Florence: 10 Travel tips to help you save
As the capital of Tuscany, Florence is known for Renaissance art and architecture, a vibrant cultural scene, delicious food and wine, and… crowded streets packed with tourists. In fact, during the high season, there are more visitors in Florence than locals!
It’s no surprise that Florence’s popularity also keeps prices a lot higher than we would like.
But Cheapos know you can keep coming back to this wonderful Italian city as long as you keep a few budget tips in mind.
More Florence & Italy Tips:
• Our 10 favorite budget hotels in Florence
• A Cheapo-friendly 10-day itinerary across Italy
• 11 Tips for saving in Italy
• Our favorite affordable hotels in Tuscany
10 Tips to help you save in Florence
Before you start planning your vacation to Florence, check out these 10 easy ways to save time and money.
1. Time your visit carefully
Scheduling your trip between the end of October and the beginning of March will net you substantial savings. Not only will flights and accommodations be cheaper (and crowds more subdued), you’ll pay less to tour what many consider this Tuscan city’s main event: the museums.
Take, for example, the cost of entry to the Uffizi — it increase from €19 to €25 for Florence’s busy peak and mid-season from March through the end of October.
2. Book ahead for accommodations
While the low season is certainly cheaper and less crowded, Florence is actually a busy destination any month of the year. To score the best deals on the most centrally located accommodations, reserve a place to stay as far in advance as you can manage. And if you’re worried about changes in plans, pay a little extra for free cancellation. This is extra important if you’re visiting in the busy summer months.
Search for hotels and vacation apartments in Florence
3. Make a list of free things
While many of the must-sees in Florence will cost admission, there is a lot to be enjoyed here without forking over an entry fee. Browsing at San Lorenzo Mercato Centrale, walking across the city’s only remaining medieval bridge, Ponte Vecchio, and climbing up the hill to Piazzale Michelangelo for sweeping views of the city are highly recommended and free. Also, watching leather artisans at work in the Santa Croce neighborhood will cost nothing more than your time and energy.
Related: 8 Free things to do in Florence
4. Choose your hotel wisely
Picking your location can be a winning ticket to saving during your trip to Florence. Want a view of the Ponte Vecchio from your room? Be prepared to spend. Luckily, Florence isn’t a sprawling city like Rome, so you don’t need to stay in the exact center to be within walking distance of most top attractions. Read through our Florence neighborhood guide for tips and decide which area might work best for you.
5. Get local advice
Whether it’s where to get takeaway pizza or find the best shopping, ask a local (or for best results, a few locals) about where and what they recommend. Online evaluations are great, but they can’t beat the real, in-person thing. Plus, sometimes the neatest places don’t have much of an online presence.
6. Dine out at lunchtime
One of the biggest appeals for most folks visiting Italy is enjoying the food. Savor local eats without upending your budget by limiting your meals to mostly set menus at lunchtime — not only will you save money, you’re more likely to be offered seasonal specialties, so you can try different dishes when you’re not ordering a la carte. Check out all of our Florence dining tips.
Just remember to walk a ways away from any tourist attractions before sitting down to eat or drink anything. For nights when you’re too beat to cook or slap together a sandwich, you can always pick up a pizza or check out one of our favorite panini shops.
7. Don’t fly into Florence
There aren’t any direct flights into Florence from US airports, and you’re likely to pay substantially more for an itinerary to and from Florence (to the tune of several hundred dollars).
Instead, fly into Rome or Milan (Emirates has some great deals on occasion) and spend a couple of hours — and €40 or less — on the train into town. Flying into Florence tends to be more expensive than flying into Milan or Rome, even from major hubs in Europe like Barcelona and London.
Find low-cost flights to Italy with CheapoSearch
8. Watch what you drink
Keep a close tab on what you drink, and we don’t just mean alcohol. Beverages in general, especially in the center of Florence, can rack up a substantial tab. Spring for the occasional espresso, cappuccino (just never in the afternoon!) or glass of Italian red, but the rest of the time, carry around your own refillable water bottle — there are fountains around town and tap water is safe to drink.
And if you love wine, do what the locals do and buy it on tap or buy it in the supermarket.
