It's my first time in Italy. I don't speak the language so I am planning to book a vacation package (cosmos or Globus). Do you think it's a good idea? If not, do you have any suggestion?
Quinn - welcome to Slow Travel. As you will see if you look at our main Slow Travel pages this site is designed by and for those who are interested in travelling slowly, and usually independently. You can find a definition of what slow travel is here.
You may want to post your question on those travel boards where members are more familiar with group tours.
I also encourage you to spend some time browsing our main site and our forum pages, to get a sense of who we are, and how our members help each other plan independent travel.
Tourmama
Posts: 3899 | Location: Berkeley, CA | Registered: 22 March 2005
In Venice, Florence and Rome, you'll find many local people speak English.
For a group tour vs independent travel, it depends on what kind of traveler you are and what's important to you on this Italy trip. How have you traveled on your other holidays? In a tour group? Or on your own?
Do you relish researching and planning your trip, being a bit adventurous and seeing what unfolds before you on your trip? Independent travel is for you.
Would you rather leave the planning and research to someone else? Are you fine with following a group's itinerary which may be flexible or fixed? Would enjoy the companionship in a group? Group tours are for you.
Would you like a bit of both? Sometimes when I'm traveling alone, I hook up on a day tour or short group tour, so I get the best of both worlds.
Thank you so much for your useful and kind answer.
From your reply, I figured out that I want to plan my trip and don't want to follow a group's itinerary. Actually, I was looking for a package (air + hotel only), but got nervous after reading all kinds of negative writings about Rome... So, I thought I might get some help from the experts in here.
I read that people could spend a week alone just in the Vatican museum but since it's my very first trip to Italy, I want to get a glimpse of it so I know which place I want to come back and spend more times on it.
I've checked your site. It's great site! Staying with locals is a thing that I wish to do when traveling but, unfortunately, I am not into Italian cooking that much! :-(
How exciting that you will be visiting Italy! You absolutely will love it there! You are right about the Vatican Museums an spending a week in there - my degree is in Art History and Fine Arts, and I could live in that place! Grin!
If you would like to tell us some of your interests, I am sure that there are a bunch of people on the forum that could help you figure out how to pare down the huge quantities of places and activities available in each place.
Have you decided what time of year you want to go over? That will make some difference in what you may want to see and do...
Quinn, you've got a 9 day trip - does that include your travel days (i.e., are you arriving on the 20th, and departing on the 28th)? If so, I think you're probably moving around a bit too much.
Of course this is SlowTrav, so my first inclination would be to pick a city and plop there (and I'd suggest Rome for that but that's a personal thing). My second inclination would be to pick two cities at most for the duration.
My husband and I saw Rome, Florence and Venice as our first trip to Italy many years ago. It was great for seeing a little bit of each of these magnificent areas which we have since gone back and spent many weeks in each of these amazing cities! Language should not be a problem and if you are interested could even begin picking up Italian words & phrases in advance of your trip. I agree with Kim if your 9 day trip is including your travel days that you may want to pick 2 cities, for example fly into Rome spend 3 days, travel by train to Venice, spend 3 days and depart from Venice. You will certainly have some tiredness on arrival so remember that as well and not have a tour booked for your 1st morning in Italy! If you go that route, you could easily rent an apartment for the 3 days which is a much better experience in my opinion. We really relish the space and privacy an apartment gives you. Also love stopping at the markets and bakeries for food supplies! Whatever you decide, Italy is a great country and you will have memories to last a lifetime and know this: you will go back! I would highly recommend taking a tour in Rome - check out 3 millenium tours - Tony is excellent! (BTW: I am in no way related to 3 millenium - just my experience sending family & friends).
I'll agree with others - for maybe just 7 actual days, 3 locations is too many (you'll end up losing one of those days in travelling. packing, checking out etc.).
For a 1st trip, I'd strongly urge going to one place, but reserving the option for day trips.
