Italy tour ..we don't have enough cash?

[LaDolceVitafor200]

Afternoon!

I have been reading alot of holiday threads here recently which has prompted my own dilemma

Me and friend booked a very cheap Italy tour for 9 days 8 nights leaving next week. It's staying in 4 different Italian cities in basic B and B accommodation, local taxes and breakfast not included. B and B are all outside main towns we are visiting so an hour's travel.

We also have to pay for transport from airport each way , tour is self guided and just includes flights, coach transfers between 4 different cities and B and B

My friend is taking 200 euros and says she won't spend more, I'm getting worried this won't be enough, we also have to pay B and B local taxes etc

AIBU to tell her we both will need more cash , or has anyone been to Italy and found it cheap?!

200 euros a DAY would be enough

Absolutely not enough. I’d be taking closer to 1000€.

I don't think 200 is enough

It wouldn't be enough for me, I budget €100 per day as a rule.

Nowhere near enough

I think you'll need more than that in Italy.

Can you sit down with her and write out what you need to pay for each day? So list the travel, b&b tax etc and roughly how much you think that will cost? Might help her to see...

Not enough and Italy isn’t cheap!

I’d say you need at least £100 per day and that will likely be tight .

Are you sure breakfast isn't included? You keep calling it B & B accommodation. That literally means Bed and Breakfast accommodation?

Even eating pasta and pizza it's not enough. You're prob looking at 12 to 15 euros for a pizza or pasta. Maybe 6 or so for a sandwich in a takeaway place

What is it with people on here insisting on going to a foreign country with fuck all money!?? For gods sake!! It’s stupidity at its best!!

€22 euros a day to eat, travel and buy anything else you might want..... no way will you manage that, even in a cheap country

I live in Italy. It's not cheap.

I'm in the south. Rome is cheaper than where I am. Florence is more expensive than Rome. Venice more expensive still.

I'd say, depending on where you are going, then you need at least double that. You can get a good meal for €20 in Rome. You'd be pushing it in Florence and in Venice that would get you two coffees and an ice-cream.

Thank you.

We are staying in B and B accommodation but breakfast is extra

My worry is the hotel taxes, the airport transfers and the travel every day will raxk up, and I don't think 200 euros each is enough, I'm going to take more, but.my friend is convinced it will be fine and she won't spend more

the tourist tax (tassa soggiorno) varies depending on city as councils set their own. In many cities it’s gone up recently. In Rome I think it’s €4 per person per day for cheap hotels so I guess it might be the same in a B&B. So €200 will not go far if you’re having to shell out €40 odd for the taxes.

transport is fairly cheap compared to the U.K. but certainly not free.

Food - you can eat cheaply if you live off slices of takeaway pizza from the Italian equivalent of a greasy spoon. Or else buying bread and salami from a supermarket. But why would you want to with so much lovely food to sample? Is your friend a fussy eater and would be happy to live off pizza? Even if she is, why should you? Part if travelling to Italy is the cuisine. Breakfast (espresso and croissant) and standing up at the bar will probably cost you around €2-2.50 a day depending on where you are. If you want a cappuccino you’ll be paying more. If you want to sit at a table and people watch it may well cost you more if it’s waiter service only.

Finally, museums and galleries are not free in Italy. For many monuments too you have to pay entry, especially the popular sites.

€ 200 will last around 3 days at a stretch, plus your friend will make your holiday miserable by forcing you to choose the cheapskate option to fit with her cheapskate budget, unless you want to sub her which is also not fair.

You don’t need more than €200 in cash

But you will need a lot more than €200 to cover expenses in Italy. I agree it will be closer to €200 a day to cover, meals, entrance fees (museums and such are not free and you often need to prebook online), and other activities. Even a Sun lounger on a beach can be €10. (But watch for scammers pretending to be collecting for sun loungers…they are all over the beaches).

I'm managing that most days staying B&B in another European country.

I couldn't do it in Italy.

Three meals a day will cost more than 200 euros, never mind transport and taxes!

Do you both actually have more money that you could spend?

I think the only type of holiday to go on when you are broke it's an all-inclusive one and even then you can miss out on things.

I think that €200 might not even be enough for travel and your taxes.

My DD spent a month in Italy this summer on a course living in a flat share and went every weekend to Rome and was fine with €150 in cash.

The rest she paid for via Apple Pay & a chase travel mastercard. She got train tickets on the Italian train travel app (you can translate to English), she paid for taxis, food, souvenirs, groceries, laundry service, hotels etc without cash.

They’re like many European countries, you can be pretty cashless if you want to be. She mostly used the cash for donation boxes in the churches in Rome or their gift shops. Oh and one private taxi driver who didn’t have a card machine when she was out in a very rural area looking at an archaeological dig.

I’ve been to Italy 3 times this year, mainly in south so there may be some differences with prices but no, €200 is nowhere near enough (and I did as much as I could on a tight budget),

taxes are v roughly €1.50-5 pp per day depending on where you are

you can comfortably pay €4 for a croissant and espresso

a 20 minute taxi from Bari airport to station cost me €18-26 (did it several times at several times of day), a 15m taxi in Rome cost €25

Train prices were all over the shop, I paid €38 from Bari to Rome because I could be flexible on times but is not they were up to €200, even just Bari to Fasano was €20+ so trains aren’t cheap

€200 will get you entry to MAYBE 5of the “big” must sees

you can get slices of €2 Pizza Hut it does get a bit repetitive. Drinks even soft, are not cheap

I agree with PP saying that estimate and write down:

• taxes
• airport transfers
• daily bus/transport fares (5-10 euros/day x 2/3 of your days, as some you may do less and just walk)

> that way she can see her half and the absolute minimum costs.

From there she can look at costs of buying snacks and food in the supermarkets as she goes, and then decide if she needs extra money if she ever needs to buy coffee or a meal out.

She may see that she only needs an extra 100-150 euros to have a much nicer holiday overall, which includes a couple of basic meals out. Planning like that can help you not have to think so much about costs when you are there.

good luck!

So, if you keep it as cheap as you can, you can probably do dinner for €20 (pizza or pasta, either a glass of wine or pudding), breakfast you could just get a croissant or similar, so maybe call that €5 and then will you be able to make lunch yourself, or do you need to buy it? I think the B and B taxes are usually a couple of euros per person per day, so €25 would do.

But that's going to be like €30 a day absolute minimum and allows nothing for tourist attractions/ice cream and currently almost nothing for lunch plus the airport coach etc.

I reckon you could do it for €300 without making life totally miserable.

•Look at the tax and travel cost for each place.

•Reaserch what you want to see again looking at entry fees, getting there ect.
•Then you need food on top. See if there are any local supermarkets near the accommodation- at least you can get breakfast & lunch there... maybe the odd dinner, but from experience by day 3 I am usually in need of a cooked meal.

From there, you can work out a realistic budget for each day.