Anyone have any experience planning a trip to Italy using Tripmasters?

August 16, 2016 10:17 PM

We are limited in our time frame of traveling to Italy and have decided to plan it ourselves. Has anyone used the site Tripmasters to plan independent travel? Any perspective since we have read the online reviews but want also some first hand advice.

We are planning a trip to Italy in mid October. Group tours are not an option at this point since we can only take off for about a week and our time frame and schedule is a limiting factor. We came across the Tripmasters website to help us plan an independent trip to Italy. For 7 days (including travel from the US to Italy) we planned a trip from Rome to Florence to Venice.

However, I've never taken a trip or planned one for Europe before. Based on so much work in research, we found this website helpful for planning plane tickets, and then booking hotels, and then pre-ordering tickets to the sites we wish visit. It also offers coordination of taking the train.

It's time to pull the trigger and book the plane ticket since we've been mulling about planning for this trip for about 2 months.

We've been using Rick Steve's and several other websites. Our aim is to also control costs, while having getting the best value. We plan only to arrive in Rome and do 2 sites in Rome (spend 3 days), 2 sites in Florence (spend 2 days), gondola ride in Venice and then head home from the Venice Airport. We also plan to use the train to get around. And book our hotels through tripmasters as well as the flight.


1. Any Metafites have personal experience using Tripmasters to plan a trip?
2. Where should I buy travel insurance?
3. What should be my ideal cost for planning 7 days to Italy?
4. Any other advice??

posted by proficiency101 to Travel & Transportation around Italy (4 answers total)

Italy is a very easy country to travel in, with a ton of stuff to see and do in most of the parts of the country that are heavily touristed by Americans. Buy a plane ticket to Rome, Florence, or Venice. Depart airport. Check into hotel. That's pretty much the only planning you absolutely have to do to have an amazing Italy trip. (There are other ways to have an amazing Italy trip, of course, but seriously it can be that simple if you want it to be.)

Some notes about your question. I've never used Tripmasters, but I have been to Italy four times and have visited most of the country at this point.

Length of visit: A week is barely enough time to make a trip to Italy from the US worthwhile, and you can kiss a trip from Rome to Florence to Venice goodbye. Ten days is about what you need to do Rome and Florence/Tuscany justice, and for three major cities I'd recommend more like two weeks. Keep in mind that these cities are not located near each other at all. You are proposing the equivalent of a one-week trip to the US encompassing New York, Boston, and Chicago. Maybe physically possible, but by no means enjoyable let alone giving you enough time to really see the sights.

Plane Tickets: you buy international plane tickets at the same websites you buy any other plane ticket. For Italy, you're probably looking at Alitalia for your airline, though there are a few other options (last time I went, I flew Turkish Air of all things). I like Kayak and Skyscanner for finding cheap fares, but assuming you are planning the typical American summer visit to one of the cities I mentioned above, the airfare is going to be what it's going to be. Be careful with deals that seem too good to be true. Major East Coast cities to Italy will be in the $500-700 range depending on when you go. Major West Coast cities to Italy will be more.

Hotels: Because you are going to Italy for only a week, you have one, maximum two, hotels to book. Try to stay in or as close as possible to the "centro storico" (historic center or main touristic part of town). Near the main train station of any city can be OK, but is also where you'll find the dodgiest hotels and also, for Rome, pretty far from the interesting parts of town. If you end up opting for Venice, STAY ON THE ISLANDS OF VENICE ITSELF. DO NOT STAY IN "Mestre", which is an outlying suburban area on the mainland.

Pre-Ordering Tickets To Sights: This is actually 100% worthwhile, and is really the only planning thing about Italy that takes real foresight. Because it will DRAMATICALLY improve your trip. That said, with only a week in country and the desire to hit two major cities, you should drastically limit the number of these planned excursions you undertake. Italy is an amazing country, and a lot of its beauty is found just wandering around, getting lost, popping in to an interesting place for lunch, stopping at this one town or checking out a certain neighborhood because it looks interesting and you have time, etc. If you plan your week in Italy to the hilt, with a few set-in-advance sight seeing appointments per day, you will miss what makes Italy special. Better to pick two or three of these and then set aside lots of time to relax and be spontaneous. I'd recommend the Uffizi and/or Accademia in Florence and the Vatican Museums in Rome. Most other things can be done at the spur of the moment, unless you want to get really intense and see The Last Supper or something (that was a trick, it's in Milan, so you're not seeing it).

