The Cost of Traveling in Italy
I got a couple inquires about our experiences traveling in Italy this past spring and summer. The inquiries were mostly about what to expect in the way of the costs when traveling in Europe. I cannot provide any guidance about the costs to travel in Germany, France, Spain, or other countries that we did not travel in as we only traveled in Italy. But I kept detail records of our traveling costs so I can provide some good data on Italy.
Let me start by saying we traveled in Italy twice in the past year. We went to Venice, Siena, Cinque Terra, and Rome last fall. This past spring we travelled 3 weeks in Sicily, 3 weeks in the Aeolian Islands, one week to Sorrento and the Amalfi coast area, 11 days to Cinque Terra, seven days in a more remote area of Tuscany, and 5 days in Verona.
Before I provide you our average daily costs, I want to let you know what is included;
- All accommodations, meals out, groceries,
- All transportation while in Italy including train fare, taxis, buses, car rental, local flights,
- All site seeing trips and entrance to museums/sites,
- All gifts/souvenirs and any associated shipping costs to send items back to the US,
- All miscellaneous costs such as haircuts, over the counter medications, etc.
- All entertainment costs of any kind.
I included all costs while we were in Italy that relate to being in Italy no matter what it was (for example, I included $350 in train and airline tickets that we could not use due to unforeseen circumstances, but I did not include paying a US rental property insurance premium online while we were in Italy). The costs do not include airline tickets or cruise line tickets to and from Italy, but the costs do include the taxi or train fare to/from the Italian port of call.
On both trips we traveled more or less the same way. We did not stay in hotels. We rented local 1 or 2 bedroom apartments through The Homeaway.com and VRBO.com web sites. We bought groceries locally and ate many meals at our apartment. I would estimate that we ate 3 to 4 of our meals at a local restaurant per week (this was usually lunch). On both trips we only rented a car one time for a few days. We took one flight from Rome to Sicily in the spring trip. We took trains/buses all other times.
Our 37 day Italy trip last September and October averaged $298 per day. Our 71 day Italy trip this past April, May, and June averaged $188 per day. Why such a big difference in daily costs?
There are three main reasons why our fall trip was more expensive than our spring trip.
- September to mid-October is still the high season in Italy. Spring is the shoulder season in Italy. We saw very few tourists in April and May. In fact during the 6 weeks we were in Sicily and the Aeolian Islands we did not meet a single person where English was their native tongue.
- The Euro-US Dollar exchange rate did get better in the spring. The average exchange rate we paid in September/October 2014 was $1.26 for each Euro. This past spring was $1.10 for each Euro.
- The biggest factor in why our costs were lower on our spring trip was that Sicily and other parts of southern Italy are significantly cheaper areas to live than northern Italy. The main difference is the cost of housing. This is true even holding the currency exchange rate constant. On our spring trip the 40 days we stayed in Sicily and the Aeolian Islands, our average cost per night for housing was $60 including all taxes and service fees (which there were none). The 31 days we stayed on the Italian mainland, our average housing cost was $105 per night. This is an average of about $80 per night for the whole trip. This means we spent an average of $108 per day on everything other than housing.
Staying in hotels and eating every meal at a restaurant will no doubt be a much more expensive trip on a daily basis. Most people go to Italy on short trips to sightsee so traveling this way is usually necessary. When we travel, we not only do some sightseeing, we also interact with the locals to see how they live. If you have the time, I would urge you to “travel” experiencing the local culture rather than just “sightsee.” Our trips were very relaxed and we saw things that most tourists never see.
We are currently in the process of making some upgrades to our new sailboat in Florida. We are planning to cross over to the Bahamas in September. Future blog posts will return to boat life topics.
Some pictures from Verona, Italy, our last stop on our spring trip.
The Duomo In Verona, Italy
Verona Skyline
Another 14th Century Castle in Verona
The waterfront on Lake Garda outside Verona
Did you enjoy this post? Why not leave a comment below and continue the conversation, or subscribe to my feed and get articles like this delivered automatically to your feed reader.
Comments
No comments yet.
Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.