Rick Steve's My Way: Alpine Europe - air fare

When? Is the CT the Cinque Terre or the big state of Connecticut? Is a flight from JFK acceptable?

If CT is the eastern American state, it would seem that you could fly to Salzburg via FRA to start the tour then fly back via Geneva to return. You should be able to get a train to Geneva from the Chamonix region.

Thank you,
Yes, CT is Connecticut. I am actually in Denver, CO but have family in Connecticut (and a Delta air voucher) so flying from there I thought would be less expensive. I'll check your suggestions! Thank you!

If you want a cheap ticket, fly from JFK to Milan. I am seeing daily round trip tickets for $543 to $573 on Delta. At Milan, you can get a train to Salzburg in 8 to 10 hours. On the return, you can get a bus from Chamonix to Milan. Go a day or two early to get over jet lag. The $1200 of savings will go a long way to pay for the train tickets and extra night's lodging. Might even have a bit of walking around money left over.

amatula,

With the starting and ending points of the tour, the easiest solution would probably be to use open-jaw flights, inbound to Munich and outbound from Geneva. You could also use Zürich, although you'd have to get there from Geneva by train, which is about a three hour trip direct to the airport.

You could also consider an inbound flight direct to Salzburg, although that would likely involve a short layover and change of planes in Frankfurt. I'm not familiar with flights from your area, but I'm sure one of the others will be able to provide more specific information. You might want to use a Travel Agent just for the flights, as I'm sure they'll be able to find the best price.

If you decide on using Munich, it's very easy to get from there to Salzburg. The Germany experts on the forum can provide all the options, but the route I'd use is to take the S1 or S8 (S-Bahn train) from the airport to Munich Hbf (main station) and then a direct train to Salzburg.

At the conclusion of the tour, I'd suggest using one of the Shuttle Vans from Chamonix to Geneva Airport (I can provide a suggestion if you're interested). That's by far the easiest and quickest option.

You could take Norwegian Air Shuttle's new Boeing Dreamliner to and from London Gatwick from Boston Logan or JFK. EasyJet will take you Gatwick-Munich and Geneva-Gatwick very inexpensively.

We've been very glad to save 50% over legacy airlines by flying Norwegian.

Yes, Icelandair has one-way Boston or JFK to Munich for under $500, and Geneva to Boston or JFK for just over $500.

Thank you!
You're awesome!
I would never have thought of some of that on my own; I will check into that! :)

Annie

Check out using your Delta voucher Leave from Canada. Excellent rt fares to Europe right now and you get the advantage of a great exchange rate .

Annie, are you considering spending any time in Europe before or after the tour? It's always a good idea to arrive 2-3 days in advance to get over jetlag. If so, also look at flights into Vienna - a worthy destination for a 2-4 night stay and about 2.5 hours by train, so not much farther away from Salzburg than Munich.

Lufthansa flies direct from Denver to Frankfurt, that was the cheapest option for my flight to Budapest. This site has a really nice graphical interface showing flight costs and times. I've been using it to figure out the best way to fly for several years now: http://www.hipmunk.com. You want to use the "Multi-City" option to book flights to/from different cities.

I don't know the dates of your travel but picking random dates in April I found a flight on Lufthansa outbound (DEN-> Frankfurt -> Salzburg) and United returning (Geneva -> Washington Dulles -> DEN) (*Geneva was the closest airport to Chamonix with international flights that I found, apparently about 1.5 hours away). The cost for that flight was $1167, but the prices depend on your travel date.

It looks like the Hartford, CT airport doesn't have as good of connections as Denver so it is more expensive and longer to fly from there (the cheap flights all go to Washington Dulles airport and then on to Europe so you'd just be adding an extra flight). Maybe you can find something by playing with the dates and airports on hipmunk that works better flying from the east coast.

Thank you, again!
I never would have guessed Denver would be cheaper than New England... go figure!
I found good fair - it's on Turkish Air though so I will check them out!

I really appreciate all the suggestions! :)

Annie

Turkish Air is fine - there are lots of posts about it on this Forum. The only potential problem is the total duration of the flight, since you always have to go to Istanbul then "double back." If you don't mind that, Turkish Air is great. The food is definitely better than on US airlines, and overall it's a pleasant experience instead of an endurance test.

I also had good experiences on Turkish Air - except for baggage delayed on a short connection in Istanbul (but that happened to me on British Air with a 2-hour Heathrow connection too). Their carry-on policy often limits the weight to 8 kg so take that into account if you are not planning to check a bag. If you do check luggage, take what you need for the first 24-48 hours on the ground in your carry-on. You might even consider spending a couple of days in fascinating Istanbul pre- or post-tour.