How to get from London to Rome or Perugia?
 

Hi,
Any inter-Erurope travel buffs out there? I recently bought some very cheap tickets on Air canada from San Fran to London ($750 return!). My final destination is meeting my sister in Le Marche, somewhat close to Urbino. We arrive in London of the evening of the 16th of July,around 9 pm, and we're traveling with our 2 year-old son. Any thoughts about the best way to get to our destination? I'm feeling daunted by Ryan Air, since we'd have to fly out of Stanstead. We'd planned on getting some rest in London on the night of the 16th, but don't want to arrive in Rome or Perugia any later than the evening of the 17th.
Argh, the logistics!
Thanks,
Montrealer

You've only got two choices: You can work the sites to see if you can find any bargains from Heathrow to Rome on BA or Alitalia, staying the night at Heathrow

Or you can come into town and stay the night there. If you're doing that, there really is no significant difference beetween going out to Heathrow the following morning or going out to LTN, STN or LGW.

You then need to choose which airport to fly to. I certainly wouldn't fly to Rome to get to Urbino, and there's no airport anywhere near Perugia: I'd fly to Ancona or Rimini. Geting to Urbino from Rome adds an AWFUL lot mess to your travels than the extra few minutes the train to Stansted takes (or doesn't)compared to the tube to Heathrow.

Decide first where you want to get to, Start with www.nonrev.net, inputting London Metro, to see what flights serve central Italy from the London area.

For "cheap" flights see

www.whichbudget.com/en/cheapflights.php?to=CIA
www.whichbudget.com/en/cheapflights.php?to=FCO

Easyjet to CIA would be a good choice as Gatwick is less stressful to get to than most London airports and there are loads of ways to get there from various parts of London (ie using the Gatwick Express isn't compulsory)

Hi Montrealer - Your best bet would be Easyjet IMO - they fly Luton-Rimini.

Current fare for that flight on 17/7 is 39 GBP.

www.easyjet.com

Ryanair fly Stansted-Forli (Bologna) for 10 GBP. Another possibility ...

You can reach Urbino by bus from Pesaro.

Hope this helps ...

Steve

Thanks for your replies! I noticed that Ryan Air does fly from Stanstead (or was it Luton)into Perugia. Does anyone know if this is closer to the Le Marche area than Ancona or Rimini?
Thanks so much,
Montrealer

I don't know. The minute you turn your back, they go and open up another airport.

When I used to have a client in Perugia, I'd have killed for direct flights. Getting there was a real pain.

Sadly though, however useful Perugia airport would have been to me once, it's probably pretty useless to you.

Look at a map. Between Perugia and Urbino there's a range of mountains, and the only road across is nasty and tortuous. Makes a very enjoyable day trip after a few days lounging round an Umbrian villa - but not what I'd want to do after a dy and a half cooped up in planes.

From Rimini or Ancona airports, it's a straight motorway, then a relatively straightforward 25 miles up to Urbino. And the same applies to anywhere else on the eastern side of the mountains.

Thank-you very much! I'm sold on Rimini.
Ciao,
Montrealer