Which city to fly into

Can you add nights on your dime and without going through them with that package deal easily?
Sounds like a great idea if so, normally flights to Rome are cheaper than the others (at least true for the East Coast US) plus you have been there before and sounds like you don't have time for Rome and Venice. Therefore I would eliminate Rome.

Logistically it is probably easier to plan the other locations flying into and out of Florence since it is in the middle and a major train route so would go with that.
Assuming you land in the morning ; I would fly in and same day take a train out to Cinque Terre to start the trip, then go to Venice and end in Florence. But can you end with your 3-4 night hotel stay with this package?

2 nights Cinque Terre really only gives you 1 full day to see the towns. What if it rains that day? book 3 nights in the CT and feel better about your odds.
With 10 nights I would do 3 nights CT, 3 nights Venice, 4 nights Florence with a day trip or two out of Florence involved.

Be sure you confirm where the hotels are--you don't want to lose time if they are not in a good location.

In looking at the finances of an Expedia deal, also consider the location of the hotels, especially if they're far enough outside of the city center that you'll need to add on transportation. And the value of your time; I have so little vacation time, that there's a value to me to have a hotel that's close to the area I want to be visiting.

And, of course, add in the value of your time and money in traveling from your last destination back to your arrival city. Just to make sure that you know, traveling open jaws usually is NOT more expensive than a round trip flight, when buying tickets directly from an airline. Their websites and booking paths set it up different ways; often it's called "multi-city."

10 days (or is it nights?) isn't a lot of time to visit all of the places that you mentioned, and keep in mind that two nights in the Cinque Terre means only one full day in that lovely part of Italy. And not all airlines fly into the Florence airport, so that may effect your decision-making. AND, if you fly round trip, you'll need to make sure that you are back at your arrival airport the night before your departure flight.

You don't need to fly into/out of Rome unless you plan time in Rome. If you stay with the Expedia deal, just fly into and out of Florence. To "save" some time, upon arrive (into Florence, let's say), go to one of your other destinations (let's say, Venice). Then spend your days in Florence at the end of your trip.

Enjoy!

I will just add I could make due staying in most any hotel area in Florence since it is so small ; Venice and Rome you could in very inconvenient locations so need to be more careful of "where" you are staying.

Since you plan to concentrate in Tuscany, then Florence (FLR) may be the better choice. FLR has no transatlantic flights, therefore you will need to connect at a European hub first.

From SEA you can fly non-stop to Amsterdam and Paris CDG (with Delta).
AirFrance-KLM and Delta are part of the SkyTeam Alliance.
Airfrance has 6 daily pairs to FLR from CDG
KLM has 3 to 4 daily pairs to FLR from AMS.

Another alternative is Lufthansa. Lufthansa flies non stop from SEA to Frankfurt (FRA).
Lufthansa flies 6 daily pairs from FRA to FLR.

British Airways flies from SEA to London Heathrow (LHR) but does not fly to FLR from LHR (only London City). However BA flies 3 daily pairs to Bologna (BLQ), which is located half way between Florence and Venice. That could be another option.

Thanks for the replies. Yes if we fly into Florence I am looking at hotels near the Duomo or San Lorenzo currently. It is easiest to pick days in Florence at begining or end of trip. Even if we have a hotel room the entire stay it is still cheaper than 2 plane tickets from what I can tell. Maybe I doing something wrong but 2 round trip flights plus 4 nights hotel to Florence is $1700-2000 depending on what hotel I pick if I do use the package deal option on Expedia. If I look up just the tickets on Expedia, Orbitz, or Deltaair.com its $2000-2100 round trip with no hotel included. So even if I don't stay at their hotel, airfare is less... how is this logical? Anyway, assuming the 4 nights hotel in the package is an acceptable location, I plan to use airbnb or booking.com for the rest of the nights.

My only other thought was maybe 4 nights Florence, 2-3 in CT and 3 nights Sorrento instead of Venice??? I love both Venice and Sorrento, but am afraid it's too far south to be convienent if my focus is north. Decisions decisions. Wish I could just tack on more time and magically win the lottery to pay for it all! LOL.

My personal Roberto's rule is to always leave the city you depart from for last. If you fly in and out of FLR, then you should leave Florence for last, especially because your return flight will depart very early in the morning from FLR (to connect to your SEA bound plane in one of the above mentioned European hubs).

From Florence to the Cinque Terre, it's a 2.5-3 hour trip by train, with potentially 3 different trains. I'm not sure I'd want to do that while jet lagged after a transatlantic flight.
Venice is farther, but thanks to the high speed line to Venice, it's only 2h away from the Florence main station (Firenze Santa Maria Novella). On the day of arrival, I'd probably go to Venice first.

The most efficient allocation of time, in my arrogant opinion, is 3 nights in Venice, 2 nights at Cinque Terre, 4 nights in Florence (with one day trip to Siena or other Tuscan town). Going from Venice to Cinque Terre is a long way, and in many instances you have to go through Florence.

I don't know where you are looking, but www.kayak.com gives me about $740 round trip from SEA to FLR (via CDG with Delta/AirFrance or via AMS with Delta/KLM) on a sample random 10 day in the second half of Sept 2017.
Condor (via FRA) offers the same trip for a bit over $800.

An open jaw multi-city (arrive Venice, depart from Florence) wouldn't be much more.

I have to agree with Roberto that Venice is a better start than CT the way he described but still think if CT is important to you 3 nights should be allocated for it given the time it takes to reach it

Going to Sorrento instead of Venice does not sound like a good idea
If you want to do that then skip CT as well and make the entire trip Florence/Tuscany with Sorrento/Amalfi Coast
I think ct and ac while both amazing should be on separate trips combing them on 1 never makes sense to me

I will look again at airfares. Thanks.

