I am planning a trip this summer(June to Aug?) to Italy with my 21 y/o son and my 16 y/o daughter. (I am 40). Taking out airfare, I am planning on 10K for aprox 6 weeks traveling through Italy.

I am planning to stay at hostels or cheap hotels and have budgeted $550 usd/week for lodging (Total $3300)

Is aprox 1K/week enough for three people to reasonable eat and travel (local buses and trains) through italy? This will also include any laundry costs, sight-seeing and other incidentals.

We would like to include a variety of activities in our trip which would include: getting lost/wandering, local cafe's, major sights, smaller towns, bike riding, beach, etc. Our stops currently include: Arrive Milan (2 days), Venice (1wk), Modena (1wk), Modena (1wk), Florence (1wk), Rome (1wk), Salerno (1wk) and Palermo (1wk). The current plan is to stay in one place for aprox a week at a time and do day-trips from those locations. Do these sound like reasonable stops? Anyone have better options?

Also, any advice on hostels/hotels that would be within my budget for these areas?

Thank you so much for any information you can provide. I love this site and the information here is priceless!

Hi, khandilee, & welcome to the boards. I love your itinerary, with the focus on staying in each place for a week and doing day-trips! Well done on that. I'm a big fan of Italy (to put it mildly!), so I'm happy to answer any Italy questions you have, but I really suck at budgeting questions. I'm one of those people who doesn't budget well for trips, so I'm terrible at giving out budget advice. I got a budget question on WhyGo Italy not long ago, and I replied with a post about daily budgets for Italy, so check that out for my two cents (as it were)...

It looks like you've gotten some good tips from others on the other thread you posted in, and in general I'd agree with them - Italy isn't a cheap country to visit, especially during the high season (which is when you're going). It sounds like you're already thinking about ways to cut costs on your trip, from staying in hostels to doing meals picnic-style, so that's great. And the good news is that trains and buses in Italy are, on the whole, cheaper than their counterparts in other Western European countries - as long as you're buying 2nd class tickets & don't mind skipping the super high-speed trains. They're the ones with most expensive tickets.

It looks like you're trying to decide between Modena and Bologna as a homebase for one of your weeks? My vote would be for Bologna - it's more active than Modena, and there's a massive university there, so the nightlife & international feel of the city is great, but it's still really not touristy. If you're looking for a smaller city to stay in, however, since you've got lots of other big cities on your itinerary, then Modena's lovely - and not far from Bologna for easy day-trips.

During my last trip to Italy, I visited several hostels in Rome and Florence - you can read my reviews of the hostels in Rome and the hostels in Florence on my website. I think my favorites in Florence were the Archi Rossi and the Academy, and in Rome my favorites were M&J and The Yellow. It just depends on what you're looking for what's going to suit you best. Venice is decidedly lacking in traditional hostels (there's one HI hostel in Venice), and accommodation there tends to be even more expensive than accommodation in other touristy places throughout Italy, but if you get away from the main attractions you can find either 1-2 star hotels or apartments for rent which won't break the bank.

Please have a look around BootsnAll's Italy Travel Guide, and let me know if you've got other questions. I do so love talking about Italy.

Hi Khandilee
Your story is similar to mine in a couple of ways. I'm heading to Italy with my Mother of 50, I'm 22, in June for a few weeks. We are only seeing the Northern part of the country (much to my dispointment, I really wanted to go to Sicily!) before heading to Switzerland to fly out. Our itinery is 6 nights Rome, 4 Nights Perugia, 4 Nights florence, 2 Nights Venice, 2 Nights Lucerne (Switzerand), 4 nights Zurich (Switzerland). We are doing a few day trips also... One to a winery in Chanti from Florence, and one to Pisa from Florence. We are allowing about $1500 (AU) a week for food, small entry fees, transport etc for the 2 of us to be safe. So $1000 US for yourself and two smaller eaters might be ok? Mind you this is my first time overseas, so I don't really know about budgeting. have fun! I'm really looking forward to our trip. We booked our flights, earlybird, in October, so we're getting into daily itinerys now. still early but am so excited!

Jessie

Thank you so much for the information. Yes, part of the rationale for staying in Modena was due to it being a small town and I am hoping that the day-trip options will be good. I would really like to mix-it-up as far as what we see and experience in Italy. Would love to see all of the major tourist sights but there is also something to be said about simply wandering and people-watching at a local cafe.

My son (21) is very interested in Rome and we may leave him there and my daughter (16) and I may explore southern italy on our own (still up in the air).

I will certainly check out the links you provided and again...thank you!

Janeea,

Sounds like we are going to be in Italy around the same time frame! Hope you have a great trip with your mother and if you run across anything in your research that is just 'out-there' let me know...

Just in case you want to check out other options for alternatives to bigger cities, you might look at Siena or San Gimignano as an alternative to Florence. Both are day-tripper hotspots, and transform completely at night when the day-trippers leave. SG in particular gets REALLY quiet at night, & the views of the Tuscan countryside from that hilltop town are beyond belief. SG doesn't have a train station, so you'd need to do that connection by bus.

Anyway, have fun planning, & please do contact me if there's anything else you think I can answer. You can email me with questions, too - jessica (at) bootsnall (dot) com

I would also put in the suggestion for San Gimignano. Amazingly beautiful town. The medieval feel of the city is great and the views are some of the best in all of Tuscany. I have never stayed the night there, I did try, but found accommodation in Siena much cheaper. Paid around 14 Euro each for a double room in a hostel. I'll dig up the name of the place if you're interested. It was a bit out in the country, but easily accessible by Siena's city bus..