The investigation

Summer 2025: holidays 2.3% more expensive, mountains in the lead. Accommodation +34% from 2020

Prices for a stay at altitude have risen by 16% in one year. To save money, focus on cities of art, even the seaside, and car trips. Travelling remains a priority, despite price rises and economic uncertainties

by Alexis Paparo

9 June 2025

5' min read

5' min read

A week's holiday in Italy in August, for two people, will cost on average 1,063 euro, with the journey by car. But the average expenditure is close to 1,200 euro by adding destinations to the sample that are more easily reachedby plane - such as Stintino and Villasimius. Here a typical week costs 1,786 and 1,854 euro respectively. The cost increase is 2.3% over 2024, which adds up to a +9% between 2024 and 2023. Considering only the average price of accommodation - hotels and B&Bs - the increase this year is 4%, but 34% over 2020 (in particular +12% at the seaside, +34% in the mountains and +80% in cities of art).

This was revealed by Altroconsumo, which carried out for Il Sole 24 Ore del Lunedì an estimate of accommodation and travel costs for 12 holiday resorts between sea, mountains and cities of art. For ten destinations, the car journey was considered, including fuel and tolls; for the Sardinian destinations, the plane journey (direct flights from the routes available in the week from 2 to 9 August, chosen for the survey).

Vacanze estive 2025, ecco quanto spenderanno gli italiani

The Savings Map

Where to go to spend less? In the cities of art (-10%), Florence in the lead, where seven days' holiday cost 15.3% less than in 2024; or, among seaside resorts, in Cervia, where seven nights' relaxation costs an average of 717 euro. There was a sharp rise in the mountains: +16%, with peaks of 25.1% for Valdisotto, in Valtellina. But the most expensive destination at altitude is Ortisei (1,431 euro on average for seven nights,+3.8%). "The desire for outdoor holidays and the search for a cool climate may have sustained the demand for mountain holidays, with costs rising on average by 25% between 2023 and 2025," explains Eliana Guarnoni, an analyst at Altroconsumo.

SPESA MEDIA

The housing node

The accommodation item remains the most expensive, so much so that ISTAT data recorded in April 2025 indicate a price increase of 5.6% for hotels and 4.9% for pensions.

Altroconsumo's snapshot, albeit partial, is not far off (+4%), and is interesting because it shows the growth over time: in five years, the costs of hotels have risen by an average of 39%, those of B&Bs by 30%, although for the latter prices have fallen by a fifth this year, returning to slightly lower levels by 2022. Cities of art are the most affordable in the last five years, although prices have risen by 70% for hotels and 90% for B&bs compared to 2020. Seaside destinations have a less pronounced growth, perhaps because the base was already very high.

Choosing a car makes sense

Instead, the cost of car travel is falling. "Fuel prices in this year's survey - carried out on 20 May - show a significant drop compared to 2024 and 2023. Petrol is about 9.8% lower than in 2024 and 6% lower than in 2023. Diesel shows similar, though smaller reductions,' Guarnoni explains.

IN AUTO

Tourist rentals

The coming summer is the first to see the application of the National Identification Code (Cin), which came into force for tourist rentals on 1 January. "At a national level, the supply on the tourist rental market is increasing, only in the Peninsula's major cities do we estimate a contraction," notes Federico Rivolta, Head of the Research Area of Scenari Immobiliari. "Regularisation and the demand for certain standards has probably discouraged non-compliant properties from coming onto the market. In the coming years we expect an increase in the quality of the offer, but also a rise in prices". To analyse the evolution of the tourism market, Scenari Immobiliari compared prices per week of a two-room apartment for rent in July and August 2025, in 20 Italian locations between 2025 and 2020. "The mountains are more dynamic, also thanks to the rise in temperatures," adds Andrea Delsante, project manager of Scenari Immobiliari's research area, "A trend that is spreading like wildfire in the resorts adjacent to the best-known destinations: in Valdisotto, the price of a two-room apartment has gone from €270 per week in 2020 to €1,295 in 2025. San Martino di Castrozza has an ordinary market in great difficulty, but tourism has grown by 10.15% a year and the price of a two-room apartment has risen from 575 to 1,315 euro. Livigno has had smaller increases: from 475 to 925 euro'.

AFFITTI TURISTICI

Moving on to the sea, the ride ofGallipoli is not surprising, from 590 to 1,145 euro in 2025; while Alghero and Villasimius have become an increasingly valid alternative to the Costa Smeralda: a two-room apartment in the former has gone from 330 euro per week in 2020 to 950 this year. Villasimius made the jump from 340 to 1,110 euros. "In the cities the rises are more contained, even in those by the sea: you spend 650 euro for a two-room apartment in Naples, 500 in Palermo. Prices are even falling in Viareggio, as well as in Florence (from 915 to 825 euro per week in Viareggio to 730 to 675 euro in Florence). This is a sign that tourism in these areas has undergone a strong evolution, losing international presences, especially Russian and American ones," concludes Francesca Zirnstein, general manager of Scenari Immobiliari.

Minor localities

Tecnocasa's research office, on the other hand, analysed for Monday's Il Sole 24 Ore thesea market in 2025, focusing on smaller localities and photographing a lively market both for those looking for property to rent and for those investing to make an income. Let's start in the north. In Veneto, in Jesolo, a one-bedroom apartment costs around €2,500 a month in August and €1,200-1,500 in July; in Caorle it rents for €7,000 from May to September. In Liguria, in Diano Marina, it costs 2,000-2,500 euro in July and 2,500-3,000 in August. In Comacchio-Porta Garibaldi (Emilia-Romagna), a two-room apartment rents for the season from June to September for around 4 thousand euro. In Roseto degli Abruzzi, tourist rentals range from 600-700 euro per week in July to 800-900 in August. In Campania, in Castellabate, rentals in August can be as high as one thousand euro a week. In Calabria, in Diamante, a two-room apartment can be rented for as much as three thousand euros a month.

The desire to travel

Compared to basic needs such asfood and healthcare, spending on a holiday may appear expendable. In fact, the ISTAT Annual Report 2025, published at the end of May, notes that by 2023, young households have reduced their spending mainly on clothing (45.7%) and travel (38.7%).

Those who can, however, do not give up, or make compromises on something else: according to the European Summer Vacation Confidence Index 2025 by Allianz Partners, more than four out of five Italians (83% versus 75% among Europeans) intend to move between June and September. At the cost of limiting leisure spending (68% of Italians versus 60 of Europeans), postponing important purchases such as a car (67% versus 56% in Europe), and living with anxiety about their finances (54%). A bit of a lipstick effect: amidst economic and geopolitical uncertainties, going on holiday is a less unattainable dream than others.

Trendy destinations

Astoi Confindustria Viaggi estimates that holiday bookings in Italy are in line with 2024, while the Mediterranean is growing by 2 per cent and the rest of the world by 14 per cent. "This year Egypt is coming back strongly, both the Red Sea and sailing on the Nile," explains Pier Ezhaya, President of Astoi Confindustria Viaggi. Ezhaya continues: "The whole of East Africa, Kenya, Tanzania and Madagascar, and the East, with Japan above all, are doing very well. The Spain contracted a little, with prices too high, as did the United States'. Spending increases 'between 5 and 6%, for an average of 8.5 days for beach holidays and 10.5 days for long-haul holidays'.

Strategies to save money? "Travel in the low season is a bit more popular, but there is no cultural and social change in the choice of holiday period, which remains very much focused on August," concludes Ezhaya.