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Airport Logistics

Posted by on

Hi all! The vast amount of threads & assistance on this site have been so invaluable in the planning of my itinerary thus far, so please forgive me if I have overlooked a post where the following topic has already been divulged.

I am traveling to Italy/Switzerland for about 10 days this September (2024) and have never flown internationally before.
My itinerary is as follows: Florence/Tuscany --> Stresa/Lake Maggiore --> Bernese Oberland

My home airport has a nonstop 9hr flight to Milan, & 1-stop Florence & Zurich flights averaging at ~12-13hrs.
My question is, should I fly overnight into Florence and begin my journey northward via train, then depart home from Zurich airports-- OR
use Milan airport & Stresa as a base and take trains to Florence (~2hr from Milan) & Bernese Oberland (~4hr from Milan)?
(EDIT TO ADD: in the interest of time, if I use Milan as a roundtrip base I could take a trip to Oltrepo Pavese in lieu of Tuscany and bypass Florence this time to cut down on ride time)

Is the nonstop flight worth the backtracking? Its a 9hr flight from Milan vs 12-13 hr flights from the other respective airports.
I'm also having trouble (never having flown internationally) estimating the sleep disturbance on an overnight flight when I have to deplane at a connecting airport.

Posted by
11169 posts

Sleep disturbance. We fly from US west. Mid to late afternoon of our arrival day we are totally exhausted but always have pushed through , have dinner and go to bed.

Posted by
4 posts

Thanks Suki. I have read that it will be a push-through on the first day to adjust times no matter what! Do you fly nonstop or find 1-stop flights to be detrimental to sleep on an overnight flight?

Posted by
20158 posts

What is your home airport?

"Sleep disturbance" is a non-issue.
Plan A: fly nonstop to Malpensa, land at 10 am, train to Florence taking 3 1/2 hours, 1 hour after you land. arrive Florence at 2:30 pm
Plan B: fly nonstop to Zurich, land at 10 am, 2 hour transfer time to plane to Florence, 1 hour in the air, 1 1/2 hour to deplane and get to Florence, arriving at 2:30 pm

Note that the flying time to Europe for both plan A and plan B is exactly the same. So where is the sleep disturbance?

Posted by
4 posts

Sam, my home airport of ATL has a nonstop flight to Milan that I was planning on taking overnight. By sleep disturbance I mean: would I sleep better on a nonstop overnight flight than a 1-stop flight on which I am having to 'wake up' and deplane before my destination, likely while I'm still in the United States. Hope that helps! It still may very well be a vain concern.

Posted by
20158 posts

You will have to change planes in Europe as Florence airport has short runways and cannot handle intercontinental airplanes. Thus in my example, you will likely land in Europe in exactly the amount of time in the air. No sleep disturbance. You might have options to change in North America going to/from Zurich.

Posted by
58 posts

I am with Sam on this. Take the 1 stop to Florence via overnight to a European city. No worries with schlepping your bags to the train for a 3+ hour ride. Florence airport is small and you can get the tram from the airport into town.

Return from Zurich on a 1 stop flight to Atlanta. No issues on sleep disturbance since most flights leave in the morning and arrive in the USA about dinner time. The nonstop is not worth backtracking.

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