Wheres and Hows of Where to Start Planning
 

Hi everyone!

Just about a year from now, we're going to be spending two/three weeks in Italy and the UK. We're planning on going at the very beginning of October, next year.

We're super-planners and we love to learn, so we've already burned through about ten books about UK and Italy travel already, and have started learning Italian! However, this is a new adventure for us. I'm wondering where to start, especially with flights.

We'd like to fly into Florence, take the overnight train through Paris to London the next week, and fly out of London when it's time to go home. However, compared to the terrific hotel/air package prices we're finding in London, it almost seems like it would be far less expensive to fly in and out of London both ways, and take the train down to Tuscany and then back in the middle of the trip.

Advice? Thoughts?

Fly from Paris to Florence---there are discount airlines that are less then the trains, and so much faster. Or, at least to Paris.

Sorry, I meant fly from London. And, use Kayak.com for an open jaw itinerary under the multi-city option---no reason to have to return to London.

If you are flying from the states, there are only a few cities in Italy that have non-stop flights from the states. If you plan to fly into a smaller city such as Florence, you have to change flights in Europe somewhere. This usually makes the flight price higher and you arrive later in the day.

Depending on what you plan to see in Italy, you might consider flying into Rome or Milan so you don't have to change in Europe.

Three countries is a but much in three weeks and I don't think you can just hop an overnight train in Italy and take it to England without changes. Europe has many budget airlines and it's usually much cheaper than overnight trains. Look at www.whichbudget.com or www.skyscanner.net for budget flights. Their luggage weight and check in is a bit more strict so be sure to comply.

I would do the open jaw as Bob suggests as it wastes time having to backtrack to fly home. By the time you count the wasted day traveling back and the price of transport back, you really don't save anything and you lose a day of vacation.

Awesome! Thanks!

We're not actually doing Paris - just were thinking about an afternoon there since we'd have to transfer on the train from Italy to get to London anyway. However - good advice!! We may just skip it with these new ideas. We just want to do Tuscany and London this trip. We're "sitter-downers." LOL

I'll check out the open-jaw info soon!

It's too early to look at flights for next year. They are only listed about 10 months in advance for the big airlines and less than that for the budget airlines.

You will need to rent a car for Tuscany so you might want to fly into London, fly to Tuscany and home from Rome (dropping the car at the airport).