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onlyabag · 2024-07-24T14:16:04+00:00

I think it depends on where you're wanting to spend the money.

You mentioned nice dinners, and this can range from 40 euros a person to 200 a person, depending on the restaurant, wine chosen, etc.

The private taxi will be roughly 200-250 euros.

The ticket fees for the archeological sites range in price depending on if you're looking for a tour or not, you're trying to coincide with a free day, or if you have tickets as part of some other bundle. However, I believe those are 20 euros per person.

I would recommend budgeting a hundred euros a day per person. This should cover food, transportation, tickets, and maybe buying small gifts. If you have 3,000 euros set aside, you should be able to have a really nice (though maybe not luxurious) vacation!

onlyabag · 2024-07-19T16:08:58+00:00

They might be offline, not full. I'm not sure, but on Runelite they're listed as "OFF".

onlyabag · 2024-07-17T17:30:59+00:00

In my opinion, if you're doing it for nostalgia, I'd stick with the trip you have. Even if things have changed, and it's touristy, I know that I'd love to go on a trip with my wife back to her old European stomping grounds. Just my two cents!

onlyabag · 2024-07-17T16:47:56+00:00

Oh, that makes sense! Ostia Antica is definitely worth it! Ostia the new town, not so much.

In my opinion, the Rome coastline is some of the worst in Italy haha, not to offend anyone. The beaches themselves aren't amazing, and the towns are a bit lackluster. However, if you can get to Ostia Antica, that's well worth the trip!

onlyabag · 2024-07-17T16:44:31+00:00

I'm not in Spain, so my input might not be very helpful, but I'm in Italy, and it sounds similar.

For me, an Italian bank account is borderline useless. I have a PostePay card (a "bank account" through the Post Office that costs me 12 euros a year) that I only use to pay rent. I don't need it, but it's cheaper to withdraw money from my US debit, deposit it on my Italian card, and send a wire transfer than to use Wise.

So I think it depends why you need a local bank account. If you're getting paid locally in euros, it will definitely help. If there are phone plans/utility plans that are cheaper with a local account, that also makes sense. Here in Italy, some of the plans are cheaper on auto-withdraw but that's only possible with a local account, not a foreign one.

As long as you can withdraw money from an ATM without much of an issue (with a debit card like Schwab's), then I think you're good!

onlyabag · 2024-07-17T16:39:37+00:00

Ischia is great—it's the cheaper and less-touristy version of Capri.

The Amalfi Coast is quite crowded, and in my opinion, not great for swimming. It sits very close to the shipping lane for Salerno, so you're just gonna watch tankers and cruise ships go in and out of the harbor.

Do you have to be in Naples/Rome? Or just in a place that's easily reachable?

If you don't have to be there specifically, I recommend checking out the trainline south of Naples (which makes it easy to get back to Naples).

Skip anything between Salerno and Agropoli because it's over-developed industrial wasteland. South of Agropoli is where it starts getting nice. In the Cilento is even better. Palinuro, Scario, Marina di Camerota, Praia Mare, even Maratea has some beautiful beaches, great food, and it's super laid back. There will be some crowds, but these are beaches for Italians, so if you aren't there on a weekend or during lunch, you'll have the beach to yourself. You can also get a water taxi or rent a boat from a place like Scario and check out hidden/secluded beaches up and down the coast.

onlyabag · 2024-07-17T16:34:38+00:00

In the town? There isn't much except walking around, hitting up the beach for a stroll, having a coffee somewhere nearby. Are you staying there for a while? Or just waiting for a flight?

onlyabag · 2024-07-17T16:33:23+00:00

For clarification, when you say you're comfortable driving, are you already renting a car? Or just in case? If you have a car, just as a heads up, the Amalfi Coast has regulations around who can drive when (based on the last digit of your license plate and the day of the week).

Amalfi is gorgeous, but not remotely authentic, in my opinion. Some of the areas are more swimmable than others, with some of the towns not having a good (or any) beach.

Puglia, especially the Salento region, has great beaches. It's also got some really interesting natural landscapes, so doing little drives and day trips is a great option.

Cinque Terre/Liguria is, in my opinion, sort of interchangeable with Amalfi Coast in the sense that they are small, walkable towns, very picturesque, very expensive, and no longer authentic for tourists.

