How much spending money to take on Viva Italia trip?

[Bethshaya]

We are looking into taking the trip for next year and are wondering about how much others have spent on non-included expenses such as dinners/lunches out, spending etc?

We're not sure how much (in $US) we need to take with us.

Can anyone give us a good range for a family of 3? (3 adults). We aren't drinkers or frilly eaters, but we aren't sandwiches/burgers every night either. I figure on the out nights, a nice trattoria or sit down place, not too expensive, but not cheap either.

We're not much on souvenirs either. So most of the spending will be on tips, food and excursions.

 

[tinkerbell10309]

We were on the Viva Italia trip last month - for lunch we would always grabbed something to eat as we were walking aournd . You can spend as little as 3 euros for a slice of plain pizza and about 7 euros for a pannini sandwich. Bottled water at most places was 2 euros and soda was 3-4 euros. Gelato was about 3 euros. Prices may vary depending on where you stop.

Dinner we ate at various restaurants - most of the places we ate had a sign stating that they did not charge a cover charge (from what I gathered it is common in Italy for food establishments to charge a coverage charge per person for table service). Also, there is no need to leave a tip - the waiters are paid differently than in the US. We left a small additional tip when we found the staff to be attentive to us. So when you see the price of something just remember you don't have to leave a gratuity on top of it. Most main courses, that we had, averaged 20-25 euros - depending on what you ordered. We are not big eaters so our group of 8 would order a few appetizers to share. The restaurants serve everything from pizza to fish - so there is a wide range in prices. The restaurants have menus outside with prices so you can see what they are offering before you enter.

You have 3 lunches and 4 dinners on you own. Hope this info helps

 

[Diskidatheart]

You will not need much US$ while in Italy unless you want to tip your guides in US$ which is what we did. You can use the ATM machines in Italy to get Euros and you will probably get the best exchange rate that way. We also used our credit card for many dinner purchases and large souvenir purchases (like our leather jackets in Florence). Your credit card will be the best exchange rate out of anything, but depending on your CC company, you could be charged a service fee for each transaction, but I think it's still a better rate than you can get at your local bank (even with the fee). Food and beverage prices are not cheap in Italy. A coke at the hotels will cost you about 4 Euros, which was about $5 US at the time. Our dinners cost us around $40-$50 US per person, but we would have a glass of wine with dinner as well (although wine can be inexpensive in Italy). Hope that helps some.

 

[Bethshaya]

You will not need much US$ while in Italy unless you want to tip your guides in US$ which is what we did. You can use the ATM machines in Italy to get Euros and you will probably get the best exchange rate that way. We also used our credit card for many dinner purchases and large souvenir purchases (like our leather jackets in Florence). Your credit card will be the best exchange rate out of anything, but depending on your CC company, you could be charged a service fee for each transaction, but I think it's still a better rate than you can get at your local bank (even with the fee). Food and beverage prices are not cheap in Italy. A coke at the hotels will cost you about 4 Euros, which was about $5 US at the time. Our dinners cost us around $40-$50 US per person, but we would have a glass of wine with dinner as well (although wine can be inexpensive in Italy). Hope that helps some.

Just trying to get an idea of how much in Euro to bring, but using US dollars as a reference (because I have to save it).

Did you spend $2000, $3000, $6,000...or more for the trip on things not included in the price?

Don't want to book the trip without knowing ahead of time how much extra I am going to spend on top of the price.

So if there are 7 "free time" meals that I need to plan for, at estimated $50 each for 5 people (over estimating), that is about $1000 US. Then to plan for shopping and other spending, I'm thinking on bringing about $4,000 total before exchanging it before I leave. Too much? Too little?

While I've been to Italy a number of times, I haven't been recently and never on a tour.

 

[tinkerbell10309]

Beth $4000 US spending money for 5 people should be enough. We went through $5000 US for the 8 adults. This included the tip for the guides, all meals and inexpensive (under $75 euros) souvenirs. We are not souvenir type people - there is only so much room to display stuff. We mostly purchased postcards, books, silk scarves, trinkets and magnets - the largest purchase I made was a leather bag. Any costly purchases by our group, mainly jewelery, was charged by the person making the purchase. None of us purchased a leather coat or Murano glass.

The only sight seeing we did on our own that we had to pay for was the Bell Towers in Oriveto and Venice and the Santa Croce Church in Florence - they cost about 5 or 8 euros each to do.

As I mentioned early the cost of meals varies. Appetizers were 10-20 euros each, dinner prices can vary from 18 euros for risotto to 35 euros for fish. Some dinners included salad while other didn't. Bottle of wine was about 25 euros - beer wasn't too expensive (5-7 euros) considering mixed drinks were about 15 euros. So dinner for the 8 of us varied from 250-300 euros per meal at a mid priced restaurant.

We didn't eat lunch in a table service restaurant but opted for places where you get your food and sit down - we mostly had pizza or panni's for lunch - this usually ran no more than 10 euros per person. We prefer this type of service while on vacation since sitting down and waiting for service takes too long (hey we're New Yorkers we are always in a rush LOL)- we rather use the time to explore than waiting to eat.

Most snacks (gelato, pastries and fruit cups) were 3 - 5 euros.

You don't have to budget for tipping your drivers, local tour guides or hotel staff - that is already included in the price of the tour - it was nice that none of these people ever lingered around expecting a tip. The tips for our Disney guides for the 8 of us came out of the $5000.

So to answer you questions budgeting $4000 for the 5 of you should be more than enough to get you through the tour. I rather budget at the high end and come home with extra funds than budget at the low end.

 

[Diskidatheart]

To be honest, we didn't bring that much cash with us. We may have brought a total of $1,000 for 2 of us and some of that was to tip our guides. I may have brought about $700 Euros for Misc things, but I used my CC the majority of the time (such as for our leather jackets, dinners on our own, pottery purchased in Orvieto). Our lunches, snacks, wine, etc I used the Euros and pretty much used them all up by the end of the trip. I think I actually had 50-100 Euros left that I had to exchange back to US when I got home.

 

[Bethshaya]

To be honest, we didn't bring that much cash with us. We may have brought a total of $1,000 for 2 of us and some of that was to tip our guides. I may have brought about $700 Euros for Misc things, but I used my CC the majority of the time (such as for our leather jackets, dinners on our own, pottery purchased in Orvieto). Our lunches, snacks, wine, etc I used the Euros and pretty much used them all up by the end of the trip. I think I actually had 50-100 Euros left that I had to exchange back to US when I got home.

Thats why we plan. We don't own any credit cards, so we pay cash or use debit cards for everything. Being debt free has its advantages and disadvantages, I guess.

We're not big chatchy thing people, so the things we buy would be perhaps a scarf, or a wallet, or something practical.

None of us drink much, and none of us drink wine or beer, so that would save us some.

Thanks for the estimates guys. Made me feel better knowing the planned amount was on track with what others have spent.

 

[beachcat]

Hello Bethshaya

I just completed Viva Italia on 10-21. Patti and I had a total of 1050 euros cash for the trip and spent 1015 euros. 500 euros per person should be plenty if you are not planning any major purchases.

Hope this is what you are looking for.


Richard