GeriD

My husband and I are taking our first (and very likely our last) trip to Italy - so I really want to get it right. We'd like to travel at the end of April for about 10 - 12 days. I'd love to spend some time driving around Tuscany, visiting Florence and Assisi, then head over to Amalfi Coast and Naples for a few days. After trying to piece it all together, I finally decided to try reaching out to a travel adviser. I spoke with someone at Audley Travel and they said it was very do-able and are putting together an itinerary for us. The adviser said he would take care of everything: hotels, transfers, driver/guide, etc. As wonderful as this sounds to me, I was a little taken aback by the price. He said it would probably be about $13,000 (including airfare). Does this sound reasonable? astronomical? I have no idea. But I realize I can't plan this on my own. There are too many moving parts and I don't have the head for it all. Has anyone ever used them? Or know of them? Any other recommendations for a travel adviser? I've saved up for a very long time for this vacation so, if I have to spend this much for my trip of a lifetime, I'm willing to do so. I just don't want to make a mistake. Would appreciate any advice.

Travel_Nerd

Most of us here DO plan our trips without the use of a travel agent and within "modest" budgets.

Nope, have not heard of the agency you refer to - seems to be a local company to your personal local area (Boston?). And yes, their price seems astronomical to me - I have personally planned 14 day trips to Europe multilple times (on my own) with airfare and they average to be about $3000 per trip.

But what is astronomical to me may not be the same as it is to you... It all depends on what kind of accomodation you want (luxury? moderate?) or what airfare class you would prefer (first class? economy?)? Preferring first class airfare with luxury lodging drives the cost; and, could easily drive the cost to be $13,000 for two people. But if that's the trip you want, that's the trip you want.

Be mindful that travel agents do charge commissions for their services. You are paying them to do something that you can actually do on your own. Does it require lots of time? Yes. Does it require lots of research (guidebooks, internet, etc.)? Yes. But it's perfectly do-able. There are probably hundreds of participants on this forum that do this at least once a year that have helped first-time planners plan their trips. This really is not hard as you are making it out to be, in my opinion. Actually, I personally find the planning, researching and sleuthing to be the fun part.

And, you already have half the battle won: you already know where you want to go. So many people post on here, "I want to go to Italy. Where should I go?" Without offering why they want to go to Italy or their interests.

But it's up to you. It is YOUR trip after all.

Travel_Nerd

Geri, I see that you have planned trips around the United States. Traveling to Europe really is no different than traveling around the United States.You would plan your itinerary in the same manner. Start with an initial draft and make cuts dependent on your time and so on. You traveled to a somewhat complicated area in North/Central California - an area with a lot to offer and LOTS more traffic (I'm from the area). You can do this!

kja

I don't know that travel agent either, but agree that you should be able to plan your own trip.

• I'd urge you to get a good guidebook or two, perhaps the Rough Guide or Lonely Planet. The cost will be nominal in comparison to the cost of your trip, you will have a wealth of information at your fingertips, and you will find answers to questions you don't even know to ask.
• Use something like skyscanner.net to identify flight options. Consider flying into one city and out of another ("open jaw", use the "multi-city" option on flight search engines).
• Find lodging through booking.com; look at the reviews there and perhaps on tripadviser, too
• For transportation options for your time in Europe, consult rome2rio.com -- just be sure to click through to the underlying links, as the main web page doesn't reflect seasonal variation in schedules.
• Read trip reports and planning threads here on Fodors.
• Feel free to ask us questions.

greg

First, you need to state the duration in terms of nights in Italy. When people post duration in days, they often double count days. Counting in days is ambiguous.

>>> so I really want to get it right.
>>> I just don't want to make a mistake.
I think this thinking would lead you to a dysfunctional itinerary. Thinking there is a “right” way would have you chase something that probably does not exist or end up following someone’s idea of that is “right” including something that generates a lot of commissions. How does that compare to, for example, an itinerary satisfying your key objectives within your constraints? Do you want satisfaction or being right?

