This price is based on 2 people travelling from East Midlands on 17th November returning 24th November and staying at hotels in Milan, Verona, Venice and Bologna.
All the hotels I have chosen include parking on site except the Milan one which has free parking nearby, I recommend contacting any hotel in advance in regard to parking incase the have limited spaces.
Holiday summary
Milan - 17th - 19th November
Verona - 19th - 21st November
Venice - 21st - 23rd November
Bologna - 23rd November
Holiday Details
17th November
You will arrive at Milan Bergamo around 1800 where you will pick up your car and drive into Milan which will take around an hour, park near the hotel and check in.
I wouldn't recommend driving in Milan as it has an amazing metro and tram service which is cheap and can get you around the city.
18th November
Day exploring Milan
19th November
Check out of the hotel and decide wether to spend another day in Milan or head off to Verona. The drive to Verona is around 2 hours.
20th November
Day exploring Verona
21st November
Check out of the hotel in Verona in the morning and head to Venice, the drive is around 1 hour 20. I have chosen the Hotel Aaron in Mestre as I have stayed here myself and know it's a lovely little modern hotel close to the train station which gets you to the heart of Venice in around 10 minutes and is only around 4€ return. I have chosen Mestre for a base as the car is completely useless in Venice and you won't be able to get the car a hotel on the island because there are no roads!!
November 22nd
Explore Venice
November 23rd
Check out the hotel and hit the road for Bologna, the drive is around an hour and a half. A day in Bologna is enough because it is only a small city.
November 24th
Check out of the hotel and set off for Bergamo airport which should take around just under 2.5 hours! Make sure you leave yourself plenty of time to get to the airport incase of traffic!
All the hotels I have chosen on have great reviews on Tripadvisor however you can change them if you fancy something a bit fancier or if you want to keep the price lower you can choose some hostels with shared bathrooms!
Price breakdown
Ryanair flights - £71.96 - £35.98pp - booked through Ryanair
Car hire - £34.32 - £17.16pp - booked through Vehicle-rent via skyscanner
Milan hotel - Bed & Bed inc breakfast - £101.28 - £50.64pp - booked through Venere
Verona hotel - Ibis Verona - £61.04 - £30.52pp - booked through Venere
Venice hotel - Hotel Aaron - £60 - £30pp - booked through TravelRepublic
Bologna hotel - Grand Hotel Elite - £31 - £15.50pp - booked through Tripadvisor
Total price for holiday - £358.60
Total price each - £179.30
This is just an idea and can easily be tweaked to miss a city out if you'd prefer an extra night somewhere else.
Don't forget in Italy they charge city tax on hotels which is between 1-3€pppn depending on the city and what star the hotel is!
Also Italy charge tolls on their motorways so keep come of your spends aside for these as if you don't know about them they can quite easily eat into your spending money!
This deal also doesn't include baggage but does include a 10kg hand luggage and a handbag, which is easily enough for me personally! You'll be surprised what you can fit in if you try and just buy your toiletries either in the airport or when you get to Italy, easy!
If you don't fancy driving the Fiat 500 the car hire can easily be changed to suit your need but again I'd have no problem travelling around in this car if you want to keep the cost low!
Remember to always look for voucher codes I know at the moment venere have a 15% off code for mobile bookings so this will save you some extra £££ !!
All comments (23)
BlueSkies
20 Oct 15#1
BlueSkies
20 Oct 15#2
HamanBasher
20 Oct 15#3
Hot for effort... BUT.. Not exactly a road trip when the longest drive is 2 hours! Mainly a multi city break!
BlueSkies to HamanBasher
20 Oct 15#4
If you're travelling around by car it's still a road trip, I broke the drive up by stopping at places close by, could have easily included places like Rome, Pisa, Florence etc but if you've only got a week why waste time with long drives!
pablomalin
20 Oct 151#5
I would go and spend a day at Garda rather than Bologna and this will cut your km's as we know their autobahns are quite expensive.
BlueSkies
20 Oct 15#6
The lakes are a good shout, so pretty too!
pwel
20 Oct 15#7
agree, why you should waste time on long drives if you can avoid them...personally, Im trying to finish asap my campervan project for next summer so when im traveling i can stop where and whenever I like and enjoy the most of my holidays..
BlueSkies
20 Oct 15#8
Omg that sounds amazing, think of how much money you'll save on hotels, I'd love to get a little camper van and go explore!
celticprince
20 Oct 15#9
Lovely trip OP, heat added :smiley:
Who wants to go?
eatmorefish
20 Oct 15#10
Trains between cities in Itay are as good as any in the uk. Apex tickets widely available on sites like treitalia.it and very cheap. the Autostrada are all toll roads.
davidbrent
20 Oct 15#11
Be warned. The majority of car hire places in Italy require a credit card to secure the booking and will not accept a debit card. I don't have a credit card and the prebooked car hire I had arranged at the airport refused to let me take it despite having paid the deposit and having sufficient funds on the debit card. Never had a problem in Spain/Greece etc. Oh and don't forget the Italians drive like maniacs.
msharif911 to davidbrent
20 Oct 15#14
I think they pre-authorise a HELL of a lot of money which would be all tied up on your debit card untill they release it.
bbeettaa
20 Oct 15#12
Edited that for you.
Bullet trains with rival companies.
msharif911
20 Oct 15#13
I am an excellent driver, but driving in Rome terrified the living carp out of me. On a roundabout the traffic JOINING the roundabout has right of way. Yes, you read that right.