Costs: this is hard to judge, because the sky is seriously the limit. I've been to Italy four times. One of those times, I worked on a winery in exchange for room and board on an estate in a very remote part of Tuscany and didn't travel around the country at all. Another of those times, I went with my father and stayed in a midrange hotel in Rome and a vacation rental house in Positano (which is a relatively swank beach town). I'm not sure the numbers there, but it was obviously a lot more than my "just chilling in a Tuscan village" trip. So, you can do this in a lot of different ways depending on whether you're looking at being a farm worker or renting a villa or something in between.

Travel Insurance: For a week's trip, you really don't need this unless you have extenuating circumstances that make cancelling the trip or having a health emergency likely.

Your proposed itinerary: lol no

My dream 7 day Italian itinerary:

Option 1 --

Day 1, depart your home city.
Day 2, arrive in Florence and be jetlagged/maybe see one really unambitious thing that doesn't require reservations.
Day 3, BIG FLORENCE DAY. Check out the Uffizi, maybe tour the Duomo or Palazzo Vecchio.
Day 4, SECOND FLORENCE DAY. One other "reservations required" activity and then spend the rest of the afternoon chilling/being spontaneous.
Day 5, take the train out into the Tuscan countryside. Siena or Fiesole are the first options that come to mind, but there are a lot of cute little towns just a couple hours from Florence by train. Wine tasting in Chianti is also an option. Spend the night wherever you ended up.
Day 6, Enjoy another day out in Tuscany, doing whatever seems interesting to you. Return to Florence in time for dinner.
Day 7, fly home.

Option 2 --

Day 1, depart your home city.
Day 2, arrive in Rome and be jetlagged/maybe see one really unambitious thing that doesn't require reservations.
Day 3, ROME DAY 1. As with the Florence itinerary, I'd do something slightly ambitious that requires advance reservations, like the Vatican Museums, then spend the afternoon doing something a bit simpler but still iconic Rome. The Pantheon, Forum, and/or Colosseum come to mind. In my opinion going inside the Colosseum is not worth it, but YMMV if you are super into gladiators.
Day 4, ROME DAY 2. Structured similar to yesterday, but with different Must See Rome sights. Only one of which should involve a reservation.
Day 5, ROME DAY 3. I would keep this day really low key and try to see some of Rome that isn't just trekking from famous tourist site to famous tourist site. There are a lot of "small time" things to see in Rome that few tourists visit because they do what you're wanting to do and try to cram the whole country into a few days.
Day 6, I would either do a fourth Rome day (seriously, Rome is a world class city, don't listen to people who claim you can see it all in a day or two) or do a day trip from Rome. Ostia Antica (ancient Roman port, even better preserved than Pompeii in a lot of ways) is perfect, in my opinion, and I remember Cerveteri (Etruscan tomb archaeological site) being pretty amazing as well. I've never been to Tivoli (Renaissance Palazzi), but I've heard good things.
Day 7, fly home.

If you are dead set on Venice, you could easily build a trip that involved a day or two in Venice proper and either a couple of day trips (of which there are MANY, Venice is surrounded by gorgeous towns and important historic sites), or choose a second more regional city to spend a couple of days in. I like Trieste, Verona, and Bologna, but there are seriously tons.

If you're desperate to do both Rome and Florence in a week, it can be done, but you'll see a lot less in each city and won't have time for any side trips. Just merge days 1 and 2 in both Florence and Rome and keep that "jetlag" buffer day to settle into whichever city you land in.
posted by Sara C. at 11:24 PM on August 16, 2016 [4 favorites]

I agree that getting to these three cities in 10 days is a bit much. I think you would be happier if you just did Rome and then either Florence or Venice. However, if you only plan to spend a single day in Venice, then maybe you won't feel rushed. Can you stretch it to 9 days, from Saturday to the next Sunday? You can count on losing between a half and a whole day flying over there depending on when your flight lands and how jetlag affects you. Then flying back takes a whole day as well. Train rides are another half day at least, so that is 2.5-3 days used for just getting around.