>>> He said it would probably be about $13,000 (including airfare). Does this sound reasonable?
This is ambiguous. What kind of airline and the class of service and the type of accommodations are you looking at? If you are flying business class on a major airline, not budget, and staying at top palazzo hotels and have you driven around by a driver, this price tag may not be astronomical. If you are flying economy or a budget carrier and staying at economical accommodations, the price tag seems astronomical.

>>> But I realize I can't plan this on my own. There are too many moving parts and I don't have the head for it all.
At least you are ahead of many many (clueless) people who come here asking: where to do? What to do? You have some ideas. You mentioned five items so far. Even under the most optimistic interpretation of “10-12 days”, whatever that means in nights, you don’t have time. You have too many destinations. If you try to follow some “rule” or have someone do this for you, you can “hit” these destinations as pass-by. If you don’t like this, you need to do value judgment. Even with an adviser, you still need to do this if you want to end up with a trip you were glad you did instead of kicking yourself relying on someone else’s itinerary without validating each proposed item.

Unfortunately, the time is not on your side. You only have about 3 months to your trip assuming “April” means April, 2019. Please keep in mind that the April 21, 2019 is Easter. If your travel around this time, the accommodations availability, the transport seat availability, and cathedral visiting hours would be different. April 22 and 25 are national holidays you need to double check open hours. I have seen Travel agents/advisers not doing thorough job in checking schedule changes during this time.

KayF

I understand that it seems overwhelming. I've planned loads of overseas trips for my husband and I and it nearly always starts out overwhelming. Once it starts coming together you feel this big sigh of relief. You could plan it yourself, you need to ask lots of questions, here on Fodors or Trip Advisor or another forum before you book anything. Also I agree that you have too many places on your list, think about what you'd put at the top of your list and go with that. You can't see everything, even if you had a year, but you can really enjoy what you do see. Is history more important than beautiful views? Are small villages more important or churches? You could put a draft daily itinerary on here for people to help with (e.g. Day 1 arrive Rome, overnight Rome, Day 2 etc.)

As a general rule, I think about where we need to fly in and out of (might not be the same airport) then book that. Next book accommodation, then transport (trains, car hire, whatever). We travelled for five weeks on trains in Italy and at the time were not used to public transport and we found it fairly easy. You do need to read up on things and do some research. The website https://www.seat61.com/ is fantastic for all you need to know.

You will put a lot more care and thought into your own itinerary and bookings that an agent ever will.

Kay

bilboburgler

Great advice above, the guys and gals here help on trips like this all the time. Logically the simplest itin would be fly into Rome, local train into the city, sleep over in Rome (various options in Rome to see), train to Florence, pick up car, use "auto Europe" (taking care to avoid the expensive anti-visiting car zone), visit St Gim, Siena, Montepulciano etc. Stay in an Agriturismo to meet the real Italy. Dump car at Chiusi and train through to Naples etc etc.

ToujoursVoyager

Oh! Please do try to plan it on your own. With 13,000$ you could 3-4 trips to Italy instead of 1. If after trying to piece it together, you still feel overwhelmed, then ask another travel agent for comparison.

You have gotten some great advice already. Take a calendar and plot day of arrival, date of departure, and the places you are spending the night. Hotels can be booked on booking.com; your flight should be into one city and out of another one. Once in Italy you can hire a driver, join day tours, use the train.

whitehall

Some prefer printed travel guides, but the internet is also full of digital travel guides that should provide more information than you will ever need. Begin by googling such things as “Tuscany travel guide” and “Amalfi travel guide”. Then drill down on specific areas of interest. maybe one day in Assisi or one week in Tuscany or three days or one week on Amalfi coast. If you plan to drive, google driving in Italy and you will find all sorts of tips about such things as ZTL limitations and the like.

Once you create your initial itinerary, this forum is a great place to get some additional ideas. The travel advisors here will do better for you for free.

We prefer to use airbnb so we can have full apartments, generally more space for less cost than hotels. It also allows you to prepare some meals at home and perhaps take advantage of some of the wonderful fresh produce from the local food markets. And, it's easy and safe.

