Exciting times – I’ve been preparing for a month-long Europe trip and it’s almost here! If you’ve been thinking of planning a long vacation, hopefully you’ll find this helpful.
Ever since I was in high school, I’ve dreamt about visiting Europe – Italy in particular – to experience the amazing art and culture that were borne out of the Renaissance. I knew that if I were to plan a trip, I would have to block off a good chunk of time in order to avoid a hectic run-around tour. Therefore, when the opportunity arose to take a 4-week vacation, those dreams became reality.
First, I had to decide where to go – after chatting with one of my friends who had studied in Italy, I came up with a list of cities/places to explore: Cinque Terre, Florence & Pisa, Rome, Sorrento (Capri & Pompeii), and Venice. After studying the geography of Italy, I realized that Austria was a bordering country and I could add Vienna – rich in arts (music especially)! With a time budget of 3-4 nights per stop, my list of destinations was set.
Research
Next, it was time to research. I had a vague idea of what I wanted to see (and eat), but no concrete information. You’re probably guessing that I immediately started an online search. Instead, I went to the travel sections in bookstores and browsed through titles that I thought might help. Being able to flip back-and-forth through pages in a physical book is oddly comforting – but everyone is different! Here are a few titles that I saw:
I was about to purchase one or two books, but was encouraged to check out the library instead. I’m glad I did – it turns out the library had the latest versions of all the books I was looking for, and more! I raided the shelves and went home with a stack of 10 guidebooks including the ones I saw in the bookstore.
From the guidebooks, I learned what to bring, how much to budget for the trip, where to stay, what to do in each city, and where to eat. I took notes for each place, highlighting:
Reservations
Originally, the plan was to only book the flight and then play everything else by ear, to allow for maximum flexibility in case one city turned out to be less or more interesting. However, I found that some of the more popular attractions (the Uffizi Gallery and Accademia Gallery in Florence, and the Borghese Gallery and Vatican Museum in Rome) required reservations up to a month in advance if you wanted to skip the entrance lines, which could eat up hours of precious time. Thus, my dreams of spontaneity disappeared and planning mode was triggered.
This meant that I needed to:
Museums/Attractions
For the Uffizi and Accademia galleries in Florence, I actually had to call them (+39 055 294883) because there was no online reservation system set up. Luckily, they did have English-speaking customer service, so the process was quick and very easy – they just needed a name and date/time.
The Borghese Gallery reservations are managed and ticketed using Italy’s TicketOne (their equivalent of the North American TicketMaster). I had to register and create an account, before purchasing my ticket. Since the entire website was in Italian, I had to use an online translator to navigate through everything.
The Vatican Museum has its own reservation system which is easy to use as everything is in English. At the time I made my reservation, they weren’t accepting online payments, so no payment necessary.
Accommodations
In terms of accommodations, I was given a lot of advice – you can save money if you stay outside of the touristy areas, but you’ll be further away from the attractions. If you stay close to the attractions, you won’t have to travel as far during the day, but it may be noisy at night. Most people who had visited Italy for vacation did choose to stay closer to the attractions for convenience. In the end, I decided that being closer might be easier – and I’ll have a better opinion of this after my trip, which I’ll share.
Another decision was whether to stay in hostels, bed & breakfasts, or hotels. For me, this decision was dictated by budget and safety. I didn’t want to spend exorbitant amounts of money on accommodations because I knew I wouldn’t be spending much time there – I set myself a budget of 100€ per night and picked places that were recommended by the guidebooks (I looked for WiFi-enabled establishments, preferably breakfast included, with online/email booking). I also looked up ratings for each place on TripAdvisor to see if there were any major complaints or warning signs.
The guidebooks tell you to shop around and I have to agree. I sent emails and gathered quotes for at least 3 bed & breakfasts and/or hotels per city (with the exception of Cinque Terre – I didn’t find much in the guidebooks for accommodations and I got the sense that going there and talking to people in person would be the best strategy). One important thing I noted was cancellation policies – I ended up making multiple reservations just to hold available rooms while waiting for responses, but I made sure I could cancel in case I found a better deal. Once I finalized my bookings – all done through email – I asked each contact for directions from the train stations I would be arriving at.
