Re: Honeymoon help/ideas
posted at 8/11/2009 10:15 AM EDT
We went to Amalfi on our honeymoon. You DEFINITELY do NOT need to spend $500 per night on a hotel. $800 might be the right ballpark for airfare, but I don't know for certain because we used frequent flier miles to buy our tickets. You should definitely look at flying into Rome. We took the train from Rome to Sorrento without a problem.
For the Amalfi coast, Sorrento is a fantastic place to stay. It is a little less expensive than Capri, Amalfi or Positano, but it is totally charming and has great transportation connections. We stayed in Sorrento for 4 nights, and then took the ferry or bus to make day trips to the other destinations. Sorrento is nice because it has a cute touristy bustling downtown with tons of cute shops and restaurants. It had more going on then Amalfi or Positano, which made gorgeous day trips but were pretty quiet sleepy towns.
I have been to Greece too, and Santorini is every bit as beautiful as people say. I stayed on Crete though and did Santorini as a day trip. Crete is cool too, but the city I was staying in was a bit less touristy/more busy. Anyway, I don't know about hotel costs because my travel companion was there for work, which was subsidizing the hotel. My sister did Greece on a tight budget this summer, but she stuck to hostels.
Definitely get the Rick Steves guidebook if you do Italy. He has great hotel recs (I cross-referenced them with tripadvisor) and many places we stayed offered discounts for mentioning his book.
We stayed here in Sorrento:
...we stuck to the Standard room and it was lovely. They have a gorgeous pool garden and awesome breakfast. I highly recommend the hotel, so let me know if you have questions about it. It was the splurgiest place we stayed on our honeymoon, but was MUCH less than $500. We got a special Rick Steves rate that was slightly below the rates advertised on their website. There are even cheaper spots in Sorrento that also get great reviews. I've heard raves for Il Nido, for example.
For a 7-10 day trip, I would probably pick 2-3 destinations that are within a reasonable train ride of each other (or ferry if you do the Greek isles). We were in Italy for 14 days and did: Rome, Sorrento, Florence, Siena (1 night), Venice, Milan (1 night). It was busy, but we planned really carefully in a lot of detail before we left, so it wasn't stressful. We had a blast and stayed 2-4 nights each place, with the exceptions listed above.
good luck! happy trip planning!
