Hello all,
We are planning our itinerary to northern Italy traveling from Switzerland and rather than try to back track by train, we would like to know if a flight from Venice to Zurich would be better. Curious on ease of customs and time spent at airport.
Also, is easyJet reliable? They are the first ones in a search to populate.
Much thanks!
Evangelia
I've flown Zurich to Venice on Swiss, and it is as complicated as Chicago to St Louis. Probably less so. You buy your ticket, check luggage if you need to (prepay on EasyJet), go through security, go to your gate, get on the plane, land in Venice, get off at Venice airport, collect your luggage at the carousel, go into Venice. Simple as that.
A fundamental difference in Venice is the Lagoon.
The train station is right on the Grand Canal, near the Santa Lucia (Saint Lucy) church. You take a vaporetto or walk from your Venice lodgings to the station - the Ferrovia vaporetto stops are directly outside the steps and ramp up to the front door - and get on your train. All the platforms are next to each other in a row and the trains all originate there so finding your seats is super easy.
Settle in and enjoy the ride, first towards Milan - where you likely will have an easy change of train, but maybe not - and then up the hills and through the tunnels into Switzerland. Hop off the train at the other end, probably the final destination of the train, and you are right in the middle of Zurich. No security or immigration/customs at either end of the journey nor at Milan.
If you fly you need to get across that lagoon. You can go around the lagoon by getting to Piazzale Roma, the stop beyond and on the opposite side of the Grand Canal from the station, and find the rubber tyred bus which goes to the airport. Get there early enough for all the pre-departure formalities like security check, x-ray, switch on the phone and computer and switch them off again, maybe take off your belt and shoes, etc., and wait for your plane. Then because the discount airlines don't spend money on jetways you will walk out onto the tarmac to the stairs for the plane where you will wait in a queue for the doors to open - often for some time - then climb the stairs and try to find a place for your carry on (just one) over your head. Then the flight, and then off the plane at Zurich airport which has a train station so you can get the short ride into the same station the train in the previous paragraph arrives into.
Or you can avoid the land bus in Venice and take the Alilaguna boat from designated vaporetto stops around Venice (I don't like the Alilaguna because they have dingy, low, stuffy boats with virtually no view) to the airport dock where you walk into the terminal for about 10 or 15 minutes, or use the moving walkway just opened (I haven't yet used that so don't know how it goes), or you can pay through the nose for a private water taxi (around €120) from your hotel to a nearby dock and then the trek into the airport.
Many choices, only you know which appeals to you.
