train or plane
 

We will be traveling from Paris to Florence and Rome in Feb. We are debating whether to take the train or to fly. What is the standard weight restriction for the smaller European airlines. If anyone has flown on these flights any info would be great. Cost of extra luggage, flight itself, etc. I looked into the train from Paris to Florence and Paris to Rome on raileurope.com and it seemed very expensive over 400 euro. Will it be less expensive to just buy the tickets in Paris?
Thanks

12hr train ride or 1 hr flight - how much is your vacation time worth?

To me it's a no brainer - definitely fly.

NEVER rely on raileurope to tell you the price (or timetabling) of any train in Europe. Go to www.bahn.de for train times and local rail companies for prices.

As for Paris to Florence - take the sleeper - www.seat61.com/Italy.htm#Florence and save a night's accomodation & half a day off your holiday which is what your "one hour" flight would cost you

The flight may be 1 hour - but getting to and fro distant airports - and waiting on security lines will add a lot of time to that.

If you have little luggage - and can meet their very strict check-in requirements - economy airlines are an option. If you have substantial luggage - train might be easier and cheaper (so you don;t pay excess baggage charges for the flight).

Hi A,

Your heading is way too vague. Repost with the cities included in the heading for more responses.

thanks barbmike will do

alanRow
How do I view times and prices for the train from Paris to either Florence or Rome? Can I book a sleeper from Paris to Florence on this flight?

You can fly on Easyjet for under 40E per person one way from Paris Orly (easy to get to and cheaper than CDG) to Rome CIA (also not distant). If you fly into CIA, use www.terravision.it for their bus transfer service to Rome Termini (8E per person). From there you can taxi to your hotel or take the metro. One checked bag per person on Easyjet with weight of 20kg. You can check an extra bag, but you will be charged extra.
http://www.easyjet.com/EN/Planning/baggage.html

<<< How do I view times and prices for the train from Paris to either Florence or Rome? Can I book a sleeper from Paris to Florence on this flight? >>>

It's all covered in the link I provided

Also take into account that the discount airlines have quite a bit of delays....a few hours here and a few hours there can really add up fast.

For long train rides you can look into private compartments on the overnight trains.

that's interesting pippy.

Here in the US discount airlines like SW and JetBlue have better on time records than the big guys.

Can you post a link with the facts you cite?

Is there an English version of www.bahn.de?

<<<Is there an English version of www.bahn.de?<<<
Yes, clic on "International Guest" in the red menu on the top

>Is there an English version of www.bahn.de?<

Yes.

Go to www.bahn.de.

Click "English" just below "Suchen".

((I))

"Also take into account that the discount airlines have quite a bit of delays"

There's no airline equivalent of Swiss Railways (nor is there an equivalent of Swiss Railways operating the French or Italian rail systems), and all generalisations about airline punctuality are likely to have exceptions.

But in most of Europe, discount airlines are a great deal more punctual than full-price ones. They haven't got the management time to waste in customer service seminars learning how to privilege late and selfish passengers, they've got the dangly bits to fire lazy staff (protected by unions in big airlines) and they don't join pass the buck alliances with competitors where they can all pretend eveything's someone else's fault.

So look at, for example www.flightontime.info and you'll see that most cheapos beat the full-price airlines on punctuality. And compare reasonably with my experiences of Italian Railways.

The problem with cheap airlines isn't the high risk of trivial lateness: it's the certainty they won't help you in the (unlikely) event of serious delay.

The weight restrictions are severe on the budget carriers and easily accessible on the websites.

I agree that RailEurope has inflated prices and is not the best resource.

My personal experience in travelling from Paris to Italy (8 times in as amny years) is that I have only once had a flight leave CDG on time and would prefer to have teeth pulled than deal with that particular airport.