Getting value for money in Tuscany

Renting a villa or apartment in Tuscany gives you many choices and can expose you to wonderful new experiences. When dining you have the choice to either do self-catering or eat out in the towns and villages within your local area.

The Italians are justly proud of the quality of their food. Eating out locally you will find excellent quality Tuscan dishes at reasonable prices.

Value for money can also be found in the major tourist cities, often in Trattorias down sidestreets, off the main tourist trails.

Flights to Tuscany

A search engine for cheap European flights, obtaining information from many airline websites.

Very popular US based flight search engine.

Flights to Pisa from UK & Ireland

Europe's largest low fares carrier.
Flights to Pisa from London Stansted, Birmingham, Bournemouth, Liverpool, Doncaster (Sheffield), Glasgow (Prestwick), East midlands, Dublin.

To save yourself money book well in advance. If you are flexible travel midweek.

Check for cheaper fares on days either side of your planned trip.

Ryanair check-in & bagage allowance

Pay for your checked in baggage in advance (when you book online), otherwise you will have to pay double the price for the first item of each individual's checked in baggage.

Ryanair's baggage allowance is strict, a max of 15kg for each checked in bag and 10kg for a single cabin (carry-on) bag. Many people are being caught for a excess baggage weight fee (€15 per Kilo), particularly on the return flight from Pisa.

The advice is to travel as light as possible and weigh all bags prior to outgoing and return flights. Avoid placing heavy objects such as shoes, sandals or purchased gifts in the checked in baggage, instead place these in the cabin (carry-on) bag. Back-packs are useful as cabin (carry-on) bags because they can carry quite a bit of luggage.

Flights to Florence from UK & Ireland

Cheap flights toFlorenceand other destinations from UK and Irish airports.

Flights to Italy from North America

• Alitalia and Delta fly daily toMilan from New York, Miami, Chicago and Boston. Also toRome from New York
• American Airlines fly toRome from Chicago.
• Alitalia and Air Canada fly toRome from Toronto.

Flights to Italy from Australia and New Zealand

• Alitalia and Qantas fly toRome via Signapore.

Car rentals

Including the above, nine major car rental companies have offices in the arrivals area of Pisa airport.

When booking through the big car rental companies look out for "voucher" discounts. For instance Hertz offer a 10% discount if you are a member of the Automobile Association (AA) in the UK or Ireland, and quote your "CDP" number when booking online. Also check out the competition for prices.The car rental companies use a car park close to Pisa airport. A shuttle bus ferries customers to and from the airport. When returning to Pisa airport make sure to allocate enough time to leave your car back in the car park and have it checked over by the car rental company mechanic. This procedure is mandatory.

Reservacar uses a car rentals search engine which finds and displays the cheapest price from a large number of competing car rental companies.

Trains

The Italian public rail service.

The Italian rail network is comprehensive, efficient and good value for money. Day trips from Lucca and Pisa toFlorence andSiena are excellent value and a relaxing way to travel.