Will be spending 3 nights in Paris in early March, then proceeding on to Florence for 2 nights, then to Venice for 2 nights before flying back to Paris for The Final Night. Two adults and a 13 year old.

France-Italy Flexipass (rail) is around $750 for the 3 of us, and would cover the Paris-Florence and Florence-Venice legs. Should these be purchased in advance?

Any reasonable alternatives? Is a one-day train trip thru Switzerland feasible, and still arrive in Florence that evening? What are my best air options for the Venice-Paris route?

Many thanks in advance.

I am rather new to the Fodor's travel posting site, but have shared several times now the change that "open- jaw" flights have made in my own planning. Unless there is a compelling reason (amazing round trip fare/frequent flyer deal, etc)it would be so much easier to fly back to the US from Venice (although most US flights leave there super early in the morning). It is usually not much more by the time you factor in train or other alternatives back to your original entry point. Sometimes you have to use the advanced search option, but try checking out the multi- city search on various consolidators to see what I mean. Probably some others are going to also tell you that this is a LOT of traveling in 7 nights- the train will be a lot of fun, though, and what an amazing adventure for you three as a family. Best wishes!

Point-to-point tickets would undoubtedly be cheaper than a pass on this route.

Paris to Florence is a very long day. At least 10 hours via Modane and 12 hours through Switzerland. A sleeper train overnight is another alternative.

TexasT, you got numerous responses yesterday. You have to click your name to see them. But here they are:
http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=34934531

First, many thanks to all you helpful contributors.

The 13 year old is not too keen on a 12-13 hour train jaunt, so we will most likely fly into Pisa from Paris, as several of you had suggested.

With a very good round trip fare for my wife and daughter and frequent flyer miles for me, it seemed like flying into and back from Paris was my best and only alternative. I don't know if flights are available from Florence or another major city near Venice, but I would be willing to consider it as long as I didn't have to wake up at 3 in the morning to catch the flight.

Amazing what we'll do for some world class gelato.