jwalker1

Hi Folks, trying to book flight itinerary from San Francisco to a few cities in Europe from late November in two early October. We have 2 full weeks, and would like to see Paris & Florence, with maybe a short train ride some where else in between. What is the best flight plan? Do I fly direc to Paris and take a jumper plane to Florence? Can I fly from Florence back hom to S.F or do I have to go back through Paris? It seems more confusing then I expected. Thanks for the help. J Bizzle

suze

Coming from west coast U.S. the first decision (in my opinion) is about your plane ticket time and routing...

whether you want to fly an overnight flight or take a day-time one. Are you willing to transfer back east then go direct to Paris? Or would you rather go nonstop to London, then take a short hop to Paris from there?

janisj

Daytime flight from the west coast -- I wish!

I'd look at open jaw into Paris and out of Italy. It wouldn't have to be Florence - could be Venice, or Rome or Milan - depending on how you decided to split up your time in Italy.

jwalker1

Thanks Suze, well my plan was just to find the cheapest direct flight to Paris or Florence and I guess my idea was to stop in Paris first since there may not be direct flights from S.F. to Florence/Venice. Assuming once in Venice or Florence I can take a train around Italy. Do you know if one airport is easier to fly in to than the other? A

jwalker1

janisj,

By open jaw do you mean just fly direct from SFO to either Paris or Florence. Also do you recommend flying in to Italy first and spending the last few days in Paris. Or flying in to Paris for a few days and spending remainder of two weeks in Florence and flying directly home? I am just curious if there is a travel benefit other than how we want to spend our time. Thx.

janisj

It really doesn't make that much difference if you do Italy first or Paris first - to me Paris just seems more manageable and an easier place to recover from Jet lag.

Open Jaw means you book your tickets in to one city and home from a different one. Like SFO to Paris, the from some city in Italy back to SFO. This saves you from having to back track to the original airport to fly home.

annhig

hi, jwalker -

yes it is confusing isn't it?

Have you decided against seeing Venice?, Rome?

You could do a nice trip [and not move too often, which is to be avoided] by flying into Paris, then flight /train to Venice, train to Florence, and train to Rome, fly home.

or cut out Venice and fly to pisa from Paris, stay in the tuscan countryside, and again, fly home from Rome.

there are many permutations, but please resist the temptations to cram in too many destinations. You will regret it.

If, as I'm assuming from your post that you've not been to europe before, why not get a book like rick steves europe and do a bit of reading about where you want to go.

Once you have a tentative itinerary, there are many experts here who are just dying to help you have a great time. what would help is to know dates, and "musts" and must nots, what you like to do, and a rough budget.

regards, ann

jwalker1

annhig,

Thanks for the advice. Basically we leave on October 29th and return on November 12th. Our goal is mainly romance and relaxation so we wanted to not squeeze in to many cities. My thought was Paris since it is a main hub from the U.S. and then a relaxing long stay in Florence or Venice one of the smaller cities in Italy. That way we are not on a train or in a plane to much. I Guess the confusing part is just really how to get the best price and the most convient travel. Per my other post.. do we fly in To Paris, take a small plane or train to Venice/Florence, and then fly back from Florence to the U.S.(figure Rome is to far south)? Is it easier and more relaxing to take a train from Paris to Venice to Florence..or am I wasting valuable relax time int he city I am trying to reach. Thanks!

suze

I would fly into Venice and out of Paris, or vis versa. Then travel between cities by train.

I have done Venice and Paris in the same trip (going by private overnight sleeper cabin on the train). Actually we were in Switzerland first, so our "open jaw" was into Geneva and out of Paris.

suze

janisj~~ what i meant is when you fly by day to back east then get on another flight like from JFK or somewhere for the rest of the trip. Isn't that right? I could swear I've done that before.

from Seattle myself I prefer to go on the British Airway flight that leaves around 6PM and arrives London early AM. then I have a connecting flight booked out of Heathrow and on to Amsterdam, Geneva, Paris, whatever.

J_Correa

I don't think there are any direct flights between Florence and SFO, but I think there are between Rome and SFO. Maybe Venice too. Most flights have a connection, but there are some non-stops.

janisj

suze: Unless you fly a redeye overnight from the west coast I don't think you can catch any of the day flights from the east coast.

Rastaguytoday

janisj is correct. There is no such thing as a day trip from the Left Coast.

I would suggest, given the time of year, that you arrive further north and end up south, hoping to follow the warmer weather. I did this about the same time of year in 2005 and it worked pretty well.