As for costs, airfare can be a big one, and if you are in Boston, there have been some great international deals lately. Look at discounters Norwegian Air and WOW, for example. Try google flights; they present lowest rates for each date on their calendar. If you use skyscanner, you can type in destinations like “Everywhere” or Italy and see a whole range of places by lowest price. You might consider flying somewhere in Europe other than Italy to save money. Paris is often dramatically cheaper than Rome. And, discount airlines can often get you from there to Italian airports for the price of one meal out.

Auto Europe is the best bet for your rental car for Tuscany. They are a broker, but their rates on say Hertz often are less than going direct to Hertz, and their full insurance fees also can be dramatically less. They are a Maine-based company that gets high marks for service. You will not need a car on the Amalfi coast. If you have a smart phone, download offline google maps that can save you GPS fees and will work well even when you are walking in a village.

isabel

As you can see from the responses so far, people here LOVE to plan trips to Europe and you will get more support and advice than you could image to help you plan it yourself. There are so many great internet sites that planning trips is much easier than it was years ago (when travel agents were actually useful/necessary). But you really only need a few - booking.com for accommodations, autoeurope.com if you want to rent a car, a map site like google maps or viamichelin.com And a few good guidebooks. If you tell us what airport you'd being flying out of we can advise on airlines.

I would definitely avoid Easter though so that would mean the last week in April and into early May (great time) or early April.

Is your "10-12 days" because that's all you can get away for - or you think that's all you want - (obviously it's not for financial reasons as you can travel for months on $13,000)? Because if you could add a few days it would make for a better trip to those two regions. For one thing, the 'agony' of travel from the US to Europe is the same whether you stay 10 days or 20 days and the ratio of time there vs time getting there is better. Lots of us do month or longer trips and I'm not suggesting that for a first timer but with those extra few days you have more time to relax and just enjoy 'being there' with less feeling that you need to be 'seeing something' every day.

One example of an itinerary would be - fly to Florence, spend 3 or 4 nights (for some people - not all - the first day or two you are jet lagged and don't want to be doing full out sightseeing). I would do four nights and one day do a day trip to Siena (very easy by bus). Then as you leave Florence rent a car to 'drive around Tuscany' for 3 or 4 days. I say this cause you included that in your post. Personally, I would not rent a car on my first trip to Europe. It's perfectly doable but I don't like the hassle of parking, getting lost, worrying about driving into 'no drive zones' (which virtually every Italian town has). For this portion of the trip I would actually spend 4 or 5 days in Florence and do a couple of organized day trips to the Tuscan hill towns. Then move on to Siena for another 2-3 days. Siena is larger than other 'hill towns' but it IS a hill town and it's lovely and has some great views from walks around the outskirts, but also very interesting medieval center. But all in at least a week in Tuscany (Florence is IN Tuscany).

Then train to the Amalfi Coast and pick one or two bases there for another week. So between a travel day at each end and one spent getting between the two regions that would mean you need about two and a half weeks. No interest in Rome at all? If so, I would add about 3 days at the end for that, flying out of Rome. If don't want any Rome time you could probably fly out of Naples.

Have a look at my Italy photos - https://andiamo.zenfolio.com/f739967755

ToujoursVoyager

For example
Day 1: flight USA to Rome. (Red eye)
Day 2: arrival in Rome; train to Florence. Ask your hotel to pick you up. 3 nights in Florence.

Day 5 Rent a car: select a base in Tuscany. Explore Tuscany. Night 5-7

Day 8 Return car. Train to Naples. Have driver pick you up and drive to to your town on the Amalfi Coast. (Positano/Ravello/etc..).

Night 8-11: Amalfi coast

Day 12: fly back to USA preferably from Naples.