For instance you could stay in Florence, but day trip to Siena, Lucca, Pisa or any number of places... and thus satisfying any 'sampling' needs. Crucial to this though, is that you don't have to commit to these day trips in advance. Thus if you're loving Florence, you might just slot in one or at most 2 day trips. If you're getting itchy feet, perhaps 3 or 4. This allows you to make the call when you're there and best placed to understand what's ideal. At the moment it's all a bit foreign
I will also ask why Rome, Venice and Florence? - Because 'everyone' goes there - Because everyone seems to tell you to go there - Because they're famous - Because the rest of Italy can't be as good as the famous places - Because they ideally suit what you're looking for from the holiday
I may have given a slight clue above, to the answer I always swear by
Is it history, art, architecture, wine, food, ambience, scenery, a sense of what Italian life is about, relaxation, stimulation, somewhere you've dreamt of going to since a young age, or something completely different that you're looking for? If you're able to say what excites you, then you might get some ideas of places to visit that will offer much of what you seek.
Sorry to be a little challenging - it's easy for folk like me to forget, after plenty of trips to Italy, that one's initial impressions of the country may be limited by what's presented in front of us in the media and elsewhere.
Anyway, whatever you decide on, I hope you have a stunning time!
regards
Ian
Drink coffee, do stupid things faster
Posts: 306 | Location: UK | Registered: 20 September 2008
In my first trip to Italy, I want to see the basic of North Italy (Rome, Florence and Venice) so I would know what I want to see for my next trip. I did some research and here what I came up with:
- 3 days in Rome: Take a hop-on tour for one day and Vatican for the next day. The 3rd day is for wandering around, people watching, coffee... Then off to Florence. - 3 days in Florence: Uffizzi, Mosaic or Bargello and one day trip to Pisa. - 3 days in Venice: museum, Basilica and glide along the canals.
However I am nervous about transportation. Is that easy to find way around? from airport to hotel, city to city? I came across raileurope.com and am thinking about buying their passes. Do you think it's a good idea?
Quinn, you might want to consider a package like this from go-today.com. They book your air fare, hotel, and rail travel for one flat price. I have used them for a trip to France, and my sister used them for Italy. Their price is reasonable, and when you are just starting out on European travel, it may be easier to have someone doing those bookings for you.
That particular package I linked to gives you 3 days each in Rome, Florence, and Venice. Once in each city, you are on your own to explore, although they do offer the option of tours at additional expense.
If you are traveling alone, there probably will be a single supplement added to the cost -- I believe what is shown is per person with double occupancy.
Quinn Very very rarely to rail passes make any saving - especially for just the 2 train journeys you'll have planned. Sometimes there are advance purchase savings (GAC has posted excellent guidelines here in the past).
The trains are generally easy to use, albeit with idiosyncracies that we get used to over time. I recall there's a useful guide to using the trains on the SlowTrav main site. The key thing to remember (and after many journeys I still struggle with) is to stamp your ticket in the yellow machines in the ticket hall or corridor to the platforms.
That said, do give some thought to the time you'll need - Packing suitcase - Checking out - Travelling to station (walking/bus/taxi) - Journey time of train - To bus/walk/taxi to next hotel - Checking In - Unpacking - Getting bearings
It's easy to lose half a day or more, which could have been spent seeing another sight, relaxing, strolling a market etc.
If you're still confident that you want to visit lots of places, then maybe the guided tour type operation would be the best option. It takes the hassle out of transfers, with hotels pre-paid making not just checking out easier, but also less hassle in booking & less papers needed. The tour guide is also a useful 'go to' person in case of uncertainty, issues, guidance etc.
Roz's suggestion offers a useful middle ground, removing legwork that's not too difficult for experienced travellers, but for a 1st time adds to the stress.
FWIW your plans for the days seem generally pretty sensible, leaving space to follow what takes your fancy. Plenty of amazing places in Rome not on your list, but great to see that you're not trying to cram them all in.
If you do indeed have 9 full days in Italy (by full I mean from arriving at the 1st hotel to leaving the last one), then it's slightly better, but still a bit of a race around. Also bear in mind that jetlag might seriously curtail waht you can achieve in the 1st few days.
I hope this helps
regards
Ian
Drink coffee, do stupid things faster
Posts: 306 | Location: UK | Registered: 20 September 2008
Roz, we did a tour like that with Central Holidays for our very first trip to Italy, and it also include orientation tours in each city. The only issue was the hotels were slightly off center, which wasn't a big deal in Florence and Venice since they're so walkable but in Rome, it added about 15 minutes of walking (each way) to our day.
