London-Avignon-Shannon-London
Nov 28th, 2004, 07:04 AM
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London-Avignon-Shannon-London
My wife and I are spending two weeks near Avignon in June, then meeting some friends in Ireland for another two weeks. To make our lives complicated [though a bit less expensive] we are flying RT US-Gatwick.
Your advice on London to Avignon [maybe new SNCF fare - but then how best to go London-Paris?], and also Avignon-Shannon very much appreciated.
Your advice on London to Avignon [maybe new SNCF fare - but then how best to go London-Paris?], and also Avignon-Shannon very much appreciated.
Nov 28th, 2004, 07:35 AM
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For London to Avignon you have 3 options:
1) Fly on Ryanair from Luton or Stansted to Nîmes, then rent a car
www.ryanair.com
2) Fly on EasyJet from Gatwick to Marseille, then rent a car
www.easyjet.com
3) Take the Eurostar/TGV from London to Avignon (infrequent direct service - you generally need to change in Lille).
www.eurostar.com
All 3 options will probably require you to spend the night in London upon arrival from the US.
From Avignon to Shannon, you could take Ryanair back from Nîmes via London Stansted, but they don't "do" connections, so you would have to plan a long layover and go through the whole check-in thing twice...
Aer Lingus flies from Marseille to Dublin, don't know if that is any better.
Hope this helps,
Andre
1) Fly on Ryanair from Luton or Stansted to Nîmes, then rent a car
www.ryanair.com
2) Fly on EasyJet from Gatwick to Marseille, then rent a car
www.easyjet.com
3) Take the Eurostar/TGV from London to Avignon (infrequent direct service - you generally need to change in Lille).
www.eurostar.com
All 3 options will probably require you to spend the night in London upon arrival from the US.
From Avignon to Shannon, you could take Ryanair back from Nîmes via London Stansted, but they don't "do" connections, so you would have to plan a long layover and go through the whole check-in thing twice...
Aer Lingus flies from Marseille to Dublin, don't know if that is any better.
Hope this helps,
Andre
Nov 28th, 2004, 07:58 AM
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no question for London to Avignon. Book easyjet as they fly out of Gatwick, so you are already there. Chances are you will be able to make a connection and not even have to spend a night in London. They run unbelievably cheap fares all the time, so check often and you should be able to get one-way tickets for under 25 euros/ person taxes included.
-Kevin
-Kevin
Nov 28th, 2004, 11:32 AM
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I'd fly to Avignon. I took the train last year- Eurostar to Lille and then "rgular" train onward to Avignon. It was a VERY long journey and unless you travel very light the lugging of your bags will be a pain! There are direct trains that run in the summer. This is a possibility- but only if it's much less expensive than flying. (Doubtful!)
Nov 29th, 2004, 12:29 AM
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You're on the receiving end of an extraordinary amount of duff information here, and you might want to reconsider your itinerary anyway.
No-one flies into Avignon from anywhere except Paris Orly (which is a great place for connection to the rest of France and some French overseas territories, but hopeless for Britain or Ireland)
Easyjet doesn't fly to Nimes from anywhere (though it does fly to Nice, which is not at all the same place): Ryanair at present flies to Nimes from Stansted and Luton, but not from Gatwick, and the journey from Gatwick to Luton or Stansted is roughly as long as the train from Lille to Avignon.
There was, last summer, one direct train a WEEK from London to Avignon. But its normal 6h 15 journey time wasn't a lot different from the standard 6h 30 it'll take you about twice a day to do the same journey with a cross-platform connection at Lille, or the more frequent connections that involve changing stations in Paris. Cost considerations apart, there are midday-ish trains from London that can easily be caught after an overnight flight into Gatwick.
I'd say getting the train to Waterloo (taking the Thmeslink to London Bridge, then changing cross-platform for Waterloo East is easiest with luggage)is slightly less painful than the Easyjet from Gatwick to Marseille, then the bus into town and the train up to Avignon. Both, IMHO, beat the cross-London bus to Stansted or Luton, followed by a flight to Provence, followed by whatever transport there might be on to Avignon. However, Nimes, Carcassonne or Montpellier (which all have direct flights from Luton or Stansted) might actually be handy for where you want to end up, and surface connections from all the Provence area airports to Avignon might be better next summer than at present.
Although a pain, few of these flights will require an overnight stay in London.
Shannon is a pretty useless airport to get to anywhere except the US or Britain. Its flights to the London area and to Beauvais are mostly operated by low-cost airlines, which aren't set up to do connections. So you'll probably have to get a train from Avignon to Paris and then a bus to Beauvais for the one daily flight from France to Shannon, or allow a great deal of time, as Andre says, at Luton or Stansted to connect between the more frequent flights from Provence to Greater London and from Greater London to Shannon. Check too whether changes at Manchester or Birmingham work for you (again allowing at least 4 hours for the transfer if a low-cost is involved)
Flights from any of Ireland's dozen or so airports to the London area are changing all the time, with routes constantly springing up, and sometimes being terminated. www.nonrev.net is about the most reliable way of keeping up to date with who's operating which flights. Actually, all Europe's short-distance routes have operators coming and going, and it's not wise to restrict your investigations to Ryanair and Easyjet.
