2 weeks in Italy - cost Q

[origami]

I’m planning a trip to Italy next year in July. I know that timing is not ideal, but it’s by far the easiest with work. We have up to 2 weeks including air travel. It’ll be 2 adults + 2 pre-teens. I’ve been to Italy but no one else has.

I asked a travel agency for a custom itinerary. They had some creative activity ideas and mid-range or nice boutique hotels and suggested Rome + Florence + Tuscany. Within that there were a few free days, some free half days. And then private/guided activities like walking tours, cooking classes, artisan demos, and the big sites like the coliseum, Sistine chapel, etc. All transfers were included + a rental car for Tuscany. That part was good.

But it came back at ~ $25k for 11 days, which did not include airfare or all the meals. (Only breakfasts and a few lunches). Airfare would be at least $5k. + the rest of the meals. I know inflation is a thing but I was shocked at that price. Am I behind the times, or is that cost high?

I’m not interested in staying at AirBNBs and trying to DIY everything so I know it’s not going to be cheap. But what’s a reasonable budget for a trip like this?

[gardengal]

Intrepid which is small group tours has 10 days Italy (Sicily) for $5kpp (they are having a sale now for this summer so it’s $4k) so I think $25k for a premium, non-group experience for 4 is probably on track.

FWIW, we’ve done DIY for half that cost, including flights

[dutchgirl678]

That seems very high to me. We went in August 2011 (I know long time ago, but also in the summer, it was hot!!!). I think the private/guided activities are what is costing you most, but I'm also not sure how much your hotels are. We booked through Airbnb/VRBO and had an apartment in Rome on the Campo de Fiori and an apartment in Florence not too far from the Duomo. We did our own sightseeing and because we had little kids with us at the time we didn't do any private or guided tours.

In Rome we did:
- Forum Romanum. There was no line for tickets there and afterwards we were able to visit the Colosseum with the same ticket and skip the lines there
- Vatican. We just went into the church, but would have loved to go into the Vatican museum
- Wandered around Trastevere
- Pantheon
- Trevi Fountain
- Piazza Navona

In Florence we did:
- Climb Duomo and Giotto's tower
- Visit Santa Croce basilica
- Walked over the Ponte Vecchio all the way over to the Piazzale Michelangelo
- Took the bus to Siena for a day trip

We did not go to Tuscany and did not visit any museums in Florence (again small kids) but had amazing meals at off-the-beaten track restaurants. We didn't have a rental car and took the train from Rome to Florence. I hope this helps.

[gardengal]

And I agree the tours & guided activities are what’s likely driving up cost. It’s $300 for 4 of us to do a group/not private 2hr food tour in Europe this summer. I think it was $800 if we were doing the same thing private. That adds up fast.

But you also get a premium experience so it’s really up to you if that’s worth it (for me, a couple of small group tours or experiences is a really worth it. It’s great to interact w locals & maybe experience new things or get more detailed info on sites. But everyday or even every other day)

Also hotel costs are generally ridiculous right now as are care rentals (we used to be able to get around 30/day in Europe. Now we are happy at 85/day)

[bee20]

Oof, that feels high given it's not all-inclusive, but travel has become so expensive. Looking at hotels in Rome they're running $2-3000/week just for one room this July, so about 2/3 of that is probably the transfers, tours, and services.

I'd be tempted to hold off a few months and see if this promised recession arrives, or reconsider a trip to Italy. There are nice places to visit in cheaper locations, but Italy is pretty great.

[pittpurple]

Are you getting 2 hotel rooms? That cost honestly doesn't surprise me - I would expect to pay maybe 25% of that but we are airbnb, diy, picnic type travellers so I would double it each time for staying in hostels, private anything and having breakfasts and transport included.

[dcrunnergirl52]

That's a lot but I could see it for a private, nice tour. We DIY'd it for 16 mights for 6 people for about $13K, not counting food. It was $4K for airfare, $5K for hotels/airbnbs, $1K for trains and transfers, and $3K for tours--and we did a lot of private tours. We did Milan, Venice, Florence, Rome, and Sorrento (for 24 hours).

