Italy this summer

Dave!

Hey folks,

Me and my girlfriend (both 18) are looking to book our first holiday together, and we've decided to go to Italy as a compromise (I wanted to go to Paris:rolleyes: ), but we haven't really got any ideas whereabouts to go.

We want (a) good weather [important!!! she wants a tan :rolleyes:], (b) great scenery, (c) no drunken English or Irish scumbags!, (d) cheapish flights and accomodation [but not a hostel:p], (e) decent amenities [just don't wanna be stranded up in the mountains really]

I'm open to any suggestions and I'll read a bit about them obviously before I decide.

So has anyone got any ideas? I've never been to Italy, so I don't know much about it!

Thanks alot

andy1249

OK first things first , Italy is not cheap , expect Irish prices or higher , seriously , you thought Ireland was bad wait till you get to Italy ,
Having said that , we were in Sorrento two years ago , the weather was fabulous , we were staying at the grand hotel hermitage , which is about 15 to 20 minutes outside the town of sorrento in a small village called St Agata , it was beautiful and St Agata itself avoids the lager louts you get in the main town.
From here you can take tours along the Amalfi coast , truly breathtaking scenery , very hard to beat , and for suntans theres the beaches in Sorrento or the pools in the hotels which are of a high standard.

Pompeii and Mt Vesuvius are close by for a historical photo shoot , and also you are quite close to Naples.

As I said , the place is gorgeous , but Italy is not cheap.

Dave!

Hey Andy,

thanks for that

I'm just looking at sunwayholidays.ie -- the Grand Hotel Hermitage is the cheapest deal there, and in total it'll cost around €700 each (for accom and flights) from 2nd June - 9th June!!!

A tad steep for us unfortunately... It looks like a nice place though, and sounds great.

I might keep looking for deals to Sorrento though.

You got any tips? Who'd you book with?

Thanks again

twinkletoes

Hi there,

Ryan air fly direct from Dublin to Pisa(and to other locatons in italy too)which is beside the Tuscany coast...

You should get cheap flights with them...

You'll get hotel ideas on the ryan air site too.

Found this...click on the link for "fly to pisa"

http://www.ryanair.com/site/EN/inpage.php?pos=HOME_BOTTOM_SIDE&view=email&partner=TOURISTBOARDS


Good luck!Italy is wonderful.

jrey1981

You should be able to do it for less than €700 each if you fly to Naples with Aer Lingus and search for accommodation yourself on the net.

I was going to do this last summer but didnt get around to it.

Dave!

Hey,

I've just done a bit of searching now...

Aerlingus, 24th - 31st August, return flight to Naples : €240 each

Then when we get to Sorrento,

Casa Susy B&B, €80 for a double room, 7 nights : €280 each
http://www.casasusy.com/index.php?lang=en

Total: €520 each

That's reasonable enough! I doubt the B&B will be very luxurious, but I'll keep lookin for a more desirable one

What do ye think of that? Sound like a good deal?

How much spending money would I need to bring on top of that? €500?

EDIT:

Just looking again... http://www.holidaycityeurope.com/nice-sorrento/

Hotel Nice, central location, right beside trains, bang in the middle of the city.

Seems to be a bit of a dingey place, but the location makes up for it
http://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Review-g187782-d286126-Reviews-Hotel_Nice-Sorrento_Amalfi_Coast_Campania.html

€300 each for a week, bringing us to €540. Sounds alright again!

I'm getting good at this holiday business

johnnyrotten

I'm going to Lake Garda this year with the Family . Flights to Milan Malpensa Airport from Dublin Direct cost me €850 ( 4 full priced seats ) with Alitalia

www.alitalia.ie

Dave!

That's a bit steep for us, but thanks!

Can anyone tell us a bit more about Sorrento? Would there be many "young" people in the area? I get the impression that it'd be more for the older folk... I'm not going on this holiday to go crazy and party all night, if I wanted that I'd go to Ibiza!, but at the same time it'd be nice if there were other people <25 in the area.

andy1249

Was in Sorrento about two years ago , the crowd is very mixed , yes there are some older people but also lots of young people too , for myself and the girlfriend the mix was just nice , we loved it , the place is drop dead gorgeous , well worth a visit , it can be a bit on the expensive side , prices for drinks and food are the same as Ireland if not dearer in some places , but its worth it.

Dave!

Thanks andy

Another question... is there a sandy beach anywhere nearby?

I've seen lots of mentions of a stone beach, but that doesn't exactly conjure up nice pictures! Sand is gonna be important for my girlfriend -- she likes to sunbathe :rolleyes:

Also, what time of year did you go? How was the weather?