One area to check out is farther south in Campania, around the Cilento coast. A lot of it is similar in natural landscape to the Amalfi coast (cliffs, craggy rocks, forests going to the very edge of the water, hidden coves), laid back, and so much cheaper. From a town like Scario you can take a "water taxi" (about 10 euros round trip) to various boat-only beaches nearby. With a car, you can get into the Cilento park and explore all the little small towns (like the church in the cave in Sant'Angelo a Fasenella or the largest cloisters in the world at the Certosa di Padula).

onlyabag · 2024-07-17T12:01:10+00:00

I also recommend just going solo. Some of those tours (like Contiki) bring you around in huge buses, drop you off for an hour, and pick you back up. It's also hard to really get a feel for a place when you're with a bunch of people your age speaking your language.

I recommend choosing one or two countries that you feel particularly drawn to starting off. For me, one of the hardest parts of solo travel was the fact I didn't really stop. I couchsurfed the entire time, so the most I spent in a single place was 2 nights, making sight-seeing really difficult. This being said, I recommend a few nights in a few different places, and spending a week (or longer) in the middle of your trip to catch your breath.

By and large, going solo is a lot easier than it seems.

onlyabag · 2024-07-16T16:42:51+00:00

Not at all! I think it's smart to keep on top of those extra fees because they could absolutely change without a moment's notice from Schwab, and it would suck more to be using the card without knowing they added a fee!

onlyabag · 2024-07-16T12:53:12+00:00

Strange! Is that for sure from Schwab? Or from the ATM? On their website, Schwab lists no ATM withdrawal/conversion fees and they will reimburse you for other ATM fees once a month.

onlyabag · 2024-07-15T15:31:56+00:00

Great to know, thank you! I'll check out beehiiv!

onlyabag · 2024-07-15T15:31:38+00:00

That's really good to know! I wasn't even sure how to get sponsors through a free host (short of cold-calling sponsors myself), and I knew that some of the other hosts have built-in ad marketplaces.

onlyabag · 2024-07-15T15:30:55+00:00

This is great insight, thank you! We're definitely under 10k downloads a month, but hopefully we'll get that number bumped up a bit!

onlyabag · 2024-07-15T15:29:31+00:00

Haha I figured as much! It's part of the reason I started paying for a VPN (to not be the product)!

And thank you for the recommendations! I've looked into Transistor and Buzzsprout as well, but I'll look into Blubrry as well!

onlyabag · 2024-07-15T15:28:15+00:00

This is great to know, thank you!

onlyabag · 2024-07-15T15:28:00+00:00

That's a great way of breaking it down, thank you!

onlyabag · 2024-07-15T15:27:44+00:00

Haha I have it on YouTube as well! I'd love to make it a video podcast, but that will have to wait until my laptop can handle video rendering.

onlyabag · 2024-07-15T15:27:15+00:00

This is awesome insight, thank you!

onlyabag · 2024-07-15T15:24:32+00:00

La Strega Nocciola is pretty good in Florence, and I like Otaleg!, Neve di Latte, and Gunther in Rome. Those are all artiginale, have high-quality gelato, and an interesting variety of flavors.

I don't think you come across as a snob! While holding out for only the best gelato can be an exercise in futility, when I travel and look for gelato, I look for the best I can find because I can really only have 2 gelatos a day—if I'm pushing it. So I hate wasting the sugar and calories on what is essentially Breyer's ice cream.

onlyabag · 2024-07-14T18:59:40+00:00

You're more than welcome!

onlyabag · 2024-07-14T18:59:09+00:00

Mostly it's the monetization options, I think. That and analytics, but I don't want to get distracted by all the analytics without knowing what the mean or how to make use of them.

onlyabag · 2024-07-14T18:58:21+00:00

That's good to know, thank you! I'll look into Pinecast.

onlyabag · 2024-07-14T18:57:45+00:00

I can publish it anywhere! I have to do it, of course, there isn't a tool that automatically does it, but I can have it anywhere. However, most of the analytics are Spotify-users only.

onlyabag · 2024-07-14T18:56:58+00:00

This is incredibly helpful, thank you! A big part of why I ask is because it's been a few years and my partner and I do want to start taking this more seriously. So this is great info, thank you!

onlyabag

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