I checked flights.google.com and founds lots of May dates with fares under $1100 round-trip.

The fares above were for two people round trip. I am now seeing a few lower priced flights (even some open jaw options) through kayak. One of them leads me to Priceline for Air France. (Not sure how it's $300 less than Expedia or delta.com so it makes me nervous)! Other flight is KLM on Orbitz. Any advice about plane size/ comfort for KLM vs AF when both say operated by delta. Also one connects via CDG and the other AMS, either better or worse to connect through? So maybe the open jaw is an option after all. Thinking maybe into FLR for 4 days, then CT, then end in Venice and fly out of Venice. Will cost a bit more (assuming these Priceline fares are legit) but maybe worth not having to backtrack...

Keep in mind that flights out of Venezia can depart very early in the morning.

Unfortunately I am finding that true for Venice and Florence :(

I think AMS airport may be more manageable than CDG.

The KLM and AF flights operated by Delta are likely to be equally uncomfortable these days. Almost certainly so if they're same type of plane. [Edited]

Good morning,
We are leaving for Florence in 6 weeks from Seattle and will be flying into Florence via Chicago and Zurich on United and Swiss Airlines, (using United air miles). We leave Seattle at 10am PST and arrive in Florence at 2pm local time the next day.
With 3 nights in Florence accomplished, we will then take a train south to Chiusi, pick up the rental car and glide, hopefully, into San Casciano Dei Bagni. This will be our base camp for 7 nights staying in a Agriturismo.
After 7 days of wining and dining plus touring the region utilizing Rick's "Heart of Tuscany" self guided driving tour, we will then head back to Chiusi to catch a train to Venice. The train leaves at 1pm and we should arrive in Venice at 5pm.
4 days and 3 nights later, we will catch a 1pm British Airways #579 flight out of VCE to LHR with a 2 hour layover before catching BA flight #49 direct to Seattle arriving 5pm PST. For this leg of the trip we are using Alaska Airline miles.
Part of the fun has been planning this trip.......
Cheers and keep traveling!

Whether you take the AirFrance flight via CDG, or the KLM flight via AMS, (by the way AirFrance-KLM is the same company, just different brand and logo) the flight across the Atlantic is operated by Delta. It's a code-share flight, Delta and AirFrance-KLM are partners in the SkyTeam alliance.

The Delta flight SEA-CDG (DL34) is currently operated aboard an Airbus 330 and so is the flight SEA-AMS (DL142). One would need to check for the time you are flying as that might change.

AMS is certainly more manageable and easier to navigate than the huge CDG.

The flight from CDG to FLR is operated by AirFrance on an Airbus A318
The flight from AMS to FLR is operated by KLM-CityHopper aboard an Embraer 190.

Departing from FLR or VCE will both require an early morning departure, because you need to connect to your flight to SEA which departs later in the morning (from either CDG or AMS).

However, departing from VCE will require a much earlier wake up call.

The FLR airport is only 15 min from the historical city center (4 miles) by taxi.
The VCE airport is in the mainland, while the historical center is in the middle of the water, in the Venetian lagoon, therefore you need about one hour from your hotel to the airport (in whole or part by boat).

Wow that helps a lot. I was trying to decide which place would be better to start and end if we do end up doing an open jaw flight and had been leaning toward ending in Venice, but this gives me more to consider. Both return options aren't ideal being so early it seems a waste to even pay for a night of hotel to leave at 3 AM. I I hadn't even gotten around to considering travel to airport time yet. I now am maybe leaning toward Florence again. The latest departure from Venice that isn't a few hundred more per ticket is 11:15, but it also is a east coast connection instead of a Europe connection over the pole, so adds about 4 hrs plane time. Otherwise both airports are early departures around 6am or so. Is 3 hrs before flights really necessary everywhere, or just Rome? You all are so helpful.

"Is 3 hrs before flights really necessary everywhere, or just Rome? "

For flights nonstop back to the US. three hours is recommended. Can you do it in less time? Sure. But you run a risk of missing the plane if there's any delay in security.

For flights to another European airport, that are then connecting to a flight nonstop to the US, 1.5 to 2 hours is usually sufficient. But do check the recommendations and rules of your airline. It also depends on which airport. Florence airport is small with relatively few flights; Roberto has emphasized that security and check in do not take that much time there. Rome's FCO airport is very large with lots of flights; I certainly wouldn't cut it close there, even for a domestic flight within Italy.

Florence airport is very close to the center; a taxi is very fast, so an early morning departure isn't too bad. Similarly, in the early morning, Rome FCO is about 35 minutes by taxi from the center of Rome. Venice airport is the hard one; it's at least an hour from central parts of Venice, unless you spring for a very expensive (over €100) water taxi.

If the choice is to return from Venice or Florence, and your connection is in Europe (CDG or AMS), I would choose a FLR departure any day.

The FLR airport is ridiculously small for a city that size and importance. It has only 7 departing flights between 6:15 and 8:30. The new check-in hall has 40 positions all equipped with self service check in kiosks (way oversize for the number of flights but they hope to get more flights once they approve construction of the new longer runway, a project undergoing the approval process, but opposed by environmentalists and NIMBYs).

I fly out of FLR every year and the wait in the check in line can be measured in seconds, not even minutes. Since there are so few flights, all on regional jets as the runway is short, the line at the security never has more than 5 to 10 people. I never spent more than 15 minutes from taxi drop off to gate (and that includes a bathroom pit stop). The airport opens at 5am, therefore no sense going there 3 hours earlier with a 6:30am flight. One hour prior to departure is ample time.