Cornwall and Italy
 

I'm hoping to take my two sons and daughter-in-law to England and Italy in June of 2022. It's a rather complicated trip b/c I will be joining them after a tour to Netherlands and married son and his wife will be staying on in Venice after our time together has ended. Here's what I have planned so far:

• Bachelor son who lives in Austin will somehow meet 2nd son and his wife who live outside of Asheville and they'll fly to London where I will meet them
• After a couple of days in London (any suggestions on someplace where we can get three rooms without going into serious debt?) we'll head to Cornwall
• Flybe is no longer an option....any thoughts on best and quickest way to get there?
• 4 nights in Cornwall....we have a guide booked....need a place to stay there too
• Need to fly from Cornwall to Florence where we will spend a couple of days, rent a car and go to Cortona for a couple of days, back to Florence and train to Venice

I generally make arrangements myself but am nervous about all the travel arrangements and lodging....I suspect airbnb would be best and far more affordable than hotels. Not sure if a travel agent would even be interested in setting something like this up since we won't be staying at hotels throughout the trip....does anyone know if they get compensation from the airlines, rental cars, etc. or if the traveler can reimburse them somehow....I need advice.

Seriously what price is "in debt"? Give us a clue because in London you can stay for any money and we don't know what you mean. £ would be best rather than $.

Cornwall is a biggish place with not the best roads so saying "Cornwall" is a bit open. However there is a perfectly good train system from London to Cornwall or hire a car at Heathrow and drive though take Google map time and add 50%. NB most cars are stick shift and we drive on the left.

Flights from UK domestic airlines to Florence or Siena for 2022..... I think just chill a bit, we are only in 2021 and still fighting Covid. Airlines are coming back on stream and you will know more in November/December as stuff calms down.

It's not the fastest way to Cornwall, but I've always wanted to take the night train: https://www.seat61.com/sleeper-to-cornwall.htm - although you might get a better view of the scenery on the day train, which only takes three hours from London to Plymouth.

Flying from Cornwall to Florence may be a problem - take a look at Rome2Rio.

hi Sharon_Mac, you don't believe in making things easy for yourself, do you?

I can't help with the London end of things but so far as Cornwall is concerned, it is still possible to fly to Newquay from LGW 5 times a week and from LHR on BA again 5x a week. Whether these flights will be available next year I don't know. Otherwise, the train from Paddington takes about 5 hours; much longer of course but the last part from Exeter onwards is one of the most beautiful train journeys in the world so it might be well with considering anyway.

As for accommodation there is everything from hotels to cottages to B&B. If you avoid the first week of June it will be outside school hols even with this year's high prices you ought to be able to find something you like. Where are you think of staying?

You can't fly from Cornwall to Florence; the closest you can get is Easyjet to Pisa from Bristol, leaving early in the morning and there is a train roughly every 30 mins from Pisa Airport to Florence [change at Pisa centrale] that takes about 90 mins. And you if you rent a car at NQY you could return it at Bristol airport - driving is definitely the easiest way to get there.

<<I generally make arrangements myself but I am nervous about all the travel arrangements and lodging....I suspect airbnb would be best and far more affordable than hotels. Not sure if a travel agent would even be interested in setting something like this up since we won't be staying at hotels throughout the trip....does anyone know if they get compensation from the airlines, rental cars, etc. or if the traveler can reimburse them somehow....I need advice.>>

I'm not sure that a TA wouldn't be interested, for a price but IMO you don't really need one. As you say AirBnB or even using a booking site like Booking.com will help you to find what accommodation there is and they usually have very generous cancellation terms, which are worth looking at even it you have to pay a little extra. Not sure what you mean by" the traveller reimbursing the hotels" etc - hotels and apartments you can book direct or use a booking site, or in Cornwall the Cornwall Tourist Board has a list of approved accommodation. https://www.visitcornwall.com/accommodation

For car hire, you can hire direct from the care hire company, or through a consolidator like autoeurope.

However you organise this you should certainly consider travel insurance which covers you for having to cancel due to covid.

ditto most previous comments.

I personally would not even start to research how to travel from Cornwall to Italy until this winter. No airline schedules are set yet - the routes available next June will be very different to what is offered now. Even schedules for this Fall are really just place holders at present. Routes are being added, cancelled, totally removed from the schedule every week. Trying to figure out flights will make you crazy since they are almost guaranteed to change. So just sit back and start looking maybe around Nov/Dec.

All great info...thanks. We're all set with a driver and guide in Cornwall....I've been there several times in the past so am fairly familiar...just worried about lodging on the whole trip...prices in London seem very steep. From what others have said, it's too early to try to nail down flights but websites indicate lots of lodgings are already booked! I appreciate your input

Very cool website....thank you!!

All great info....thanks so much

" . . . but websites indicate lots of lodgings are already booked! I appreciate your input"

Probably not. Many B&Bs / small hotels / STR/VRBOs don't publish their rates a year ahead so their websites will often say 'no availability' when it really means 'We ain't taking bookings yet'.

Try booking.com. You can input how many rooms you need and the dates and the usually have a good selection of hotels and some apartments accompanied by guest ratings. I have booked with them before with good success.