While doing the hotel bookings, I was actually pretty pleased that staying within budget was not as difficult as I thought. Granted, a lot of the higher-rated establishments were pricier, but there was always one option that was within 100€ per night. Also, I was pleasantly surprised that I did not have to pay any deposits to make bookings. I was only asked for credit card information in the event of a no-show.
Transportation
After making sure I had a roof over my head for most of the places, I thought I was done. Everything else could be arranged while I was in Europe, right? Yes, it’s possible – but I was advised that train tickets would be cheaper if you could book in advance. Since I was travelling mostly within one country, I found that it was far cheaper to book tickets “as you go” versus buying a rail pass. I was able to do a price comparison by looking up the fares for rail passes and checking the individual trips with TrenItalia.
One other thing I discovered was to always book with the local websites – “Do as the Romans do”. There were other 3rd party websites that offered discounted rates, but they ended up being more expensive and/or there were limitations to the ticket – I guess they count on foreign travellers who don’t want to bother with the local websites. When I booked with TrenItalia, I had the option of reserving my seat and making any changes/cancellations to my trip after I registered on their website. Most of the website was in English, but there were a couple of times I had to use an online translator, but that was a small inconvenience compared to the money I saved.
I booked my train ticket from Venice to Vienna (and back) through OBB and my trips within Italy through TrenItalia. By booking in advance, I saved hundreds of Euros since I was able to take advantage of "super economy" seats.
Language
With all my reservations made and my research complete, my excitement was ramped up! The only thing left to do was to learn key phrases in each foreign language (German for Austria and Italian):
I’ll close this post (which is getting rather lengthy, sorry!) with my packing list:
Ever since I was in high school, I’ve dreamt about visiting Europe – Italy in particular – to experience the amazing art and culture that were borne out of the Renaissance. I knew that if I were to plan a trip, I would have to block off a good chunk of time in order to avoid a hectic run-around tour. Therefore, when the opportunity arose to take a 4-week vacation, those dreams became reality.
First, I had to decide where to go – after chatting with one of my friends who had studied in Italy, I came up with a list of cities/places to explore: Cinque Terre, Florence & Pisa, Rome, Sorrento (Capri & Pompeii), and Venice. After studying the geography of Italy, I realized that Austria was a bordering country and I could add Vienna – rich in arts (music especially)! With a time budget of 3-4 nights per stop, my list of destinations was set.
Research
Next, it was time to research. I had a vague idea of what I wanted to see (and eat), but no concrete information. You’re probably guessing that I immediately started an online search. Instead, I went to the travel sections in bookstores and browsed through titles that I thought might help. Being able to flip back-and-forth through pages in a physical book is oddly comforting – but everyone is different! Here are a few titles that I saw:
- Frommer's Italy
- Rick Steve's Italy
- Lonely Planet: Italy
- Cycling in Italy
I was about to purchase one or two books, but was encouraged to check out the library instead. I’m glad I did – it turns out the library had the latest versions of all the books I was looking for, and more! I raided the shelves and went home with a stack of 10 guidebooks including the ones I saw in the bookstore.
From the guidebooks, I learned what to bring, how much to budget for the trip, where to stay, what to do in each city, and where to eat. I took notes for each place, highlighting:
- a sample itinerary for each day I’d be in the city
- possible accommodations based on my budget and proximity to the places I wanted to visit
- a list of places where I wanted to eat
Reservations
Originally, the plan was to only book the flight and then play everything else by ear, to allow for maximum flexibility in case one city turned out to be less or more interesting. However, I found that some of the more popular attractions (the Uffizi Gallery and Accademia Gallery in Florence, and the Borghese Gallery and Vatican Museum in Rome) required reservations up to a month in advance if you wanted to skip the entrance lines, which could eat up hours of precious time. Thus, my dreams of spontaneity disappeared and planning mode was triggered.
This meant that I needed to:
- make the reservations at the Uffizi, Accademia, Borghese, and Vatican
- book accommodations at each city
- book rail tickets
Museums/Attractions
For the Uffizi and Accademia galleries in Florence, I actually had to call them (+39 055 294883) because there was no online reservation system set up. Luckily, they did have English-speaking customer service, so the process was quick and very easy – they just needed a name and date/time.