9. Shop strategically
Don’t buy anything in shops near the Duomo or the Uffizi, not even the supermarket, if you can avoid it. Unless, of course, you enjoy inflated prices.
Instead, wander down side streets in search of small neighborhood shops to find the best artisan edibles and unique souvenirs to take home. Note that if you’re pressed for time at a museum, the official gift shop may be your best bet for a positive quality-to-price ratio.
10. Think tickets through
Whatever your priorities for time and money in Florence, think them through before buying tickets on the fly. Churches and museums are around every corner, and the majority of them charge a fee. Most folks want to see at a minimum both the Uffizi and the Accademia Art galleries, as well as the Duomo. Buying in advance online saves you waiting in line but costs extra. Combo tickets offer a 10% discount in many cases.
And for anyone who thinks they want to see absolutely everything, there’s the Firenze Card, a 72-hour skip-the-line pass to see 72 of the city’s monuments and museums for €85. It just might be worth it, especially in high season, when ticket prices go up and lines are long. After the card expires, you can also extend it online for 48 hours to visit the sites you didn’t get to with the Firenze Card Restart, currently available for free.
Budget hotels in Florence
Check out our Florence hotel guide to find the right room for you.
Have you been to Florence? Let us know how you save on your trip in the comments!
About the author
I rented an apartment through VRBO for a month while attending an art class in the Oltrarno, without really knowing the lay of the land. . . and got lucky. My hosts Francesco and Mirta were incredibly accommodating, even picking me up at the airport and putting me up for a night for free until my apartment was ready! The apartment itself was fully appointed with stove, dishwasher, microwave, Nespresso machine, all cooking and eating utensils, wifi, tv (a great way to hear local radio music stations), washing machine and A/C.
My hosts thoughtfully provided a huge bowl of fresh fruit, a bottle of very tasty dry Prosecco, and olive oil from their family farm as well. The apartment had charming character, with wood beams on the ceilings, a sitting area and a very comfortable bed in a spacious bedroom, all for about $84 a night. Food from the local Conad market was a surprisingly good and affordable alternative to eating out every night. Look for the promotions–I bought cheese with truffles on special for just a couple euros and it was divine! Instead of dinners out, my classmates and I occasionally went out for a glass or two of wine and a charcuterie board and were not disappointed.
Though I was in the San’ Egidio area, it was only about a 15 minute walk to the art studio across the river, through streets just off the main travelways. The Duomo was just a couple blocks away if I decided I wanted to people watch. Because buildings are close together on very narrow streets, floor level apartments tend to be dark, but during hot weather that can be a blessing. And I spent a majority of my daylight hours exploring the city, anyway. Because there is so much activity on the streets til later in the evening, I felt completely safe wandering around at night with my camera, getting evening shots of the lights along the river, views of Ponte Vecchio and the old gates of the city.
There are many churches worth popping into to see frescoes and sculptures, but be respectful of the fact that they are primarily places of worship. In spring, the iris garden is free and is lovely in full bloom! The Il Papiro stores sell prints, writing implements and papers, and also put on free demonstrations of paper marbling, which is a fun process to observe. Because I was in Florence for an extended stay, I splurged on a Friends of Uffizi card (Amici degli Uffizi) card which allowed me to have unlimited visits to the Uffizi, Bardini and Boboli Gardens and the Palazzo Pitti. I could pop in for an hour or two after class several times a week. Heaven!
Consider taking an unpaid job while there. Ferenzie is known for its cobblestones and moonbeams. If yer lucky, you might encounter a mime, who of course does not speak English, but does, kinda speak German. Since I’ve always been a sucker for mimes he somehow trapped me into his fantasy. For about half an hour we both sweated our guts out before a hundred Florentines, including many very solemn children==who, I now realize, thought be were both real. Our acts included a human pyramid involving about 10 bodies trying to remain absolutely still but our course we giggled. And then I got to pass the hat saying, “I can’t believe I’m doing this.” We cleaned up. Ah, well, when in Italy, do as the Italians do. And by the way, close to the train station there’s good spaghetti bolanese. The beer on square is outrageous, but the statue of the babe holding the severed head of the dude who she suckered is worth repeated visits.