julies

We are trying to find a cheap way to get to the Baltics from the US this summer. One thought is to get as far as Britain and then take the cheap carriers from there to Riga or Kaunus or Vilnius.

I know that London is served by Stansted, Gatwick & Heathrow and that all of these airports have flights to some place in the Baltics. Liverpool also has Ryanair flights to Riga.

Most flights from the US to London go to Heathrow or Gatwick. Coming in from the US I can also find cheap flights into Manchester on BMI. I know that it can be time and money consuming to get between the various London airports. How about the difficulty of getting from Manchester or Liverpool to one of these other airports. What would you suggest as the best strategy to narrow down my choices as far as having to travel between airports? Are some of these options absolutely stupid to attempt? I, of course, am trying to find the unbeatable combo of a cheap fare from the US along with a budget intraEuropean carrier, but I also don't want to waste too mcuh time or money just trying to get from one airport to another. Thanks much.

Gardyloo

I'd lay on a sizeable bet that your cheapest routing would be US > Dublin > Riga. Aer Lingus (DUB-RIX) has transformed itself into a low cost carrier (LCC) for intra-Europe travel. DUB is usually more affordable than any of the UK airports and it's a nice smallish airport in which to connect. Way, way better than the inter-airport schlep in London.

There are numerous carriers serving DUB from the US, usually cheaper then London due to high landing fees at LHR/LGW.

For a higher-end experience, though, if you're originating in the NYC area, you could book $750 RT seats on Maxjet (www.maxjet.com) from JFK to Stansted, then connect to Ryanair at STN. Maxjet offers business class at that price - look for the promo code on the Maxjet website. $999 RT from Dulles too.

grsing

Don't forget that London is also served by Luton and London City (though you probably won't find cheap flights from City, Luton is a major cheap carrier hub along with Stansted). If at all possible, I'd recommend flying into and out of the same airport, and even then leaving a very substantial amount of time, because if your transatlantic flight is late and you miss the cheap flight to the Baltics, you're SOL. If the same airpor isn't possible, the transfer from Gatwick to Luton is very simple (no train changes), though it takes at least an hour and a half. Gatwick to Stansted and Heathrow to both require at least one change, and somewhere between an hour and 2 hours. So, yes, transferring between the airports is possible, but I'd allow at least 5 hours between flights. Manchester and Liverpool would be doable, but are substantially further from the cheap airports and thus take more time. As for fares, http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/times_fares/ will help you out, but somewhere in the vicinity of 20 pounds for a single would be a reasonable guideline (yes, transferring airports within London could well cost more than your flight to the baltics, says something about both how cheap air travel is becoming and how expensive UK trains are).

julies

Thanks. I knew I'd get some good advice here. We fly out of the middle of the US--Minneapolis-- so some of the east coast options aren't available to us.

Thanks also for the Dublin tip. I knew about it, but didn't realize that they are a more affordable center.

grsing

Don't forget to also look at Continental airports; fares can sometimes be very cheap to Paris, Frankfurt, etc., and there are low cost fares from either the same airports or others relatively nearby (not much worse, if any, than changing London airports).

CotswoldScouser

Getting from MCR to LPL is the messiest of your options, involving the train into Manchester, then a bus to LPL, or a train straight from MCR to Liverpool then a bus or taxi. A couple of hours in either case.

LPL is virtually inaccessible from anywhere else in England, though it has good local bus services from a number of points in NW England. And fabulous cheapo links to cities on the Continent most of us had never heard of till Ryanair starting flying there.