Hi friends! In touch, Federico Fellini of the world of budget travel. Today I will tell you how to inexpensively travel to one of the most wonderful places on earth - Italy. I share the secrets of how to save money wisely in this expensive country. Find out when it is better to fly on vacation, where to eat and where not to, how to rent inexpensive housing so that you do not end up in the center of the emigre quarter later. Read about this and much more in my review!
1. Don't fly in August
This is the most important rule for those wishing to have an inexpensive vacation in Italy. August is the most expensive month to travel. Prices skyrocket, resorts are overcrowded, and museums and restaurants are bursting at the seams. I was in Italy in August (by the way, this was my first trip abroad) and I know what I'm talking about.
If your main goal is a beach holiday, then I advise you to come in September or October (ideal weather), or at least in June-July (it will be hot). If you are flying to Italy for museums, architecture, food and just a celebration of life, then you can safely come in any other month.
I went to Italy three times: in August, July and November. The end of autumn was especially good with the almost complete absence of tourists, even in such world tourism centers as the Cinque Terre and Pisa. In general, my dream is to go to winter Venice, as Brodsky bequeathed to us.
Find out how to get a visa to Italy.
2. Buy tickets for Pobeda flights
Our low-cost airline flies to many cities in Italy: Milan (Bergamo), Venice, Pisa, Rimini, Palermo and others. Usually Pobeda has the best prices. Direct flights fly from Moscow, and good connections in the capital are obtained from the regions. With promotions and in the low season, you can buy round-trip tickets for only 5-10 thousand rubles. Fly without luggage so as not to overpay. Read also my tips for buying cheap flights.
However, it is worth checking the prices with other airlines - for some dates they have even lower prices. For example, in the summer I flew to Rimini and Sicily on charters - in the hottest season it turned out cheaper. Check the prices for tickets of all airlines at once on the search engines Skyscanner and Aviasales.
3. Buy a hot tour
Sometimes I fly abroad on last minute deals. If you catch the right moment and be ready to break off at any time, you will be able to save a lot. I search and buy profitable tours on the websites Level.Travel and Travelata. Check out my 7 rules for buying cheap travel packages.
Italy is no exception: inexpensive last minute tours often appear there too. The cheapest tours are usually in Rimini, but there are also other resorts. From Moscow you can fly on a tour for 20-40 thousand rubles for two. The lowest prices for tours usually appear at the turn of the seasons: in May-June and in autumn, which again encourages us to abandon trips to Italy in July-August.
4. Travel by buses, low-cost airlines or cars
Italy is not an all-inclusive hotel somewhere in the Dominican Republic, where it is forgivable to sit your ass in one place for two weeks in a row. Italy demands and, I would even say, obliges to constantly travel and study its beauty, of which it has so many that you can't even look at life. Therefore, every self-respecting traveler faces the question of moving around the country or at least the immediate vicinity.
Trains in Europe - expensive transport, tickets for buses are much cheaper. The advice is logical, but here, of course, you need to look at the situation: whether the savings justify the cost in terms of time and convenience, which option suits you more on schedule, where the departure and arrival are from, and so on. Until 5-10 years ago, I had to manually scour the websites of all bus and rail carriers to compare timetables and prices. But now life has become easier - a convenient Omio website has appeared, which itself compares all (well, almost all) ways to get from one city to another. I use it constantly in Italy and in Europe in general. I recommend it - it helps out terribly, and saves money. And our Rome travel guide will show you how to get from the Eternal City to Venice, Naples, Milan, Florence and other cities in Italy, or vice versa.
It is best to move between cities that are far away. by air... Italy is a country with healthy competition, unlike ours, so you can fly around the country for a penny. More precisely - for a few euros. You can fly from almost any major city to another for some 10-30 €. For the same money or a little more, you can fly to other European countries, which I also always use. All these super-cheap one-two tickets are found by the Skyscanner search engine.
In order not to rack your brains with the public transport schedule and be free to move, I advise rent a car... In Italy, you can rent a car even for 1-2 € (for a promotion), or at least 8-15 € per day (almost always). Search for car rentals on Rentalcars.com. Renting a car can be even cheaper than riding buses and trains, especially if there are two or more of you. There is only one pitfall - expensive paid parking. Find out more about car rental in Italy and all the important nuances of car rental abroad.
5. Eat in trattorias
First of all, I advise you to pay attention to trattorias... This is a special type of restaurant with simple service and a small selection of traditional dishes. The food there is tasty, sincere and inexpensive. You can fill your belly with fine samples of delicious Italian cuisine for only 10-12 €. And they do not try to rip off coperto and other fees, and they do not insist on tips.
At the same time, you need to understand that a trattoria is not some McDuck for you, but the real Italian or local regional cuisine, just without pathos and fintiflyushki. Healthy food at decent prices, and even get acquainted with Italian customs - a constant clientele gathers in trattorias, who have been going there from year to year for generations, everyone knows each other and communicates. It's fun and authentic there.
