galelstorm

What is the best way to search for an open jaw flight? Can you fly into, say Venice and out of Catania or Palermo back to the US?

kybourbon

I use www.itasoftware.com to search flights, but you can't book from them. Kayak is another you could try. On Expedia, Travelocity, Orbitz, just select multi-flight or multi-city. It's probably much cheaper to book an open jaw (Venice/Rome) and then a r/t flight to Palermo or Catania with one of the European budget airlines. www.whichbudget.com

A few weeks ago Ryan Air had a sale from Pisa to Sicily (it was either Palermo or Trapani) for 0€. You only paid taxes which were about 20€. I'm taking an overnight ferry (waited to late to book Ryan Air). They are also having sales at the moment.

What are your dates?

suze

Are there flights out of Palermo back to the U.S.?

I thought open jaw for Italy were more likely using Venice, Rome, or Milan?

galelstorm

kybourbon-thanks for the links. I'm planning for Sept. 2009. There are four of us going, two have been to Italy before, my DH and I's first time. Original plan was Venice, San Guistino, Rome, Amalfi, then we added Sicily so I am trying to figure logistics and time frames in each place.

suze-apparently you are correct on only major cities offering this type of flight so as ky explained perhaps a ferry ride back to Naples or a plane ride back to Rome is the ticket.

Anyone have suggestions or time frames for the itinerary above? We area all 50ish, food, wine & people lovers, ruins for me, fish (as in eating, not fishing) and the coast for DH.

Thanks!

galelstorm

Oops! Tried to post total trip time and must have done something wrong as it came across as a separate message. Three (3) weeks total time in l'Italia and traveling from Northern California.

kybourbon

You can select CA airport/Venice and your return as Palermo/CA, but you will have to go from Palmero to somewhere in Europe to change for the flight to the states and it will be much more expensive than booking into Venice and out of Rome. Sometimes after you factor in the cost of getting to Sicily (from Naples?) it may be cheaper just to fly home from Palermo.

The overnight ferry (Snav) from Naples (or you could leave from Rome's port Civitavecchia)for my dates in Sept. will cost 105€ for private cabin round trip. It was a higher from Civitavecchia, but it's further from there. I think it's quite a bargain since that saves me 2 hotels nights (leaves at 8pm arrives Palermo at 6:30am). I haven't used this line before and I don't expect it to be as nice as the Superfast ferry line to Greece, but it does seem to have a few amenities such as movie theater and mini-casino. Prices/schedules for 2009 won't be out until as least next March.

Henry

galelstorm,
My trip report may be of some help http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=34811101

Henry

Big_Red

There is a new airline AirOne. They fly Catania to Rome(FCO). They partner with Lufthansa among others.

http://www.flyairone.it/en/

Good Luck

Zerlina

Air One is not exactly new. They've been around for about 10 years. This month, they introduced flights from Italy to a few US cities.

Air One flies to both Palermo and Catania from Rome.

kybourbon

EuroFly also flies from the US (NYC) to destinations in Italy including Palermo, but you would have to change in Rome. You would also have to get to NYC.
http://www.euroflyusa.com/US/

galelstorm

kybourbon - thank you so much for your advice. You are going thsi September, right? I'm anxiously awaiting your trip report to see how the ferry worked out. It seems that I'm a bit early for checking flights with a Sept. 09 date but I will keep trying to figure out the most economical that I can find. Is it true that much of Italy closes down in October?

henry - thank you for the link to your trip report. You spent a good stretch of time in Sicily. What was your favorite area? I really need to decide on how much time we will spend in each locale.

Big Red - Thanks for the link to AirOne. I will check it out.

suze

wow i'm smarter than i thought ;-)

Henry

galelstorm,
I just spent a couple of weeks in Sicily and my favorite place was Syracuse on the island of Ortygia. Based on what you said interests you this may be a good fit. We walked to the archeological park, museum, churchs and catacombs in Syracuse and came back to the island to dine at the marina walk.

Palermo is an obvious choice for things to see and places to eat. My trip report shows that I had a great time at La Masseria but there was nothing to do there it was just close to a lot of things I wanted to see. Mario made the place special.

Henry