EntriesEurope Trip Planning – Where We’re Staying in Rome, Italy
Rome is the last city we’ll be visiting in Italy and three of our four nights will spent inside an apartment. We ordered a place through a company called RentalinRome.com and the apartment we have is called the Crivellucci Apartment. There was a bit of discontinuity between myself and our agent, after giving them our deposit via Paypal we lost communication for a week. After calling their office in Rome, the confirmation and contact details were sent to us the next day. According to them, they had send an email but I never got it. It’s hard to say who is at fault there. However, from just the pictures, the place looks nice and should be a pleasant stay.
The apartment sleeps 4 as it has a double bed and a sofa bed. There is also air condition, washing machine, TV, bathroom & shower and a fully equipped kitchen. All features that will keep keep our trip costs down.
Will the place look exactly like in the photos, we hope so! The apartment is located at the east end of town, it’s not extremely close to the attractions but the metro system will let us cover a fair bit of ground with ease.
On our final night in Rome, the plan is to just hang around town until we can take a bus from Termini station to the airport. Our flight is at 6:45 and the airport opens at 4:30. The departure lounge closes at 1:30 but the arrival remains open.
All images courtesy of RentalinRome
Tags: apartment, Europe 2008, Grad Trip, Italy, Rome
. 06 May 08 | Travel | Comments (0)
Europe Trip Planning – Where We’re Staying in Venice, Italy
Venice, Italy is the second stop of our Europe trip. We’ll fly to the Treciso airport just outside of Venice via Ryanair and we’ll hopefully get into the city by about 4PM local time. That actually doesn’t give us too much time in the city as we’ll be taking the train out at noon the following Friday (May 16th). While in Venice, we’ll be sleeping at Hotel Adua, a place we found on Priceline for $112/night.
The hotel has family operated with a total of 13 rooms. We’ll be in a double room with a shared washroom/shower. Online it states the double rooms have a bathroom, so we’ll see what happens when we arrive. If we’re lucky, maybe the room we get has a water view instead of a city. There are not many amenities included which is fine given the number of things we want to cover in the city. There is no internet but it says on request we can use the reception computer.
The general consensus about the place on Venere.com, HostelWorld.com and TripAdvisor.com has been fairly good. No major security or cleanliness issues. One of the biggest pluses about this place is that it is located a short walk from the train station. It’s not directly beside it so we won’t hear the late trains rolling in but it’s not miles away where we would need to get up early to catch our train.
All images courtesy of Veniceby.Com
Tags: Europe 2008, Hotel Adua, Italy, Priceline, Venice
. 25 Apr 08 | Travel | Comments (0)
Europe Trip Planning – The Schedule & Budget v1
I promised to deliver and update on the schedule and budget planning of my 2008 Europe trip for 2. With the long weekend approaching, I decided to take the entire night off and work on this instead. Whether or not this is a good idea has yet to be determined. There’s still a fair bit of work to do for school but this is far more enjoyable and relaxing!
The planned departure date is 8:35PM from Toronto on May 7, 2008. We’ll take an evening flight that will allow us to sleep through most of it. The estimated arrival time in London is 8:35 AM, giving us a whole day to recuperate, relax and enjoy the city. From London, the plan is to travel to Rome by plane and then visit Venice, Milan, Florence and Pisa by train. From Pisa, we’ll return to Rome and fly out to Paris the next day. We’ll stay in Paris for 10 days and then return back to Toronto on the June 10, 2008.
The budget is still 9K for planning + 1K for any unforeseeable costs. I’ve guessed some food and living costs and I’ve more or less exhausted the budget. If I hope to find some great deals through priceline, apartment rentals or just browsing the net to save a few extra bucks.
Here’s a more detailed look at the itinerary. It’s subject to many changes. I’m still looking for suggestions as to places I must visit, so ping me back with a comment or email!
Tags: Budget, Europe, Florence, graduation trip, Italy, London, Milan, Paris, Pisa, Priceline, Rome, schedule, Venice
. 19 Mar 08 | Travel | Comments (0)
Europe Trip Planning – The Budget
I’m currently in the middle of planning a two person 5 week vacation to Europe. The places we intend to visit are: Paris, London, Rome, Venice, Milan, Florence and Pisa.
The Budget is 9K for everything with 1K as contingency for anything we can’t plan for. Items like bus fares to local attractions, taxi rides around the city etc will be lumped into this group.
I’ve put together a quick spreadsheet of some known costs. We don’t plan on staying in any 5* hotels, so the goal is to keep every night under $100CDN. The plan is to find cheap hotels/bed&breakfasts and avoid hostels. In Paris, the plan is to rent an apartment for the stay, this will keep the average nightly cost down and will allow for buying and storing local food in a fridge. I haven’t factored in any budget for food yet as I’m not sure what that will cost in Europe. If you have any experience on daily food costs in any of the areas I’m visiting, please let me know!
If you have any suggestions on how to keep the cost down, or things that we should plan and do, please leave a comment!
| Item | Local Currency | In CDN Dollars | Qty | Total | Date Looked Up |
| Flight: Toronto to Paris | 1474.8 CDN | 1478.8 | 1 | 1478.8 | 03/16/08 |
| Hotel in Paris | 100 | 1 | 100 | ||
| Breakfast/Lunch/Snack | 0 | ||||
| Dinner | 0 | ||||
| Train: Paris to London | 240 USD | 240 | 1 | 240 | 03/16/08 |
| Hotel in London | 100 | 3 | 300 | ||
| Breakfast/Lunch/Snack | 0 | ||||
| Dinner | 0 | ||||
| Flight: London to Rome | 61.64 GBP | 123.56 | 1 | 123.56 | 03/16/08 |
| Eurorail: Italy Rail Pass | 294 EUR | 452.83 | 1 | 452.83 | 03/16/08 |
| Hotel in Rome | 100 | 4 | 400 | ||
| Breakfast/Lunch/Snack | 0 | ||||
| Dinner | 0 | ||||
| Hotel in Venice | 100 | 4 | 400 | ||
| Breakfast/Lunch/Snack | 0 | ||||
| Dinner | 0 | ||||
| Hotel in Milan | 100 | 4 | 400 | ||
| Breakfast/Lunch/Snack | 0 | ||||
| Dinner | 0 | ||||
| Hotel in Florence | 100 | 5 | 500 | ||
| Breakfast/Lunch/Snack | 0 | ||||
| Dinner | 0 | ||||
| Bus: Florence to Pisa | 0 | 1 | 0 | ||
| Flight: Rome to Paris | 159.44EUR | 245.58 | 1 | 245.58 | 03/16/08 |
| Hotel in Paris | 50 Euro | 75 | 11 | 825 | 03/16/08 |
| Grand Total | 5465.77 | ||||
| Budget | 9000 | ||||
| Remaining | 3534.23 |
The next post will hopefully include more information on costs, a schedule and things to do.
Tags: Budget, Europe, Florence, Italy, London, Milan, Paris, Pisa, Rome, Travel, Vacation, Venice
. 17 Mar 08 | Travel | Comment (1)
Featured Sites
Recent Posts
- Thecus Unveils the N0204 miniNAS Device
- Toronto Winds Take Out Backyard Tree
- First Purchase of 2009….The Wii from Shoppers Drug Mart
- Canon EOS 50D
- Dessert at Amuse Bouche
- Niagara Falls (Ontario)
- A Sparkly Present For Her
- Tomorrow’s Gas Price, Today (Canada)
- Cottage Trip Aug 15th to 17th
- Summerlicious at Café Moroc