ss

My daughter and I will be flying from London to Venice in early June. I checked out Ryan Air, but don't know much about it. Anyone flown them or have any flight recommendations LON TO VCE??

rex

You'll find numerous remarks here about the strict enforcement of the baggage weight limits if Ryanair. Seems that they enforce them strictly most of the time. I don't remember that on my two flights with them in 1999.<BR><BR>Bear in mind that Ryanair does not fly to Marco Polo, the &quot;main&quot; airport of Venice, but rather to Treviso, about 25 miles away. There will almost surely be synchronized bus service to get you to Venice (there should be info on the ryanair site).<BR><BR>I don't think the airport is much of an issue. You're going to see Venice, not its airport(s).<BR><BR>Best wishes,<BR><BR>Rex<BR>[email protected]<BR>

debbier

I had asked that question earlier in the week but didn't get any suggestions other than Ryan which means flying out of stanstead which I don't want to do. I am going to stick with British Airways which has reasonable fares to Venice from Gatwick, I was just looking for different flight times.

dsieve

Another option is EasyJet. They are similar to Ryan express (baggage limits and open seating), but the fly directly into Marco Polo (Venice). I'm set to fly with Easyjet from Venice to London in June, cost less than $100 for 3 of us. They still fly out of stanstead though.<BR><BR>

ss

dear dsieve, thank you I will ck with EasyJet to fly into Marco Polo. I will arrive at Heathrow from Chicago, tour London all day and depart early from Stansted (wherever that is). Anyone know of a decent hotel at Stansted for 1 night?<BR>Thanks everyone!

rex

I started a thread last night on finding an economical hotel near Heathrow - - posting before I had done much research on my own - - and it was quite enlightening to see that Orbitz was helpful for this, when Travelocity was not (I didn't try expedia).<BR><BR>It looks similarly useful for STN. Just enter that, and I readily retrieved three different combinations of nice, close and affordable.<BR><BR>The Hilton at 129 GBP, 0.7 miles southwest<BR><BR>The Down Hall Hotel at 80 GBP, 4.4 miles south<BR><BR>and<BR><BR>The Bushel &amp; Sack Hotel at 60 GBP, 5.8 miles east<BR><BR>There are others further away, at various prices.<BR><BR>Or you could stay wherever you want and have a private driver; we did that in 1998 with Eddie Manning &amp; company.<BR><BR>Best wishes,<BR><BR>Rex<BR>[email protected]<BR>

PamSF

I flew Venice to London on British Air. They have a few flights each day and probably have the same going the other way. My flight to London from Venice was in to Gatwick.

Carolina

hi,<BR>I flew with Ryanair from Sansted to Rome last June and would highly reccommend them. Rex is correct about the baggage restrictions but I didn't find that a problem anyway.<BR>I have also flown with Easyjet several times and have had no problems there either.<BR>Check the easyjet site re. which Venice airport they fly into, I think they use the main one.<BR>Stansted is about 1 and 1/2 hours by road from London - the trains are messed up at the moment, but this may change by June. Do a search for Stansted Airport for up to date info.<BR>Re. hotels - there aren't many near Stansted itself but the Stansted site has all the details. Another option would be to stay overnight in Cambridge which isn't too far away and then get a bus / train / taxi to Stansted in time for your flight. Which is the better option depends on what time of day you are flying.

PamSF

We stayed at the Sheraton at Heathrow. Quiet,comfortable and reasonable. I think we checked on Orbitz but found booking direct was less.

Spawned

As Carolina mentioned, please check out easyjet.com as they have graet prices.<BR><BR>As for travel to Stansted, from what I found out so far, trains are travelling normal except for Sunday where they replace train service with an express bus because of work being done on the train tracks.

ss

Can't thank you enough for all the great info. Love this site!<BR>

Andre

ss,<BR><BR>Just read that BMI will be starting service from HEATHROW to Venice on April 12! They are currently having a sale (through Feb 17 if I read correctly) with a fare of &pound;29 one way (INCLUDING taxes).<BR><BR>www.flybmi.com<BR><BR>Hope this helps,<BR>Andre

mclaurie

I flew BA in December from Gatwick to Marco Polo. At that time BA had 3 flights a day, 7:40 am, around 11:30am and another that got into Venice at night. Searching on Travelocity at that time it also showed an airline called Volare with the cheapest fares &amp; also Alitalia (about the same $ as BA). We took the early BA flight &amp; stayed the night before at Le Meridian at Gatwick. The hotel is actually AT the BA terminal so you can walk instead of having to shuttle. I booked the room on Lastminute.com and got it for 70GBP however we did have a problem on checkin when the hotel claimed the price wasn't valid. We argued, I had a printed confirmation (from lastminute) so in the end they honored it.<BR><BR>That said, if you're returning to US through Heathrow I'd strongly suggest you try the BMI option so you don't have to change terminals on the way home. That was a huge hassle.