Vacation Rental or Hotel Room in Rome?

Next September, my wife and I plan to go back to Italy. This trip, we will spend the first four to five days in Rome before jumping into our rentacar and driving south to Sorrento for 2 days. After the Amalfi Coast, we will take two more days and drive up Italy’s scenic East (Adriatic) Coast all the way to the top-right, northeast Italy on the Austria and Slovenia border – to our ultimate destination - Friuli, where my wife’s family is from. We will stay in Friuli to visit and EAT with family for about six days and then drive 4 hours west, over to Milan for the direct flight back to Miami.

While it is a year away, for big trips like this I like to do a lot of deep planning. And I like to be planning at exactly a year out so I can see the “now” and think about the “then”. For example, the weather now is perfect in Friuli and in the South. Also, we want to avoid Venice because the Film Festival – the oldest in the world – is happening now and will be happening then – next year at this time. By doing my research in this mirroring fashion, I get to see in real time what is going on now and look to see if it will be going on then.

What I cannot seem to do right now is see on Orbitz.com what a hotel room would cost in Rome because they only go out 11 Months in advance.

However, I can absolutely do this now on Holiday-Velvet.com and find terrific apartment rentals all over Rome and the rest of Europe. You CAN search a year out for a Vacation Rental in Rome on Holiday-Velvet. I am thinking of this Blog article as the 1st in a series where I will share my experience of researching then booking then going to Italy, at this time next year. What I see so far is that a Vacation Rental seems much more economical in Rome compared to what it appears a hotel costs. While I cannot be certain due to the inability to look out 12 months on Orbitz, it seems that a comparable Rome Vacation Rental will save us at least $150 a day in lodging and dining cost. That $150 in daily savings will pay for the entire car rental cost for the whole trip! Very cool Holiday-Velvet! Bravo! Affare fatto! (It's a deal!) That's it for today. I will pick this up another in real time day soon when I have more time to research. Arrivederci!

Posted by Joel Fellman on 9/8/2009 0 Comments