Are Groupon Getaway’s too good to be true? As a Travel Blogger it is my moral obligation to try it for you, right?! I was very lucky to have 3 great trips last year and I didn’t have anything planned for this year so I needed to get something going ASAP! I told my husband that I was going to watch for the next great deal to come and I was going to buy it and we were going, no matter where it was!
I found a Groupon Getaway for Tuscany Italy that was only $799 for roundtrip airfare from New York to Milan, hotels and rental car for 1 week. I spoke with hubby and we purchased it within 30 minutes. We received the information from Groupon and called Gate 1 Travel who handled the booking of our trip. It was an easy process and we received all of our information by email. We purchased in February and our trip was planned for April but there wasn’t much we actually had to plan so it was plenty of time.
We decided to use JetBlue for our flight from Utah to New York and to spend a little time in New York, read about that here.
We flew out of New York on a red-eye flight through American Airlines. I looked up the cost if we had just purchased the flight separately and it would have been $860 each just for the roundtrip flight. We had seats near the back of the plane next to the bathroom (not the best) I think the poor seats may have been related to the deal we received but it only took a moment to realize I was on my way to Italy and decide the seats really didn’t matter!
I found a Groupon Getaway for Tuscany Italy that was only $799 for roundtrip airfare from New York to Milan, hotels and rental car for 1 week. I spoke with hubby and we purchased it within 30 minutes. We received the information from Groupon and called Gate 1 Travel who handled the booking of our trip. It was an easy process and we received all of our information by email. We purchased in February and our trip was planned for April but there wasn’t much we actually had to plan so it was plenty of time.
We decided to use JetBlue for our flight from Utah to New York and to spend a little time in New York, read about that here.
We flew out of New York on a red-eye flight through American Airlines. I looked up the cost if we had just purchased the flight separately and it would have been $860 each just for the roundtrip flight. We had seats near the back of the plane next to the bathroom (not the best) I think the poor seats may have been related to the deal we received but it only took a moment to realize I was on my way to Italy and decide the seats really didn’t matter!
We arrived in Milan and realized we were going to have to make our way through the airport to the rental car following the signs in Italian. We made it to the rental car company and quickly made it through the process. I was a little surprised by the $190 fee for insurance but otherwise it went well and we found our cute little black fiat and drove out of the lot and on our way to our hotel. Driving in Italy is an ordeal in itself and deserves its own blog! I will link to that soon.
Our hotel in Montecatini Terme (a cute little spa town in Tuscany) was very old with a lot of charm. It wasn’t fancy and had few amenities but it was very clean and sufficient. A quick reminder that I was in Tuscany and I was in a clean, safe environment made it perfectly fine! It was a great base for our Tuscany explorations. Our package included another hotel near the airport on the last night and that hotel was also clean and well taken care of but not fancy, perfectly fine.
My conclusions:
I LOVE to visit new places and immerse myself in the culture and travel on limited funds so I would absolutely use Groupon Getaways again in the future! With the lower cost you will receive a little worse seating on the plane, adequate lodging and good support. For the price, I was very happy with the trip! If you are really picky about where you sit, where you stay and want more control, this may not be a good option for you.
My conclusions:
I LOVE to visit new places and immerse myself in the culture and travel on limited funds so I would absolutely use Groupon Getaways again in the future! With the lower cost you will receive a little worse seating on the plane, adequate lodging and good support. For the price, I was very happy with the trip! If you are really picky about where you sit, where you stay and want more control, this may not be a good option for you.
