Flying to Italy via London

M

Manuel

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Hi!
Not a very clear thread title I know, sorry ....

Here's the thing. I've been pulling my hair out trying to find some value to fly the family to Lake Garda this summer.

Ideally we'd fly to Verona, but as Aer Lingus have a monopoly on Dublin-Verona, the fares are just too high for me. There are lots of other options - Milan and Venice airports and a bit of a journey after landing, however the combination of value and flight times still isn't great for us.

Anyway, I got a notion to check fares from the UK, and it happens that you can get pretty cheap flights LGW-VRN with EasyJet. So now I'm thinking I might book LGW-VRN with EasyJet and then book DUB-LGW separately with Ryanair.

Has anyone ever done this, or something similar?

Obviously, would need to make sure to leave enough time between flights, and of course there's a risk of one flight being badly delayed. But Ryanair are pretty reliable. Are EasyJet too?

Final question: Do you know if we would have to exit Arrivals on our Ryanair tickets and go back in thru Departures with our EasyJet ones, are can we go through flight connections, like if we had booked it as a connection?

Any help/advice appreciated. Thanks.
 
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I did similar a few years ago to Croatia (without kids), and to be honest was a bit stressful worrying about missing connections. We'd left 3 hours between flights, and nobody wants to spend that much time in an airport!

Don't rule out flying Lufthansa via Frankfurt. By the time you add baggage charges with Ryanair and EasyJet it might work out as cheap.
 
Hi Manuel, We've used Stansted to access the south of Spain on several occasions even arriving at Stansted at midnight on the return flight and waiting for a 6.00am flight to Cork. With children this becomes a pain, to say the least. I know you're on a budget so buying something while waiting in Stansted becomes an issue outward and inward.

Yes, when you arrive in the UK, you must exit the Arrivals Hall and re-enter Departures with security checks etc.

Direct flights only for me in future.
 
Desenzona and Peschiera have train stations,( Check special family Regional train tickets in Italy) may not be what you want ,Check the man in seat 61 Italy /Europe

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What sort of price are you talking into Verona? What sort of price are you getting via London? As BoxtheFox said, have you considered flying into other airports in northern Italy instead (Milan is also an option)? Personally I wouldn't go for two flights for such a short journey with children. I would imagine flying into a different airport, e.g. Bergamo or Milan, would result in a shorter door to door journey as well.
 
We are flying to Spain via Luton this summer at exactly 50% of the price that Ryanair wanted for a direct flight. I think I will take the €640 saving on flights over the slight inconvenience of having to change aircraft!!
 
Manuel said:
Final question: Do you know if we would have to exit Arrivals on our Ryanair tickets and go back in thru Departures with our EasyJet ones, are can we go through flight connections, like if we had booked it as a connection?
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If you are checking baggage, you will have to exit to collect that in London. Otherwise, so long as you have checked in for your next flight and have your boarding cards in hand, you can use the flight transfer route.
 
It can work out great but it can also be a right pain and the money spent waiting in an airport for a few hours added to the stress would probably mean you'd need to be saving closer to €100 a person on the flights to my mind.

Are you going to be hiring a car when you get there? If you are then Bologna, Milan, Milan Bergamo, Treviso and Venice come into play.

Use Google Flights to check and add in all the airports with your dates.
 
Thanks for all the advice folks, I really appreciate it. Interesting to see a range of opinions :) ...

At the moment, I think my best option is working out as:
Direct outward with Ryanair to Venice Treviso;
Back to LGW from Venice Marco Polo with EasyJet and then onward to Dublin with Ryanair.

Verona would be handier, but direct in or out of Verona is very expensive.

Sometimes the airlines charge an arm-and-a-leg for one-way tickets (see Swissair!), but most don't.

The direct flight outward would eliminate the stress of transfers. On the way back, we won't really care too much :) ...

One other consideration is the departure and arrival times. I find a lot of the direct flights, even if priced quite nicely, involve very early departures or late arrivals. I don't really mind hanging around airports for a few hours in the middle of the day if it means departing and arriving at nicer times.

