Nice Hotel, Nice Location!

Hi Miss Lyn
I'm wondering if you picked Milan for a specific reason or if you just always wanted to go there? If for a specific reason, I say go for it but maybe just stay there for one night. Also recommend staying outside the city in a smaller town and then taking the train in. It is impossible to find your way even with a navi--the streets change all the time and get blocked off. Also traffic is insane. The reason I ask if there is something specific about Milan is because it's probably not a number one choice for families. It's a huge crowded dirty city and you're going to pay 3 eur just for a small coke--and that's if you don't sit in the nice cafe seats outside with a view. You'll pay for those seats. Also, with the ages of your children I'm not sure what your expectations are for them. Aside from looking at DaVinci's "Last Supper" which is so faded and surrounded by tourists you can barely see it, and then the Duomo (Cathedral)there's not much else but eating and shopping. Like a I said it's bustling industrial Metropolis. I've been there twice, once in 1985 and once in 1996 and I wouldn't go out of may way to return. Please understand I'm not being negative--I love to travel and I love cities: Paris, Brussels, London. It's just that if you want to go to Italy and you don't want to drive too far, you might have more fun staying in one of the smaller towns in the Lake Country (Garda, Lugano, Como) and taking a day trip to Milan. Just an idea...but with your kids and budget in mind this is what I would recommend. Here are some great sites for you:
www.fodors.com
www.frommers.com
www.owners-direct.co.uk
Enjoy!!

I use www.hotels.de to find rooms and have very good luck in price and location. I went to Rome last year and found a very nice hotel through their website. Good Luck!

If you like Italy what you could do next with the kids is Vicenza, stay there at the Army lodging (price and size is great but you can't book a whole lot in advance for vacation puroses). Vicenza is a nice town not too big but has also lots of history and then you can take day trips into Venice. With kids you could do the public water taxies that is a lot easier than walking and even though there is not much to do for kids the pidgeons and the water kept my kids occupied. And from Vicenza there are a lot of day trips you can do.

Another suggestion is to take a medeteranean cruise (we did one without kids from Lisbon, Sardenia, Croatia--but there are better ones if you want to just see Italy). With the cruises you see a lot in a short time and it's a lot of fun.

Let me know if you have any further questions about Italy as we were stationed in Vicenza for 3 years.

http://www.booking.com/ or http://www.ryanair.com and look under Hotels or even Hostels. I look for my Hotel at these as well as go to http://www.expedia.de to look for cheap places. Or, as a last attempt, go to the SATO Office and see what they can suggest...

Good luck and Happy Traveling... I'm headed to Mallorca Spain in a month and will be using RyanAir for Flight and Hotel.

L. in Germany

Though I am stationed in Italy, I am also planning a trip around Italy in two weeks. What I found for cheaper rates, try looking in a town or city on the outskirts of Milano. Just pull up a map, and randomly pick a town or city. Then look for hotels that way. I am going to the island of Elba, and actually found a 4 star hotel with lots of offerings for the family for under $200.00 a night. I wish you luck, and lots of fun.

Small advice, plan on the weather. Yesterday we actually had softball sized hail. and 10 minutes later it jumped back up to 34 degrees Celcius.