We have plane tickets for mid August as far as London. Didn't get them for London to Italy as we wanted to make stops along the way. But I'm now getting cold feet as I've begun to investigate the many hours required for train travel and all the options. We plan to go from Nice to Sorrento [have hotels] stopping midway somewhere, perhaps Porto Ercole, in between for 2 nights. We would then return, staying in Capri, Lucca and Nice again. Would like to hear from someone who has done this type of trip. We can rent a car if we must, but it would not be used for the 4 days in Capri. Thanks!

Daph - I've done many of these long trips between England and Italy in the past (- I love travelling by train).
Yes, it's time consuming - but the journey is all part of a holiday for me.

Are you planning on doing London-Nice by train as well? You could always fly one way (or both) to save time.
[EasyJet fly London (Stansted) - Nice for as little as £30.00] on some dates in August].
www.easyjet.com

Another option would be to travel Paris-Nice overnight if you're not planning sightseeing stops en route.

Nice-Sorrento is a very long journey (12 hours +) - so you'd certainly want to stop midway and make it at least a 2-day journey IMO.

Porto Ercole is well over halfway, though (9 hours+ from Nice). Somewhere nearer midway would be Pisa. A nice alternative on the coast might be the Cinque Terre or one of the resorts near La Spezia.

There are many other attractive places en route where you could break the journey, have a meal/drink, do some sightseeing ...

I don't think you really a need a car for your planned itinerary.

You could also fly one way between Naples and Nice (or Naples and London) if you want to cut travelling time further.

Just a few thoughts to get you started!
Hope this helps ...

Steve

Hi Daph,

Don't give up. Start with Steve's good suggestions and keep refining the trip.

This message is for Steve:
Steve, if you happen to open this thread again, do you know of airlines that fly from Naples to Nice? I have been scouting.... opodo, alitalia, air france, air littoral etc and the cheapest fare I've seen was $193 one way. Do you know of another cost efficient route that won't take so long (12 hrs) to reach point b from point a?
Thanks for your input.

I'm not clear on where you're flying home from-- Nice? London? but here's a couple of thoughts. Although it's frowned on by the airlines, you could purchase a roundtrip Nice-Naples-Nice, and only use the first half of the ticket.This usually works out cheaper than a one-way.

After you visit Capri, you could take the Eurostar to Rome, then two more trains to Florence and Lucca. And now here's the part I don't know a thing about. Is there a train from Lucca to Nice? If not, could you pick up a car in Lucca, and drive to Milan, from which you could take the 4-hour train to Nice?

Just some things to consider. Good luck!

My suggestion is to study the routes of Easyjet and Ryan Air very carefully and plan a few flights to take full advantage of extra time in your chosen destinations. You are covering a huge distance if by train and really you will find the flights more economical as well as time saving. Even if you have to return to a London airport to get to your next stop it can be worth it to fit in with your plans.

Joy - I believe Air One and Air Littoral are the only airlines which fly Naples-Nice direct. Here's the link for Air One:

www.air-one.it

Hope this helps ...

Steve

Steve:
Many thanks for replying. I'll look into those airlines.

Joy

You should also check out europebyair.com they have $99 flights to different points in Europe.

Was away for the weekend and returned to all these good ideas. Thanks so much. I will start investigating these possibilities. Now our only other worry is that British Airway's next [?] strike is due to start on August 19th, the date of our flight from Los Angeles to London!

Are you going on miles or do you have non-refundable tickets? If it's miles, I'd recommend dumping them back in your account and taking another carrier to London. We were the last BA flight out of Rome to London two weeks ago, and from what I understand, the labor problems are going to continue all summer long, possibly into the Fall.

Anyway,I hope it goes well. Good luck!