Regarding the savings, it's in the region of €500, i.e. €1,000 instead of €1,500. But also the nicer Dep/Arr times make it worth it, in my opinion.

Anyway, we'll see :) ... thanks again for the help.
 
Hi Manuel,

Do you mind me asking where you are going to stay around lake Garda? - I'm having the reverse issue that you are having. We booked our flights and now I'm having a really tough time find reasonable priced accommodation near lake Garda. We tried Bella Italia and a couple of other campsites with mobile home and bungalows but they seem to be all booked up since last October when we started looking! Its a family trip so there 3 families going together. TIA
 
If you want a cheap option, look at Ryanair via Charleroi from Venice. They don't fly every day though.

Edit: sorry, they've reduced the service to Dublin more than I thought, so not really an option.
 
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Hi Manuel,

there are a number of Ryanair flights from Dublin to Milan Bergamo at various times from 6:15 to 18:00. Bergamo is only one hour up the motorway from Peschiera.
You could rent a car, or rent a car one-way only.

An early flight is a major pain but on the plus side it would get you to the campsite by noon. You would not be able to move into your accommodation until about 3 pm but you can use the campsite facilities, pools, restaurants etc.

You could also take the bus to Bergamo train station and the train to Peschiera del Garda. Peschiera is a reasonably big train station. Bella Italia camping village is only minutes away by taxi. Train tickets in Italy are cheap and the train service is good. If going by train don't get on an international train, you have to pay extra.

Then there is private taxi transfer which might be worth considering at least for the trip there until oget your bearings.

If you could avoid Saturdays for your journey that might help you save money on both flights, accommodation and even more, on stress as Saturdays is the big changeover day and there is huge traffic and queues everywhere. Some campsite operators allow you to check in on other days.

Finally Bella Italia is very full in high summer. You might want to also look at Camping del Garda which is a bit smaller, (closer to Gardaland too) or Camping butterfly which is a lot smaller.
 
Dublinchic said:
Hi Manuel,

Do you mind me asking where you are going to stay around lake Garda? - I'm having the reverse issue that you are having. We booked our flights and now I'm having a really tough time find reasonable priced accommodation near lake Garda. We tried Bella Italia and a couple of other campsites with mobile home and bungalows but they seem to be all booked up since last October when we started looking! Its a family trip so there 3 families going together. TIA
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We stayed in Altomincio a few times, lovely campsite with pools/slides. It's a little bit out of the way, about a 10 min drive from Peschiera so you'd need a car ideally. We flew into Bergamo both times which is an hour away on the motorway. Having a car was handy, though as it allowed us to drive to Gardaland and Verona as well as other spots on Lake Garda.
 
Hi Manuel
another idea: Ryanair flies from Birmingham airport to Verona on a Friday. Eg mid July E99 pp. However they depart at 6:25 am. you could fly over to Birmingham the night before on a cheap flight, relax and and stay in an airport hotel. example approx E140-150 for 2 adults 3 kids. Be up at dawn and on your way, you'd be in Verona for breakfast.
 
RedOnion said:
If you want a cheap option, look at Ryanair via Charleroi from Venice. They don't fly every day though.
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Wow, what a cracking tip! Thanks a million @RedOnion ... that's actually a great value option.

2h 50m turnaround time in Charleroi ... should be plenty?

Thanks again for the heads-up :)
 
Peanuts said:
We stayed in Altomincio a few times, lovely campsite with pools/slides. It's a little bit out of the way, about a 10 min drive from Peschiera so you'd need a car ideally. We flew into Bergamo both times which is an hour away on the motorway. Having a car was handy, though as it allowed us to drive to Gardaland and Verona as well as other spots on Lake Garda.
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Thanks Peanuts, that place looks ideal.
 
Manuel said:
2h 50m turnaround time in Charleroi ... should be plenty?
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That'd be plenty of time, but the time depends what day of the week you fly I think. Personally, I'd use the excuse to spend a day in Bruges if you've never been, and fly the next day.
 
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