It’s out 25th wedding anniversary in October and we’d like to do something we’ll remember. (The 2 of us + our 12 yr old daughter).

Rome is a consideration, but may be too expensive, but where else should we consider? Realistically it’s got to be Europe as budget isn’t massive (£1000 to £1500 tops for all 3 travel and accommodation, not spending).

And book separately or City Break package from agent? For many reasons we haven’t been out of the country for 12 years(!) so we are a bit out of touch with how it all works now. This makes us feel a bit more secure about a package.

Bump!

shoosh, or mrs_oab will be getting ideas for our 20th anniversary this summer…

Just after Christmas we booked to go to Paris for our 20th Anniversary in mid-February when daughter is off on a school ski trip. Hoping it’s all settled down a bit there by then, tbh.

Can you not lose the kid for a few days 😉

if you do go to Rome, and if you do go to visit the Colosseum, get your ticket from the Forum reception rather than from the Colosseum itself, the queues are much shorter. The Forum is about 1-200 yards away along the road where all the coaches park. You’ll see what I mean when you get there.
If visiting the Vatican Museum / Sistine Chapel, book your tickets on the internet the day before, you can then go straight to the front of the queue, which can otherwise take up to a couple of hours

Are you looking for a week or a long weekend?

And book separately or City Break package from agent?

http://www.expedia.co.uk or equivalent. Or perhaps your local low cost airline. e.g. http://www.jet2.com

I’m surprised there are any high street travel agents left these days…

Go to Verona and go to bottega del vino, lovely little restaurant.

And if you go to Rome watch out for pickpockets and keep bags *very* close to hand and in full sight at all times.

Italy is beautiful – Rome I would suggest for a long weekend as it is beautiful but small but it certainly has a lot of things to do eg the Spanish steps – best seen in the summer, trevi fountain, the coliseum, Sisteen chapel – we found the queues were long in the morning but at lunchtime had practically disappeared. Italy is very easy to get round by on the train so you could get the train to Florence (1.5 hours from Rome) and Pisa I think is about 30 minutes from Florence so a day trip.
We have always booked our hotels via Bookings.com as they usually have the smaller hotels that will guarantee double beds and are very accommodating. The hotel we stayed at organised a taxi to collect us from the airport. We found when trying to book a hotel in Sicily through a travel agent we were told it would probably be twin beds despite mentioning that it would be our honeymoon they could not guarantee it.
Have you tried AirBnB, as hotels in Italy are on the expensive side?
Sicily is a place that when we go back we will go round the island and stay at several places for a couple of nights.
I am quite comfortable at booking everything separately but then I know some people like to have everything mapped out for the whole stay.

Rome is an amazing city with some impressive sights, it’s also a big bustling capital and full of guys trying to get you to buy roses etc for your wife.

Depends when you are going and where but many places have really good bus links into the main city from whichever airport easyjet/ryanair fly into. Rome was definitely good for this.

So don’t feel compelled to do a package, if you do it, do it for convenience.

A group of us still use a high street agent (Premier travel) for booking a ski trip as there are loads of odd requirements and to be fair they are as cheap as online and offer a very useful service so don’t worry about going into a decent travel agency.

I wouldn’t go to Rome, I’d go to Lucca, near Pisa. My sis and BIL have been there this summer and absolutely loved the town.

Rome is bloody awesome, you won’t be disappointed.

In terms of booking, certainly for city breaks, I find booked independently much better, Rome is very easy to do this. Cheap flight (make sure you fly into Fiumicino airport), board the Leonardo express that is a straight train from the airport to Termini, the main Rome station, then head to hotel either via foot (Rome is a great city to walk around), underground (there are only 3 Metro lines so it is astonishingly easy to navigate) or taxi (not cheap but hey, it’s your anniversary, treat yourself).

And make sure you eat at a restaurant called Dell’Omo. It looks rough as a very rough thing and is tucked away in a corner by Termini, I guarantee you will talk past it twice muttering “it’s can’t be there, not even a random bloke from a forum would recommend that kind of place”. But it is there and once you get in you will be able to partake in some top class, traditional Italian food, no frills, no poshness, just cracking home made food. Oh, and it’s dirt cheap as well. Winner.