Good luck. You can easily spend the next 7 months planning this jaunt. Personally, I'd just hire a car a Gatwick.
No-one flies into Avignon from anywhere except Paris Orly (which is a great place for connection to the rest of France and some French overseas territories, but hopeless for Britain or Ireland)
Easyjet doesn't fly to Nimes from anywhere (though it does fly to Nice, which is not at all the same place): Ryanair at present flies to Nimes from Stansted and Luton, but not from Gatwick, and the journey from Gatwick to Luton or Stansted is roughly as long as the train from Lille to Avignon.
There was, last summer, one direct train a WEEK from London to Avignon. But its normal 6h 15 journey time wasn't a lot different from the standard 6h 30 it'll take you about twice a day to do the same journey with a cross-platform connection at Lille, or the more frequent connections that involve changing stations in Paris. Cost considerations apart, there are midday-ish trains from London that can easily be caught after an overnight flight into Gatwick.
I'd say getting the train to Waterloo (taking the Thmeslink to London Bridge, then changing cross-platform for Waterloo East is easiest with luggage)is slightly less painful than the Easyjet from Gatwick to Marseille, then the bus into town and the train up to Avignon. Both, IMHO, beat the cross-London bus to Stansted or Luton, followed by a flight to Provence, followed by whatever transport there might be on to Avignon. However, Nimes, Carcassonne or Montpellier (which all have direct flights from Luton or Stansted) might actually be handy for where you want to end up, and surface connections from all the Provence area airports to Avignon might be better next summer than at present.
Although a pain, few of these flights will require an overnight stay in London.
Shannon is a pretty useless airport to get to anywhere except the US or Britain. Its flights to the London area and to Beauvais are mostly operated by low-cost airlines, which aren't set up to do connections. So you'll probably have to get a train from Avignon to Paris and then a bus to Beauvais for the one daily flight from France to Shannon, or allow a great deal of time, as Andre says, at Luton or Stansted to connect between the more frequent flights from Provence to Greater London and from Greater London to Shannon. Check too whether changes at Manchester or Birmingham work for you (again allowing at least 4 hours for the transfer if a low-cost is involved)
Flights from any of Ireland's dozen or so airports to the London area are changing all the time, with routes constantly springing up, and sometimes being terminated. www.nonrev.net is about the most reliable way of keeping up to date with who's operating which flights. Actually, all Europe's short-distance routes have operators coming and going, and it's not wise to restrict your investigations to Ryanair and Easyjet.
Good luck. You can easily spend the next 7 months planning this jaunt. Personally, I'd just hire a car a Gatwick.
Nov 29th, 2004, 03:29 AM
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Hi
just to say that another possibility is BA Gatwick to Montpellier. I use it occasionally and sometimes it has been cheaper than Ryanair, sometimes much more expensive. Depends on the dates.
Both Montpellier and Nimes have shuttle buses to the station with connections to Avignon. In fact, both Nimes & Montpellier are about 1 hour (or less) by car to Avignon.
Shannon has common connections with several of the cheap airline hubs. You could think of Nimes-Liverpool-Shannon, or Nimes/Montpellier-Stansted-Shannon
Although aimed at Languedoc, these 2005 schedules may be useful :
http://www.the-languedoc-page.com/la...ourism-air.htm
Bonne chance
Peter
just to say that another possibility is BA Gatwick to Montpellier. I use it occasionally and sometimes it has been cheaper than Ryanair, sometimes much more expensive. Depends on the dates.
Both Montpellier and Nimes have shuttle buses to the station with connections to Avignon. In fact, both Nimes & Montpellier are about 1 hour (or less) by car to Avignon.
Shannon has common connections with several of the cheap airline hubs. You could think of Nimes-Liverpool-Shannon, or Nimes/Montpellier-Stansted-Shannon
Although aimed at Languedoc, these 2005 schedules may be useful :
http://www.the-languedoc-page.com/la...ourism-air.htm
Bonne chance
Peter
Nov 30th, 2004, 08:55 AM
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flanneruk,
Not sure of the exact meaning of "duff", but I wrote that EasyJet served MARSEILLE, not Nîmes. Nice isn't convenient to Avignon at all, so I'm not sure why you mention it.
Since the OP said he was staying "near Avignon", I assumed he would be renting a car. The extra diving time from Nîmes vs Marseille airport is probably not that great depending on where exactly the OP is staying.
Andre
Not sure of the exact meaning of "duff", but I wrote that EasyJet served MARSEILLE, not Nîmes. Nice isn't convenient to Avignon at all, so I'm not sure why you mention it.
Since the OP said he was staying "near Avignon", I assumed he would be renting a car. The extra diving time from Nîmes vs Marseille airport is probably not that great depending on where exactly the OP is staying.
Andre
