Travel in October

I agree that you should be able to find open-jaws fares (often called "multi-city" on booking websites, either those of the airlines or third-party sites) for the same prices as round trip. And, as already pointed out, you've saved the time and money of traveling back to your origination point.

Does your 10 days include your arrival and departure days? Then you have fewer than 10 nights to worry about, probably 9. $2,000 per person for 9 nights - single or double occupancy (or more)? If you're thinking double occupancy rooms, $2,000pp means about $444 per night for lodging - you could stay at quite-nice places for that kind of price! Even $222/night for single-occupancy rooms shouldn't be too difficult.

I meant $2000 for both airline and lodging....sorry I didn't specify that. I will look into the multi-destination travel instead of traveling back to Rome to depart. My ten days do include travel days as well.

I know this is probably hard to answer, but does anyone have a suggestion as to what would be a reasonable price for a round-trip airfare? I thought the $700 didn't seem too bad but since I have never traveled to Europe, I wasn't sure if better deals can be had!

Personally, I find $700 for a ticket from Grand Rapids to Italy in October (provided all charges are included) an excellent price! If it were me, I'd grab it now. With airlines monitoring load capacity on a minute by minute basis these days, the chances of sales at any pre-defined point before the trip are decreasing rapidly....if the airline gets a good response right now, they may not have seats left to put on sale 60, 90, 120 days, or any other time frame in the coming months. Over the past two years, my flights to Europe have come in with the best prices at 9, 8, 8, and 6 months before travel, respectively.

October is still high season in Italy. Take some time to research accommodations online. You will do better if you start booking about 3 months in advance. I have found Trip Advisor's site to be very good for choosing hotels. All the ones I have taken, based on the TA reviews, have been winners. Be sure that the hotels you book have air conditioning.

Your budget - Are you planning on a double room for 2 or 2 single rooms? Is the $2000 meant to cover flights and rooms only, or also meals, entrance fees, and local transportation (buses, taxis, trains)?

Train travel in Italy is not cheap. A single one-way ticket between Rome and Florence is 44 euro (for the 1.5 hour trip) or 26.50 euro (for the 3 hour trip - slower train with stops). You can get more information on schedules and fares at the Trenitalia website.

With only 10 days, I think you are wise to limit yourself to Rome and Florence. There is a variety of day trips to be taken from both cities, so you would only have to change hotels once.

If you can get round trip tickets for $700 per person right now, I would jump on it. That is a great rate. There is always a chance that it could go lower but not by much. If it goes down you may save yourself $50, I doubt you will see the airfare drop much lower then $700. My advice for shopping for airfare is to do your research and figure out what a good deal is and when you see the deal jump on it, don't wait. I have been burned too many times where I see a good deal and instead of jumping on it I watch it and it always goes up! It's murphy's law. I think most people on this site would agree that $700 is a good deal. The one nice thing about your situation is that you do have 10 months so it is possible if you wait and it does go up chances are you will see that $700 price again, so I think time is on your side.

Another thing you need to consider is that you may pay more for open jaw (which is not always the case), but it saves you travel costs on the ground. So if you add up all your travel expenses including airfare and ground travel, you may find it cheaper overall because you are saving money on ground transportation.

One last note, forget the package deals. Get Rick's book and book it yourself and stick to the small mom and pop places. It is cheaper and money better spent.