Italy Budget Travel Tips

Hey there fellow travelers, Mark here with Wolters World and today we're in Caserta, Italy, right outside the Royal Palace of Caserta, just north of Naples. And today what we have for you are some budget tips on visiting Italy so your money can go a little bit farther when you're enjoying all that pista, pasta, and historic sites here in Italy. And I really gotta tell you, Italy does not have to be an expensive place to go when you travel. I know a lot of people have this idea, well, I went to Venice and it was expensive and I was in Florence and it was expensive. Well yeah, if you're at some of the major tourist spots and you're gonna be staying right downtown, right near some of the main sites, that will be expensive. So when you're starting to think about your trip to Italy, also think about where you're gonna stay because the location of your accommodation will have a huge impact on your budget. So staying a little bit farther away from the sites, now I'm not saying don't stay in the historic centers, those are always worth staying in. Whether it's Rome or Florence or Vicenza or Bari or wherever, it's always better to stay in the center, but just maybe don't be right on the Basilica San Nicolas in Bari or maybe don't be right on, you know, the Grand Canal in Venice. Stay a little bit farther away, a little bit farther from that, and the prices can drop significantly, okay? So there's one off the bat that's really gonna help you save quite a bit, okay? But let's talk about a fun budget tip we have for you, and that is take advantage of aperitivo time. So if you're not sure what aperitivos are, those are the drinks you see the Italians sitting out having about, you know, between 4 in the afternoon to 8 o'clock at night with their friends. They're just chatting, having a spritz, you know, maybe having some little snacks. Thing is, if you go out for aperitivo time, because you're gonna want to have a drink after you've enjoyed all the beautiful sights in Italy, wherever you are in Italy, you go, you sit down, and you have a drink, and they bring free snacks for you. Yes, you can get free snacks with every drink you get. So if you're gonna get those aperitivi, those drinks, enjoy the snacks that come with it because if you have 3 or 4 drinks, you might get 3 or 4 plates of snacks, and that might be your dinner, okay? Because my next budget tip for you is actually do your big meal at lunch, and I know this is a worldwide known thing. Lunch specials, lunch deals will go a long way to help you save money, but also, if you have that big meal at lunch, if you do aperitivo time for dinner, kind of, then you're done for the day because you'll be so full and so happy, and your budget will be happy too because you just saved a dinner meal price. Now, another thing I think is important, if we're looking at little things that add up over time, if you're gonna be coming to Italy for, you know, 1 or 2 weeks or maybe a month, and you love your espressos, right? And we all love our espressos when we come here, you have your little coffees, my little budget tip for you is don't sit down. If you're gonna get an espresso, stand at the bar and drink it because if you sit down at the cafe, you might have a coperto, which is a cover charge, it could be 1 or 2 euros to add on to that, which doesn't seem a lot, but if you sit down and have 2 or 3 espressos a day, well, that's 6 euros a day times 10 days, all of a sudden that's 60 euros, hey, that can get you a hostel and some meals, I mean, that could get you a cheap hotel in some places, that could get my wife and I a nice dinner. Those little things add up, so make sure if you're just gonna have your little espresso, stand at the bar. Same thing, if you just wanna get a little snack, just stand at the bar with a snack, don't sit down because you might be getting an extra charge for that. Now, another way that tourists really burn through their money is if they eat near tourist sites. Now, I'm not gonna lie to you, sometimes you wanna pay for that view, I mean, I have eaten and drank on Piazza San Marco in Venice because my God, that view is fantastic, but I paid out the wazoo for it, okay, so anytime you're near a tourist site, just know the prices are usually inflated and a lot of times the flavor is kind of deflated because they know so many tourists wanna sit there in that spot. So what I recommend for you, go walk two or three blocks away from those main sites and you'll start hearing more Italian at those restaurants and at those cafes and go eat there and you'll notice that the prices tend to drop block by block, how much better it is for your wallet, so something to think about. Also, if you're near one of those sites and you wanna get a bottle of water, you wanna grab a snack or something, don't buy right, like I know, for example, Vatican City, you'll see these little kiosks, these little carts out there, they're selling waters and drinks and snacks, if you need it, get it, it's fine, but if you know you're gonna need drinks during the day, stop by a supermarket and pick some stuff up so you have it when you travel. Whenever we take the train here in Italy, we always stop in the supermarket at the train station to grab some snacks so we don't pay the overpriced snacks on the train, it's the same thing, grab those snacks and drinks so you don't pay the overpriced prices when you're by those sites, okay, so just have a heads up for that. Another quick little thing that might help you save some money when you're here in Italy is your wine choice, now, Italy has fantastic wines all over the country and each region has their own wines, but if you wanna save money when you're drinking wine here, when you go to