3 times cancelled so picking a layover city for 2 nights

no the flight is out of Nice that they include and they have you speak to the air dept, so it needs to be a non stop from some hub as you say. They often used Vienna, Munich, Brussels or Zurich. Sometimes Frankfurt, Someone said Brussels is great because you can easily get to Bruge. Zurich has a nice old town.

FRankfurt, not sure, if it's worth it, been to Munich, and loved Dublin, would do that, if given a choice. But Brussels is one and Zurich and Vienna ones I have never been to, We start in Lyon on the river, and end in Avignon. If we flew into Marseilles to connect home, I would spend 2 nights in Aix.

By “connecting city” do you mean that will have direct flights to the USA or Canada? And one to which you could fly (or take the train) from Nice? And this will be roughly May 1?

We always made a layover stop in London on our way home, because we fly British Airways with miles. We are always happy to spend more time in London or nearby. Early May is a lovely time in England.

But you want a smaller city. We love Switzerland, but are not fond of Zurich—-when our flight lands there we jump on a train to somewhere else. So how about Luzern? Lovely small city right on a lake, only an hour by train from Zurich. There is a direct train from Luzern to the Zurich airport once an hour, and more frequent ones with a change in the Zurich main station. Travel time from Luzern to the airport terminal is around 1:12 last time I checked.

We adore London and have not been there in a while. Edinburgh? I would LOVE that or Glasgow as well.

Thanks

philbop, when we did our cruise, they let us book our return flight from a city other than the one the cruise included, with a small change fee (that's the "talk to the air office part"). They told us lots of people do that. You'll have to talk to them anyway (and maybe pay a fee for it) if you want to customize the return flights by breaking the standard "included" flight arrangements. So we took the train to someplace we wanted to stay for three nights, then flew home.

Yes, we could do that, but we'll have been in Provence for a week, so I would prefer to fly out of Nice and do a 2 night layover in a cool city we haven't been. That way, the transfers are done, they bring us to the airport, and then voila we are in another city. That is why I'd like a smaller city rather than Paris or London. Zurich may be perfect size wise. And as I said Bruge? I hear is the prettiest place in Europe.

Yeah, that makes sense.

And the deviation is the same $100 or something. They said "in April, other than Amsterdam, you could prolly do it right there, in other words, this time it was through Zurich. We have a "direct connection" and Swiss air and they both said you can stay up to a week in the connecting city. THAT is what I mean, just depends on the connection point. Vienna would be so great I think, as well.

Zurich and Brussels has a train or people mover to bring you into the center. Easy peasy, where a large airport. Heathrow or CDG may be harder to do that and enjoy the couple of nights.

And we have been to those.

lb

If it were london though? I would prolly make it 3 nights. I think the other hub is Manchester, and i have to look at a map to see how exciting haha THAT would be, I duh forgot I have friends in England. They would prolly love to come meet us.

God, Dublin would be the perfect size though, or Edinburgh which I haven't been. Thanks, I had sort of forgotten about London but my friends would love to meet me there, they'd be trying to make me stay longer. Too bad Liverpool haha isn't a hub.

Edinburgh isn't really a big hub though, but Dublin has a good selection of flights across the atlantic. You don't mention where you live (and where you closest airport is), but you could take a look at what connections are available at that airport, that should help you narrow down the options.

Is price or flight time a factor? I just looked up taking Icelandair, which offers a stopover in Reykjavik before continuing the rest of the way to the USA, for no additional airfare cost. Their Nice to Reykjavik journey currently indicates it’s about an 8 hour effort, including a connection at the Paris Charles de Gaule airport, before finishing at the Reykjavik airport. Head home a couple days later. We visited Iceland in April 5 years ago. It’s not summer tourist season yet, and certainly not hot, but manageable weather, with things to do and see. A couple days would let you see the small city, and even venture into the country on a tour (or even rental car).

Interetesting - you’d have been on a Viking cruise, then finish up seeing a Viking land!

We were surprised at how much we loved Vienna, but 2 nights isn't enough.

