Italy via tripmaster

Who is tripmaster? Tour company? Travel agency? ???? And why do you want to use them? Need a little background.

First time planning a trip (flight and hotel only) and not sure best way to do it. How to book flight in to one city and out of another with hotel stays in each, including air/hotel transfers. Tripmaster is a tour company.

With the internet it is fairly easy to do all of your bookings yourself but it can take time. A tour company handle a lot of the details but the trade off is that you are on their schedule. And that may be fine for you. Sometimes it is good way to get a general feel for how things are done so that you are more comfortable booking on your own the next time. But you often pay a lot for that conveniences and those lessons. This site is mostly independent travelers who seldom use travel agencies or tour companies. You should ask the same question on Trip Advisor. Better chance of finding someone who has used Tripmaster. Their web site looks good. Exactly which trip are you looking at?

We are going to Rome and Florence. Want to do tours on our own. Need air and hotel with transfers only. It's all overwhelming.

Following Frank's point, if you tell us where you are starting from, where you want to go, your dates, and your budget, we can help you book this yourself directly.

I haven't dealt with tripmaster. As Frank says, I would book this airfare by looking on Kayak or Google Flights for a "multi city" flight. Then I would book the hotels directly by e-mailing them. As for transfer from airport to hotel, Rick's books have all the details on local transit options like buses, train or trams; for my first hotel after my international flight, I usually take a taxi. Finally, for getting between cities, I book the trains directly on the website of the operator. On some routes in Italy there are two competing companies - Trenitalia and Italo - so I'd check both to see who has the best deal. On most of the others, Trenitalia is the only operator; a few routes (like Naples to Sorrento) are operated by other companies (again, details are in Rick's Italy book).

None of this is hard, but it does take some time, and there is a learning curve. The advantages are, you get exactly what you want (not what someone thinks you will want), and you get the best price (no middleman).

I was cross-posting with you.

If you're overwhelmed, you may indeed want the assistance of a tour company. If you still want to try it yourself, let us know your dates and departure city, and we can help.

Have you ever booked flights and hotels in the US via internet? It is exactly the same, only the names have been changed.

Thanks for all the info-I've never done one flight into a city and return trip from another city--very overwhelmed

If this is meant to be a serious posting, I would consider changing your handle. "Troller" sounds much like an internet troll......

If that is you only concern, that is not overwhelming. It is simple. When you log-on to the travel site for the airline there will be one of three boxes to check --- one way, round trip, multi-city. Check multi-city and start filling in the blanks. No different that booking a round trip.

I was looking at Tripmaster. As stated by another, it is a good way to get a layout of how you want to do your traveling. I then it did all on my own. Flying into Rome, 3 nights there, then to Siena-3 nights there, Lucca - 2 nights, Florence - 3 nights and finally to Milan for 3 nights. Then a flight home from Milan.

All of this you can do on your own. I used TripAdvisor for recommendations on hotels. Booked most hotels directly through the hotels. Make sure when booking the hotels you check the cancellation policy. It is usually slightly more expensive to book and be able to cancel without penalty if cancelled within a day or two of the stay, but in my mind it is worth the extra cost. The other things I looked for since we are traveling by train is that we were somewhat close to the train stations in each town. We also wanted to have Wifi and breakfast included. When looking on TripAdvisor you can put your 'needs' in your search parameters. We are planning on traveling between cities by train, so no car rentals. Airlines, when booking, just select multi-city.....

Thanks Frank and JJelbers---very helpful and appreciated. Will check out tripadviser

You can also try Booking.com. It's another fill-in-the-blank kind of resource. I use it to identify possibilities with the characteristics I want. I check their reviews as well as those at TripAdvisor.

Then I go directly to the lodgings' websites. Some may be linked from TripAdvisor and some I may have to Google. All three resources will have pictures of the places and the rooms. I always book directly with the lodging, as others have recommended.

I recommend that you set both Booking.com and TripAdvisor to €. When you book online you will be paying in € and you must tell your credit card company that you are going to make some online purchases in Italy.

If you haven't already, go to Travel Tips: Money right here on the RS website to learn all about that aspect of your trip.

troller,

This is not actually that difficult, and I'm sure the group here can help you work out the details. Regarding the flights, one method you might use is to research the flights you want using the airline websites, and then have a travel agent do the booking for you. That's the method I always use on flights to Europe, and it works well.

Booking hotels is also very easy. Have a look at the RS Italy guidebook as the books list good, reliable hotels in various parts of the cities and in various price ranges. Once you've chosen hotels, book directly with them via their websites.

If this is your first trip to Europe, I would highly recommend reading Europe Through The Back Door prior to your trip as it has a lot of good information on how to travel well in Europe, and the differences you'll encounter there.

We are going to Rome and Florence. Want to do tours on our own. Need
air and hotel with transfers only. It's all overwhelming.

You've gotten some excellent advice from the gang, IMHO. If you're still uncomfortable booking your own flights, do as Ken suggests and use a local travel agent for that. It'll cost you a fee but sometimes fees are worth it for very busy or very nervous travelers, or those who simply dislike that part of the planning process.

Hotels are easy, and especially as you're only looking to book two of them. I'm also a fan of booking.com, and you can check the ratings/guest reviews for properties available on the site. You may also book them through the booking.com website, if that's easier for you than booking through a hotel's own site. Do check the information carefully for details such as non-refundable rates, cancellation periods, etc.

Transfers to/from airports in Florence/Rome are also easy, as are acquiring tickets for rail travel between the cities. As Ken suggested, a read through a guidebook is going to be very helpful for getting a leg up on travel in Italy, and you can also use the forum here for questions. As queries regarding transport, attraction tickets, etc. are asked frequently, just a browse through previous discussions can turn up a wealth of information.

Relax; you can do this!!! When are you planning on taking this trip?

Edit: just saw your other post indicating that you're going to Venice as well so 3 hotels. Still easy!

If you would like an option other than public transportation, this is who we used for a transfer from the airport in Rome to our hotel we used http://www.romelimousines.com/transfer-services/from-airports/ (you can look up their reviews on TripAdvisor)
Great company, reasonable rates. We will be using them this September when we go.....

Also, just be thoughtful with reviews on TripAdvisor. There are always people that are NEVER satisfied. Read through the reviews to really see several. The one thing that always seems to get poor reviews is the WiFi in hotels. LOL