Priceline Hotel: Italy mid-sept help

[sonic_fan]

Hey guys

The plan is to travel to Italy mid-sept from Seattle for ~3 weeks (dates/itinerary are open). I'm just starting to look into finding cheap flights and good deals on higher quality hotels (I don't think we'll be doing hostels). Having never been to Italy (or Europe for that matter) I don't know which to airports to fly into to get the best deals. We've talked about flying into a different country and taking a train to Italy if the price was right, but Italy is our main focus this trip. Thanks for the help

[WillTravel]

With three weeks, you have numerous excellent options. I would really recommend the Fodors Europe forum and the SlowTalk Italy forum to help you flesh them out. I did a two-week trip to Italy, starting with a flight to London, Priceline overnight, followed by a BMI flight to Venice, followed by the train to Florence, followed by the train to Rome, followed by an EasyJet flight back to London, Priceline overnight, and then the London flight home.

For the most part, I think Priceline has little to offer in Italy, unless you want 5* accommodation, for Rome. Rome 4* hotels are not particularly well-located. The Florence zone is too big to recommend Priceline. If you stick to the Venice Island zone for Venice, and do very careful rate research in advance, you might be able to get a deal. But for the most part, I wouldn't recommend Priceline for Italian cities.

[mucsea2003]

Excellent choice Three weeks in Italy in September will be awesome. However you will have to pin down which areas you want to see.

I think there are at least two must sees and those are Venice and Rome. But there are about a million other areas worth seeing. For my part I love Southern Italy which can be very different from the North. I would also very much recommend the Amalfitan coast south of Naples.

For flights you might just want to look around Expedia, Travelocity and the like. The most convenient connections from SEA will be on SAS via CPH, BA via LHR or KLM/NW via AMS who will all fly you (at least) into Rome or Milan with just one stop. I personally like SAS but it pretty much depends on the price and which FF program you belong to. Delta also flies into Venice which is a great airport to arrive at because you can take the boat into town. I don't know any other city where you can do that. Pretty much any airport will do for you, since getting around inside Italy is quite easy by train. Trains are pretty reasonable there and they run quite often unless the personnel are on strike which does happen sometimes.

As Willtravel noted, Priceline will probably only be good if you go for higher class hotels. Hotel quality in Italy can be quite inconsistent with the oficial star rating, i might add. For Venice I recently got an excellent deal at the very nice Hotel Sant' Elena on venere.com . It is in a quiet residential part of Venice, but less than ten minutes by vaporetto to San Marco.

If you would also consider to stay at a condo or vaction home for some of the time you could try your luck at VacationVillas.net. I just came back from a week's stay in Liguria close to Cinqueterre in an apartment found via them which was just great.

Are you travelling with or without kids? Are you strictly going to sight-see the cities or do also want to experience some of the country side or some beaches?

Let us know if your plans get more detailed and we might come up with more ideas.

PS: Go Mariners!

[sonic_fan]

Thanks for all of the links, I will check them out. It will only be my wife and I on the trip, no kids. We are trying to have a good blend of sightseeing and relaxation (beaches, etc). We definetly don't want to have to take another vacation to relax from this vacation. :) As for flights, I've been checking out Expedia and Travelocity to get baseline prices, although prices are roughly ~$900 give or take 50$ depending on the dates. I briefly looked at priceline yesterday but I was unsuccessful in getting the destination airport to be in Italy, but I didn't spend more than a minute or two looking at it. Also, I think we would have no problem staying at condos, villas and alike, this is a good start let me know if anything else comes to mind. I'll update on things that I find.

[mucsea2003]

You might want to check flights after Sep 15th. They might get a little cheaper after that but certainly not below $800-850.

[kgclark75]

Check vrbo.com (Vacation rentals by owner). You can rent private apartments and condos and can save a lot of money when you are talking about 3 weeks. There are quite a few really well located places available in Rome. For traditional hotels, check venere.com. If you go to Florence, I HIGHLY, HIGHLY reccomend the Villa Antea ( http://en.venere.com/hotels_florence/forte...illa_antea.html )...it is the nicest hotel I have stayed in EVER and generally affordable when booked through venere. (at least as compared to other Florence hotels)

[kgclark75]

Also....as far as flights go. If you have trouble finding cheap international flights to Italian cities, you may consider flying to London, then flying to Italy on RyanAir. (www.ryanair.com) If you fly mid-week, you can get fares for about 20 Pounds each way (around $35-40).

[sonic_fan]

It looks like flying to London first is a really good idea. I can find flights for ~600-650 depeding on the dates and then connection flights are 30-50$. I like the vacation rental idea, I'll do some research and get back to you. Thanks

[sonic_fan]

Willtravel,

Its looking like our trip will be very similar to yours, london, venice, florence, rome and almafi coast. I checked out BMI, the rates seem to be quite a bit more expensive than ryanair for our dates (london-venice), but the flight times are alot better. Are there any other airlines to check out for similar flights? Also, what can you tell me about pricelining Venice?

[WillTravel]

Offhand, I know that EasyJet flies from Gatwick to Venice and Rome. Check http://www.whichbudget.com .

How much do you want to spend on your Venice hotel? What type of hotel do you want to end up with? I would start by looking for the best deal you can get without Priceline, so you have a baseline to go with. I think the 5* hotel on Priceline is probably a good deal - if you want to pay that much.

[anyway]

You can check prices of multiple airlines and different dates at http://www.skyscanner.net/

http://www.cheap0.com is also a good resource to find low cost flights.

Hope it helps,

anyway

[sonic_fan]

Well, I've just started looking at Venice for 9/7 - 9/10 and I think $200/night is about as much as I'll want to pay, but hopefully less. I'm guessing that 5 * hotels are probably well above that. Also, thanks (everyone) for all of the links they have been very helpful.

[WillTravel]

Outside of Priceline, a 5* hotel will certainly be more than that on Venice itself. You are going in high season, so you're not likely to get a great deal. But see what $200 per night will get you outside of Priceline, and go from there. It's always worth a try at bidding, once you're sure of your plans.

[tinnub]

For Venice, I would sugest the Metropole Hotel. You can book directly with them or use one of the hotel sites such as www.venere.com or www.GTA Hotels. For Rome I suggest www.hotelmozart.com. Both of the suggestions are wonderful, though you can't assure you get them from Priceline.

[mucsea2003]

If you use venere.comto book any hotels in Italy you can use coupon code AGN4N3M for a 4% rebate. Not great, but enough to buy due espressi!

[sonic_fan]

Ok, thanks. I have been a little reluctant to priceline anything in Italy based on the previous recomendations, so we've been definetly looking into venere.com. Although, I did notice gasr's post on Milan. Waiting to hear back on other cities.

Sonic

[qasr]

Although, I did notice gasr's post on Milan.  Waiting to hear back on other cities.

Hey, that is qasr :)