I live in Houston, Texas. Would it be less expensive to take a vacation to Italy or a cruise to Italy?

Question

I plan on taking a break from life and just going to Italy for a week.

Answer 1

It would be cheaper to just go to Italy.

Answer 2

First you must decide how much time you have for this vacation.  For example a flight to Italy will give you more time to experience Italy and the culture, spending the majority of your vacation in Italy.  But, if you elect to cruise to Italy it is possible the majority of your vacation would be spent sailing to and from Italy, leaving only a small amount of time to experience Italy and its culture.  The choice is yours.  As far as the cost it would depend on how far in advance you book your travel plans.  I urge you to research both options (flight & cruise) before you make that final decision.  I would recommend the following link to check competetive prices:  www.travelmonkies.org.  Good luck!

Be well

Answer 3

Why not fly to Rome and then take a cruise from there.  A great travel site for cruises is

"18K Travel"

http://www.ytbtravel.com/18ktravel

There are great deals on cruises from Rome to Savona, Barcelona, Palma de Mallorca, Tunis, Valletta, and Palermo.  When you are on a cruise, you don't have to worry about fighting airports and traffic.  All of your lodging and food is free and you get to visit some great ports.  

You also always save a ton of money and just do a cruise out of Florida to the Caribbean. A vacation is not about how much money you spend, but the experience. Remember, you may be wanting to escape life, but you won't be escaping those vacation bills when you return.

Answer 4

I don't like cruises because I like to be on my own program. I flew to Italy a few years ago and I love it there. I went for ten days flying out of JFK in NYC for only 440 round trip. I stayed at both hostels and small hotels. My flight was a direct from JFK to Da Vinci in Rome. I rented a car and drove to Napoli, took the ferry to Capri, the train south to Ecolano and Sorrento. I then went back to Rome for a night and took the train to Fiorenze (Florence), we took the bus and little day trips. You have to visit Fiesole, cool little town outside of Florence. I did the entire trip for about $1500 after the Euro conversion. I was with my friend who lives in London and flew down to meet me, we shared a room, but I went to Paris by myself last year and the cost of the hostel room was the same  for me. You will love Italy. If you are a strong, adventurous person who likes socializing with locals, getting out of the tourist areas and really getting with the country do not take a cruise. Even if you are a bit intimidated, you can fly there and take English tours where you will meet other English speakers. The thing with the cruise  is that you will also lose two or three days at sea each way from wherever you leave from, that's fine if you want to eat, sleep and gamble. If you want to experience Italy, fly there. Have fun.

Answer 5

http://www.ferries.nu

Answer 6

I can give you some advice and information about the cruise option and perhaps someone else will tell you about hotel stays and transportation around Italy.

The first thing that you need to know about a cruise is that ALL cruise lines sell all of their cabins on ships based on DOUBLE OCCUPANCY.  That means that if you have planned to go alone you would need to find someone to go with you on the cruise, or you would have to pay a double fare to occupy the cabin by yourself.

I have taken two cruises to the Mediterranean, both starting in Barcelona Spain, and one of these included three port stops in Italy; Florence/Pisa, Rome, and Naples.  The options for a cruise to see Italian cities would be embarkation ports in Barcelona, Spain; Rome, Italy; or Venice, Italy.  These ports generally support 7 and 12 day cruises and some are round trip, like from Barcelona, and others are one way, like from Venice to Rome.  There are also some cruises that leave from England that are longer and cover more ports.  If its Italy only that you want you can get a Venice to Rome, or vice versa, that will be 7 days and cost from about $1,000 to $1500, depending on when and which cruise line.

The benefit of a cruise is you have a place to sleep each night and all of the food and entertainment you could want.  The drawback is that you have basically no more than 12 hours in each port city during which you can probably manage to take one tour. If you want to sit in an Italian pub until the wee hours, or drive through the countryside and explore on your own then the cruise is not the way.

On our Mediterranean cruise we stopped in Florence/Pisa, Rome, and Naples.  On that cruise I saw much of downtown Florence, the Leaning Tower of Pisa, the Sistine Chapel and the Vatican City and the Roman Colosseum, and in Naples Pompeii.  So on that cruise I saw all of Italy that I wanted to see  except Venice.  

So I suggest that you need to decide whether you want to see highlights as I did or you would prefer in depth visits to a couple cities.