A brief recap: I see a deal on TravelZoo a few months ago for a 6N trip to Sorrento, Italy that my wife and I can do for ~$2700. My immediate reaction: I can do better. In fact, in turns out that I can do much better: the cost of our alternative trip is now up to ~$4000.
But this is an apples and oranges comparison:
Travel Zoo:
- Coach from O’Hare to Naples + return
- 6 nights in a modest “3 star” hotel a kilometer or so from downtown Sorrento (middling reviews on TripAdvisor)
Our trip:
- Business/Club, O’Hare to Rome; return Business/Club Naples to O’Hare
- 4 nights in Rome, 4 star hotel ~10 minute walk from the Coliseum
- 4 nights in Sorrento, at a boutique hotel (rave reviews on TripAdvisor) in the heart of Sorrento
- 1 night at a 4 star hotel, prime location, Naples
- Open jaw: no need to travel all the way back to Rome for our return
Two Business Class tickets on British Airways, even during their current sale, same travel dates, would cost $7,298, so we’re not doing all that badly.
A word or two of explanation: this is a trip to celebrate a milestone anniversary, and our first trip to Italy. Somewhere along the way, I mentally made the shift from economizing to the max to making sure we had nice accommodations that we’d both enjoy, and decided to go Business Class for the long transatlantic flights. What can I say?
The BA tickets ended up costing ~$1340. For Premier Economy, our net cost would have been $600. Here’s how: we accumulated 215K miles on our BA cards. Were we to have traveled Premier Economy, we would have only had to pay the fuel surcharge, which was $296 per ticket. To travel Business Class, we needed 240K miles – so I purchased 25K miles for ~$737. $600 + $737 = ~$1340
I originally intended to use Hilton Honors miles for the hotel in Sorrento. The Hilton property, however, is located several miles from town and requires 40,000 points per night. Too many points, lukewarm reviews on TripAdvisor, and too far from town.
…and so it goes. In the final analysis, I think we’ve ended up with a terrific itinerary, and I have no qualms at all about any of the hotels. We’re thrilled, and can’t wait.
One final comparison to the original TravelZoo deal: if we’d instead opted for Premier Economy on BA and spent 6 nights in Sorrento at our choice of hotel, our cost for the two of us would have been ~$1500. It pays to leverage airline miles credit card offers!
During the course of planning the trip I’ve heavily relied upon several tools:
- TripAdvisor: terrific for actual user reviews of hotels – it’s been indispensable
- VirtualTourist: tons of reviews on hotels, restaurants, traveler warnings/scams, attractions, and much more
- Rick Steves Italy 2010 Guidebook: packed with info about the cities we’ll visit, plus a very helpful introduction to Italy. I’ll probably use a razor knife to cut out the pages I’m interested so I can bring them along on the trip; heresy, I know, but I don’t feel like lugging the entire thing along
- iPod Touch apps:
- Italian 24/7 Tutor – several versions including free – learn key words, by category
- Talking Italian Phrasebook – $0.99 – handy for learning key phrases, organized by category
- SlowTravelItaly.com: some useful information; digging required
What tools do you find most useful when planning trips? Do you have any you’d recommend? If yes, please comment.
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February 5th, 2010 at 8:45 am
Sounds like you need a Cray supercomputer to figure out all the permutations and angles. Wow!
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February 5th, 2010 at 6:00 pm
I did a three month backpacking tour of Europe last year and Naples and the Amalfi coast was one of my favorite bits; the first place I could really see myself moving to.
Skip Capri, it’s totally not worth it. Spend more time in Sorrento. Otherwise you already have the absolute best guide to Italy. Rick Steves was indispensable on my trip.
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Kevin Reply:
February 5th, 2010 at 7:52 pm
Andy,
Thanks for your comment. What about Naples did you enjoy the most?? We’ll really only have one day there. As far as Sorrento is concerned, did you make the trip to Positano?
Thx again,
Kevin
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February 5th, 2010 at 8:20 pm
This is entirely personal taste, but I enjoy ramshackle “old world” type cities; Lisbon is another favorite. Many think Naples is filthy, but that bit of grunge I think adds personality. If this is a romantic trip, I would probably stick to the Amalfi coast. My suggestion? Spend a day in Naples, visit the archeological museum and do Rick’s Naples walk. Definitely visit Da Michele and try the best pizza in the world for only €4. Then spend the rest of your time in the Amalfi coast. There is no reason to spend the night in Naples, since it’s only a 70 min train ride from Sorrento and the nightlife in Sorrento is much more cozy and romantic.
I did the bus ride from Sorrento to Amalfi, and took a ferry back. I spent most of that time in Positano. It’s probably the most beautiful stretch of land I’ve ever seen (and I’ve seen my fair share of pretty landscape). I would definitely recommend the Amalfi coast, most especially Positano.
I went to Capri specifically because I’ve always wanted to see the Blue Grotto. I spent something like €80 total for the five minute privilege. It was one of those bucket list items, but I definitely would not recommend it otherwise. I wish I had spent more time in Sorrento instead.
I stayed at a B&B in Sorrento called Mami Camilla (http://www.mamicamilla.com) which also served as a cooking school for Cordon Bleu students. They have private rooms and hostel beds, and I was lucky enough that though I paid for a hostel bed, I got a room all to myself. I only spent €15/night and had gourmet breakfasts every morning for €5 (they also have amazing dinners).
As far as Rome, I spent four days there as well and if you follow Rick’s itinerary and use his audioguides and walking tours you can’t go wrong. Absolutely definitely get a Roma Pass, you’ll be skipping lines everywhere while chumps wait for hours. Get it at the Colosseo metro stop since that’s closest to your hotel.
I would recommend you get Rick Steve’s Rome book, the Kindle version is $10 and you can use the Kindle app on your iPod touch. You save weight and the Rome book has more walking tours and information than is in your Italy book. I would also recommend downloading his audioguides for free off iTunes.
Have fun! I wish I was back there myself.
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February 5th, 2010 at 8:28 pm
By the way, you don’t need a razor knife, just bend the book all the way back until you break the spine, then grab the chunk of pages you want and gently but firmly pull on them until the glue separates from the spine. It’s much cleaner and easier than tearing or cutting pages.
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