Need Advice - RT Rome cruise, want to visit Venice

[JenMJM]

We're Europe first-timers, and I need a little advice. There are a few ways we can do this, but I'm not sure what would be the best and/or most cost-effective option. Help, please!

 

We booked a 12-day out of Rome and will be flying in a couple days early to spend time in the city pre-cruise. Once we're back in Civi from the cruise, we want to spend a couple days in Venice before flying back home to Florida.

 

Option 1: Fly OW to Rome from US. Take a train from Rome to Venice post-cruise. Fly OW out of Venice to US.

 

Option 2: Fly OW to Rome from US. Take a local flight from FCO to VCE post-cruise. Fly OW out of Venice to US.

 

Option 3: Book RT tickets to Rome. Then fly or take a train RT between FCO and VCE post-cruise. (not sure if this option may be cheaper because of the RT tickets, but it does seem to be a little more complicated and lengthy.)

 

If none of these are fantastic options, can you share your thoughts and experiences? Thanks!

[CruiserBruce]

If you look on the Italy board, there is tons of info, and lots of experts.

 

Just did a RT flights trip out of Rome, with train all around Italy, including to Venice. Very easy.

 

Venice is an expensive airport to fly out of. That is why we did the Rome RT.

[JenMJM]

If you look on the Italy board, there is tons of info, and lots of experts.

 

Venice is an expensive airport to fly out of. That is why we did the Rome RT.

 

That's what I had heard, too, hence the third option. I will definitely pop over to the Italy board to search for more info on this topic. Double thanks!

[Twickenham]

We're Europe first-timers, and I need a little advice. There are a few ways we can do this, but I'm not sure what would be the best and/or most cost-effective option. Help, please!

 

We booked a 12-day out of Rome and will be flying in a couple days early to spend time in the city pre-cruise. Once we're back in Civi from the cruise, we want to spend a couple days in Venice before flying back home to Florida.

 

Option 1: Fly OW to Rome from US. Take a train from Rome to Venice post-cruise. Fly OW out of Venice to US.

 

Option 2: Fly OW to Rome from US. Take a local flight from FCO to VCE post-cruise. Fly OW out of Venice to US.

 

Option 3: Book RT tickets to Rome. Then fly or take a train RT between FCO and VCE post-cruise. (not sure if this option may be cheaper because of the RT tickets, but it does seem to be a little more complicated and lengthy.)

 

If none of these are fantastic options, can you share your thoughts and experiences? Thanks!

 

I'm going to take issue with your terminology here, but all in an effort to save you money :D. You do NOT want one-way tickets to/from FCO or VCE; if you fly into one and out of the other, you want to purchase an open-jaw, which you can search for using the multi-city or equivalent option on any airfare search engine. That will give you pricing for half of each RT ticket, rather than OW pricing which is usually much higher for most airlines.

 

I like the FCO-train-VCE option, just because it minimizes travelling time, but going back to FCO by train wouldn't be horrible either. I'm going to throw out another possibility, just because of the good pricing we've seen recently - flying RT to Milan-MXP. Both Rome and Venice are easy to reach from Milan by train.

[JenMJM]

I'm going to take issue with your terminology here, but all in an effort to save you money :D. You do NOT want one-way tickets to/from FCO or VCE; if you fly into one and out of the other, you want to purchase an open-jaw, which you can search for using the multi-city or equivalent option on any airfare search engine. That will give you pricing for half of each RT ticket, rather than OW pricing which is usually much higher for most airlines.

 

I like the FCO-train-VCE option, just because it minimizes travelling time, but going back to FCO by train wouldn't be horrible either. I'm going to throw out another possibility, just because of the good pricing we've seen recently - flying RT to Milan-MXP. Both Rome and Venice are easy to reach from Milan by train.

 

I am completely unfamiliar with open-jaw, so I will check that out. I was considering Milan as an option as well. Thank you!

[Twickenham]

I am completely unfamiliar with open-jaw, so I will check that out. I was considering Milan as an option as well. Thank you!

 

I was going to explain open-jaw, but Flyertalker posted a much better explanation than I would have here.

 

If you have any Italian train questions, don't hesitate to ask on the Italy board.

[skf]

I was considering Milan as an option as well.

It is about 2 hours+/- from Milano to Venice. It is a nice train ride.

[OzKiwiJJ]

Trains in Italy are excellent. However ensure you keep your luggage near your seat and watch out for gypsies who work the trains looking for stuff to steal.

 

If you travel in a first class carriage there is usually sufficient space for suitcases above the seats, sometimes between seats when they are configured in pairs, and sometimes under the seats, as long as your bags aren't too big. It's better to take two small bags per person than one big bag when considering train travel.

 

Check the train prices and travel times on http://www.trenitalia.com/ and the various flight costs return or open-jaw, and you should be able to work out a good combination to suit your needs.

[SadieN]

Check prices of train v air.

 

DD is studying in Rome and found that flying Alitalia from FCO was cheaper than the train.

Booked three weeks ago and went last weekend.

[waterbug123]

I am completely unfamiliar with open-jaw, so I will check that out. I was considering Milan as an option as well. Thank you!

 

As stated, a multi-city/open jaw ticket will generally be cheaper than 2 one way tickets. To qualify, the unflown leg (in your case, Rome to Venice) must be the shortest of the 3 legs. This is true in your case, since the transatlantic legs will both be much longer than FCO-VCE. When you go to the airline website, you will see options for one way, round trip or multi city. Click multi city, and then you enter the first set of city pairs, which in your case is XXX-FCO (sorry, I forgot where in the US you are starting, hence the XXX), and then you will enter the 2nd set of city pairs, in your case VCE-XXX.

You may want to price round trip in and out of Rome, but I would only do that if the cost savings is significant; otherwise, you're unnecessarily dealing with the hassle/time of a 2nd train ride back to Rome from Venice. What counts as significant? That's entirely up to you, of course. As someone else, said, check these same options for round trip and multi city in and out of Milan. I've heard that can be cheaper but have never checked myself. But I've never found round trip to/from Rome to be significantly cheaper than multi city flying into Rome and out of Venice, so that's what we've done in the past (and will be doing again in October).

[JenMJM]

Thank you, all, for your replies! I'm feeling much more informed than when I posted the original question. :)

[waterbug123]

I've never found round trip to/from Rome to be significantly cheaper than multi city flying into Rome and out of Venice, so that's what we've done in the past (and will be doing again in October).

 

Oops... I should clarify: When we've done this itinerary, it was never cruise-related, but rather a land-based trip. I know the OP is staying a couple of days in Venice so it doesn't matter, but if someone else is flying to Rome for a cruise that ends in Venice, the flight out of Venice on the day of disembarkation may well price much higher because of the massive demand of cruise pax on that particular day.