Priceline and Hotwire Venice and Florence Help, Frequent visitor to Italy- My opinion Options

[HenryCorgi]

I am a new user to this board but I wanted to give my opinion on searches for Florence and Venice for both Priceline and Hotwire. (Maybe this can be pinned if the moderators think its relevant)

Check the exchange rate between the Dollar and Euro. Shortly after the Euro was introduced a little over a decade ago it was worth 85 cents, Jan 2010 it is 1.43 dolars/Euro. Retail prices for budget hotels in these cities are about 100 euro so currently nearly 150 dollars.

Star levels are different in Europe- Generally it is not necessarily a gauge of the level of Poshness. If the hotel has amenities like elevator, restaurant, fitness etc it will get a star rating based on that. I have stayed in several one star properties all over Europe that were like 3-4 star hotels here, and I have stayed at spartan places that are 4 star, so look carefully at reviews, websites and do not rely too much on star level.

Hotwire-

Florence central zone on their Map is 4 miles by 1.0-2.0 miles. So it is possible to get a hotel way out of the center. Be careful and make sure to look for amenities and reviews and any other info before making a commitment

Venice- the Venice area includes all the islands with the exception of the Lido which is seperate, Mestre area is quite large.
Mestre is on the Mainland of Italy and not central to the main tourist sites.Remember there is transportation but including time to get to the train, wait for train and transport time it takes about one hour to get to central Venice.

Priceline- The Florence central zone is even larger 6 miles by 2 miles.

Venice- Venice is again all the Islands except the Lido. See hotwire for Mestre info.


RR