ParisNiceLondon

Hi,

I keep going back and forth on what's the best way to plan this trip. We have about 12 days and our group wants to see London, Paris and then Nice.

At first I thought the best course was to fly into London (people coming from Chicago and DC) for a couple of days and then fly into Nice for a few days and then take the train to Paris spend a few days there and then fly out of Paris back to the US. (Option A)

This morning I've been looking at flights that would fly into London and then have us leaving from Nice. That would allow us to take the train from London to Paris and another Paris to Nice. I'd like to avoid the hassle of airports as much as I can. And it's not that more expensive than option A. I've thought about flying into Nice to start the trip but for some reason they seem to be complicated (overnight layovers, ect.) and about $200 more expensive.

Now the flights from Nice to the states have some sort of stop over n Germany or Switzerland. On previous trips to Europe I've been lucky and have just had nonstop flights. Say we book a flight with a stop over in Germany. Once we leave the flight we'd have to go through customs first before heading to your next flight, correct? Security, too? What is a reasonable amount of time for a layover? Two hours? Four hours?

Also I'll be in Florida for work a few days before we leave for Europe. I thought about flying out of Europe from there, but I'm not dragging my work computer/professional clothing through a 12 day European trip. I'd head back to home August 31 and leave for Europe Sept 2. Anyone think that's a big enough cushion? I like to leave a few days for my departure flight in case I get delayed in Florida for some unforeseen reason.

Michael

You might not have to go through customs (usually just a walk through the gate) or security if your transfer is within the same terminal.

Christina

Your plans are obviously dependent on the airline you choose because I know that all flights from Nice do not go through Germany or Switzerland, only ones on UAL/Lufthansa probalby have that option.

Flights on Air France will go through Paris, for example, so you have decided to ignore that airline, fine, but they exist. They will also go to London (but will go through Paris first). Also, flights on AF to France generally are almost the same price or cheaper to fly to Nice than to Paris.

I just checked Kayak and they do show such routings on AF just as well as Lufthansa or UAL and their price is only $2 different on the date I checked (from IAD). It is shorter to fly back through Paris than Germany, of course. AF moves your luggage through, you don't pick it up in Paris. Now UAL does have options of nonstop one way to London while AF does not, of course.

It's up to you, but there are various options depending which routes you want and what you want to avoid. If you want a nonstop one way, it does kind of have to be London, as it wouldn't make sense to fly into Paris NS if you plan to go to both Nice and London. I would never plan 4 hrs for a layover that involves changing airlines in Europe.

Weadles

Delta flies nonstop to Nice and back from JFK. We used to take that flight every summer. I'm not sure it's every day, but check your dates. Then you could fly into Nice, train/fly to Paris, train/fly to London.

scatcat

Delta has a flight from Nice to JFK. That's the flight I usually take. But last October I connected through CDG. Wasn't my choice, but my first flight connecting through AMS was cancelled. I have never had trouble connecting through JFK, but I have read that others have. My flight departing Nice on May 9 connects through AMS.

Rastaguytoday

Unless you really want to go out from Nice, try looking at Marseilles (MRS)as an alternative. Decent flights to ORD and Washington.

HappyTrvlr

Look at flying from Paris to Nice. When we booked our trip , it was cheaper to fly Orly to Nice on Air France than to take the train.
Using a United ticket, I'm flying Nice to Zurich to New York.
I don't remember going thorugh customs the last time I changed planes in Zurich. It's an easy airport to navigate and things are well run there. We've used Zurich several times coming and going from the US to other parts of Europe.

kerouac

All of Western Europe except the British Isles is now in the Schengen zone, so there is no customs or immigration if going through most of the cities of the western part of the continent -- all such flights are treated as domestic flights.

dfourh

When you fly from Nice to FRA, you are still in Schengen - - so basically nothing happens, but if you were to choose to leave the airport, you would stroll through the customs area - - but since you are still in Schengen you do not have to have your passport stamped, nor 'clear' customs (though if a dog smells something, there could still be issues - - this becomes normal police work, not 'customs'); if you do not leave the airport, but instead move from your Schengen arrival gate to the international departures gate area, you do not clear 'customs', you instead clear 'immigration' (i.e., a passport stamp) - - and since they want to be super safe, they will also re-screen your baggage at a 'security' check.

If you were to leave the airport, you would pass throug

alanRow

<i>Now the flights from Nice to the states have some sort of stop over n Germany or Switzerland.</i>

Where are you looking? You can get flights from Nice via most of the main European hub airports and if you are flying into London you should be able to book BA as it has flights to Gatwick, London City & Heathrow - though if heading straight home DON'T change London airports unless you are saving a lot of money AND you have at least 5 hours to do the transfer.

DebitNM

One airline you might not have thought of is SAS. They fly in and out of Nice to ORD (and possibly Dulles and Newark) and have some good sales going on now. We are flying into Nice from ORD (via Stockhom) and them home from Paris (via Copenhagen)