the restaurant, just get the vino della casa, the house wine will be probably the cheapest wine on the menu, no, it won't come in a fancy bottle, it might come in a jar or some glasses or a big jar, a little jar, but the thing is, it's gonna be good, it's gonna- I mean, it's gonna taste good, it's gonna be refreshing, you're gonna love it and it's gonna be cheap and that's a lot more affordable than getting a bottle of wine that could be 40 or 50 euros when you can just get a jar of wine for 10 to 15 euros and that adds up, especially if you're enjoying wine with most of your meals like somebody I know does. Now, another big saver and this is one I highly recommend is buy your train tickets in advance, I mean, I'm not joking, we get it with Liam here on our trip together, we're saving like 60% on our train tickets by booking early, okay? So don't wait last minute, if you know you're gonna go, go to trainitalia.com and you can book your tickets before you come here and you already have them, have the PDF on your phone, they scan it, you're good to go and you can save big time bucks, I mean, we're here for a month and I've saved over 500 euros on the tickets for the three of us for all of our train tickets just by booking early and that is not an insignificant amount of money, okay? So you could really save big, especially if you're gonna be traveling a lot around Italy like we're going all over the north to all over the south and the center, so do think about that and get those train tickets early. Also, it's gonna help if it's a fret check because then you get your, your reserve seat that's already required and you're not worried about not having a seat. Now another thing I have for you is actually think about using different cities to stay in than the more popular city. For example, Venice is super expensive to stay in, but you know what? You can stay in Padova, you can stay in Vicenza, those are both less than an hour away and you can do day trips to Venice and then go back and enjoy more of a traditional Italian city versus traditional tourist city, okay? So for example, if you want to do the Amalfi Coast, which is really expensive, maybe stay in Sorrento and sometimes staying in the bigger city could be cheaper like staying in Naples and then going to the Amalfi Coast will also save you some money. So think about where you're gonna stay in terms of the city that can help you out because honestly another budget thing that's gonna help you out when you're here is just using public transportation. Taxis in Italy are nefarious for their pricing, let's say, and also you're not gonna find Uber and Lyft all over the country. There might be some in Milan and Rome and like that's it, okay? So it's taxis or public transportation or you're hiring a private driver and those are even more expensive. So learn to love the public transportation here because that's gonna save you a lot of money though it might be delayed occasionally, so just have a heads up for that. Now another cool thing is if you're here and you're planning out your trip and you're looking at the museums you want to go to or the sites you want to visit, look and see when they have their free day of the month because a lot of places actually do have a free day. For example, if you want to go to Pompeii, the first Sunday of the month at Pompeii is free, right? And so other museums might have those discounts. It might just be a discount afternoon or it might be a discount evening or it might be a free day, but little things like that can add up and help you save money and that's why another thing to look at is maybe you want to get one of those cards like the Roma card or the Florence card or the Florence pass, you know, those city cards, those can be a good money saver, but the key thing if they're going to be a money saver, make sure you look and see do they have the museums that you want to go to because if they do then it can really help you out, but if they don't, then it's kind of like a glorified overpriced public transportation ticket and you don't need to do that. So make sure you do your research about what's available on that card, okay? And kind of going along with that, I think another thing if you're not going to get those cards is also another budget tip is really choose your sites wisely because there's so much to see and do in Italy, I mean just so much to see and do that it's almost overwhelming and don't think you need to see every single thing because your budget will explode with all those entry tickets. So what you might want to do is be judicious in terms of what you're going to go see. We'll do the Colosseum and we'll do the Forum and we'll do the Vatican, but we'll pass on the Villa Borghese this time. Do that, that's going to help you control your budget more. And then of course there's always avoiding summer peak season. Look, Italy is famous for its beautiful weather, beautiful people, beautiful food, beautiful destinations and everyone knows that. So from June through August it's packed, like August is insane how busy Italy gets and how insane the prices get. So if you can come in shoulder season like in April, May, September, October, usually you have still decent weather, but you have a lot less tourists here and that means the flight tickets are cheaper, there's less people in line, so you're not losing time, which is not free, you know. That can really help you out, okay? So I hope these budget tips can help you enjoy Italy better on a few less euros per day. What are some of your favorite budget tips for visiting Italy? Put it down in the comment section below so we can help other travelers save a bit of euros or lira if you prefer when they come here to Italy. Ciao from Italy.