Well, avoid all tourist restaurants. If you really want to have a nice dinner, then find a good place away from the beach and tourist streets, the same level in a less "hot" area you will get much cheaper. Read reviews about restaurants in the desired city on TripAdvisor or in blogs.
6. Book your accommodation very early
Italy is one of the most touristic countries in the world and the demand for hotels there is very high. I advise you to book accommodation as early as possible: for the summer - at least 3-4 months in advance, but better for six months, and for a less hot season - at least 1-2 months in advance. Of course, you can find accommodation one day before the trip, but the best and cheapest options will already be taken. If you follow my advice, you can find a great hotel or apartment for a reasonable price, and there are many gems in the housing industry in Italy.
For example, I once, like a real Russian prince, lived in Sicily in a luxurious mansion for only 40 €. Just look at this beauty in the photo below! I spent the first few hours of my Italian vacation just looking at the decor and furnishings of this fabulous apartment.
And in Genoa, we lived in a large three-story apartment with its own terrace and just a breathtaking view of the city. They paid only 80 € for this miracle, which is quite inexpensive for Northern Italy.
So brace yourself and force yourself to plan your trip as early as possible. It is most convenient to search for hotels in Italy on Booking, but I advise you to compare prices on Hotelluk - he often finds a lower price for the same hotel on other booking services.
7. Choose an inexpensive area
In every city there are areas that are cheaper and more expensive. Accommodation near the main attractions or a stone's throw from the beach will be much more expensive than similar ones a little to the side.Feel free to choose the latter and do not be afraid to spend an extra 10-20 minutes walking - walking in Italy will only be a pleasure. Plus, in low-cost neighborhoods, you'll have supermarkets and low-cost restaurants close by. Convenient and profitable!
But first, be sure to carefully read the reviews about housing, so as not to accidentally end up somewhere in the very center of the emigrant ghetto, and they are in almost every city in Italy. Consider that disadvantaged area in the cities of Italy it may not be on the outskirts, but in the very center. For example, this is the Old Town of Genoa - in its dark narrow alleys, where from every gateway you can hear the groans and sighs of the workers of the ancient profession, some of the most sensitive persons will feel uncomfortable. However, this is a safe area, just unkempt. We lived there quite calmly, but the landlord confirmed that there was no need to worry. So read the reviews and make your own decision.
8. Book an apartment with a kitchen instead of a hotel
How good it is to sit in a restaurant every evening with a glass of wine, gorge on mussels or swallow great pasta in insane amounts! How nice to start the morning in a cozy cafe with a cup of coffee and my favorite cannoli! How good, how wonderful! One thing is bad: such delights are not weakly expensive, especially if the rest does not last a couple of days, but a week, two or a month, as it usually happens with me. The presence of a kitchen helps out: food in Italian stores is about the same as ours, and their quality and taste are ten times higher. Believe me, in Italy you can enjoy not only food in restaurants, but also more affordable things: wines, cheeses, fruits, vegetables, sausages - in general, our favorite sanctioner. We have not eaten cheese in Russia for a long time - why poison ourselves with our surrogates, if in Europe a real work of art awaits you on the shelves of any supermarket for just € 1-2?
I rent apartments and houses when traveling on Airbnb - they have a huge selection of accommodations at any price and a convenient website.
9. Withdraw and pay with your card in euros
I have not used exchangers for a long time, but simply withdraw money from my Tinkoff Black card at local ATMs abroad without commission. Or I pay her all purchases from my account in euros. In a couple of clicks, the card becomes multicurrency, so you can buy the euro online in advance at the most favorable rate and no longer depend on its surges. This way you can save money and time, as well as protect yourself from pickpockets, scammers and hotel thefts - this happens in tourist places in Italy. In general, I recommend the card, especially since now the bank gives all new customers 1000 rubles to the account for a promotion.
Also read my review of the All Airlines credit card, another advantageous travel card.
10. Look for free beaches
How much Italy has not flirted with communism in the last century, but all in vain - the beaches there are completely paid! And besides, they are also overcrowded: tourists from all over Europe come, and Italians themselves simply adore beach activities. Well, You-Know-in-What-Month There is real hell!
Many resorts have free beaches: I've found these in Rimini and Sicily. True, they are rather small, but here it is a sin to complain. Find these municipal beaches and swim there if you want to save some money.
11. Save money on attractions
The main museums, amusement parks, viewing and other very popular tourist attractions in Italy are very expensive. For a short trip, they alone can cost hundreds of euros. If you want to relax on a cheap, then give up expensive attractions, visit only free and inexpensive ones, or try to get to the main museums on free days. Walk more, because Rome, Milan, Venice, Florence and any other famous city in Italy is an open-air museum. None of these cities can be seen in full even in a week or two - so if you wish, you can completely abandon museums or at least see only a couple of the most important ones. In Italy, you will definitely not get bored!
If you want to find out as much as possible and take a walk with an excursion, then order them on the Tripster and Sputnik - there are good prices and, most importantly, there are real reviews from tourists about the quality of excursions. So it is better than looking for a guide locally or with a tour operator.
