Dreaming of summer vacation in Italy

Hello there!

Even though I wont be travelling anywhere warm, exotic or just about anything else, I have all the right to day dream about it :) Summer is almost here - or what comes to weather currently here in Helsinki, it is already here - so it's time to start planning on a new trip. Usually by this time I've already booked my summer vacation since most years I've started my 4 week long summer vacation in the end of june. Last year we travelled to Italy, the island of Ischia and that was something. I'm gonna write a little bit about that vacation this time. Really hot summer but unfortunately, as it happens very often, little L got sick very early on the vacation and they only had one doctor on the island so it was a bit scary. Luckily L got better and we got to enjoy a nice holiday. Would I recommend the island for people travelling with a toddler? No. Why? Because it didn't have too many outdoor places for children to play at - we actually had to travel quite a long time to find one. This island suites best couples and older people who enjoy sunsets, late night dinners and vino :) But still - Italy's Italy so I wasn't complaining but instead I was enjoying the weather and food. And shopping, of course.

Booking your travel

I'm one of those people who like to book my own travels; separate flights and hotel - I'm not a fan of package deals. Although those come in handy these days when travelling with a child but really, it's not a necessity. My own favorites are ebookers and booking. They usually have great deals and you can easily compare them with other sites and then just book the one that's best for your needs. If you wanna just books your flight, it's sometimes cheapest to directly book it from an airline, such as Airberlin. That's the one we used last year when we flew from Helsinki to Naples, and got the best seats ever when travelling with a toddler: you know the ones in front where you have some extra room for your legs? That's where L kept standing and playing on the ground, plus we got those 3 seats just for the 3 of us so we weren't bothering anyone wanting, like, sleep next to us cause that's always a problem when travelling with us. Our toddler keeps yelling all flight long - sorry everyone! So anyway, this was very nice from this airline and they didn't even charge us for that extra space.

Only thing about booking your own travel instead of travelling with a group / picking a package deal is that it takes a little longer to get to the destination with one or more stop-over. We dont mind that since we actually like having some time to walk on the airport - sitting in an airplane for more than 4 hours in a row is a killer (with a toddler, that is). 

The cost of our trip

So much we paid for the trip? Ten days in, first 2 nights in Naples (okay, a cheap cheap cheap hotel in Naples but with breakfast buffet), then 6 nights in the island of Ischia (3 star hotel, with an ocean view) and then again 1 night in Naples (cheap cheap hotel) before heading home. We paid 1300€ altogether for this trip (flights and hotels) so I think it was a decent price. We took the ferry from Naples to Ischia and back, and talk about stress in Naples!! That traffic is something I would not wanna experience again..so it was really relaxing to arrive safe and sound to the island.

Ischia

Our hotel in Ischia was a great one and it is called Pagoda hotel in case you're interested travelling there. They didn't speak english that well, as it is the case overall in Italy, but they did their best and we were pleased. I would go back there anytime, I have nothing bad to say about it. It wasn't right in the downtown/harbor but didn't take too long to walk there with the strollers. Maybe 10 mins or so not too bad. The downtown/harbor area is really nice with all the restaurants and coffee shops, and not forgetting the famous Italian ice cream. Yummy!! The main sight for us was, no doubt, the Aragonese Castle. It's spectacular even if not visited but just seen from the outside. We also took the bus (costs like 2 €) to travel to the south side of the island, called Barano D'ischia. That was pretty much all we were able to do while travelling with the toddler but we were happy we even got to see that much. Not that much spending time on the beach but some and it was enough for us. We had a decent size pool at our hotel, so that worked for us just fine.

This was all for now. Hope this post helped you a little in case you're thinking  about travelling to Italy this summer! Or anywhere else! Enjoy your day, it is super sunny here today :)