I am trying to find the best and most INEXPENSIVE way to get to these places:
Seattle to Alghero (Sept. 1)
Olbia to Venice (Sept. 12)
Venice to Budapest (Sept. 14)
Budapest back to Seattle (Sept. 22)
I looked two days ago and it was about $1,600 per person roundtrip, but I am looking today and everything is showing up as $7,000 per person. How is this possible? It can't possibly be $7k a person??!!! Are there ways around this perhaps with a different route? HELP!!
Would a ferry from Rome to Alghero be pretty efficient, or would it take a long time?
SEA-AHO
Most airlines airlines flying to Alghero are low cost European airlines, such as RyanAir, Easyjet, Volotea, etc.
Since that is a summer destination, most of those flights are seasonal too, however on the 1st of Sept most should operate.
The only traditional airline that flies to AHO is Alitalia from Rome FCO or Milan LIN (Alitalia is a SkyTeam alliance partner, like Delta)
So you really have these options to fly from SEA to AHO:
1. You select a Delta/Alitalia combination that takes you to Rome FCO first, then to AHO, such as SEA>AMS>FCO>AHO. That is probably the only chance to do it on one ticket.
2. You go to Italy first, then you go to AHO maybe the next day, on a separate ticket with a low cost airline. In this case you wouldn't go to Rome, because no low cost airlines fly from Rome to Alghero (only Alitalia, see no. 1). RyanAir flies from Pisa, Bologna, Bergamo. Easyjet from Milan Malpensa, Volotea from Venice and so on (for a list of airlines flying to AHO see Alghero Airport on Wikipedia.
Skyscanner is a good aggregator for low cost flights. Or you can go to the individual low cost airline websites.
OLB-VCE
Easyjet, Volotea, Meridiana (all low cost airlines) fly this segment in summer. Go to the individual websites and see.
Last fall I visited the magnificent islands of Sardinia and Corsica for two weeks. I flew into Rome and then to Cagliari at the south end of the island and also spent 10 days on the boot. The ferry to Alghero is an 8-11 hour trip; flying takes an hour and you don't have to take the train to Civitevecchia to get the ferry. My flight from Rome was on Alitalia and I had no problems with luggage or even changing flights at no charge. The fare was $137 round trip. You might be able to save a few bucks by using one of the super economy carriers but watch out for other charges beyond the base fare. I also took an Alitalia flight from Verona to FCO rather than take the train. Again, it was about 1 hour and the fare was about $75.
I just did a little exploring on Expedia and you can get a Seattle to Rome, Budapest to Seattle ticket for your dates for about $1100. Rome to Alghero $100. Olbia to Venice $64. Venice to Budapest $50 on Easyjet, $115 on Alitalia. If you book as one trip, this jumps to $7K. You've got to book SEA>FCO and BUD>SEA as one trip and purchase the others singly.
Thank you everyone this helps so much!!! I checked again it was back down to around $1,600 because it picked up those super low cost flights once in Italy - not sure why they weren't coming up earlier today...very odd. I will keep looking and thanks again!!!!
Which airport best to fly into for Rome? I am assuming FCO, but should it be CIA?