I was there for a year and never ever got used to it. If you are getting a hire car dont even think about not getting CDW.
celticprince to msharif911
21 Oct 15#19
Hey 'Rain Man', if you want to put Rome into Italian context, try Naples!
jamcon72
21 Oct 15#15
cracking deal. well done :smiley:
darren9030
21 Oct 151#16
That's fair enough David , but with your last comment I doubt you've ever driven in Malta, Romania ( Bucharest anyway ) & Lithuania . They make the Italian's seem as though they drive Tonka toys :wink:
chillpill
21 Oct 15#17
BlueSkies. Could you get in touch with me? I would like something like this but for summer and have no clue where/how to start.
cheaperbythe12
21 Oct 15#18
Agree with this. If you book far in enough in advance and organise your trip as best you can, travelling by train is the best way. I just did Rome to Venice for Euro29 pp - it was a joy and much faster than by car. Driving in Italy is an absolute lottery no matter how good a driver you are since the Italians can, and often will, drive you off the road. The toll roads between cities will add up so perhaps consider the trains, which are far better than we have in UK. Just watch out for the damn lightning strikes which can begin within 24 hours - this happened to me years ago and I missed a wedding and had to pay for a new ticket for a later train despite the strike being completely out of my hands.
Voted hot op for the effort.
davidbrent
21 Oct 151#20
Can't say I've ever driven in those places so I won't play that one-upmanship game and also,this deal is for Italy not those places so not quite sure of the relevance. But suffice to say, if one is used to driving in England, then the driving experience in Italy is rather different. Beautiful country but driving there is not a relaxing pleasure a lot of the time.
msharif911
21 Oct 151#21
I've had quite enough of driving in Italy. I dont think my nerves could handle anymore.
Lyssie
25 Oct 15#22
Thanks Blueskies, think we're going to attempt something like this! Only thing I would say is that Goldcar has pages and pages online dedicated to how bad it is. If possible, another car rental company may be preferable!
BlueSkies to Lyssie
25 Oct 15#23
Cool I'll keep that in mind next time about goldcar, never booked with them myself so can't even defend them haha!
Opening post
All the hotels I have chosen include parking on site except the Milan one which has free parking nearby, I recommend contacting any hotel in advance in regard to parking incase the have limited spaces.
Holiday summary
Milan - 17th - 19th November
Verona - 19th - 21st November
Venice - 21st - 23rd November
Bologna - 23rd November
Holiday Details
17th November
You will arrive at Milan Bergamo around 1800 where you will pick up your car and drive into Milan which will take around an hour, park near the hotel and check in.
I wouldn't recommend driving in Milan as it has an amazing metro and tram service which is cheap and can get you around the city.
18th November
Day exploring Milan
19th November
Check out of the hotel and decide wether to spend another day in Milan or head off to Verona. The drive to Verona is around 2 hours.
20th November
Day exploring Verona
21st November
Check out of the hotel in Verona in the morning and head to Venice, the drive is around 1 hour 20. I have chosen the Hotel Aaron in Mestre as I have stayed here myself and know it's a lovely little modern hotel close to the train station which gets you to the heart of Venice in around 10 minutes and is only around 4€ return. I have chosen Mestre for a base as the car is completely useless in Venice and you won't be able to get the car a hotel on the island because there are no roads!!
November 22nd
Explore Venice
November 23rd
Check out the hotel and hit the road for Bologna, the drive is around an hour and a half. A day in Bologna is enough because it is only a small city.
November 24th
Check out of the hotel and set off for Bergamo airport which should take around just under 2.5 hours! Make sure you leave yourself plenty of time to get to the airport incase of traffic!
All the hotels I have chosen on have great reviews on Tripadvisor however you can change them if you fancy something a bit fancier or if you want to keep the price lower you can choose some hostels with shared bathrooms!
Price breakdown
Ryanair flights - £71.96 - £35.98pp - booked through Ryanair
Car hire - £34.32 - £17.16pp - booked through Vehicle-rent via skyscanner
Milan hotel - Bed & Bed inc breakfast - £101.28 - £50.64pp - booked through Venere
Verona hotel - Ibis Verona - £61.04 - £30.52pp - booked through Venere
Venice hotel - Hotel Aaron - £60 - £30pp - booked through TravelRepublic
Bologna hotel - Grand Hotel Elite - £31 - £15.50pp - booked through Tripadvisor
Total price for holiday - £358.60
Total price each - £179.30
This is just an idea and can easily be tweaked to miss a city out if you'd prefer an extra night somewhere else.
Don't forget in Italy they charge city tax on hotels which is between 1-3€pppn depending on the city and what star the hotel is!
Also Italy charge tolls on their motorways so keep come of your spends aside for these as if you don't know about them they can quite easily eat into your spending money!
This deal also doesn't include baggage but does include a 10kg hand luggage and a handbag, which is easily enough for me personally! You'll be surprised what you can fit in if you try and just buy your toiletries either in the airport or when you get to Italy, easy!
If you don't fancy driving the Fiat 500 the car hire can easily be changed to suit your need but again I'd have no problem travelling around in this car if you want to keep the cost low!
Remember to always look for voucher codes I know at the moment venere have a 15% off code for mobile bookings so this will save you some extra £££ !!
All comments (23)
Who wants to go?
Bullet trains with rival companies.
I was there for a year and never ever got used to it. If you are getting a hire car dont even think about not getting CDW.
Voted hot op for the effort.