This blog post goes into details how we spent two weeks exploring Italy, paying less than $150 dollars (Australian) per night for triple room accommodation.
Europe, including Italy, has long been thought as an expensive family travel destination. But many times we scrapped plans of holidaying in Asia and head straight to Europe, because.. travelling to Europe can often works out to be cheaper. Yes you read that right, CHEAPER!
If your family have been to places like Japan, Hong Kong, Korea and Singapore, you will be wrong to think that Europe is out of reach. By the way, all figures quoted in this blog post are in Australian dollars.
January (our preferred month of travel) is still considered high season travel in Asia. Family rooms in a centrally located Singapore hotel will never be less than $380/night. Or if you are heading to Tokyo, staying at the famous Disneyland hotel will set you back over $800/night…ouch!
Comparing this to January’s low season in Europe, you can easily find family rooms in countries like Italy for under $150/night! Essentially this means your 1 week holiday in Asia is the equivalent to a 2 weeks holiday in Europe!
During our January 2019 Italy trip, we spent 13 nights in Italy and chose accommodation ranging from $109 a night to $181 a night. As always, we booked our accommodation via Booking.com and Airbnb.
As a family of 3, we prefer to keep our usual sleeping arrangements, which means our son sleeps on his own bed. If you only need to stay in a double / queen room, prices quoted below will be even cheaper.
Here’s a detailed breakdown of what our 13 nights Italian accommodation looks like:
BOLOGNA: L’8 Boutique Design Apartments – $165/night in 37m2 superior apartment (4 nights)
Located in the historic old town is this charming ground floor apartment. We loved the design and quirkiness of this apartment. It was the perfect accommodation for our stay in Bologna. Federica, our host was easily contactable via Whatsapp. Our son accidentally left his beloved teddy bear here, and Federica kindly posted his teddy to our last destination, Venice.
SIENA: Hotel Italia – $109/night in 23m2 standard triple room with breakfast (1 night)
As we transferred into Siena via train, we wanted to find a place super close to the train station. Hotel Italia is only 100 meters from the station exit point (follow the series of escalators going up). It is also a 20 minute easy walk to the Piazza del Campo. This hotel was perfect for our one night stay in beautiful Siena. The rooms are dated but clean and beds are comfortable.
FLORENCE: Hotel Aurora – $120/night in 20m2 classic triple room with breakfast (4 nights)
This is a centrally located no frills Florence hotel. The decor is vintage 1970s Italy and but the bathroom has been renovated. The steak restaurant next door “Trattoria Dall’Oste” is a must try. This hotel is positioned directly opposite Santa Maria Novella train station. It is also only 800 meter walk to the Duomo which makes it an ideal option for budget travellers.
VERONA: Hotel: Pepita Lodge – $181/night in 28m2 large double room with extra bed and breakfast (1 night)
This 6 rooms boutique hotel is situated in between the train station and old town, and made a good base for our one night stay in Verona. It is recently refurbished in 2017 so it is really modern and functional for our family. We had the best aperitivo a few doors down at “Ostinati”.
VENICE: Hotel: Hotel Campiello – $173/night in 40m2 studio with breakfast (3 nights)
We absolutely adored this huge studio for our 3 nights stay. It was modern, spacious and comes with a kitchenette. Location was perfect being only 200 meter walk to St Mark’s square and just 100 meters to San Zaccaria Vaporetto water bus stop. Definitely a great value stay in this otherwise expensive and touristy city.
So for this Italy trip total accommodation spent for 13 nights was: $1,949.
Which equates to an average of just: $149.92/night.
As a comparison for $1,949 we can’t even afford a 3 nights stay at a Tokyo Disneyland hotel. Or we could only spend about 5 nights in a standard 4 stars Singapore hotel.
It is a no brainer why we chose to go for 13 days exploring Italy.
“But how about the airfares? Airfares to Italy cost a fortune!”
Not if you book in advance. We prefer to book 6 months in advance. As mentioned in our Italy post, we flew Emirates and our airfares works out to about $1,200 per person. Had we gone to Japan during that same time it would cost about $1,100/person or $900/person if we preferred travelling to Singapore.
“But surely your daily spend in Italy will be way more expensive!”
Not at all. During this holiday our Australian dollar was ok against the Euro, but was declining against both the Japanese Yen and Singapore dollar. Also there are many ways to save money while travelling. And in Italy we did not go shopping for designer items and souvenirs. So again overall Italy works out better. Our goal is to go on two holidays, EVERY YEAR.
“Shall we start booking our Italy trip?”
We highly recommend it. Italy is our best family travel destination to date. But like all family travel, do your costing when you’re ready to book.
Note: Those of you who have been following us know, this is not quite what happened. We actually ended up “upgrading” our accommodation in Florence for two nights, staying at Airbnb – Renaissance Apartment in Historic Building with Duomo Views – $330/night.
This Airbnb was the most amazing place we have ever stayed in. We loved everything about it; the decor, the history, even the world’s tiniest elevator and the fact that you are so close to the Duomo you can almost touch it. Photos don’t do this place justice. We normally never spend this much on accommodation. But this was truly a once in a lifetime experience.
