10 Day Trip to Italy - Budget

[Arsenal1982]

For those of you who have done a 10 day trip (or around that length) to Italy, what did you end up spending? You can exclude airfare from the equation.

It would be 2 adults on my trip.

 

[Tozzie]

For those of you who have done a 10 day trip (or around that length) to Italy, what did you end up spending? You can exclude airfare from the equation.

It would be 2 adults on my trip.

Where are you going in Italy, where you are going and what you want to visit will have alot to do with the budget.

 

[Arsenal1982]

Where are you going in Italy, where you are going and what you want to visit will have alot to do with the budget.

Thinking early October 2014.. Start in Venice, and work my day down to Rome.

 

[Janepod]

Over $10K for three people but we lived large -- Hassler Hotel in Rome, Hotel Concordia in Venice, lots of cabs instead of public transportation.

My general rule of thumb is $300/night for hotel, $100/person/day food (certainly you can spend less, but when in Rome ...), $15/person/day transportation and $30/person/day for attractions. Obviously you can spend much less on a hotel but I find that around $300 you're getting a nice room in a good neighborhood, usually with breakfast included.

Enjoy your trip! Venice is my absolute favorite city.

 

[kidzmom3]

In my eperience for a a mid range vacation (not too cheap or too expensive)
hotel is usually between at least $160 to about $300 per night.
$30-$75 per person on dinner
to rent a car and put gas in you are talking big bucks
trains vary, probably about $35 a person between cities....maybe $15 public transport in the same city.
Venice....very pricey
I would probably budget $150 per person per day.

 

[lizabu]

Hotels are very expensive. You can rent someone apartment for much less. Trains in Europe are very good. The answers you are getting will be a little vague because we have no idea where you want to go and what you want to see based on your question.

This is a well known site for apartment rentals for vacationers

https://www.airbnb.com/s/italy?af=1...artment&G_P=&gclid=CLnliPG807gCFeoWMgodlgwAtA

 

[eliza61]

Very long time since I was in Italy but I've been planning a trip for 2015. Planning on keeping hotel around 250-280/ night range. Food at 125 a day.
What type of traveler are you? I'm budget conscious in RL so I like to go luxury on vacation.

 

[Arsenal1982]

Very long time since I was in Italy but I've been planning a trip for 2015. Planning on keeping hotel around 250-280/ night range. Food at 125 a day.
What type of traveler are you? I'm budget conscious in RL so I like to go luxury on vacation.

I'm more willing to spend money on food and activities than I am on the hotel. I'm hotel ratings obsessed so I will spend hours trying to find the most location convenient and clean place for the best price I can. I think I can find good places for under $200 per night (I'm very open to bed and breakfast type places). Those tend to be a little cheaper.

 

[Skippy918]

We went in 2006 for 2 weeks. I think we spent $3k. We found great hotels for reasonable prices. We did cheap lunches and nice dinners. It was a great trip.

 

[Agent7]

I traveled in Europe for three weeks and I was usually able to find clean and safe (my top two) accommodation for under $100 per night. Although I wasn't in the city center (I was on the island of Lido and not Venice, saved me so much money. I had to buy a boat pass but realistically you'll want to buy one anyway to get around Venice more quickly/take you back to the square when you get lost. I highly recommend buying your glass souvineers on Murano, it's the island where all the stuff you see on Venice is made and it's cheaper (especially if you wonder away from the boat dock). In other places I may have had a 10-20 minute walk to the city center. Now if location is your number 1 you're going to pay for it. Budget at least $200 or more per night. Especially in the more popular cities. Especially during peak times. Food in Italy I found to be really expensive (over $20 per meal). I actually went to the grocery store and made picnic lunches. I love going to grocery stores in other countries. Helps me understand the culture. Experiences can range from free (some museums sight seeing) to extremely expensive (gondola rides are roughly 80 euro an hour). Really I recommend a good travel guide with prices. Add them up and once you have a rough budget and several more hundred to that. I traveled fairly cheaply, but like I said I sometimes sacrificed location or bought some food from a grocery store.

I know this might not exactly answer your question but both the cities you named can be expensive and budget really depends your priorities and day to day travel plan.

 

[friend of pooh]

I know you said not to include airfare, but have you looked at airfare to Italy lately?

 

[Pakey]

We went in 2007 and spent $8000 excluding airfare for 2 adults. This did not include shopping. We stayed 15 nights and stayed in luxury hotels.

