Europe trip is booked!

"Wrong Wheel Drive (41%)" (rduncan5678)
01/16/2016 at 13:45 • Filed to: None

Exciting news, my girlfriend and I have finally settled on plans and booked flights for our upcoming trip to Europe! We were originally thinking of doing a road trip in Southern France, but that started getting expensive as we added things up. We were able to find a very cheap one-way flight from NY to Rome, Italy for $253 (ALL FEES INCLUDED!!). So that is where we will be spending a week End of May - Early June. In Italy we plan to split the week between Rome and Naples with a cheap+quick train ride between the two. Maybe getting a rental car for a day or two and checking out the Almafi Coast.

The only catch to this super cheap flight is that we have an 18 hour layover in Bergen, Norway. Now since this is a long enough layover, we plan to stay at an airbnb in the city that night and rent a car for the duration. This way we can easily get to the airport for the 7am flight (taxi cost would have been pricey) and also to go check out some of the surrounding area. We do not have a whole lot of time (half a day basically) so we can only really pick one thing to see. So right now I am trying to figure out the best use of our time to see a Fjord.

Other unplanned portion is how we are getting home. Right now the plan is to find a cheap way to get from Rome to London and then find the cheapest flight back to NY. From what I have found, using google flights to determine the cheapest destination is the best way to travel about Europe. We don’t mind multi-day “layovers” because that means we can explore that new area. Tentative plan is to fly Rome-Brussels for like $30, spend a day there, take the Eurostar to London, and fly home from there.

DISCUSSION (18)

pjhusa > Wrong Wheel Drive (41%)
01/16/2016 at 13:48

I try not to have connecting flights to Europe. Just last month, my uncle took a flight with connections to Spain, which got delayed while he was in the airport. The luggage went to England (IIRC), his original connecting point, but this new flight went to Germany. Long story short, his luggage was lost in translation, and it took two days to recover.

bob and john > Wrong Wheel Drive (41%)
01/16/2016 at 13:56

DUDE!

let me find you my europe road trip story.

you HAVE to visit the ferrari factory/museum

Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) > pjhusa
01/16/2016 at 13:56

Well we dont plan to check luggage, dont want to deal with lugging the bag around anyways. But these are technically two one way flights that just happen to be booked with the same airline. So it is not really a “connecting” flight. It was significantly cheaper this way since we didnt care what the destination was. We just found the cheapest flights (that are NOT RyanAir) and then went from there. Both NY-Bergen and Bergen-Rome are nonstop flights, we just happen to have 18 hours to explore Bergen (and sleep).

bob and john > Wrong Wheel Drive (41%)
01/16/2016 at 14:04

FOUND IT:

http://oppositelock.kinja.com/my-italy-trip-…

almost 2 years of my posts I had to look through :D

Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) > bob and john
01/16/2016 at 14:05

Hmm, that is quite a bit north of Rome. If we are going to do a couple days of driving, it would be Southern Italy. Definitely seems like an awesome place though! I am also a little scared of driving in Italy. From what I have read there are basically no rules and being aggressive is paramount in order to get anywhere!

bob and john > Wrong Wheel Drive (41%)
01/16/2016 at 14:06

its about a days drive.

make time for it. seriously.

davedave1111 > Wrong Wheel Drive (41%)
01/16/2016 at 14:29

1) Not maybe, definitely rent a car and go to the Amalfi coast.

2) Instead of flying from Rome to Brussels, take a train. The overnight sleeper can work out a lot cheaper than a flight plus hotel for the night, and you don’t have all the hassle of flying, have to pay extra for bags - checked luggage on cheap flights will push the cost way up - and so-on. It might make more sense to go via Paris instead, but that’s not the worst chore.

Seat61 is a great site for rail travel:

http://www.seat61.com/Italy.htm

Also, if you’re travelling much by train you might be better off getting a Eurail pass:

https://www.raileurope.com/rail-tickets-p…

Also, have a look at this:

http://www.hertz-transfer.eu/

Rumour has it that if you spot a suitable one-way rental and call the manager at the location the car’s at, you can sometimes negotiate a good rate even as a private individual. I’ve never tried it, myself.

Porsche was my first word > Wrong Wheel Drive (41%)
01/16/2016 at 14:30

You could do tuscany instead of the south. Visit Siena, vineyards, Milano and then fly from Torino. Maranello is on the way then.

Also Mille Miglia comes through tuscany in May, Siena at 19th. Seen the MM myself, pretty spectacular.

http://www.1000miglia.eu/

Also, tuscany is considered as one of the best driving areas in the world. Do it in a convertible if you can afford.

Cé hé sin > Wrong Wheel Drive (41%)
01/16/2016 at 14:57

I went to Italy last September, full of your trepidation about mad Italian drivers aaaaaannnnd....it was absolutely fine. Mind you I was in rural-ish Southern Italy, not a big city.

Cé hé sin > Wrong Wheel Drive (41%)
01/16/2016 at 15:04

There are plenty of organised fjord trips from Bergen but you’re really pushing it if you’re there for only 18 hours including airport transfers.

Top tip: bring lots of money or well stocked plastic. Norway is VERY expensive.

AMGtech - now with more recalls! > Wrong Wheel Drive (41%)
01/16/2016 at 15:26

Nice. I’m jealous. Me and the wife are trying to plan a trip to Europe for later this summer for my thirtieth. Maybe a London and Ireland thing, stay in a castle or something.

Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) > davedave1111
01/16/2016 at 17:19

Yes, we have rearranged the plans a little bit. Based on advice from friends and posts on here we are going to skip Naples and dedicate the time to driving along the Amalfi coast. As for getting home, we found cheap flights to London (late thursday night out of Rome) and then home to NY late Sunday.

Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) > davedave1111
01/16/2016 at 17:25

Option 2 is to spend Wednesday-Thurs Almafi Coast, drive up to Tuscany Thurs, Spend Friday-Saturday in Tuscany, just find a flight home to NY from Milan on Sunday or Monday.

Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) > bob and john
01/16/2016 at 17:31

you done good! It might actually make sense to go there. We really want to spend time in Tuscany and found a cheap direct flight out of Naples. We might just drive a bunch and do both areas.

davedave1111 > Wrong Wheel Drive (41%)
01/17/2016 at 09:18

“we found cheap flights to London (late thursday night out of Rome) and then home to NY late Sunday.”

Two things there: first up, make sure the flights are still cheap with the checked baggage you’ll need - and remember you can’t take any alcohol in hand luggage; secondly, there’s quite a big difference in cost and time getting to/from different London airports.

davedave1111 > Wrong Wheel Drive (41%)
01/17/2016 at 09:19

Sounds like fun. Apart from the flights, I think you can overplan here. Having flexibility to do what takes your fancy is also nice, and as is plain, you’re not going to run out of things to do.

Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) > davedave1111
01/17/2016 at 18:24

Yeah we ended up rearranging a bit and are now staying in Italy and flying direct home from Naples. We don't plan to check a bag but our return flight includes free luggage! So if we end up wanting to bring things home that require checking, we will just check the carryons.

Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) > davedave1111
01/17/2016 at 18:26

Indeed, we just have a general plan of where we want to explore. But we will figure out what to see and where to eat on a day by day basis. Since we are going to rent a car for half the week, I think some extended exploring will be in order! I love just driving along and not really having much of a plan.