As already mentioned it is not the trip most of us would take but then most on this board have traveled a lot! I know you realize it will be fast, but if you are set about the 3 cities it is not a bad start. Can you afford to make it one more day in each city? Both vacation time and expense?
The package linked looks reasonably priced, maybe they offer adding an other day to each place. It is really not to hard to figure out trains and booking hotels. The internet makes it easy. Show up at train station at scheduled time, you can print the ticket on Trenitalia all you need to do is ask which track. Just point to your schedule or ticket if you don't speak any Italian. Learn a few words it helps. Many or most websites are bilingual. Book,show up easy.JUST look at reviews here or elsewhere for hotel selection.
Beyond price in importance I think is travel style.Do you like to be on your own?, would you mind traveling with strangers? I would make sure the company runs tours for people in your age group. I have done a few trips to South america in groups but they were a highly specialized running tours, for us it fit our crazy lifestyle while for others running 120 miles while on vacation in harsh conditions would be hell. RR
It would be a complete waste of money to get rail passes for this trip. It appears to be hopeless to succeed in booking tickets online from Trenitalia before you're in Italy; once you're there you might be able to get a discounted 7-day advance purchase ticket for the Florence-Venice train. Aside from that, even if you buy tickets for the next train when you get to the station, there are so many trains that you shouldn't have problems getting seats; you may prefer to buy tickets a day early, or make one stop at a station or travel agency to get your Rome-Florence and Florence-Venice tickets.
You can look at schedules at the Italian rail site in English http://www.ferroviedellostato.it/homepage_en.html . Most trains listed are high-speed or AV trains, with high fares but with the thrill of going at up to 300 km/h. At a lower fare, you can find IC trains; beware that they mostly use peripheral stations in Florence. On the Rome-Florence trip, there are some R (Regionale) trains, with the lowest fare and not taking reservations.
On the R train (which you would surely take for the Florence-Pisa trip) you need to stamp your tickets before boarding, but you don't need to do it for tickets for other trains, designated for a specific train with seat assignments, although there's no harm in doing so.
I was so overwhelming with information on the net and had no where to ask for help. I'm so glad that I've found this forum.
As much as I'd like to reply to everyone who replied to my post, but I don't think I should. Yes Ian, there are so many things to see over there, but I don't want to cram them all in 9 full days. I only want to have a sample. And Kim, thanks for pointing it out, I will try to look for hotel which is near center.
I will book the hotel + air + transfer via the package Roz gave, and we'll see from there.
Don't worry, most of us on the board do not expect a solo reply. Our goal is to help you find what you'd like to do with your trip.
As mentioned, with only 9 days, you might want to drop one city and sample a little more of the flavor of Italy. Part of enjoying Italy, and it seems from you comments it is also what you like is just having a coffee and watching the world go by. To do what your plans are, won't leave you with a lot of time as you'll be packing/unpacking for 3 cities plus travel time between so you'll be down to just 7 days in touring.
If you fly to Roma, you can take the train shuttle into Termini station and to get to Firenze or Venezia, you can take the Eurostar trains from Termini. Both stations in any of the cities will drop you in the heart of the city.
I understand your desire to 'sample' the cities but you'll leave feeling you missed so much. We planned, on our first trip, 3 days in Venezia and left with only hitting a few highlights! We were just 'getting into' the city when we had to leave.
You can learn some really basic Italian from this site as well (thank you, hello, where's the bathroom, etc) that all will appreciate your efforts on the language but in those cities, English is spoken in most places, especially Roma.
When searching the Trenitalia site BTW for trains, you MUST use the Italian name of the city as I did in this response.
Buona viaggia!
Doug
Posts: 2262 | Location: Winter Park, FL | Registered: 18 May 2005
Note that you have several choices of hotels with the go-today packages -- at various prices. Often the cheapest ones are not in the best locations. So it is a good idea to google the hotels before you book, and depending on your budget, move up a notch or two from the lowest price.
If you have questions about any of the hotels or locations, this is a good place to ask.
