A lot of you here probably came from the Pescara vlog {above} (hi 🙈).
But if you didn’t (I recommend having a watch), in May, me and my bestie took a trip to Pescara – a lesser known town on the Italian coast.
Side note, this is a post of the 3 part series ‘Guide to Pescara’:
- Italian coast on a budget (this post)
- our tops spots on this lesser known Italian coast
- packing lightly, a capsule wardrobe for the Italian coast
As I briefly mentioned in the vlog, this was actually a budget trip (came out to less than £500 in total) because after living in Singapore for 4 months – which is quite literally in the top 3 most expensive cities to live in globally – as well as just student life in general, a luxury trip wasn’t really on the agenda.
We knew we wanted a beach holiday. And we were also leaning towards Italy. A fun little fact, you may have heard about the €1 housing scheme in Italy, my mum saw it was available in Penne, which was not too far from Pescara. In part, the idea was prompted by a movie we watched on Netflix during my time in Bali. Regrettably, we don’t have an Italian villa (yet?). Anyway, we researched a bit on lesser known coastal cities in Italy — and Pescara was on there. Having heard of it from the aforementioned, we quickly decided this would be the destination of choice. A sure way to save on costs is choosing the route less traveled, so instead of the Amalfi Coast, we chose Pescara.
FLIGHT
We booked our flight for May, which might be why it was a little cheaper. But honestly, the weather was great, and we undoubtedly got tanned (and even a little burned). As a bonus, it also wasn’t very busy. I think May is probably the perfect time to go — flights are cheaper, its not too hot and there aren’t too many people. We booked with Ryanair, and the flight was was less than £50. Note, we ONLY took carry-ons, as mentioned in the vlog. Our trip was only 3 and a half days, and we packed in essence, a capsule wardrobe (post coming soon**)**. This helped us save on extra luggage costs.
Even worse, we chose randomly generated seats, so we were sat on opposite sides of the plane for the entire duration of 2.5hrs. But again, in our budgeting era 😝, certain decisions must be made.
HOTEL
We did not stay at a 5 star hotel, for reasons aforementioned, despite our inclination for the finer things in life. The hotel we stayed at was B&B hotels. We shared a double bed, had a balcony with a view of the sea, and overall, it was decent.
In terms of location, it was a quick 10minute car journey from the airport (or 30 minutes by bus). It was also close to a variety of shops, hair salons, and maybe a 10-15 minute walk from the beach and city centre.
TRANSPORT
On the note of transport, on arrival, we took a taxi to our hotel, and paid something like €20 if I remember correctly (what a splurge 🤣). However, on our way back to the airport, especially as we grew quite familiar with the area, we took a bus which was around €2-3 and was about a 10-20 minute journey depending on which bus you tool. The main bus/train station (Pescara Centrale) is located near the city centre, but we were at a bus stop closer to our hotel. Assuming you are in a similar area, take either ‘TUA Spa – Linea 38’ or ‘TUA Spa – Pescara – Chieti’ (this one is 10minutes on bus). Overall, Pescara is super walkable (like a 20minute walk to Carrefour lol). Aside from going to the airport, we walked everywhere, especially as our hotel was pretty central. I’d recommend using Google Maps to find the nearest bus stop, or even groceries — its a pretty good guide in general.
FOOD
Honestly the food wasn’t too expensive in general — especially coffee. Our daily cappuccinos generally cost us around €2.50. And we would often share a pizza and some fries for dinner, which generally came out to around €15-20.
ACTIVITIES
Unless you go to a beach club (of which there is an ample selection, in fact they were building more when we were there) the beach is free. Get a tan, play mermaids, build a sandcastle. If you walk to the beach, bonus savings (its literally like a 10 minute walk).
Okay super super truthfully, there isn’t that much more to do aside from eating and beaching. But this is meant to be a beach holiday after all. We also got our hair done (oops another splurge) — but after spending S$250 on an infill back in Singapore, a €30 blowout doesn’t faze me much. As for shopping, groceries are plenty. But in the realm of fashion and beauty, the only place you can find shops is in the city centre, although the selection is not too bad… anyway, more on this in the next post “our tops spots on this lesser known Italian coast ”.
See you then 💋
Ciao,
Alicja xx
Ce La Vi 