 

[Jeafl]

We just got back from spending a week in Venice a couple of weeks ago. Depending on how long you plan to stay in Venice I can highly reommend the flat we stayed in. It was built in the early 1600's but is totally modernized. it was on the corner of 2 canals and had unbelievable views from every window. It was a 10 minute walk to the Rialto bridge and markets, and a 15-minute walk to St. Mark's Square. It was only a 5-minute walk to the Vaporeto stop on the Grand Canal. We absolutely loved it and it was less than $160 a night for 5 people. I can send you the link if you are interested.

We bought the Vaporetto (water bus) passes ahead of time on the website veniceconnected.com. There is lots of info there about transportation, prices and other things of interest in Venice. Most of the better museums, as well as St. Mark's Cathedral have fairly steep entry fees, so plan on spending a good chunk of.money if you want to see those.

We walked the entire city several times and saw pretty much everything, so if you have any questions let me know. I would be more than happy to help you. One thing you should count on in Italy is spending a lot on food. It is FAR from cheap although we found a couple of great places to eat in Venice that weren't too bad. One thing you have to have that was surprisingly cheap is Gelato. Unbelievably good stuff!

One thing you should buy in Venice or Rome are the fantastic watercolor street scene paintings done by area artists. They are gorgeous and very cheap!

 

[Arsenal1982]

I know you said not to include airfare, but have you looked at airfare to Italy lately?

Haha yea it's expensive but it's not something I can control. It will be what it will be. Things I can control include money spent on food, hotels, activities, etc.

 

[shortbun]

Take a look at Steves' recommends for hotels. Call for a reservation because Italian hotels are infamous for not responding to emails and letters. Just get up early one morning and make your calls. Food is NOT the item to cut expenses on in Italy. Italy IS food and you must enjoy it while there or you might as well go someplace else. There are lots of small and less expensive hotels that have some charm but they are not cheap but you don't have to stay in the Hassler to enjoy Rome...lol, it couldn't hurt though.

 

[lolainkent]

Take a look at Steves' recommends for hotels. Call for a reservation because Italian hotels are infamous for not responding to emails and letters. Just get up early one morning and make your calls. Food is NOT the item to cut expenses on in Italy. Italy IS food and you must enjoy it while there or you might as well go someplace else. There are lots of small and less expensive hotels that have some charm but they are not cheap but you don't have to stay in the Hassler to enjoy Rome...lol, it couldn't hurt though.

I agree that food is a big part of Italy, but it doesn't have to be really expensive. Last time I was in Rome (2009), my friend and I looked at a few menus right at Trevi Fountain and the price for a bowl of pasta was 20euro or thereabouts; go up a side street, and the same thing will cost 7euro. I found the same thing in Venice this past May.

OP, your budget will depend on what kind of traveller you are. I was in venice for 3 nights/4 days in May and spent the bulk of my money on museum/galleries/sights. When I did a day trip to Verona I chose to take the urban train line as opposed to the high speed, which saved me 30 or 40 Euro. I use booking.com for all my reservations, rarely booking anything below or above a 3*. So I could have gone cheaper (hotels, 2*) or more expensive but neither is me. Good luck, Italy is one of my favourite countries - I keep going back to discover new places!

 

[cbg1027]

When I went in 2008 for 16 days, it was around $4000, including airfare and my shopping.

I only stayed in hotels under €100 per night and was splitting that cost with a friend. Our hotels were lovely though - not fancy, but we only stayed in locally owned places with character. The sort of place where the person at the front desk is the owner.

We ate well and cheaper than I thought we would. I found most of the places we ate to be very reasonably priced. We used a lot of the recommendations from Rick Steves Italy tour book.

 

[ZephyrHawk]

Hmmm...that's hard to say. We had a train pass, but it was partially for use in France as well, and I'm not sure I could mentally split up the price between the two contries. Well, it was something like $900 total. Anyways, the hotels averaged out to about $200 per night. Some were pretty cheap, but then Venice was not. If you stay anywhere on the islands in Venice be prepared to get screwed by hoteliers. Food was more expensive than in France; probably averaging out to $20 a meal (all our hotels included breakfast, which was nice). We got museum/attraction passes for most of the major cities we went to - those were between $45 and $75 per person depending on the length of the pass and what it covered. Then there were some things (not many) that we had to pay out of pocket to see.

 

[CKBear]

My Mom and I went for 2 weeks in Italy in September 2005 and we spent about $2000 each for lodging, food and transportation.

 

[TheAviator]

Just an FYI make sure you check out Pompeii, very cool.