That is just one example. Of course tailor it to your needs.

whitehall

Here are some reasonable potential costs for 2 persons:

Airfare $750-2,000
(Right now Norwegian, for example, has a rate of $372 per person from Boston to Rome late April return early May)

Rail, Taxi, Bus (Amalfi) & Ferry (Capri): $300-500 Rail in Italy is very inexpensive

Rental Car (assume one week in Tuscany) $200-500 includes gas (if you have a car, IMO base yourself elsewhere than Florence)

Lodging $100-200 depending on your needs and expectations; we often find very nice apartments for $80-120 per night all over Italy (Total $1200-2400 for 12 nights)

Meals ($100-150 per day is more than we typically spend) (Total $1200-1800)

Attractions, museums: $100-200

Total cost $3750-7400 for two persons

PalenQ

Yes train to Naples or Salerno and take car transfer or public transit to an Amalfi base like Positanto or Amalfi two favorites with folks here. And yes fly home from Naples - book trains very early for discounted fares - at www.trenitalia.com and www.trenoitalia.com - two competing railway companies using similar trains and same tracks and stations - easy to book own tickets online - no need for travel agent who most likely will book full fare tickets but again you can book your own trains - www.seat61.com has loads on doing that yourselves - general info like 1st v 2nd class also www.ricksteves.com and BETS-European Rail Experts.

Kathie

The only Audley Travel I am aware of if a very expensive agency in the UK. You don't need them.

I suggest you pause and consider what you want to do/see in Italy and use that as a guide to how much time you will need. I agree with the poster baove who said that for the places you listed, you would need at least 2.5 weeks. If you can make it three weeks, you can add another stop. In my experience, the international flights are the single largest expense, so if you can add more time, it will be well worth it. Read some of the many trip reports here. Go to the top of this page where there is a stop-down menu saying "view by country" and choose Italy. It will list all recent posts about Italy. If the title of a thread has a little airplane next to it, that designates a trip report.

For me, the planning is one of the best parts of each trip!

historytraveler

You have received some good suggestions but you really need to decide what you want tot do and what you feel capable of doing. It's apparent that most of us here at Fodor's plan our own trips and enjoy doing so but I know some people much prefer to have a travel agent arrange their trips and that's fine too. Nothing wrong with it just make sure you work with a good agent. Since no one here seems to be familiar with Audley Travel, I suggest you do a little research to see what certification they have and check them out on BBB and try to get some reviews. We all travel with different budgets so unless I could actually see a breakdown of pricing rather than assuming I know, it's impossible to state whether it's outrageous or not. I would ask the agency for a breakdown in pricing airline tickets, hotels, transportation etc. If the chauffeured driver is driving you through out the trip this is a real luxury and will be pricey. If that service is only for tours around the city or town you are visiting then it's a cost you can certainly avoid as all cities you mentioned have local guides and tours which will be far less expensive. If the $13,000 is over your intended budget, simply tell the agent the amount you feel more comfortable with. All travel agents will work with a budget given to them by a client. They likely offered you their most expensive option. A travel agent can book your hotels in the places you want to visit but you can determine what you wan to see and do while visiting.

While I agree that for those of us who have planned our own trips it can seem easy. I've been doing it for over 30 years but that doesn't mean it was easy the first time.So I beg to differ with those who claim it is easy. It is certainly doable and if inclined to do your own planning then go for it. It will require some research which can be time consuming and with only about 3 month until your trip, time will be a factor. You will need to make some decisions pretty soon. There are, of course, many here who can offer helpful advice but there will likely be several different opinions as to best itinerary, best rental car company etc. If traveling by public transportation then you will need to familiarize yourself with train schedules too. We can suggest websites that will help you with that but we can't book them for you. A question you need to ask yourself is whether you would find a variety of suggestions helpful or frustrating and whether or not you want to take responsibility for figuring out train schedules which is not all that difficult but can be a bit challenging the first time.

In short whether you go with a travel agent or book on your own it has to be your decision and one which you feel most comfortable with. We are here to help if you decide to do it yourself.

