I am looking for lodging recommendations for 11/6-10 in Florence with the ability to cancel by 10/31. My wife and I are booked on a Viking Rhine River cruise in early November that will likely be altered or canceled because of low water levels and Rome/Florence/Milan is the Plan B. Would prefer King bed or two queens. Thank you.
Posted by
Gettysburg PA
9815 posts
Booking.com is a good starting point
Use the filters
Or search this forum
https://search.ricksteves.com/?button=&date_range=2y&filter=Travel+Forum&query=Florence+hotel+
Posted by
Idaho, USA
10144 posts
Hi Jim, I use Booking.com for many reservations. You want “Florence Historic Centre” as the location. I like to filter on a rating of “8+”, hotel. You want to add the “free cancellation” option. You can drop the Budget cost bar down near your range, also. Then go to the map view & you can see the different prices in the city center specific where you want to be. The light yellow area is where you want to concentrate, and don’t try to be near the train station. And don’t pick any option with less than 50 reviews. : )
Hope all goes well for your trip!
Posted by
Maryland, USA
200 posts
In 2017, we took two Tauck tours in Italy back-to-back, and both of them went to Florence but stayed at different hotels. Hotel Santa Maria Novella and Hotel l'Orologio. Both were in Piazza Santa Maria Novella, very close to the train station (which Jean recommended against, not sure why -- we liked it fine). 5-minute walk to the Duomo, 15 to the Galleria dell'Accademia or Uffizi.
I believe both rooms had a queen bed (hard to tell for sure from my pictures or theirs), so maybe not quite what you want. (I would say they both definitely had AT LEAST queen beds, since every lodging I've had with Tauck has had queens or kings (unlike some RS tours). A quick check of their websites shows what I consider reasonable prices (€200-300 a night).
I preferred the Santa Maria Novella, but the l'Orologio was fine too. Didn't see anything about their cancellation policy.
Good luck with your travels, wherever you wind up.
Posted by
Idaho, USA
10144 posts
Hi Jim, swinging back by your question again. For bed size, it might be helpful to share that it’s very common for a room to have a king bed vs. two queens. Typically, if there’s two beds, they will be two twins - sometimes very close together. Most of the Booking.com listings will have you select which type of room you want, and you can see the listing & photos to verify. And you can always send a question to your hotel through the Booking messaging. It’s rare if they don’t respond within 24 hours.