ETA: I just read that it doesn't include most food....that's definitely a lot.

[origami]

Jun 15, 2023 7:14:07 GMT -5 pittpurple said:

Are you getting 2 hotel rooms? That cost honestly doesn't surprise me - I would expect to pay maybe 25% of that but we are airbnb, diy, picnic type travellers so I would double it each time for staying in hostels, private anything and having breakfasts and transport included.

they have us in “family suites” that sleep 4 ppl and said 2 hotel rooms would be cheaper. But not significantly cheaper.

[plutocherry]

origami , holy shit, that seems insanely expensive, but we're Airbnb/DIY types. We're doing two weeks in Rome & Florence in the fall as part of a longer 6 month long trip (a story for another day).

- The Airbnb in Rome (3 bedroom) is $2289.83 (and it's an Airbnb Plus), and the Florence (also 3 bd) is $2703.74. Both are super centrally located. We prefer vacation rentals because we can cook, do laundry, and spread out.
- Flights are on miles (110k miles round trip per person on Air France business) but the cash price seems about right.
- Tours can definitely add up but both places are super easy to DIY, so we're that's what we're doing.
- We budget an average of $50/day for activities and $75/day for food (we eat in a lot).

To put things in perspective, our entire budget for 6 months, 4 people, around the world is $96,202, so to be spending a quarter of that in 11 days seems really out there.

[dcrunnergirl52]

Jun 15, 2023 23:19:42 GMT -5 plutocherry said:

origami , holy shit, that seems insanely expensive, but we're Airbnb/DIY types. We're doing two weeks in Rome & Florence in the fall as part of a longer 6 month long trip (a story for another day).

- The Airbnb in Rome (3 bedroom) is $2289.83 (and it's an Airbnb Plus), and the Florence (also 3 bd) is $2703.74. Both are super centrally located. We prefer vacation rentals because we can cook, do laundry, and spread out.
- Flights are on miles (110k miles round trip per person on Air France business) but the cash price seems about right.
- Tours can definitely add up but both places are super easy to DIY, so we're that's what we're doing.
- We budget an average of $50/day for activities and $75/day for food (we eat in a lot).

To put things in perspective, our entire budget for 6 months, 4 people, around the world is $96,202, so to be spending a quarter of that in 11 days seems really out there.

I'd LOVE to know more details about your around-the-world trip if you'd like to share. That sounds like it could be amazing.

[meganew]

Jun 15, 2023 23:19:42 GMT -5 plutocherry said:

origami , holy shit, that seems insanely expensive, but we're Airbnb/DIY types. We're doing two weeks in Rome & Florence in the fall as part of a longer 6 month long trip (a story for another day).

- The Airbnb in Rome (3 bedroom) is $2289.83 (and it's an Airbnb Plus), and the Florence (also 3 bd) is $2703.74. Both are super centrally located. We prefer vacation rentals because we can cook, do laundry, and spread out.
- Flights are on miles (110k miles round trip per person on Air France business) but the cash price seems about right.
- Tours can definitely add up but both places are super easy to DIY, so we're that's what we're doing.
- We budget an average of $50/day for activities and $75/day for food (we eat in a lot).

To put things in perspective, our entire budget for 6 months, 4 people, around the world is $96,202, so to be spending a quarter of that in 11 days seems really out there.

Yeahhhhh I’m gonna need to hear more about this!

[meganew]

OP- that seems really high. We did Hawaii last year for two weeks, two different islands and stayed at a variety of mid-range to high end hotels. I’d say we spent close to $20k total including food, activities and flights- and we did a lot of activities. I would try to piece it together yourselves.

[erbear]

I’m a frequent European traveler with a family like yours and that’s insane to me. We don’t do tours as a rule but…yeah, that’s high.

[plutocherry]

dcrunnergirl52, meganew, I'll write a separate thread on it.

