best way to florence from frankfurt
 

We are flying into frankfurt and want to get to Florence and then Venice returning to Frankfurt for our flight home. Is it best to take the train or use the low cost European carriers such as Ryanair?

Florence is about 12 hours by train from Frankfurt, with at least one connection. Venice at least 10.5 hours, also at least one connection.

Do you have the time and interest in sitting in a train for so long?

For budget airlines, use whichbudget.com to see who flies your route. Don't forget to check fares on legacy airlines like Lufthansa too.

Keep in mind that Ryanair doesn't fly to FRA. They fly to Hahn (HHN), 1:45 by bus west of Frankfurt center.

As a a few months ago, Lufthansa had roundtrip fares of $105 including taxes between Frankfurt and Venice/Rome. They might have also had Florence or Pisa, I didn't check. It's worth checking kayak to see what comes up. As others have said, the train is quite a trip. There are overnights Frankfurt to Milan and Munich to Florence.

Paul

While going by train is long in hours, it can still be a good choice. If you travel on a night train for one leg each way, you save the cost of a night in a hotel and have more daylight hours for sightseeing.

It can be cost effective, too. Book the night train legs at http://buchung.nachtzugreise.de well in advance and get cheap SparNight fares. If you take a regular train from Frankfurt to Munich, you can catch a night train from there to Florence. Or you can take a night train from Frankfurt to Milan and a regular train from there to Florence. For Venice-Frankfurt, take a regular train to Milan and the night train from there to Frankfurt.

Go to the site I listed above and do a dummy booking to see how cheap the fares can be. Click on the British flag for English. It might also be possible to get a discount fare on the Frankfurt-Munich leg, but the bahn.de site is down right now so I can't quote you the price. For fares for Milan-Florence or Venice-Milan go to www.trenitalia.com/en/index.html.

On all these sites use the European spelling for the cities: Frankfurt, Muenchen, Firenze, Milano, Venezia Santa Lucia. You can get timetables for all of these routes at www.bahn.de. Click on "Internat. Guests" for English. After you get summary timetables, click on "Show details for all" to see the connecting points.

The bahn.de site is working again. The regular fare for Frankfurt-Munich is €81, but if you book far enough ahead of time you can get a Dauer-Spezial fare of €29.

Thanks for the advice. I just booked Luftansa from Frankfurt to Florence and then Venice to Frankfurt for $105 round trip. What a great deal! Thanks to everyone for your input!