Fly into Rome, out of Venice?

If your trip itinerary is A-B-C, then yes, absolutely, the most efficient way to work your flights is to fly into A, and fly home from C.

When comparing the cost of flights, a few things to consider:

1. Your time is worth something. By flying open jaws (in to A and home from C) you effectively "buy" yourself another day (maybe more) of usable time to enjoy being in Europe -- ask yourself, how much would you "pay" to get one more day in Italy? When you look carefully about how you might have to get yourself back to your arrival airport, consider both the financial cost and the time. For most of us, time is the single most constrained (valuable) commodity we have to spend. Most of us can find more money (later), it's harder to "find time."

2. Also consider the actual financial cost savings you enjoy by not having to pay real money to backtrack to your arrival airport, pay for a hotel the night before, etc. That ain't free.

3. Nonstop flights from the US are a luxury, not everyone has that option. If you do, you will probably pay more for it (that's built into airline pricing engines: non-stops cost more than flights with connections, because they are more desirable). Like every other choice in travel planning, the flights will be a trade-off, balancing real money costs, time-in-transit, convenience, comfort, personal preferences, and more. Many people gladly pay a bit more for a better experience. Personally, I think it's complete insanity to always make every single decision based on just a single criteria: the absolute lowest cost (others will disagree). Life is short. Don't beat yourself up just because you're spending a few bucks more, if that gives you a better trip!

It's up to you whether you prefer direct flights to/from Rome and do the "connection" by train in Italy. It would be better if you could get a direct flight into Venice, out of Rome, but if there is no direct flight to Venice? Then it's up to you. The travel time might be about the same - a connecting flight probably in Europe on to Venice instead of taking the train. I did it this way too on my first trip to Italy (direct flights to/from Rome) and took the train immediately to Venice upon landing in Rome, then trained back to Rome eventually, spent all of my nights in Rome at the end before flying out of there.

I think I would try to avoid splitting up your nights in Rome in any case. But, you could start in Florence instead of Rome, then do Venice, then do the long train trip back to Rome from Venice. It's really up to you.

I think that one of the primary reasons that it is suggested to fly into VCE and out of Rome, as opposed to vice versa, is that most flights leaving Venice for the US are very early AM and that can be a huge pain getting to the airport on time. I speak from personal experience. That’s said, if you find a later flight then by all means, it’s not even a factor which direction you go.

If you do book flights into one city and out of another, be sure to do it all together, rather than two one-way flights. The air carriers give you that option under ‘advanced settings’, and refer to the arrangement as ‘open jaw’ or ‘multi-city’.

It makes more sense to fly into Venice and home from Rome. Rome gives better options for returns. I really doubt if it is more expensive. I will run it tomorrow.

If it seems more expensive, look up the cost of the train ticket to get back to Rome. It looks like a ticket on Trenitalia purchased two weeks ahead will be around 50 Euro and take four hours. Those four hours could definitely be spent being on vacation vs. sitting on a train,

Also, make sure you are pricing a flight as all one ticket, similar to a round-trip ticket. It’s a “multi-city” - not two 1-way tickets.

I found the open-jaw tickets between California and Italy this summer were more costly than flying to any of Milan, Venice or Rome roundtrip. Florence was always more than the three other cities.
So it will depend on what you can find. You might want to sign up for fare alerts for both types of tix at www.Google.com/flights and www.Skyscanner.com and see what happens down the road in 2023. There should be some bargains available to buy in December or January for your itinerary. If the the open-jaw ticket is too expensive, it’s only €30 to buy a high-speed Frecciarosa train ticket at www.Italiarail.com if you snag the ticket 4 months in advance when they first go on sale. Those trains take just 4 hours to get from Venice to Rome and vice versa. The trains are run by Trenitalia, the Italian National train company. NTV is the private train company also doing the Venice to Rome route with its high-speed Italo trains and offers similar discount tickets 4 months before the date of travel at www.Italotreno.it The train timetables are reset the 2nd Saturday in June (also December) and you normally cannot buy tickets online for dates past then until they’re released. That second Saturday falls on June 10 in 2023.

We did this.

As others have said, flights from Venice tend to leave very early, but in our case, we had a connecting trans-Atlantic flight to make, and later options wouldn't have got us there in time, anyhow.

We spent our last night in Venice at a hotel near the airport with a shuttle, and this hotel also provided breakfast starting very early, so that worked well for us. We were able to stow our bags at our previous accommodation for most of the day, so we still had the whole day to explore Venice before heading to the airport-area hotel.