GeriD

Thanks to all for taking the time to respond to my post. In response to yours: I am not looking for first class travel or luxury accommodations and as much as I would like to plan this trip, as TravelNerd stated, it requires lots of time and lots of research. Unfortunately, I do not have the luxury of free time. ( A young child with special needs has been placed in my care and I'm lucky if I get a few hours of uninterrupted sleep...and a few minutes during the day to myself - let alone hours on end to research a vacation. ) I will be getting two weeks of respite at the end of April/beginning of May. This will be my only opportunity to travel. So time is really of the essence. And Greg, forgive my ambiguity. I'm assuming 10-12 days is comparable to 9-11 nights - but apparently, I'm not well versed in travel language. Sorry if I confused you. And by "getting it right", I only meant that I don't want to make any mistakes, miss a connection, get lost or find myself in some godforsaken place where no one speaks my language. And thank you for putting me ahead of the "many, many clueless people who come here". Very kind of you. Thank you Whitehall, Kay, PalenQ, Kathie and Isabel for your helpful feedback and advice. Isabel, your pictures are stunning! ToujoursVoyager, I appreciate the sample itinerary. Even if I do use an adviser, I could use this as a template. And Whitehall...your list of potential costs is a great resource. And historytravel...bless your heart! You sound like a very kind and understanding person. Thank you. I'll keep you posted.

Travel_Nerd

Even with someone planning this for you, this still can happen, sorry. Maybe a tour would be your best bet and that does not necessarily have to be planned via a travel adviser or travel agent and then you would be transferred from spot to spot. There are many options for this: Gate1, Perillo Tours, Viking River Cruises, GoAhead Travel, to name a few. The drawback to this is you're at the mercy of someone else's plan, someone else's idea of what should be included, etc. But it is "stress free."

I apparently was WAY off base in my response to your initial post and you took offense to that (by the way, based on your description and my personal experience and without having the details of your personal situation) and I am sorry. I was merely trying to help and encourage.

But, since this is going to be your "last" trip, I hope it's a good one and allows you the rest you deserve. Good luck and have fun.

kja

I hope you find a way to take your trip in a way that provides a memorable respite from the challenges you are facing.

GeriD

Thank you, TravelNerd, for your very gracious reply. And I am sorry that I took offense so easily. I suppose I'm overly sensitive these days. I really DO need a vacation Thanks also for your encouragement. I realize you were just trying to be of help. I wish you well in all your travels.

isabel

I personally hate tour groups but in some cases they can be the best bet. Try Rick Steves, they tend to be smaller and more emphasis on the 'culture' of the place. I have not been on any group tours but I have taken day tours (once you get there you just go for a day with a group to somewhere not easily done independently) and while I don't love them (I hate being herded around in large groups, being told how long I have somewhere, 'wasting' time in places I'm not interested in because they are on the tour, etc.) they do serve a purpose.

But the places you have chosen - Tuscany and the Amalfi Coast - are very easily done from just one base in each with day trips. That means just two hotels to book and only one 'travel day' when you would have to worry about transportation connections. Day trips can be taken or not taken once you get there and see how you feel each day. I would pick Florence and Sorrento. From Florence I'd suggest day trip to Siena (very easy by bus) and Pisa/Lucca (very easy by train) and one or two organized day trips to vineyards or small Tuscan towns. The thing that would be stressful and a bit time consuming to do on your own would be driving around Tuscany. That's where you'd need to do research and worry about getting lost. You could even hire a driver for a day to take you where you wanted to go. For the Amalfi Coast I'd choose Sorrento - day trips by bus/boat (or hired driver) to Amalfi, Positano, Capri, Pompeii, etc. Again, no more research or stress than having an agent plan it for you.

In April you can still get some rain so those bases allow you to be somewhere (Florence itself, Naples from Sorrento) where there are things to do in bad weather. A lot of people would prefer to stay in smaller, 'charming' villages in both those regions but those are the places that you'd need to research, and which could potentially result in getting lost or complicated connections (though probably not). But driving yourself is by far the most stressful and the part requiring you to do advance planning. It's not that bad, I've driven lots of time in Europe, but when I'm looking for the most stress free trip I would not rent a car. That's also really the only time when not knowing the language could be a problem. Sticking to the main tourist stuff most people speak English. Just learn how to say 'grazie'.

If you did just Florence and Sorrento you'd go to booking.com and choose a hotel in a central location in each town, book your flights into Florence/Pisa and out of Naples and buy a guide book to read on the plane. You really don't have to do anything else before you go. Yes you could save a bit booking the train between them ahead of time, but compared to $13,000 you are talking pennies. Just wait till you get there. Same thing for choosing the day trips.


Whatever you decide to do, have a great trip.