to a resort in Mexico and laid on the beach for a week. We're flexible people, if we're tired on the day that we had planned to spend hiking up the porticos in Bologna, we'll scrap that and spend the day sitting in the piazza eating gelato. I'm not worried about the itinerary, I'm just wondering if we'd be jumping the gun to start booking things now.

Never too early! Planned our September trip to Italy in January, and right now am planning our trip to France for this February. Already have all our hotel reservations. Have nothing to lose by doing it now, and you would certainly be upset if you waited and then tried to book a hotel you wanted but it was full. Just take a look at cancellation policy, and if something better comes along later, you can always take that and cancel what you have. I've certainly done that many times. Enjoy!

It's definitely not too early to book your hotel rooms as long as they have a decent cancellation policy. I booked all my rooms for Italy anywhere from a year to seven months before we left on our trip last year. It's exhilarating to make that first reservation. I didn't feel really committed until I made my airline reservations though.

Congrats on your upcoming marriage!

I'm of the opinion that if you find a hotel you like, go ahead and book it. I just booked a hotel for our vacation in November! I like the piece of mind of knowing that the hotels are booked. Only then do I start planning the actual itinerary of things to do in each area we are staying in. Most hotels have good cancellation policies if you give enough advanced notice. If you decide you don't want to stay there, you can always cancel and book somewhere else.

The itinerary does look somewhat hectic. My DH and I are both in our mid-twenties and do tend to travel faster than most. That being said, I do agree with the comment on Rome. I understand that you like to travel quickly, but you will miss so much in Rome. I don't think I would even bother going if I couldn't spend at least 2 or 3 full days there, as it just doesn't do it justice. It's your itinerary and you should do what makes you happy, but this is an advice board and you are getting some great advice from those of us who have been to Italy. Just something to think about.

Good luck!
Tracy

You can see and do things new and different everyday for a week in Rome easily.

<i>You can see and do things new and different everyday for a week in Rome easily.</i>

Very true. I could also see and do new things every day for a week here in Baltimore where I live, while saving myself the 8 hour plane ride.

This is my first time in Italy. Maybe I'm stupid for prioritizing seeing the off the beaten path stuff over the typical first time trip to see the Coliseum, Trevi Fountain, Vatican Museums and such, but we know that we will get ourselves back there in the future. For this trip we want to focus on stuff that not everyone bothers to see their first time.
I'm getting the opinion that we wouldn't be crazy to start booking things now, which is very exciting. We're quickly getting more excited about this trip than the actual wedding!

EmmaandPeter - It sounds like you know yourselves and have made your choices - it is not stupid! Congratulations for knowing what you want while being open to flexibility - that's a hard combination to master.

Book the B&amp;B as long as the cancellation policy is good. Enjoy your time in Italy and have a wonderful marriage.

Hey, your trip is more relaxed than my first trip to Italy with my parents, aunt, uncle and cousin back in 1960.

My father always had to be on the move--the enjoyable part of the trip for him was driving to a place. So we had 2 hours in Venice. Florence was a drive-thru--we stopped for a couple of minutes within sight of the Duomo while we all snapped photos thru the windows of the car. Then stopped in the park overlooking the city--he actually let us get out of the car for a few minutes to snap more photos.

At least we got 2 days in Rome--but he was pretty fidgity by the second morning.

It's a trip that yielded quite a few anecodotes--we camped, and he was also pretty cheap so some of our camping spots were a bit dodgey. Chief among the anecdotes were 1) the nude beach incident; 2) the angry teenage girl chasing her boyfriend with a knife; 3) the tent-collapsing cow; 4) brake job at the foot of the Brenner Pass; 5) lost in Rome; 6) flying canned goods in the trailer; 7) smuggled wine found out at the Austrian border.

It was fun, though we didn't really see many sights.

Dear E&amp;P,

This is not a honeymoon. It is a trek.

Every time you change accomodations you lose at least 1/2 day.

You are on your honeymoon and you are not going to Venice?

1.5 days in Rome?

You have 10 days. You should have no more than 3 destinations.

With all there is to see in Rome, Florence and Venice, why are you spending 4 nights in Bologna?

I seriously urge you to reconsider.

((I))

EmmaandPeter,

I have to ask: if you only wanted feedback on whether it is too early to book your hotels, why did you post your itinerary? Surely you must have thought it would elicit comments, no?

That said, IMO, it is never too early, especially if there is a decent cancellation policy.

I don't think it's too early to book hotels, provided you are not required to pay a non-refundable deposit. This way you can secure your first choice of accomodations within the budget you want to work with. Plus, it's great fun to do research ;)

For what it's worth, I really like your itinerary and think it's very doable. But that's probably because my honeymoon was a similarly paced affair - we didn't feel the need to work within the &quot;normal&quot; honeymoon parameters of relaxation, stress-free stay somewhere on the beach. In fact the whole wedding and honeymoon was an excuse to travel - had a destination wedding for the same reason :) We both remember that trip with utter fondness...

If you are going to Verrazano winery be sure and let them know you are on your honeymoon. We went there for our 25th wedding anniversary and they gave us a bottle of wine from the year we were married. I am sure they will do something special for your wedding. Also if you haven't sign up for their lunch. They said snacks and thank goodness I didn't eat anything beacause it was about 2 hours of snacks that I thought was a huge meal. We were there for about 5 hours and had costumed singers from Denmark preform as a bonus.

zozozo,

We're definately planning on signing up for the lunch, I've heard it's VERY good. Actually, it's one of the reasons we chose that winery.

EmmaandPeter, you must be planning to return to Italy, as with this itinerary, it appears you are going for the &quot;sampling italy&quot; tour.

RufusTfirefly-that is a trip report I would love to read!

viaggio,

I have two files going; one of things we're doing this trip, the other of things for our next trip. Unfortunately, we're only in our mid-twenties (well, that's not so unfortunate), and have a scary amount of student loan debt between us. We know that this trip will leave us desparately hungry for more, but don't see the point in not going at all simply because we can not afford our dream trip.

EmmaandPeter - Absolutely! It is much better to have gone on a budget that to have not gone at all. You will love Italy and definitely plan on going back...even if it takes a while. We went last year and I know it will be many years before we get to go back (because I also want to go to Hawaii and Paris and London and Switzerland...), but that doesn't mean I'm not already planning what our next itinerary to Italy will be, lol!