Because of wanting to be in Salzburg during the August music festival, my husband and I are traveling backward in Austria....from Salzburg to Hallstatt to Vienna. We have a certain date we have to be in Nice and it is a LOONG way between those cities. It has been suggested that we take a night train to Milan and then another train to Nice OR we could fly for (maybe) the same amount of money. I went on Skyscanner.com to find a flight found several good ones but on airlines that I never heard of like Iberia and Germanwings. I am a little wary of these and wonder if anyone has flown with them. OR....any other suggestion of how we can make this connection?
Posted by
Bay Area
3551 posts
I have taken germanwings,it was vg as a budget airlines. We took,it from germany to Nice and i would recommmend them for anyone.
Re iberia it has been many yrs since myflight so i cannot comment.
Posted by
California 🦋
5211 posts
Have not taken Iberia flights, however, this airline is recommended for travel within Europe by Frommer's Travel guidebooks, so it must be a reputable airline.
Posted by
New York, NY, USA
11294 posts
Iberia is the main airline of Spain. They fly to the US as well as within Europe. Per Wikipedia, they go back to 1927!
Germanwings is a budget carrier, and while not as old as Iberia, they have been around a while now (from 1997 as a subsidiary of another company and since 2002 as a separate entity, according to Wikipedia).
You will read good and bad things about almost every airline, and a lot of people's problems stem from expectations. Remember these are short flights; you shouldn't expect anything fancy, but you will get from point A to point B, as long as you understand and follow all their rules (getting boarding pass beforehand if needed, not going over the carry-on limit, paying for any checked bags if that's the airline's policy, not missing the check-in cutoff so they don't void your ticket, etc).
For all of your options between Vienna and Nice, look at Rome2Rio, but then double check with the airline, bus company, etc, themselves: http://www.rome2rio.com/
Posted by
Fort Worth, Tx, USA
50 posts
Iberia is a Spanish airline--is fine. OneWorld partner. Germanwings is Lufthansa's budget line (more like Southwest than Ryanair). Today's news of a GW crash near where you're talking about is obviously off-putting, but we've flown over the Alps (from Milan to Frankfurt on yet another budget flier, Air Dolomiti) and it was fine. Night train might be fun?
Posted by
Rick Steves' Europe
16893 posts
I would fly instead of taking a 17-19 hour train ride. Various budget airlines are often the way to go; see general advice at http://www.ricksteves.com/travel-tips/transportation/budget-flights. I had never heard of Cyprus Airways before I flew with them, but all went just as expected.