I believe, on some airlines, tbere are a bunch of flights going into Bologna. This being said, you can avoid LHR, though I know the rest of the EU is catching up with their regulations.

If you're looking to get some frequent flyer miles, think about who you want to fly, and if it's worth any extra cost.

I think janisj said in another thread that the priorities were 1) Itinerary set 2) Plane tickets 3) Hotel and 4) how to get from one place to another. I'm paraphrasing her, but that was the gist.

annhig

Hi, again,jwalker,

we just love making decisions for toher people, don't we? [well, I do!]

one thing that would help is knowing whether you want any time in the countryside, or would prefer to concentrate on the major sites. if the latter, another idea is to fly to Rome from Paris [lots of flights] then train to Florence/Venice.

alternatively, you could pick up a car at orvieto [just north of Rome, and supposedly much easier for novice european driving] then drive to Venice, and get rid of the car for your stay there before your flight home. at the time of year you are going, you would have no trouble fiding places to stay, if you didn't want to book.

Decisions, decisions.

regards, ann

suze

janisj & rastaguy, i know that(!) I'm not explaining it clearly, I guess.

I can get on a red-eye that goes non-stop to London, leaves in the evening from the west coast & arrives Europe the next morning.

OR

I can take a day flight to the midwest or east coast somewhere, leaving mid morning arriving the midpoint airport in the evening & transfer onto a shorter length red eye at that point. Although the second routing takes longer, some people have less difficulty with the time change and jet leg doing it this way (especially if you are unable to sleep on planes).

crefloors

You don't have a lot of choice if you want a non-stop to Paris from SFO..Air France or Delta. I don't THINK there's a direct from Florence, or Rome back to SFO,,,,BUT...things change and I flew Rome, SFO in 1999, had to go to Heathrow and THEN to SFO. Keep checking Air France and Delta very frequently...the fares change all the time. Last Nov. I was looking at 850.00 round trip, didn't book because plans weren't solid, looked again and got 1400.00...after I pulled myself up off the floor, I decided to wait a bit, checked again and finally got 763.00 round trip.

I can't remember how I did it, but somewhere in checking Air France prices there was something where I could register for e-mail fare alerts...and thus ended up with the 763.00 fare.

You just need to check all the time.

Rastaguytoday

suze, my sympathies.

Once I'm flying, I want to just get there, not stop along the way.

My wife couldn't sleep on flights to Europe. Her record is 6 movies in Biz class. She'd totally ruin the first couple of days.

Her solution now is to stay up all night the day before the flight and sleep on the plane. She takes a combination of diazepan and melatonin, not quite the Anna Nicole combination, but it now works and she can stay up all day the first day we arrive.

In May, it's SFO - ORD - MAD - MRS, leaving and arriving in the morning. I use melatonin and break all the other rules about hydration and eating, but I get there wide awake and somewhat refreshed. Chaque pour soi.

suze

Like your wife, I can't sleep on a plane (even heavily medicated!). I do suck it up and do the non-stop for the same reason you mention.

Since our OP asked for the "best" flight plan; I thought it was worth it to explain the timing and likely flight routing options (or die trying -lol!)

SeaUrchin

I know what you mean, suze, about flying and connecting in an East Coast city for the last leg of the flight. At that time of year I would worry about getting stuck in the East Coast city. I prefer to fly directly to Europe and if I am stuck due to weather at least I am already in Europe.

I used to change planes in NY and almost got stuck once due to weather and the thought of delaying my Europe trip and sitting in an airport or a local hotel was dismaying.

lovisa

I do not see an inexpensive open jaw ticket SFO - Paris; Italy - SFO. If price is a major concern, I would book a round trip SFO - CDG (Paris) Using www.kayak.com, I just saw one for your dates for $896 each on a Delta Nonstop each way on CheapSeats. There are no nonstops from anywhere on the West Coast to anywhere in Italy, so that choice would take at least one flight change, and more time. If you do something like buy a roundtrip to Paris, the issue becomes how to get to Florence and back. Easyjet flies from Paris (Orly) to Pisa, which is only about 1 1/2 hours from Florence by train. Right now, EasyJet is only booking until the end of October, November flights are not yet listed. You could fly on EasyJet one way or roundtrip, or from Paris you could take a train (TGV high speed) to Lausanne, spend a day or two there, then book a sleeper on a night train which leaves around 10:20 P.M., and arrives in Florence around 6:30 A.M.