I stopped over for 2 nights in Dublin on the return from Austria and Germany in 2019 and would highly recommend it. Wonderful people, nice airport with lots of flights to the US, including pre-clearance which helped with a short connection time once I arrived to Charlotte.

We live near Newark.

AND Vienna would be a choice. So it starts in Lyon ends in Avignon and we then go to Nice for 3 nights. Because I am going April, the extension is almost free.

“ Too bad Liverpool haha isn't a hub.”

No, but if your friends are in Liverpool, then Manchester would be a good connection- the 2 cities are close to each other, and both have much more to offer visitors than they used to.

If I had a chance to return to Amsterdam during tulip season, I would grab it. It ranks very high in our favorite travel memories.
However, we usually fly to and from Europe through London and extra time there is always wonderful too. We have been to Vienna twice and it isn’t among our favorites, have no desire to return.

We live near Newark.

In that case, your options might not be endless, but you have many to choose from. Lisbon is definitely one of them, TAP has direct flights from Lisbon to Newark. Other options are the Scandinavian capitals, if Zürich is the perfect size so are they. And they all have direct flights to Newark. Depending on what kind of weather you prefer, Stockholm or Oslo might be a bit too chilly for you but April in Copenhagen is lovely.

Brussels for Bruge? Lisbon for heat and people, Oslo or Stockholm for the perfect size, with Zurich, and Ams for Tulips unless too crowded because of time of year.

Thanks you guys have helped much.

You could consider Haarlem, which is very near Amsterdam to have the smaller town near the tulips. We were there early May and they are beautiful, but it was chilly and rainy two out of three days.

As I'm feeling chilly right now, and your time in France may be a bit cooler, I would go for Lisbon. It is not a lot of time, but you can see the town easily, and it will be a different experience after France. If you check out the Rick Steve's Portugal book he has 3 walks of the town that could all be done in a very busy day to see a lot of it. We have been twice in April and it is a lovely time to go.

Just checked nonstop flights out of Nice and here’s where you can fly within Europe:
ES – Barcelona and Madrid
DE – Berlin, Hamburg, Cologne, Dusseldorf, Frankfurt and Munich
UK – Bristol, London, Edinburgh and Liverpool
FR – Toulouse, Strasbourg, Lille, Paris, Bordeaux, Nantes, Ajaccio, Bastia – Corsica, Biarritz, Brest, Caen, Calvi, Figari, Lyon and Rennes
CH – Basel, Geneva and Zurich
BE – Brussels
PT – Faro and Lisbon
DK – Copenhagen
IE – Dublin
LU – Luxembourg
NO – Oslo
PL – Warsaw
RU – Moscow
SE – Stockholm
TR - Istanbul
And here’s where you can fly outside of Europe:
DZ – Algiers
QA – Doha
TN – Monastir and Tunis

I think Lisbon is a great choice.

I printed out all the cities, thank you. I think it would also depend on who has agreements, so Non Stop Newark Cities would be allowed in the price route prolly with the $100 deviation fee.

That brings me back to Amsterdam, Lisbon, Zurich and Brussels. And maybe Dublin. Or Vienna.
(Frankfurt and Munich as well)

We adored Barcelona, one of our fave cities of the world in fact.

But I agree, I have been to Ams, and while it is a lovely place, for ease I think Zurich would be fun, Vienna lovely, Brussels maybe a bit boring, but we could see Brugge finally and Lisbon, wow oh wow for LIsbon.

I think again, when the time comes? As the airlines are in deep trouble with COVID, I find out their routings and this year when I called Swissair, there was no problem for changing EVEN over there, as it is shoulder, the only one that MIGHT be a problem would be AMS because of Tulips/festivals, but you've given me some ideas and I thank you. I shall look at Rick Steve's opinion of all these places for a short stay and thanks!

THANKS

I am not sure to have properly followed all the posts but in April, to me Lisbon definitely wins over all the other places you list with a greater chance of fair weather.

You can fly as low as $259 from Lisbon to Newark on Lufthansa Airlines.

The leg Lisbon to newark is included with Viking, but sounds like a great option.