January travel

Why not fly from London to Venice, then train from Venice to Rome, fly back from Rome to London? It would save you some sightseeing time not to have to do round trip from Rome to Venice and back.

What will be best way to travel to Venice from Rome and how to book train or bus tickets?

Fly into Venice take the train (use this to book https://trainline.eu) to Rome fly out of Rome

Can we buy tickets a couple of days before or they'll be way to expensive?

A train Ticket one way to Rome to Venice or vice versa would cost more or less $180 if you book a couple of days before. That could be way too expensive to you?

A Freccia train will be a lot faster than a bus. You don't have time for anything except the fastest mode of transportation.

Check trenitalia.com and italotreno.com for your precise travel dates. Those are the companies that run trains between Rome (Roma) and Venice (Venezia). I'm afraid most of the bargain-priced tickets are long gone, but perhaps you will be lucky.

For Jan 3, you can still get tickets if you buy now on Italotreno from Venice S Lucia to Rome Termini for 34.90 EUR per person. By all means, fly to Venice from London first.

Jazz, where are you seeing $180 (158euro) fares? I see nothing close to that. 2nd class Base fare tomorrow is only 56 euro. And I see a Jan 2nd fare, 1st class - economy - at 42euro.

Sha -- you have three levels of fares -- Super economy, Econ, and Base. The first two are discount fares with restrictions and limited availability. Most of those cheaper tickets will be gone by your dates so mostly Base fare will be available. Lots of tickets available with mid-day trains base fare around 50 to 60 Euro. Go to Venice first, train to Rome and home from Rome. The prices of the train tickets are fixed and do not change daily as is common with US air carriers. The Base fare is the same the day of as it was 120 days earlier. Never changes.

You can easily buy a ticket the day of or before. Besides the three fare levels you have to two service levels -- 2nd class (similar to business class on the airlines) and 1st class. There are some variations within first class but not very important. We find 2nd class more than adequate.

Thank you so much for great suggestions. I'll look into London Venice flights or if I can find good LA-Rome fare. My travel window is between 12/22/18-1/8/19.

Were you thinking about an RT into London and separate flights to Venice and or Rome? And then back to London. That is not the best approach.

Ok I was logged in and that was the cost for 2 tickets December 8

That is still higher than I was seeing on Trenitalia for the 7th. I didn't think weekend varied that much.

Yes I am thinking of flying to London first and then separate tickets to Italy cuz London airfares are cheaper than direct Rome or Venice. But now it's getting very complicated.

Looking at trainline 64 euros on Italo Venice to Rome non-stop December 8 that is not too bad

.... thinking of flying to London first and then separate tickets to Italy...... A lot of people do it and I done it but it still has some risk. In past I have always booked a four to five hour window just to cover a delayed arrival flight. Then two years ago our original US flight was canceled and the five hour window didn't save me. I need a five day window. When you price in the additional flight costs, etc., the time inconveniences, and other potential delays, it is hard for two separate tickets to be cheaper. It is getting late for good flight fares but I would fly into Venice and home from Rome. And with five days -- just go to Rome. Why waste a day in the middle transfer to Rome and changing hotels, etc.

If I fly directly to Rome or Venice then I'll have 7-8 days and that should give me enough time to do Venice also. I really want to go to Venice.
You r right about all the tickets and time spent on flying in such a short time .
I feel better about train tickets now . Before I was under the impression that train tickets are super expensive if you buy the day of or couple of days in advance .

Thank you again for all your suggestions

Given the recent flooding in Venice, I'd have a back-up plan on leaving early.
News: https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/commentary/venice-flooding-sinking-climate-change-sewage-waters-rising-10957746

Perhaps get train tickets which can be changed for free or cheaply.

Don't let Acqua Alta scare you away from Venice. October 29 was one of those perfect storms.

When getting two different unconnected round trip tickets, I would leave about a day between them. Looks like you are flying into London and spending some time there first. But on the return, I would leave Rome on the late afternoon of the 7th to make a flight from London to LA on the 8th. It is a very expensive ticket to buy for a trip back to LA if some hiccup causes a delay if you plan on flying from Rome on the 8th.

Use a flight search engine (my favorite is https://www.momondo.co.uk/?ispredir=true) and search for a "multi-city" trip for the cities you want to see. Let the engine handle the stops in between. To me it sounds as if you should search for LA - Venice + Roma - LA. Perhaps it suggests a stop in London, perhaps somewhere else. You get a list of options you can choose from.

Don't let Acqua Alta scare you away from Venice. October 29 was one of
those perfect storms.

Exactly. Acqua alta is a normal, tidal event that usually, when it happens, comes and goes without much ado. That one back in October was unusually extreme.

I am looking into LA-Venice and Rome-LA flights. Make so much sense .
Any suggestions for hotels(safe/convenient) in Rome ?

Thank you all

For hotel suggestions, what's your budget range, in euros?

It's four of us (myself and three sons) and it seems like most hotel rooms have one double or two twin beds. So I am not sure if I need to book two rooms. My budget is max 200 US dollars per night . In Venice I am not seeing anything in this range. We r planning two nights in Venice and 4 nights in Rome.

Thank you
Sh

Housing four people for 175 € per night will be a challenge.

Try something like booking.com and see what comes up in your price range for 4

Once you have some results, some folk here may be able to offer some comment on the selections

Yes you need two rooms. Hotel rooms are very small compared to the US and not made for large families. I just had a cousin book a similar trip last minute and this was the one time he thought using a travel agent was a good idea.

What do you want to see in Rome? Many places you need to book tours in advance. You might want to get those settled too. I would also suggest flying into Venice. You will need to connect somewhere from LA and then home from Rome.

Enjoy

This will be our first visit Italy so all the famous landmarks and tourists attractions. I am not a big planner, so we just try to see whatever we can. Once I have my flights booked then I'll look into it.

I searched airbnb and found some nice looking apartments in Rome, described to be close to the center. But I didn't have a good experience with airbnb once before so I am kinda nervous about it .

I can increase our budget to 250-275 per night US dollars if need to be . But two rooms in this range would be way too expensive for us.

Sh

If