flights on Aeroflot and apartments vs. hotels in Italy

Check SAS airlines!!! They're as inexpensive as Aeroflot but connect through Copenhagen. There's NO way in Hell I'd spend 5 hours in Moscow with the present political climate, and who knows what will be happening by June?! Will you need Visas?

Re apartments. If I'm spending 4 nights, I'll do apartments. Less than that, never. With 'kids' that age, I think an apartment would be really nice! Day trip to Pompei from Rome will make for a Very Long Day Trip. It's really far. Research Ostia Antica and maybe do that instead.

Have you thought through a 5 hour lay over added onto an International Flight and then driving to DC after all that?! Doesn't even sound safe.

The Pantheon neighborhood sounds good.

SAS has a fare sale right now. Venice might be problematic depending on their current European schedule, but I've used them in the past to Venice and it worked out very well. Aeroflot??

If you would consider Manarola instead of Monterosso, we just stayed here for 5 nights and it was perfect. Well located, less than 50 stairs to apartment, WIFI, washer, terrace. Very spacious, nice young man owns it. We do apartments for 3 or more nights. Lovely to be able to make a pot of coffee when we get up and not have to wait for the bar to open!

US Air has direct flights PHL to Venice, FCO to PHL.
PHL is about 3 hours from DC. Or grab the USAIr BWI to PHL then to VCE or FCO.
Easy airport to get to, park, and exit from.
You could not pay me to layover in Moscow for 5 hours.

Apartment rental would make sense for your travel party- 4 nights rental is worthwhile.

I've had longer layovers through Amsterdam (on the way back), but consider the length of flight time as well.

Apartments are great for families, in my opinion. Room to spread out, home-type amenities.

You are going to Italy. You need to look at how long your trip becomes when you have to fly first to Moscow, which is well North and East, and then fly back. Not to mention with dealing with that airport (and Airline). You also need to look at the times involved for SAS, and their reviews on Skytrax. There's a reason for their lower prices. I am also noting that SAS flights may involve 3 flights, with a Stockholm-Copenhagen leg.

We had an apartment for a week in the Trastavere area of Rome, and it was great for us, cheaper than a hotel, quiet, and with our own kitchen and clothes washer. We had to fix our own breakfast, but, then, we were able to have breakfast in our PJ's. We got ingredients at markets just down the street and had some nice dinners in our "own" place, too. If the location and price are good, an apartment is a great way to go - although we've sometimes found you need to commit to a whole week.

Good for you for asking. Between the political instability and the huge waste of time, there's no way on God's green earth that I would take Aeroflot from DC to save a little money. How much and how long are your flights? You do realize that you won't have time to leave the Moscow airport and see anything, right? Throw in the fact that you'll have two teenagers and the idea is a complete nonstarter.

And if you want to leave the airport in Moscow, you would need visas for all...

Travel time for a day trip from Rome to Pompei is about 2 hours each way, not impossible, and you'll find many recent discussions of it on this forum. A daytrip to Ostia has the benefit of being much less crowded.

Here is a link to another recent posting on apartments versus hotel rooms:

https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/italy/hotels-vs-apartments

My answer to that question is on that link along with others who gave good insight and suggestions.

Reviews for Aeroflot are all over the map, but I'd be pretty suspicious of the positive ones.
http://www.airlinequality.com/Forum/aeroflot.htm

They get 3 out of 10 stars on this one: http://www.airlineratings.com/passenger-reviews/58/aeroflot

is there a reason you are flying back to JFK and then driving to DC? Unless you are visiting NY for a couple of days before you drive back, that sounds like a miserable routing. You are going to be in transit about 24 hours when you consider the flights, layover, and drive.

I usually find the best routes to Italy out of IAD are on Star Alliance carriers. I look for routes that transfer in MUC or ZUR when other things are equal. I can't imagine flying via Moscow as that is so far out of the way.

Moscow, never. It's like flying to D.C. from Europe but changing planes in L.A. and backtracking to get to D.C. I'd also nix renting a car to drive home from JFK on that horrible backed up turnpike between NY and DC. There's got to be better out there. Flying from D.C. you have an enviable choice of airlines.
Edit: Moscow to Venice is a seven hour flight, two hours longer than D.C. To California.

If the problem is getting to Venice at the start, you might be better off flying into Milan and taking a high speed train to Venice from there. Anything to avoid Moscow.

Agree with Michael about the Milan-Venice by high-speed train, it's only a couple of hours.

We have decided to take some great advice and fly non-stop US Air Philly to Venice and then home Rome to Philly.

You will be sooooo glad you did.

Happy travels!

Good decision!
Both my husband and myself (in Sept) and my daughter and her boyfriend (in June) took the USAir flights (they live in DC)
We all had good flights, good experiences. Our flight to Venice actually got in an hour earlier than scheduled.
Tickets were 1256 per person RT when booked in Feb- I did monitor the prices for a few months before and after and that price never changed.

That's the Great Thing about this website, always Great Advice from people who've 'been there, done that!" I've travelled a lot, but always ask HERE for my next trip, always happy to share about the last one!

If you have any time between the flight in any European city, you just can go out of the airport and have little sightseeing. But in Russia you would need visa and even transit visa has to be issued in Consulate in USA. Imagine if your flight is delayed and you have to spend in the airport more than 5 hours without leaving it?

We loved staying in apartments when we took our boys (9 and 11) last summer.

I highly recommend this one from vrbo - great place, very central, we walked to everything. Laura was very helpful and great to work with!!

http://www.vrbo.com/305032

Enjoy!
Kim