Paris to Venice? (RIP night train)

Flights from Orly to Venice on Easyjet are about an hour and a half as opposed to a 10 hr train

I know you didn’t ask but 3 days is barely enough for Rome and Pompeii as a day trip is brutal
Venice could use 3 nights as well, especially if the day you arrive has been travel day from Paris

How do you plan to get back to Paris from Rome?
You might see about a flight from Naples and give Pompeii an overnight.

I agree with Christine, you need to cut something out. Rome needs four nights if you include Vatican City. If you go to Pompeii in the summer, it will be hot and is not a day trip from Rome.

CDG to Venice is served by both Air France and EasyJet. See of either can fit into your time slots for travel.

It's a long way from Paris to Venice, and it's just too far to ride on a train--when flights may be very favorably priced.

Definitely don't waste a whole day on the train. Fly to Venice. I'd also strongly recommend that instead of a RT ticket to Paris, you look instead at a multicity ticket into Paris and home from Rome or Naples. That gives you an extra day in Europe and one less day of travelling. I would never recommend doing Pompeii as a day trip from Rome except in the dead of winter. And even then only if your Mom is a fit senior who can be on her feet for hours at a time and can handle rough ground. If possible, spend a night in Naples. Bonus with that might be time to visit the Archeological museum.

Thanks for the airline tip. I will consider it more thoroughly. I'd written it off before due to not wanting to go back through the airport with luggage etc. I think we will still fly out of CDG to go home for sentimental reasons to have one final evening in Paris. There's a good chance we will not go again just the two of us.

Interesting notes on Pompeii. I have done the day trip from Rome 2x. Once in Summer 2008 and again in April 2013. My in laws complained a bit in 2013 but I thought it was fine.

Mom has never been to Venice. I've been 2x and done 2 days both times, which I felt like was enough to get the feel of it. We do plan 3 nights there, since we won't arrive in the morning. Rome she has been to many years ago. I have been for 7 days and 10 days previously. We will have to skip a lot in such a short time for sure. I'd like to go longer but I am leaving my wife with the kids! So while we will be back with the whole family this is our chance to do a couple of things just us.

The loss of the night train is so frustrating, bc it would have made for much less travel stress. That extra day seems like it tips the scale to a lot of travel in a 12-13 day trip. And there's just no room to add any more intermediate stops. Perhaps taking s plane will help, but I feel like it's much harder to get to the airport and go through all that than to get on a train. Thanks for the input.

I hate flying in the middle of a trip, but I hate night trains more. I used to manage OK, if not particularly well, in couchettes when I was younger--well enough that I could get through the next day without collapsing. My most recent attempt (Rome to Sicily) was an unmitigated disaster. Whether that was due to age (I'm almost 71) or the rough condition of the rails on that particular trip, or a combination of the two, I don't know. I just know I didn't sleep at all--until I got into my room the next day, with the predictable results: My sleep schedule was all messed up for over 24 hours. Who needs to feel as if they've just taken another sleepless overnight flight midway through a trip?

What I'm saying is that, at least for your mother, the lack of the night-train option may be a blessing in disguise.

I wouldn't try to cover three such widely separated places in the time you have, but to each his/her own.

Any thoughts on flying directly to Venice to start with then flying Rome to Paris at the end and finishing with your total of 4 nights in Paris? That eliminates a hotel change and getting back out to the airport from Paris more than once.

Can you fly to Naples?

Naples 2 nights, visit Pompeii (or stay in Sorrento if Naples isn’t your thing)
Train to Rome 3 or 4 nights
Train to Venice 2 or 3 nights
Fly to Paris 4 nights
Fly Home from Paris

You did say you would like to end trip in Paris.

I've been thinking a lot about the 2 airports idea. I'm coming closer to deciding to do that, flying from Venice to Paris. Do y'all think the Venice airport will easier to fly out of than CDG for the short trip, rather doing the trip the other way around? Seems like it could be.
Thanks,
Bill

To me the complex thing about flying out of Venice is just getting to the airport. If you’re not trying to connect to an international flight home so you don’t have to fly from Venice at the crack of dawn that’s easier to manage.

Try to fly to Orly instead of CDG--smaller, closer to Paris.
Of course your transatlantic home would still most probably be from CDG.

How about Paris to MiIan by rail, then on to Venice?

How about Paris to MiIan by rail, then on to Venice?

A direct train from Paris to Milan takes 7h 15m. I’ve taken a direct train from Torino to Nice and from what I saw from the train window wasn’t anything you haven’t seen before. If there was an overnight train from Paris to Milan that would be different but I don’t see any.

We just did the direct train from Milan to Paris and it was a looooooong day. Our flight from Rome to Paris was cancelled due to air strike so we took the train to Milan, then onward to Paris (thru Zurich). Fly if you can from Venice to Orly. We have done that before and it was so easy. Marco Polo airport is easy to get around.

Thanks for the replies. We will have a few days between arriving in Paris and going home via CDG. Sounds like Marco Polo to Orly is going to be our horse to get from Venice to Paris for the last leg of the trip. Appreciate all the help and will post back how it goes (11 months from now).

As far as getting to airport from venice. On our recent tour, a water taxi from hotel dock direct to airport was absolutely unique and a perfect way to depart venice. The water taxi we were on could handle about 8 people with luggage at a time. Total trip time was 20 minutes or less. Our venice hotel was near the train station.

a water taxi from hotel dock direct to airport was absolutely unique and a perfect way to depart venice.

I was taught not to ask this question and understand if you don't reply, but what time did you take the taxi and how much did it cost?

Jumping on the Venice water taxi. I broke down and took one because my 8:30 flight out of Venice was too early for me to deal with the idea of getting up early enough to vaporetto and bus to the airport by 6:30am.
The water Taxi is ~140e to the airport and can carry up to 4 people and luggage. I think it's a pretty set price but they may find reasons to add some surcharges to that.
If you know your local dock they may be able to pick you up in the canal right near your hotel. Because it was low tide I met it at the St Marco water taxi dock which was a few blocks from my hotel. I would recommend having your hotel arrange it for you.

Hope that helps,
=Tod