Does any one have any experience of travelling in Italy with kids.
We have two week booked in an apartment and a small house, but want to spend the last 10 days on the move. We will be travelling by car in the second half of May.
I have been getting great advice from the SlowTravellers site, but as a group they are very cautious about this kind of travel, preferring to work everything out in advance.
I have been looking into the Youth Hostel nextwork as a possibility - as they mostly have family rooms. Anyone with any experience of these?
We are also interested in Agriturismos.
familyof4
1
emplusafew
Where have you got the house/apt booked? How far do you want to get in those 10 days? I take it you don't want to work everything out in advance? What about a general route? While alot of the hostels do have family rooms, this can mean one or two rooms set aside, so it doesn't take much for these to be filled up- how old are your kids- would you onsider being in the dorm rooms if th family rooms are full when you arrive. Either way you need to have some idea of which hostels you may want to stay with, because some of them won't let children of certain ages stay in dorm rooms, and this changes from hostel to hostel- some say over 3, some over 5 etc, and even if you don't want to be tied down with a booking, you can at least check what might be available and if someone else is in already. Would you cinsider camping as a back up? May isn't school holidays, so on that fron things should be pretty calm atleast!
Cheers,
Em
2
familyof4
The younger child is only 18 months so dorms are not suitable.
We would stay in cheap hotels or agriturismos instread.
We will be leaving from the Amalfi Coast and hope to move up through Le Marche towards Venice and maybe on to the lakes before driving back to the UK.
I guess we could call ahead each day to see if youth hostels had availability?
Do you think they will be busy in May?
3
kidscome2
Definitely Agriturismo and you should be able to book 2 or 3 nights in advance. I'm sure you've got the websites, do a google search. I've always booked in advance in Italy - we tend to book in advance now after a few early trips where we'd end up exhasuted, hungry baby and looking for somewhere to stay late at night - no fun!
We've lived in Italy - Marche which is absolutely fab! (with a 3 year old and 1 year old) and go back every year. You could easily spend 10 days in Marche alone - May is great although the festas/pageants dont really start until June.
Your kids will need to adapt to Italian time - i.e. restaurants dont open until 8.00 at night and kids in the summer will stay up unitl midnight regularly.
My experience of little ones is that it's easier to stay longer in one location and do day trips rather than moving every few days. I'd be inclines to stay 3 to 4 days in a place - you'll find it much more enjoyable than constantly moving. Some agriturismos have pools. I might do 3 days in Tuscany (Lucca/Florence for art/history), 3 days in Marche (Fano/Urbino if you like sea and art or Rosso Conero for sea and lovely hill towns) 3 days in Venice/Verona - with a day trip to the lakes. On reflection, I'd do 2 lots of 5 days and come back to Venice/Lakes for a long weekend on cheapyjets
Have a great trip.
- Take your own car seats - the italian ones can be old & knackered.
Pro tip
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