Spacebunny

Hello All!

I'm 26 and will be traveling with my boyfriend (27) to Europe in May. It's our first time in Europe!

The trip is two weeks. Our itinerary is like this:

Paris--Venice--Florence--Rome--Pompeii--Rome--(flight to) Paris--Amboise--Paris

I've been doing my homework, but still need your help... I'm trying to decide whether to buy the France-Italy 6-day pass (~US$340 1st Class Saver), or just by tickets as we go.

The night train from Paris to Venice is expensive and the price seems to vary a lot.

After that we only take 2~3 hour train rides, but I couldn't find the cost for that anywhere online. (I tried trenitalia.com, and got the error page when I hit "Price"!)

Thanks in advance and have a stupendous day

Tanya

MaureenB

Have you purchased airfare yet? It might be better if you fly into Paris and home from Rome, adjusting your itinerary accordingly. It's much more efficient to fly open jaw, so you don't have to return to your arrival city. Saves travel time and money.
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Spacebunny

I know Maureen! I wish I hadn't booked the Paris round-trip flight yet!

kybourbon

You should consider flying from Paris Orly to Naples and Venice to Paris on one of the budget airlines. Easy Jet flies the Paris Orly/Naples route- www.easyjet.com. Check out www.whichbudget.com for other budget flights. You might be surprised to find flight for 20E just be sure to check their luggage weight restrictions and check in policies.

I would fly from Paris to Naples. Visit Pompeii which is 30 minutes by local commuter train (Circumvesuviana - not covered by rail passes - about 2E each way)from Naples. After Pompeii train back to Naples and on to Rome/Florence/Venice. This itinerary would avoid backtracking and wasting travel time. Each leg of the Rome/Florence/Venice will cost about 30E for 2nd class on ES trains. To price trains on www.trenitalia.com enter a date within the next 60 days. The prices will be the same in May and the Trenitalia prices include your seat reservation on the ES trains which isn't included with passes. Passes are rarely economical for Italy.

J62

If you are concerned about cost, then definitely plan to travel 2nd class on trains.

MaureenB

If the change fee is $100 per person, you might still be able to change the ticket to open jaw and save money vs. traveling back to Paris. It might be worth investigating.
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JoeTro

How wedded are you to the itinerary? Because Paris, Florence, Rome and Venice sounds more than enough for 2 weeks for first-timers to Europe to me.

ira

Hi SB,

A. You have four major cities in 14 days.

B. You have 3 days in Rome and one of them will be a visit to Pompeii.

C. You have 3 days in Paris and one of them will be a daytrip to Amboise.

Are you sure?

Unless you have a lot of luggage, flying Paris to Italy and back will be cheaper than sleepers on trains.

www.myair.com flies Paris ORY to Venice VCE.

Train schedules and fares are at www.trenitalia.com.

Spacebunny

Thanks for your valuable input

Our plan (before reading your replies) was:

2 nights in Paris
1 night on train to Venice
2 nights in Venice
2 (or 1) nights in Florence
3 (or 4) nights in Rome, including a day trip to Pompeii; fly to Paris
2 nights in Amboise
1 night in Paris

I'll investigate open jaw and flying between Paris and Venice. 13hrs on train is intimidating. I couldn't find the flight on easyjet before, but myair has it, so that definitely helps.

Paris to Rome is a good idea too, but flights from Venice back to Paris are few and expensive. Flying sound good though. Don't think we'll get a pass then.

By the way, can we take 2nd class, even though we're not under 26?

Dukey

If you want to see all the budget flights currently available check out www.skyscanner.net

As to rail travel: age hasnothing to do with where you may sit..either First or second class.

To help determine if passes will be economical for you input your proposed itinerary at www.railsaver.com

JoeTro

I would personally cut Amboise to add time to Paris, and then cut one of the Venice/Rome/Florence so you have enough time in Italy to see some major cities.

Spacebunny

Thanks for your advice.

I checked the site I booked tickets from for open jaw flights (in Paris out Rome, instead of Paris round trip from Vancouver) but it turned out to be $200 more! Maybe flying out from Vancouver is different.

I guess it's just the rail pass that has an age restriction on 1st and 2nd class?

I really want to see (or, sample all three of these Italian cities, and my bf wants to see some of the castles in Amboise. I'll think your advice over though.

Thanks guys! You've all been very helpful!

kybourbon

$200 doesn't sound like much when you consider you are going to have to spend money getting back to Paris if you don't book open jaw. You might also check flying into Paris and out of Venice (see Rome/Naples?Florence before Venice) although those flights usually leave early. You could also fly to Rome first and home from Paris.

I'm not sure where you are getting information about passes and age. What website are you using? Class/age should not matter except for price and I really think you will spend more buying a pass than point-to-point and budget flights. You will still have to book some kind of seat on the overnight train at an extra cost and seats on the other trains if you use ES trains. I think you are misunderstanding the railpass website. Did you actually use www.railsaver.com and click only if it saves me money?

Spacebunny

Hi kybourbon,

Yes, I've decided to just buy point to point tickets, and cross the borders by plane

I saw the age restriction on a few pages, but now I see it's for certain passes only; e.g. http://www.railkey.com/tickets/eurail-flexi.asp?AFF=EOR

$200 isn't a lot...I was just surprised it cost more. Plus the cancellation fees. Flying from Rome to Paris would only be 120 euros.. so not too bad..just takes up a couple hours.

kybourbon

Wow! I checked out the rail link you provided since I've never heard of them. They appear to charge double what other rail websites charge. Here's the link to the Italy/France pass on RailEurope and it's much cheaper. http://www.raileurope.com/us/rail/pa..._saverpass.htm