We'd like to fly from Tampa, FL to Sicily, but found prices are on the rise. Our dates are Sept 26 thru Oct 20th. Can anyone offer some ideas of best economical route. We're open to staying overnight in another country if we can get to Sicily for a reasonable cost. So far, $1300 with 20+ hrs of travel time seems to be the norm. Thank you seasoned travelers!
Posted by
Tampa, FL, USA
1054 posts
It doesn't appear that way. Eurofly has a flight from JFK to Sciliy direct but not in October for your return, if you can get a cheap direct flight to JFK. The other carriers will take you from Tampa to places like JFK, Philly, Atlanta before going to Italy. You' either change in Rome or Naples for sciliy or another country like Germany. You can look at other airports. I drove to Orlando to get a direct flight to Costa Rica last year. Tampa only had connections. For me, the 45 min drive to MCO was worth it. I checked MCO and you can get a 1 stop flight to Palermo with a connection in Frankfurt on Luftansa. You may have 2 stops coming back unless you stay a extra day or day earlier. Price was about the same at $1200. Don't forget if you have a connection on the US East Coast you usually depart around 6-7pm and land in Europe in the morning, so you'll be sleeping on the plane ride there (for those who can sleep in a cabin)
Posted by
Boise, ID, USA
2173 posts
We've visited Sicily twice, each time flying intra-European airlines from another European city and generally spending the night on at least one end (in a city we wanted to visit anyway). Generally, Frankfurt or Munich are the most economical places to fly from where we live (one year it was Brussels), so you might check. However, unless you can get your overseas flight for around $900, you're probably not going to save any money and will have quite a bit more hassle with this plan.
Posted by
OP
Hendersonville NC USA
14 posts
Thank you for reply to my query. We started to plan our trip in March, but thought waiting to book the flight might see airfare drop. Boy, were we wrong!I'd rather spend our hard earned $$$ in Sicily then giving it to the airline,but our excitement isn't lessened one bit!
Posted by
Martinez, CA, USA
1506 posts
We recently returned from 28 days in Sicily and flew on Lufthansa/United from SF to Washington DC, to Munich, to Palermo. The last leg was on Air Dolomiti. I think it was more than 20 hours with flight connection time. We flew in April and made our reservations about 5 months in advance. It seems that prices for flights have gone up as we are now planning next spring's trip to France and find they have also increased in the last 2 weeks, although we have a few months before booking. We do agree with you though, it doesn't dampen the excitement. I hope you enjoy Sicily as much as we did!