We'd most likely be going at the end of August...

I'll have a look on google to see if I can find some temperatures.

Zaph

Beaches weren't a priority for us, but there's none to speak of in Sorrento. They do have these floating platforms that form a lagoon and have sun loungers on them, for which you pay for the day. No idea how much though.

Only thing I know about Hotel Nice is that it's the only 1 star hotel in the town. It's close to the town centre, but is just off the main street so it might be a bit noisy as traffic there is pretty bad sometimes. We stayed in the Hotel Girasole last year and I'd have no problem going back there. The staff were great and the hotel was pretty decent. Can't remember prices but they have a website you can check.

twinkletoes

tripadvisor.com is a fantastic site for hotel reviews...so if you're unsure about what a place is like see if it's reviewed there...

eg. http://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Review-g187782-d286126-Reviews-Hotel_Nice-Sorrento_Amalfi_Coast_Campania.html

Dave!

Thanks, yeah I was looking at that site

Okay, at the moment it looks like we're leaning towards the Villa Fiorita Hotel (http://www.villafioritahotel.com/index.html) @ around €110 per room per night. It's not in the centre of the town, like Hotel Nice, so we won't be deafened by passing traffic! It's a 15 minute bus journey (€1 each way) from the town, and gets great reviews for its scenery especially. It has a small balcony for the room, a roof terrace (for sun-bathing), and a swimming pool which is shared with the hotel next door, and is cleaned every day.

http://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Review-g187782-d289890-Reviews-Hotel_Villa_Fiorita-Sorrento_Amalfi_Coast_Campania.html

Like I say, the reviews are overall really good!

So at the moment, it looks like €625 for flights and accomodation... Seems reasonable enough tbh.

What's bothering me now is, how do I get from Naples airport to my hotel? Would a train go from the airport to Sorrento and then we could get a bus or a taxi from there? Or would I be looking at a taxi the whole way? And how much would that cost?

Thanks for the help folks

andy1249

You can get the bus from naples airport to Sorrento , they are pretty frequent ,they run all along the coast from Naples , through Sorrento , all the way out to Amalfi , but they take about an hour and a half to get from the airport to Sorrento , Taxis could be alright , I never got one but apparently you can strike a deal and it could turn out very reasonable , it will be expensive from naples all the way to sorrento though , so Id get the bus , that should be no more than 12 euro !

Sandy beaches are rare in Sorrento , I think there is one , and you have to pay , however all the hotels have sun lounges and nice pools , which I prefer anyway , sand is a nuisance !! ( not ipod friendly at all !! )
Temperatures when we were there , ( first two weeks of Sept. ) were between 35 and 40 degrees , its hot , so tanning should be no problem , watch you dont get burnt , it doesn't take long in the Italian sunshine !!

The evenings are really nice though , Its the Italian custom for everyone to come out and hang around the local squares and socialise , its really nice , you should try it. Especially in one of the smaller towns near Sorrento.

Zaph

One thing to watch out for in Sorrento is taxi prices. There seems to be a flat fee of €15 during the day and €20 at night, regardless of how far you're going. We got hit for that when we arrived at the train station, and while it did save us lugging bags to the hotel, it was less than a mile from the station.

Linoge

andy1249 wrote:

OK first things first , Italy is not cheap , expect Irish prices or higher , seriously , you thought Ireland was bad wait till you get to Italy ,

As I said , the place is gorgeous , but Italy is not cheap.

Yes, digging up old posts here. Is it just me or is this guy totally on his own? Maybe I'm just used to Dublin prices and maybe Rome is the cheapest place in Italy but I certainly did not find Italy expensive.

Wine, food, transport, hotel - all very cheap. Metro in Rome is E1 for 90 minutes travel anywhere. that would just about get you from Dawson Street to O'Connell Street on the 10 here. Hotel we stayed in was a boutique hotel and central, near the Termini. Got a discount for paying cash ...... E36 per night! (in August at the weekend), which included a small breakfast.

If you act like a tourist, you'll pay like a tourist. On the street at a stall, we were buying some chocolate and water etc. to bring back to the hotel. Seller charged us E7 for a few things. I threw all the stuff back down on the stall and walked on. Same stuff in a shop E3. Unbelievable.

Anyway, you cannot compare rip off merchants and blatant lack of information with the true cost of Italy.

Has anyone got any opinions?

Dave!

The girlfriend and I have broken up, so just so ye know, I won't be goin on this particular holiday Hopefully I'll be passing through Italy while interrailing though, if I pass my exams [see link in sig ]

Thanks for the help anyway!