cheap flight from Lucerne or Zurich?
 

Are there any cheap flights from Lucerne, Switzerland to Florence, Italy?
Alternatively, what about from Zurich to Florence?

There may be periodic (i.e., not daily) flights on Condor from Zurich to Pisa. I think you can forget flying out of Lucerne entirely.

You can check possibilities at www.skyscanner.net (take a look at Basel, too)
Otherwise a train would take between 6.5-7.5 hours

Luzern has no airport, it's only 60 km from Zürich (1 hr by train). There are no outright budget flights from ZRH to FLR - regular flights at 500 or more dollars one way!

www9.condor.com flies to Pisa - a good hour by train from the Pisa airport (with a change of trains in the main Pisa station for most schedules) gets you into Florence. Some flights as "cheap" as €150 or thereabouts one way, maybe less on some dates?

www.helvetic.com does it for similar amounts.

Taking the train from Lucerne or Zurich to Florence would take 6.5 to just under 7 hours (1 to 2 changes required). It is a very pretty ride as well. Take a look at rail.ch for schedules. I believe the one-way second class fare without any discount card would be something like US$120, but do confirm this as I am extrapolating from my old Swiss disounted fares. Unless you can take a non-stop flight from Zurich (see below), taking a cheap flight from Zurich or Basel will take you longer than the train IMO, as you will have to connect via Munich or another city. (Also the prices don't look very cheap to me, but perhaps I am not pricing them correctly, I was focusing on schedules not prices.)

There is no public airport in Lucerne.

If you are going to fly from Basel as suggested above, bear in mind that to get from Lucerne to Basel will take 1 to 1.5 hours by train (some trains require 1 change), then you have to take a bus or taxi to the airport from downtown Basel as the airport does not have a train station (another 15-20 minutes or so). You also have to be at the airport like an hour before the flight for check-in and security, so add in that. From what I can see from the Condor site, there are no direct flights to Pisa, you have to connect via Munich, so the flight will take 3-4 hours. Then when you get to Pisa, you have another 1 to 1.5 hours by train to Florence. (Have to add all these train fares into the airfare as well.)

If you want to fly from Zurich to Florence, this probably would be a little bit faster than going by train door to door from Lucerne. There is also an airport at Zurich airport so this is a little more convenient than going to Basel. But do the math yourself and see, especially if you can't get a non-stop flight.

I have read your other post, are you still trying to "do" a trip from Geneva to the Jungfrajoch in one day in October? I really hope you get good weather, which can be quite iffy then. Rain and fog are more likely. It is a lot to put on one day to hope for clear weather in the mountains in October in Switzerland. Personally, as you will be in Evian in one of the most beautiful parts of France/Switzerland, I would just stay in that area and go up into the mountains right behind Evian for some great views if you get a good day, esp as you have a car. You could easily drive to Mt Blanc in less than 1.5 hours. You could drive to Zermatt is about 2 hours. (Well to Visp and then by train into Zermatt.) You could go to Chateau D'oeux and/or Gstadd (via the fun Janu Pass) in about the same time (or less via the Col du Pillon pass) As I have said many many times here, the Jungfrau is beautiful, but so are many other parts of Switzerland, the Jungfrau just has better PR, not better mountains.....

I just read on another post that the rail fare from Zurich - Florence may only be about CH70 (about US$60) one way for first class, which means second would be even less. The rail.ch website won't quote fares on their webiste for trips outside Switzerland, but will send you an e-mail quote or you can call.

Sorry Cicerone

That fare was 2nd class (not 1st class)and for the Click and Save Europe. It was around CHF 140. Leavesat 7.42 am and gets into Florence around 2.30 pm.

Sorry, so the second class fare on the rail.ch or purchasing through Swiss Rail was CH70 from Zurich-Florence? Just trying to get this straight in case the OP wants to know what the second class fare may cost.

Sorry to be so confusing. SBB does not provide prices on their website except for Click&Rail EUROPE http://tinyurl.com/ro9ql
which can only be bought a week in advance.

You have to register with the site and go through the booking process to get the price. I made a phoney booking for next Friday and the price was CHF 70 for Zurich-Florence. Hopefully it will be available for Sept 29.

Earlier when I started making enquiries I emailed Swiss for a price Zurich - Lucca and the quote was:

Tickets: (one way, 2nd class)
"""""""&quot ;
2 persons:
CHF 170.00 / Zurich - Milan, CIS*
CHF 44.00 / Milan - Genova, EC
CHF 40.00 / Genova - Viaregio, ZUG*
CHF x.xx / Viareggio - Lucca** (no quote as it is a local train)

Since then I discovered that the 7.42 am train goes directly to Florence and have decided to take that train. I didn't bother asking SBB for another quote as I know they won't sell it to me until I arrive in Zurich.

Hope this makes sense.

Thanks so much for the helpful comments, and a very special thanks to Cicerone!