KristineBb

Hi everyone, I am wanting to travel London Paris and Rome or Barcelona this October. A travel agency quoted me $2200 for Vancouver-London-Rome-Paris-Vancouver and $1700 for Vancouver-London-Paris-Barcelona-Vancouver which I think is a good deal. However, my friend who's from London told me that it is bettet to just fly from Vancouver to London then take the train to Paris and from Paris, train again to Rome and from Rome fly to Vancouver. Is it cheaper to take the train? if so, how much do you think is it going to cost me compared to flying?

janisj

What you want is Fly open jaw in to London and home from Rome or Barcelona. Then book the Eurostar train from London to Paris, and fly one of the budget airlines between Paris and Rome or Barcelona . . .

manouche

it would take you at least 15 hours (more, depending on the route) to take the train from Paris to Rome, and cost about 200 EU or so. The Italian night trains are horrible, and a huge waste of time and money. You can fly EasyJet from Paris to Rome in about 2 hours, for about 60 EU.

There are sometimes cheap flights (one stop or direct) from Canada to Paris - I would take a look at those and compare with the price your agent gave you. You want to make sure you won't end up spending a lot of time in airports waiting for connections - this is often why agents quote prices this low.

Agree that you should fly open-jaw - arriving in one city and departing from the last place you visit - it's a lot cheaper.

Train travel between France and Great Britain is a lot cheaper if you book 3 months in advance. A one-way advance ticket usually runs around 60 EU, as opposed to more than twice that if bought closer to the date of departure. Not sure your friend has the correct information - you don't want to spend any more time in transit (or any more money) than you have to.

I would do some research on your own - it's not difficult to purchase tickets online in advance. You can use hotels.com or booking.com to search for decent, inexpensive hotels.

sandralist

I actually think that is a pretty good price you are being quoted from the travel agent, but the devil is in the details. You can try crunching the numbers yourself and see what it would cost you for booking it all independently -- combo of train + cheap flights, or just cheap flights -- but what really matters is the connections/layovers and whether the departure times work for you (whether your agent books it or you book it).

There are people who post on the Flyer Talk forums who sometimes know all this stuff inside out and can give you some tips about how to go about doing the research. It's not difficult to book the tickets online once you've figured out the details -- but it is incredibly time consuming to do the cost comparisons and figure out the schedules.

Southam

No Internet site covers all the airlines in the world but www.itasoftware.com will give a good idea of trans-Atlantic possibilities. It's information only, not selling tickets. In Vancouver you can also look at Air Transat. http://www.airtransat.ca/en/Flights?...amme&tmpl=HOME
For low-cost flights in Europe that don't necessarily show up on North American screens, www.skyscanner.com Many of the budget airlines do not connect to any other airlines so must be booked separately. For European train travel, www.seat61.com Trains and planes can be far cheaper if booked well in advance. There is nothing to be saved by flying through London to get to Paris, unless you want to visit London.

KristineBb

Instead of flying to Rome. I am also considering just going to Belgium, Germany and Switzerland instead since it is closer to Paris. About the hotel, I have an employee discount and I'm also going to be staying at my friend's place in London. Do you think this is a better idea?

Christina

It depends, better in what way? Germany isn't that close to Paris at all, the train trip would be very long. I presume you dont just want to go to Frankfurt. If you go to Berlin, the train takes 8-9 hours and has at least one transfer. If you go to Munich, it's a little less travel time (6-7 hours at least) but also has a transfer (one isn't the end of the world, of course, I do that). I doubt if the train fare is going to be cheaper than a budget airline for that distance. I think advance train fares will be around 100 euro, and you can fly Easyjet Paris ORY to Berlin for only around 50 euro, for example, and it takes just under 2 hours. Orly is closer to Paris so easier to get to than CDG by a bit.

So no, I don't really think it's better in any way than Rome.

debinthepeg

There are some discount airlines in Europe that are so much cheaper than anything we have in Canada. These are pretty much no frills flights but for a quick flight, that's all you really need. (And really our flights are going no frills now too). I find their prices comparable to trains.

I would do the following to get a price comparison, for example for your second itinerary. Go to the flight hub website and price an open jaw flight, flying into London and flying home from Barcelona. Then check the Ryanair or Easyjet sites for a one way flight from London to Paris. Then go on the Vueling airlines site to get the price of the flight from Paris to Barcelona. Often flights on these discount carriers are under 50 euros. You could then compare some of the train options as well.

greenie

London has some of the highest airport fees in europe. You might lower your flight cost flighing in and out of another country and taking the train to london.

KristineBb

Thanks everyone! I just booked a flight today. For $1600 in total, I got a flight from Vancouver to London, train to Paris from London, flight from Paris to Rome and back to Vancouver. All I need now is to plan my days in each city. I will be staying 5 nights in London, 4 in Paris and 4 in Rome.

manouche

I would hurry up and book your hotels now - you can worry about what you'll do in each city after you get that settled. Don't wait till the last minute, since all the places you mentioned will be crowded.