The Borghese Gallery reservations are managed and ticketed using Italy’s TicketOne (their equivalent of the North American TicketMaster). I had to register and create an account, before purchasing my ticket. Since the entire website was in Italian, I had to use an online translator to navigate through everything.
The Vatican Museum has its own reservation system which is easy to use as everything is in English. At the time I made my reservation, they weren’t accepting online payments, so no payment necessary.
Accommodations
In terms of accommodations, I was given a lot of advice – you can save money if you stay outside of the touristy areas, but you’ll be further away from the attractions. If you stay close to the attractions, you won’t have to travel as far during the day, but it may be noisy at night. Most people who had visited Italy for vacation did choose to stay closer to the attractions for convenience. In the end, I decided that being closer might be easier – and I’ll have a better opinion of this after my trip, which I’ll share.
Another decision was whether to stay in hostels, bed & breakfasts, or hotels. For me, this decision was dictated by budget and safety. I didn’t want to spend exorbitant amounts of money on accommodations because I knew I wouldn’t be spending much time there – I set myself a budget of 100€ per night and picked places that were recommended by the guidebooks (I looked for WiFi-enabled establishments, preferably breakfast included, with online/email booking). I also looked up ratings for each place on TripAdvisor to see if there were any major complaints or warning signs.
The guidebooks tell you to shop around and I have to agree. I sent emails and gathered quotes for at least 3 bed & breakfasts and/or hotels per city (with the exception of Cinque Terre – I didn’t find much in the guidebooks for accommodations and I got the sense that going there and talking to people in person would be the best strategy). One important thing I noted was cancellation policies – I ended up making multiple reservations just to hold available rooms while waiting for responses, but I made sure I could cancel in case I found a better deal. Once I finalized my bookings – all done through email – I asked each contact for directions from the train stations I would be arriving at.
While doing the hotel bookings, I was actually pretty pleased that staying within budget was not as difficult as I thought. Granted, a lot of the higher-rated establishments were pricier, but there was always one option that was within 100€ per night. Also, I was pleasantly surprised that I did not have to pay any deposits to make bookings. I was only asked for credit card information in the event of a no-show.
Transportation
After making sure I had a roof over my head for most of the places, I thought I was done. Everything else could be arranged while I was in Europe, right? Yes, it’s possible – but I was advised that train tickets would be cheaper if you could book in advance. Since I was travelling mostly within one country, I found that it was far cheaper to book tickets “as you go” versus buying a rail pass. I was able to do a price comparison by looking up the fares for rail passes and checking the individual trips with TrenItalia.
One other thing I discovered was to always book with the local websites – “Do as the Romans do”. There were other 3rd party websites that offered discounted rates, but they ended up being more expensive and/or there were limitations to the ticket – I guess they count on foreign travellers who don’t want to bother with the local websites. When I booked with TrenItalia, I had the option of reserving my seat and making any changes/cancellations to my trip after I registered on their website. Most of the website was in English, but there were a couple of times I had to use an online translator, but that was a small inconvenience compared to the money I saved.
I booked my train ticket from Venice to Vienna (and back) through OBB and my trips within Italy through TrenItalia. By booking in advance, I saved hundreds of Euros since I was able to take advantage of "super economy" seats.
Language
With all my reservations made and my research complete, my excitement was ramped up! The only thing left to do was to learn key phrases in each foreign language (German for Austria and Italian):
- “Where is the bathroom?”
- “Thank you”
- “Hello”
- “Do you speak English?”
I’ll close this post (which is getting rather lengthy, sorry!) with my packing list:
- afterbite (for mosquitos)
- cellphone, charger, and plug adapter
- 3 shirts
- 1 pair of pants and 1 pair of shorts
- socks and underwear for 4 days
- earplugs
- hand sanitizer
- hat
- lightweight sweater
- money belt, passport, traveller’s cheques, cash
- notes that I took plus one guidebook
- rain jacket
- slippers and swimwear
- sun block
- toilet paper, toiletries, and laundry detergent
- towel
- first-aid kit and a few Tylenol
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