[wildrice]

We went to Florence, Siena (Tuscany) and Rome for 8 days in 2020 and we spent a grand total of 3k. So that seems very high to me, but of course there were just 2 of us, it was off season, and we used points for most of our hotels/airfare. Still, 25k seems like a lot. I know you said you don't want to DIY but it's really not that hard - I used the Rick Steves guides and basically did what he said to do as far as itinerary, which sites to see, what we needed to book in advance, etc. I would do at least a little research on your own prior to booking a private tour if you are concerned about cost. You may find it's not as intimidating as you think!

[turkletsmom]

We did 9 days in Venice, Florence, Siena and Rome June 2022 for just me and H and the trip cost us $6k including food. Our flights were $2000 of that.
I'm a DIYer though. We also used Rick Steves site, books and audio tours for almost everything.
I can see how for 4 people the price can easily get up to $25k but I'd expect some really nice hotels for that price. Like White Lotus level LOL. I think if you wanted to get the price down you could with some DIY.

[mrsd2006]

Look at the trips offered thru Costco and Delta Vacations. That's who we have used the last two times for Italy. We book all tours on our own.

[sju]

I agree that the private tours may be driving up the price.  We just spent 17 nights in Europe- 4 in Barcelona ahead of Formula 1 $$, 9-night Disney cruise with veranda room, and 4 nights at an AirBnB in Rome).  Everything, including airfare, airport parking here, group tours, food, etc., came to around that price. A big item was of course the Disney cruise, so it can be done cheaper.

[goldengirlz]

We went to Italy for two weeks in 2018. We DIY-ed it in the sense that we made all our own reservations, but it’s a destination where it’s not particularly hard to do that. Other than visiting museums/the Vatican, we did a private Coliseum tour and wine tasting in Tuscany (so fun!) We also hiked Cinque Terra.

I think we stayed in reasonably nice boutique hotels too, and they were around EUR 300/night. I can’t remember what we paid for the car, but I would be shocked if it were more than EUR 2k. So figure around $6-7k for the two most expensive parts.

By that calculation, I think $25k without airfare is pretty high. We typically budget about $10k/week for a trip like that, but that includes everything, including flights.

[origami]

Jun 23, 2023 9:21:11 GMT -5 mrsd2006 said:

Look at the trips offered thru Costco and Delta Vacations. That's who we have used the last two times for Italy. We book all tours on our own.

Costco can’t do the cities we want and delta says they have nothing for the dates we need (might have been the other way around)

[gaudi]

We just did 3 nights each in Venice, Florence and Rome with 2 adults, 14 and 11 in March. 2023. We stayed at Marriott’s version of VRBOs, took 1st class trains between the cities. I think we spent around $11k without airfare. We did 2 or 3 small group tours in each city that were pricey.

[mrsukyankee]

I will say that tour prices have gone up a LOT recently. We used to get food tours for around £50-60 and now they are around £80-100, and that's for group tours. So many prices have gone up in the past two years from flights to hotels and beyond.

[devonpow]

We are going to Italy for 10 days this summer - 4 of us, Airbnbs (pretty nice ones in great locations), doing a decent amount of private tours (particularly in Rome - doing this to beat the heat and make it more efficient with the kids) , train between rome and Venice, day trip/tour to Pompeii, etc… all of it with airfare and it’s… a lot of money. 25k for 2 weeks for a nice European vacation does not seem insane to me. BUT it is 100% possible to do much less if you want.

Did you give the travel agent a budget? If you want to spend less let them know your number and your top priorities and they can work out a new plan. Or, say you only live once and go with the plan you already have

[mgm]

That is a lot. I will be in Italy for 2 weeks, with my family of 4, around the same time and can send you airbnb options if you are open to that- the pricing was half of similar sized hotel rooms. I can share tour recommendations too. But we are only doing a few. We are doing rome, tuscany and venice.

[kittywalker]

If you don't want to DIY and you want to stay in 4/5 star hotels, this seems on track. We do a trip like this nearly every summer to some place in Europe and that sounds typical to me.

[jwright]

We used Zicasso to book Croatia in 2021 and were very pleased. We did 10 nights with activities and transfers for two people and stayed in what I considered to be very nice hotels for about $10k. Obviously Croatia is less expensive than Italy. But Zicasso will give you a free itinerary with price estimate if you want a gut check to see if its in the same ballpark as your agent.