My husband and a classmate are travelling to Venice for a five week semester abroad in June. I am lucky enough to be joing them. Since they work full time and then go to class at night, I am doing much of the planning! A few weeks ago I found a very reasonable flight from Philadelphia to London on Air Canada so I jumped at it. Now, I am trying to figure out the best way to get to Venice.

The cheapest way seems to be going to Stansted and taking either Easy Jet or Ryan Air with Ryan Air being the cheaper of the two. However, I need help getting from Heathrow to Stansted for a reasonable price. Time is not much of an issue. Also, we are thinking of staying overnight when we arrive in London because we want to see it (we've all been there once but would like to see it again) so help with a hotel in London on the way to Stansted (but close to the action!) would be great too.

If we take Ryan Air, I am wondering how difficult it is to get from Treviso to Venice. East Jet would take us right to Venice. I am also wondering with all of the extra travel (from Heathrow to Stansted from Treviso to Venice) will it end up being almost as expensive as just going from Heathrow to Venice on bmi or another carrier. Help!

Thanks!

I took EasyJet in October--Venice/Stansted.
It was easy. I recommend them over RyanAir because of my multiple experiences where they were very forgiving of slighly overweight bags. (I could have taken out a few things if rquired).Other friends have said RyanAir stuck them with overweight fees, no questions asked.
Using the Venice Airport was easy--much easier I'd assume than Treviso.

We took a National Express bus--less than $20. Hope that helps.

Hi jenny,

I think that the easyjet flight would be the better of the two.

Treviso airport is about 8 km outside the city.
Treviso is 1/2 hr from Venice by train.

see www.trenitalia.com/en

You could also take the chunnel to Paris and fly Volare to Venice, if you would also like to see Paris.

www.volareweb.com

I use to be a HUGE fan of EasyJet and RyanAir, but the major Eropean airlines have been matching or at least comng close with the fares. The big plus is that the major airlines are flyng out/in the major airports. BA and Alitalia will get you to the destination for around $160 R/T. Since you're flying into LHR, Alitalia would be my choice. You won't have to spend any money in London (hotel or trains) as Alitalia flies out of LHR.

Hi AA,

I looked up Stansted/Marco Polo on easyjet for mid June: as low as 20 GBP, including taxes, each way.

IMO, going from one London airport to another is a huge hassle. There are just buses between them with potentially awful traffic. If you decide to go that route though, if the 3 of you are going together, make sure you compare the price of using the bus service vs hiring a private car service.

But if you want to see London, then going from Heathrow to London then London to Stansted is not terrible. Again, keep in mind if 3 of you are traveling together, it may be cheaper to reserve a car service (justairports.com is the current cheapest favorite) than taking the Heathrow Express train x 3 or Stansted Express x 3. The tube (underground) will be very cheap but it means dragging luggage up & down stairs.

Here's a website with info on ground transportation

http://www.visitlondon.com/plan_a_vi...ing/e0599.html

I think you may find flying BMI or Alitalia from Heathrow to Marco Polo may be the cheapest option-no London hotel(s), transfers etc. but then you don't see London. What I would not do is transfer between 2 London airports & then fly to Treviso, all in 1 go.

Ryanair has a shuttle bus service at Treviso to the Mestre train station. Information is linked from ryanair.com to here:

http://www.atvo.it/airport.php?ld=or....ihtm&id=3

As for London, like others have said, if you're going to stay a night there, then it really doesn't matter that much which airport you're flying out. But understand that the Heathrow Express (15min) goes to Paddington Station, Gatwick EX (30min) goes to Victoria, and Stansted EX (45min) goes to Liverpool St. So, plan your hotel stay at a hotel that's easily accesible to those stations - you don't want a place that's far and require 2 changes on the tube.

So it sounds like Easy Jet from Stansted to Venice would be the best bet. I'll price it compared to flying out of Heathrow. I think the car service is a good idea and once I figure out a hotel I'll include that in the comparison. I'll probably use priceline for the hotel. Would we be able to take the tube to the hotel? What area would be easy to get to from Heathrow preferably towards Stansted ? How difficult would it be to take the tube from London to Stansted after a night of rest?

jenny - Take a look at the London Tube map to get a better idea.

http://tube.tfl.gov.uk/content/tubem...ad_2h_0309.gif

From Heathrow (SW corner of map), you can take the Piccadilly Line striaght to central London. Takes about an hour. Or you can take the Heathrow Express, which gets you to Paddington in 15 minutes. Paddington is in the NW corner of the Circle Line (Yellow).

To get to Stansted, you can take the Stansted Express at two stations: Liverpool St (NE corner of Circle Line, also serviced by Central line (blue)), or you can take the Victoria Line (Light blue) to Tottenham Hale.

Most of the sights are within the Circle Line loop. So, first, stay within it. Second, to facilitate easy access to the Stansted trains, you may want to prefer hotels that are close to stations on the Circle, Central or Victoria lines. That way, you won't be hauling luggage over and over on your way to Stansted.