What is the best method of travel from Paris to Venice?

I looked at trains and planes. It seems like the trip is pretty long either way and I don't like flying. I thought an overnight train ride would save time, but how is the scenery between the two? Is it worth using a day of travel just to take in the countryside?

Are there cheap airlines that fly between Paris and Venice? I could only find flights that connected here, there and everywhere.

tt

The flight is only about 1.5 hours. There are a couple cheap airlines that fly that route -- Myair and Vueling, apparently. Check www.whichbudget.com

I haven't taken that train so can't advise on the scenery, but if it's a night train, you won't see much anyway.

Christina,

Thanks for the link. The flights I was getting were for 8 and 10 hours and they were $300-$1000. The Web site you provided is much more in line with what I was thinking it should be.

Do you recommend getting tickets ahead of time, or booking the flight after I get to Paris?

&quot;<i>The flights I was getting were for 8 and 10 hours</i>&quot; Huh?? You can fly from the west coast of the USA to Europe in about 10 hours. Paris to Venice is nothing. What flights were you talking about?

I don't know why you'd wait until you're in Paris to book the flight unless you don't know when you want to fly. Book them now.

janisj,

The flights were from Paris to Venice and they were expensive and connected in other countries, thus the time was rather long.

Myair prices vary based on how far ahead you book and the date you want to fly. I suggest you do it as soon as you have an idea of when you want to go and be flexible about the exact dates.

StCirq,

I guess I'm just a little nervous booking a flight from home online. I'm not familiar with the airlines or the Web sites. I used Expedia to find flights from US to Europe, but then I think I called the airline to actually make the reservation. I guess it's silly to be nervous about it, but I am, especially when Expedia shows me flights from Paris to Venice for $300+ with a 9 hour duration and then these other Web sites are so cheap. I don't understand why there is such a difference in price.

The regular mainline carriers aren't much help on this front. My wife and I took MyAir from Paris to Venice in June and found it quite decent. The main advantage (price notwithstanding was that the flight was Orly-Marco Polo. Also, it was later in the day so allowed for a partial additional day in Paris (this is bad?

HTH
k

modglila, Expedia and others do not show or deal with the low cost carriers. Easy Jet and Ryannair are two others (but not in your case) that are amazingly cheap and fine, but you won't find them on sites like Expedia. And this year we flew Holland's Transavia from Venice to Amsterdam for 59 euros each. There's nothing wrong with low cost carriers. And I also wouldn't worry if they go out of Treviso instead of Marco Polo in Venice. We found Treviso great to fly out of.

The only good way to book the low cost carriers is on their own websites. But most of their fares start low and get higher and higher closer to the date you fly. So once your plans are firm -- go ahead and book.

I looked at Ryanair for us but the off-putting thing was their Paris-area airport is Beauvais which is nowhere near so convenient as Orly. In both cities, you're further away, adding to the travel time.

http://www.myair.com/docs/cust/en/index.shtml

I've flown MyAir from Paris to Venice....I booked on-line from US..no glitches!!
Under 50 euro

I can't EVEN CONCEIVE of doing anything but flying from Paris to Venice-there are so many options with all the great budget carriers! I've flown Vueling, Myair, Meridiana, Ryanjet-all of them just fine, really cheap and even, much less hassle, because they go into the smaller airports. Flying into Treviso, as NeoP said, is no problem whatsoever, there's a bus waiting to take you right to Venice's Pze. Roma, where you get on a vaporetto and off you go. From Venice's Marco Polo Airport, you can take a bus, or go down to the dock and take the Alilaguna into San Marco-either way, it takes just over an hour from Paris-this is the only way to go.

Well I can conceive of ways of getting between the two that don't involve being treated as a terrorist until proven otherwise, where I don't have to worry about the weight of my luggage and don't have to worry about having &quot;illegal&quot; items in my hand luggage

http://www.seat61.com/Italy.htm#Venice

I know you hate flying but we found , in May / early June this year , that the best deal booking through our agent from Australia was to buy an Air France return flight from Venice to Paris ( about A$230 )and ditch the return leg .That was because of 2 things
1. Alitalia or Air France one way trips were hellishly expensive ( $800!!)

2. Ryan Air is cheap but it does not fly in to CDG but to Orly from memory , the flights arrived late at night and an 80km shuttle trip sounded ghastly and a taxi exorbitant .

Now if you are from the USA there may be better deals .
Bite the bullet and fly .Do not waste time unless you absolutely cannot fly.

And as an aside , beware baggage weight with cheap deals .Not an ounce overweight or you will be stung excess as that is how they make their real $$ .

Sorry - Beauvais not Orly airport for Rynair .

Hi,

Hopefully Vueling flights are OK, because I have booked a flight with them for January. I am flying Paris to Venice. I selected Vueling because of their cheap price and good flight times (leaving Paris 13:45 and arriving Venice 15:25).
I booked via their website and the fare was 71.50 Euro (includes a 5.50 Euro credit card fee).
Cheers

I'm with alanRow. Consider taking the direct night train. Save the cost of a night in a hotel and have more daylight hours for sightseeing. The seat61 link he gave you tells all about it, complete with pictures.

One more thing. If you book well in advance (up to three months allowed) at www.sncf.com, you can get discount fares.