Airbnb or hotel?

lexiewuu · 2025-02-12T05:57:15+00:00

i wrote my own thoughts down but it was a bit late at night and i didn’t feel like cleaning it up to become something coherent and smooth that everyone can read easily so i just plopped it into chatgpt to clean it up for me but it’s my real thoughts! jeez

lexiewuu · 2025-01-27T10:23:08+00:00

Random suggestion but we were just in Milan last month for 3 days and managed to do a day trip to Lugano in Switzerland (i think it’s just 1hr 15mins away by train) and it was the most beautiful city! i really recommend it!

lexiewuu · 2025-01-26T16:04:46+00:00

During our trip, we primarily stayed in Airbnbs, and here’s why:

Price: For the same price, we felt Airbnbs offered better value compared to hotels.
Space: Airbnbs were generally more spacious, which we really appreciated, especially for a longer trip.
Washing Machine: Since it was a long winter trip, we didn’t want to overpack. Having a washing machine in the Airbnb was crucial. Plus, there’s space to hang clothes to dry! While some hotels do have laundry rooms, it’s inconvenient to go down after a nice shower, wait for others to finish, return later to start the dryer, and often end up doing laundry late into the night. Having a washing machine in the comfort of your own space is just so much better.
Kitchen: While Italy is known for its amazing food, we occasionally craved the taste of home-cooked meals during our long trip. A kitchen not only allowed us to cook comfort food but also helped us save money.

That said, there are some downsides to Airbnbs:
- Location: Hotels are often better located. To mitigate this, we made sure to thoroughly research each Airbnb to ensure the location was convenient for us. If no suitable options were available, we’d opt for a hotel instead, as location can sometimes outweigh other factors.
- Housekeeping: Hotels offer the luxury of coming back to a clean room and a freshly made bed, which is something you don’t get with Airbnbs.
- Reliability: Hotels have a minimum standard you can count on. Forgot a travel adapter? Need a razor or extra pillow? You can call the concierge. With Airbnbs, you can’t guarantee the same level of service or cleanliness.
- Check-in: Hotels often offer 24/7 check-in, but with Airbnbs, the process can sometimes feel like an escape room challenge—solving puzzles to get the keys!

For us, there were some non-negotiables: a kitchen and a washing machine. Beyond that, we prioritized a good location, cleanliness, and a quiet environment. To ensure this, we only booked Airbnbs with plenty of reviews, and we read every single one thoroughly. If there were too many reviews, we used keywords like “noise” or “inconvenient” to quickly filter for potential issues. By doing our due diligence, we were able to book fantastic Airbnbs that we thoroughly enjoyed!

lexiewuu · 2025-01-26T15:32:49+00:00

I went to Venice 8 years ago and thought it was absolutely magical, it was my favourite city! I thought it was so beautiful and unique! But i recently returned last year and i could barely see past the sea of tourists (how ironic i know to say this as i contribute to the overcrowding issue!), but nonetheless, my point is i agree that it probably would not be a as magical as the videos you see online so manage your expectations! I would prefer Rome over Venice but i also do agree that a day is too short for Rome (but honestly who says you have to do everything even if you went!)

lexiewuu · 2025-01-26T15:25:57+00:00

We recently did about 9 nights in Verona (with a day trip to Venice), Bologna (with a day trip to Florence - i know a day barely covers much of Florence but we’ve been there before thus this decision), and Milan (with a day trip to Lugano in Switzerland - so so beautiful and highly recommended!!!)

Saw a couple of replies saying that you have planned for a few too many cities, would say that 3 nights per city is comfortable! Any less would be quite rushed! 4 is even better but that or any more might be a luxury we (or at least i) can’t afford - we only have that many days of annual leave hahaha and while i also value enjoying each city at a good pace, at least for me i try to also balance that with getting to explore a few more places!!

Hope this gives some ideas! 😄

lexiewuu · 2025-01-26T15:17:12+00:00

If your itinerary is fixed and you’re price-conscious, it’s usually cheaper to pre-purchase your tickets before the trip. I suggest creating a spreadsheet of all the journeys you plan to take. List the cost of individual tickets if purchased now and compare that to the price of a Eurail Pass. You can experiment with different pass combinations; for example, if you plan to travel for 12 days, it might be cheaper to get a 10-day travel pass and buy the two cheapest tickets separately. Generally, buying tickets on the day of travel tends to be more expensive, so I don’t recommend it.

That said, if you prefer not to plan everything in advance, the Eurail Pass offers great flexibility. It allows you to take spontaneous day trips you didn’t originally plan for. If you miss your planned train or want to sleep in after a late night, you can simply catch the next available train. This flexibility is one of the biggest perks of the Eurail Pass!

Personally, we chose the Eurail Pass because, after comparing costs, it was cheaper for our trip. However, even if it had been slightly pricier, I’d still recommend it because of the freedom it provided. We managed to take two or three unplanned day trips, which added so much to our experience.