Lots of websites can handle both your flight and hotel reservations and many offer attraction tickets as well. Check a few others to compare the costs. Most of them are reselling Viator packages, so you could just go direct to their website. For the museums that you should prebook, go directly to their websites and get your reservation printed out before you go. Be sure to let your credit cards and banks know that you are traveling out of the country and will be charging things in Euros. When they ask if you want something charged in Euros or Dollars, say Euros because you will get a better exchange rate.
posted by soelo at 7:39 AM on August 17, 2016

First - no experience using Tripmasters. However, I've been to Italy twice, both were 10 day trips, and have some advice.

I agree with Sara above that your itinerary isn't great. With only 7 days, trying to cram in Venice, Florence and Rome is going to feel like a rushed mess. Plus you'll be jet lagged your first 1-2 days which makes it harder. It won't be relaxing, and you will miss out on just how amazing Italy is. For my first trip, I did Rome, Sorrento and the Almalfi coastline in 10 days and it was intensely rushed. I would never do that trip again in that timeframe if I could help it, or at least I'd restructure it. My second 10 day trip was Venice, Florence and Rome, and I feel even more strongly about that one feeling so rushed. I remember coming home from that and just feeling exhausted, and like I barely got to enjoy anything because just as I was starting to relax at one attraction, we had to rush to the next. If you like your vacation to feel like you are rushing around like crazy to check off things on a list, then certainly go for it. But, Italy is best enjoyed by wandering around as Sara said above. If I could do it again, I'd give myself 3 or 4 days in Rome to leisurely see the sights, wander into interesting neighborhoods, stop and eat at a cafe for awhile, sample all the gelato, get some amazing wine in various places, etc. etc. Then I'd probably spend another 3-4 days in Florence doing the same, maybe taking some side trips to Tuscany (which is so amazingly beautiful - I did get to see a tiny bit of that as we were rushing through on my second trip). But now I've just made like a 10-15 day trip without leaving the Rome/Florence/Tuscany part of the country.

Regarding "ideal cost" - that's super subjective. So, my first trip I was able to do that 10 days for like $1800, BUT I went with a group and it was in college so my school got a sweet discount somehow and also this was many years ago now. The second trip was way more recent (around 6 years ago) and cost me something like $3500 or so if I remember correctly. I think since that trip, places like Rome have upped their hotel taxes and stuff, so it might cost you more per person. But it all depends on what kind of hotels you stay at, and the airfare is what it is and might be $1700 just for that depending on where you are coming from.

My main advice is to plan your trip so that you enjoy it, not so you run around checking off the sights from your list. I so wish I could re-do my last trips because they honestly felt like work when I was there. If you can, try to up your stay a couple more days, especially if you are going to visit three cities. Feel free to memail me if you have further questions that I might be able to help with. I've been to all the places you are going, and some of the places in-between, and I have actually been working on planning a third trip back to Italy since my husband has never been there, so I'm in quasi planning mode for a trip that may happen in the next few years.
posted by FireFountain at 9:01 AM on August 17, 2016 [1 favorite]

I'll chime in here and say that to really do things on a budget, consider using Airbnb - hotels in Rome (that are in a decent location, and are someplace you'd actually *want* to stay) are crazy expensive! We generally pay about $100/night (93-95EU) for an apartment, and that means we can have breakfast in, maybe a lunch or dinner, no tipping the maids, and waayyyyy more space than a typical Italian hotel!
me-mail me if you want suggestions for any of the cities on your itinerary.
For my first trip to Italy, I'd pick Florence - there's so much astounding art and architecture (a lot of free - like the Piazza Signoria), and you can do a day trip to Sienna or Bologna easily by train.
If you take the train, you can buy your tickets in advance from Trenitalia (all high-speed). If you don't buy in advance, prices will be higher, and some peak time high-speed trains may be sold out. DO NOT take the "local" trains, they are old, really slow, and dirty.
Have a great trip!
posted by dbmcd at 10:40 AM on August 17, 2016