Europe flights around cruise dates
#1
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Europe flights around cruise dates
I am looking to go on a cruise starting May 15 leaving from Civitavecchia and docking in Capri.
I have never traveled to Europe and have no idea what a roundabout price should be. Also, I was looking to go to Switzerland before or after since my husbands grandfather lives there. He lives in Lugano. Is Civitavecchia close to Lugano? How far?
Also, what is the best airline to take to any of these areas if I am coming from the New York New Jersey area?
Please help!!
I have never traveled to Europe and have no idea what a roundabout price should be. Also, I was looking to go to Switzerland before or after since my husbands grandfather lives there. He lives in Lugano. Is Civitavecchia close to Lugano? How far?
Also, what is the best airline to take to any of these areas if I am coming from the New York New Jersey area?
Please help!!
#2
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I like to use www.maps.google.com to find distances. Lugano is a 6hr train ride from Rome, with a change in Milan.
For flights I recommend you fly what's called an open jaw itinerary into Milan, visit Lugano, then travel to Rome/Civitavecchia to catch your cruise.
After your cruise you can fly out of Rome.
You can get non-stop flights on AA from JFK for $532. (I picked some random dates in May)
You can also reverse the itinerary and do the same open jaw flights on AA from JFK to Rome, then Milan to JFK.
Continental flies the same routes from Newark. Alitalia, Delta and AA from JFK.
For flights I recommend you fly what's called an open jaw itinerary into Milan, visit Lugano, then travel to Rome/Civitavecchia to catch your cruise.
After your cruise you can fly out of Rome.
You can get non-stop flights on AA from JFK for $532. (I picked some random dates in May)
You can also reverse the itinerary and do the same open jaw flights on AA from JFK to Rome, then Milan to JFK.
Continental flies the same routes from Newark. Alitalia, Delta and AA from JFK.
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If you can get a round-trip open-jaw flight for less than $600 (including all the taxes and fees), that's a really good deal. Jump on it right away. Since Milan-Malpensa is the closest airport to Lugano (and a short train ride), it does make sense to make that one of your "jaws". You can easily get a train between Rome and Milan or even fly.
If it's much cheaper to fly nonstop to Milan (and it sometimes is), then you could figure out the cost of the round-trip train fare to Rome from there. The nice thing is that there is a train station right at Malpensa, which is pretty far from the city of Milan, and you can usually take a train directly to and from that station. So when you are researching train fares, be sure to research the fares from Malpensa rather than Milan.
If it's much cheaper to fly nonstop to Milan (and it sometimes is), then you could figure out the cost of the round-trip train fare to Rome from there. The nice thing is that there is a train station right at Malpensa, which is pretty far from the city of Milan, and you can usually take a train directly to and from that station. So when you are researching train fares, be sure to research the fares from Malpensa rather than Milan.
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RKlyman, did you consider flying into Lugano??
Flying into Lugano (LUG), your itinerary would look something like this:
I checked May 10th for example, to fly into Lugano and out of Rome (May 30th - don't know how long your cruise is) for $780 with taxes; this would be on Swiss Airlines via Zurich. There are options via Geneva, but the layovers are a little longer.
You could fly into Milan and then take the train to Lugano, BUT, you would have to take at least 2 trains to get from Malpensa to Lugano. Depending on the time of the departure you want, it can take anywhere from 2-3.5 hours to get to Lugano. It's doable, but if you are coming off of a transatlantic flight, you might not want to have to schlep luggage on a train(if you are going on a cruise, I imagine you will have at least 1 medium/large piece of luggage?)
You can check www.sbb.ch, which is the Swiss Rail website for the Milan to Swiss routes, and you can play around with the schedule to see what fits:
From Lugano to Roma, Termini Station in central Rome, it's approximately 5 hours and 45 minutes with 1 connection in Milan, Central station. Plugging in a random May date, the fare is 158CHF ($137USD) one way per person. If you were to take the train from Lugano to Rome, I would recommend you travel to Rome a day or two before the cruise is scheduled to depart, in case of delayed trains!
On the day your cruise departs from Rome, you can take a cab to Civitavecchia, or if you are feeling adventurous, you could take the train as well.
Flying into Lugano (LUG), your itinerary would look something like this:
I checked May 10th for example, to fly into Lugano and out of Rome (May 30th - don't know how long your cruise is) for $780 with taxes; this would be on Swiss Airlines via Zurich. There are options via Geneva, but the layovers are a little longer.
You could fly into Milan and then take the train to Lugano, BUT, you would have to take at least 2 trains to get from Malpensa to Lugano. Depending on the time of the departure you want, it can take anywhere from 2-3.5 hours to get to Lugano. It's doable, but if you are coming off of a transatlantic flight, you might not want to have to schlep luggage on a train(if you are going on a cruise, I imagine you will have at least 1 medium/large piece of luggage?)
You can check www.sbb.ch, which is the Swiss Rail website for the Milan to Swiss routes, and you can play around with the schedule to see what fits:
From Lugano to Roma, Termini Station in central Rome, it's approximately 5 hours and 45 minutes with 1 connection in Milan, Central station. Plugging in a random May date, the fare is 158CHF ($137USD) one way per person. If you were to take the train from Lugano to Rome, I would recommend you travel to Rome a day or two before the cruise is scheduled to depart, in case of delayed trains!
On the day your cruise departs from Rome, you can take a cab to Civitavecchia, or if you are feeling adventurous, you could take the train as well.