Ignoring the cost, here's why it's better to fly into Venice and out of Rome.
- Most flights to the US leave in the morning. It's easier and faster to get to the Rome airport any time than the Venice airport. Getting to VCE can include walking over bridges with luggage, taking the vaporetto in addition to either the bus or Alilaguna boat to VCE or taking a very expensive water taxi. It usually means getting up in the middle of the night. You can get to FCO in an hour or less by taxi or train from just about anywhere in Rome.
- Rome is a large, noisy, bustling city. It can be hard, even sometimes overwhelming, to get oriented to its multiple modes of transportation, sights spread out around the city, hard-to-find street signs to name a few, or to appreciate its major sights since you're likely to be sleep-deprived and jetlagged for your first day or two. OTOH Venice is quiet, getting lost is a good thing - you can't go very far off course (there are signs pointing to major landmarks (Rialto Bridge, San Marco) and to the vaporetto and you often find yourself in a lovely quiet back canal or campo. There are no major sights but lots of places to relax, recharge and soak up the atmosphere. Rome is hectic, Venice is magical.

Flying R/T Rome would mean the incremental train fare for all of you from Venice to Rome. You can avoid 2 hotel stays in Rome by taking a train from Rome to Florence and starting your trip there.

It's possible to fly into Milan and then take the train to Venice if Venice flights are prohibitively expensive. When you compare costs for flights, you need to take into account the additional train fares.

Use trenitalia.com and italotreno.it to find train schedules and fares.

United Flight 884 and 885 fly nonstop from Dulles to Rome and back everyday. Returning from Venice to Dulles or Reagan on United requires a connection in Newark.

And that's what I was getting at: if there is no direct flight to Venice from DC but there is one to/from Rome, is it better just to take that direct flight? Each plane connection adds uncertainty and doesn't necessarily save time vs. a train within Italy. Personally, I prefer fewer planes, so a direct flight would be my choice and was when I had to make this decision some years ago. If the direct flight times are terrible and the Venice + connection is not or there is a big difference in price or something, that might make a difference.

I just ran a quick check of flying into Venice and home from Rome vs RT in and out of Rome in mid June 23. The price was basically the same. Roughly a $1000. There was about a hundred to two variation depending on flight schedule, time of day, etc. Going to Venice requires one change but a direct flight back from Rome. Since it is so much easier to fly out of Rome than Venice and the price is the same -- That is what I would do.

Have you looked at flying IAD-EWR. EWR-vCE then back FCO-iAD?

https://www.skyscanner.com/transport/d/iad/2023-06-09/ewr/ewr/2023-06-09/vce/fco/2023-06-23/iad/config/12387-2306091232--31722-0-11442-2306091421|11442-2306091845--31722-0-17468-2306100905|11493-2306231030--31722-0-12387-2306231415?adults=1&adultsv2=1&cabinclass=economy&children=0&childrenv2=&infants=0&ref=home

By the time you figure transport and lodging it’s gonna come pretty close.

it was suggested to me to fly into Venice and out of Rome, but looking right now at cost, that seems more expensive

What is the difference you are finding?

If you finally decide to fly into Venice, get seats on the right hand side of the aircraft. You will then get a view of Venice as you fly in.
Or get seats on the left side to view Mestre.

Thanks everyone!!

We are heading to Italy in June but we are flying into Rome and out of Milan. That was the least expensive option for some reason. Find in and out of Venice is not inexpensive at this time. We are flying into Rome on June 18 and leaving Malan on July 6. Our airfare from San Francisco was a little over $1700 for two and we have to fly through Montreal Canada both ways. Six years ago I got a flight for 900 or so round-trip to Venice. I don’t think I’ll see that again.

I wouldn’t purchase flights just yet. The airlines currently have changed many early booked flights. I’d start looking after January, set up price alert and watch it. I’ve usually had good luck with less expensive flights 4-5 months out. When you find one you’re comfortable with, that’s the time to book.

Edited

We were planning the same itinerary as kel.mel for May23 muticity ticket into Venice out of Rome visiting Florence. We were looking at airfare back in the summer and we found $1800 RT for prem economy seats and within days it went up to over $3200 rt. and has remained so even into Jan. Needless to say trip has been postponed. We live in coastal NC so we don't have great access to a major airport, we have tried Charlotte and Raleigh /Durham all about the same. Flights into Milan a little cheaper but then a train ride back and forth and we only have 9 days on the ground. I don't mind a couple hundred dollar increase but this is cost prohibitive!

Since you are new to this site, you (rivercity.) should delete your question here and post it as a new question under your own name. That way you will receive notifications when answers are posted. Right now you have hijacked kel.mel's posting and he/she is receiving notification of answers that don't apply to the original question.