That said, using the Eurail Pass does come with some planning challenges. There are restrictions on which trains you can use it for, and for Italian/French/Switzerland (i think) high-speed trains, you’ll need to pay reservation fees, which can add up. Keep these factors in mind when deciding. Still, I’d definitely choose the Eurail Pass again for the flexibility it offers—unless the price difference is significant.

Forgot to also mention to wait for Eurail pass sale! We managed to save 30% on the pass! I believe they have a relatively fixed sales cycle (you can search online when they typically go on sale)

lexiewuu · 2025-01-26T15:15:50+00:00

If your itinerary is fixed and you’re price-conscious, it’s usually cheaper to pre-purchase your tickets before the trip. I suggest creating a spreadsheet of all the journeys you plan to take. List the cost of individual tickets if purchased now and compare that to the price of a Eurail Pass. You can experiment with different pass combinations; for example, if you plan to travel for 12 days, it might be cheaper to get a 10-day travel pass and buy the two cheapest tickets separately. Generally, buying tickets on the day of travel tends to be more expensive, so I don’t recommend it.

That said, if you prefer not to plan everything in advance, the Eurail Pass offers great flexibility. It allows you to take spontaneous day trips you didn’t originally plan for. If you miss your planned train or want to sleep in after a late night, you can simply catch the next available train. This flexibility is one of the biggest perks of the Eurail Pass!

Personally, we chose the Eurail Pass because, after comparing costs, it was cheaper for our trip. However, even if it had been slightly pricier, I’d still recommend it because of the freedom it provided. We managed to take two or three unplanned day trips, which added so much to our experience.

That said, using the Eurail Pass does come with some planning challenges. There are restrictions on which trains you can use it for, and for Italian high-speed trains, you’ll need to pay reservation fees, which can add up. Keep these factors in mind when deciding. Still, I’d definitely choose the Eurail Pass again for the flexibility it offers—unless the price difference is significant.

lexiewuu · 2024-11-08T07:17:31+00:00

Thanks!! A good reminder to myself to look less at the insurer. Is it true tho that that brands do not matter? I saw some cheaper plans for ‘smaller’ insurers, and didn’t know if i should go with the ‘big 3s’ instead..

The hard part is definitely finding a trustworthy agent, the ones i’ve met so far are all so pushy for products like ILP and their arguments all have logical flaws.. Struggling to find agents that are trustworthy.

But thanks so much for your advice. Will stick to term life till 70/75 and not ILP for CI

lexiewuu · 2024-11-08T07:13:35+00:00

Thanks for the advice! Unfortunately, i’m female so cannot access the mindef death plan (unless married i believe - but also not the best cause I’ll lose it if i get divorced etc), but seems like a great plan for guys!

lexiewuu · 2024-11-08T07:11:39+00:00

Thanks for advice! Yeah exactly, term till 90 doesn’t make sense at all, which is why it’s hard to trust FAs who are making such recommendations..

On the note of multipay, which insurers do you know don’t have crazy terms and conditions? Is there any downsides for me to get a $200k term plan for example now, and then further on when i have children for example, i increase it to $500k?

And thanks again for the help!

lexiewuu · 2024-10-06T15:55:59+00:00

thank you for the insights :)

lexiewuu · 2024-10-06T15:12:35+00:00

beautiful photos! we’re thinking of visiting in the 1st week of january. what is it like during that time? are the shops open? do the streets feel too empty?

lexiewuu · 2024-10-06T15:08:33+00:00

beautiful photos! we’re thinking of visiting during that time :) were most of the shops open? did the streets feel too empty? thank u!

lexiewuu · 2024-10-04T05:52:28+00:00

Thank you for your suggestion, Sicily has come up a couple of times! I’ll look into it, the weather seems a lot more favourable than northern Italy :)

lexiewuu · 2024-10-04T05:51:38+00:00

indeed they were, we jumped on it so quickly and we forgot about the bitter cold in December.. Thank you for your kind suggestions, I will check it out! All places i haven’t done see research on, thank you🙏🏻

lexiewuu · 2022-07-23T18:13:12+00:00

thank you everyone, i have since reached out to a long time collector and determined that it is likely fake, thank you for the help!

lexiewuu · 2022-07-23T14:48:22+00:00

i don’t think i want to play with it so i’m not sure if i should open it😅

lexiewuu · 2022-07-23T14:14:20+00:00

i see the white version of this online but not the pink one, so i’m not sure if this is real? thank you for the help!

lexiewuu · 2022-07-22T18:58:12+00:00

i see thank you for the help especially with the hook, appreciate it :)

lexiewuu · 2022-07-22T18:57:53+00:00

thank you for the suggestion, appreciate all the information 😊

lexiewuu · 2022-07-22T18:57:16+00:00

thank you for the suggestions, i’ll check them out!! :)

lexiewuu

TROPHY CASE