The hardest part in planning our trip to Europe was traveling between locations. I know they have an amazing train system but a train from Paris to anywhere in Italy is quite a long haul and the more I kept researching the more I realized it's also expensive! I kept stressing over this part of our trip before we booked our international tickets because I wanted peace of mind over getting from location to location before I booked flights out of different airports. I decided that I would look for flights on Orbitz like usual between Paris and Venice, and somehow AirFrance had flights for 50E from CDG to VCE... say what?! 50 EURO!? That's cheaper than a train and way shorter!!! Trains were taking hours of our time, a flight was an hour.. I booked this flight before we even booked our international tickets because I finally felt good about traveling in Europe and on the cheap! My advice, just looked at every option possible and also Rome 2 Rio is an excellent resource as well! I highly recommend downloading the Ulmon app for Venice too, because it's the best non-wifi map you could ask for, especially in a confusing city like Venice!
We also had to consider where to stay in Venice. Venice is an extremely expensive city but I felt like the options in terms of using AirBNB did not feel as welcoming as those in Paris and I felt like I wanted to explore the option of a B&B for our stay. I headed to my favorite travel buddy, TripAdvisor, for real reviews and photos of locations to stay. I started looking at the list from Number 1 on and emailing different owners when I found good reviews. I found a B&B called You & Me on the top of the list and emailed the owner to find availability and luckily she had a room available! Stefanie was super responsive and helpful in the process of booking. She didn't even require a credit card to hold the accommodation which I thought was odd, but upon meeting Stefanie, I see why. She was the most friendly and helpful person we met in Italy. She was so passionate about her B&B and her wonderful home of Venice. We loved staying at her home which was very close to the Rialto bridge and easily walkable to many attractions in Venice. I just wish we had stayed longer!! I highly recommend looking into B&B's for Venice. There are more of them than hotels and the rates are definitely better. We also had a wonderful host that gave us helpful advice and information for our stay which is valuable in a city of many dead-ends and corners! Here's our cute little room below:
Stay tuned for my Venice recap tomorrow!
xoxo,
Amanda
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