Paris To Rome

You'll get answers for both ways....some people here love night trains. I'd prefer a flight and a comfy hotel. Normally, I like to watch the scenery from trains, but if it's at night, I might as well fly.

I have flown. At the time I priced a night train last year, it was MUCH more espensive then the hotel room I had booked in Rome( Hotel Selene 80 euros) , and my dd and I did not want to be in a shared couchette, which is all I could have afforded.

Fly.

Hi Nancy,

I am a train enthusiast... but even here I would look for a flight. It is a very long trip (14:36), and I prefer night trains to be about 8-9 hours in length. I think a night train is best when you go to sleep, wake up and get off. Fifteen hours stuck in a train will seem very long, unless you get something like a private sleeper cabin, but this will probably cost you much more than the taxis, flights, and extra day of hotel involved.

If you change to a EuroStar Italia train in Florence, the trip takes 14hr37min. If you stay on the night train all the way to Rome, the trip takes 15hr21min.

If you book far enough in advance (up to three months) at www.tgv-europe.com, you can get a discount fare as low as €62 for a bunk in a 4-person couchette or €140 for a bed in a 2-person sleeper. (The cheapest discount fares sell out fast.) The standard fares are much higher. To keep the site in English and to keep from being bumped to the Rail Europe site which doesn't offer discount fares, choose Great Britain as both your country of residence and the country in which you will retrieve your tickets. You can pick up your tickets at any SNCF station or boutique (ticket shop) in France, even though you originally chose Great Britain.

If you fly on a budget airline, choose either CDG-Fiumicino on Vueling or Orly-Ciampino on easyJet. Ryanair flies Beauvais-Ciampino, but Beauvais is a long way from Paris.

Our family of 4 took the night train from Paris to Rome last July (we had 2, 2 bed private rooms). Our train left the Paris station 4 hours later than scheduled so to catch our connecting train in Rome to Naples we had to exchange tickets and arrive in Sorrento at a later time. I slept well on the train, my husband did not. The rooms were clean and we felt safe. If I had to do it over again, I would fly to Rome and skip the night train.

Thank you to all of you for your replies. I will plan to book a flight on easyjet.

Nancy, make sure you know which airport the budget airline is using. Some use out of the way airports that could be long way from where you think you are going. Just double check.

Hi Nancy,
Our family of 4 took the train primarily because we had a purchased Eurail passes and financially this made sense. My husband and I booked a 1st class sleeper which was very comfortable. While our 2 teenage children were in a 2nd class sleeper (it was tiny and cramped). We were in Europe in July so the days were long and we were able to see incredible sights from the train as there was daylight until 11pm. The sunflowers in the fields were spectacular. Our train arrived in Rome at 7am and we were reasonably refreshed.
Other family members joined us in Rome and they flew. They left from Orly and flew into FCO. Their flight was late by 2 hours. Once landing in Rome, their communte to the main train station was over an hour.
Either way can have its positives and negatives. It was a memorable experience for us.

Feel free to PM me for more info.

I'd check for a cheap flight - I flew Rome to Oslo quite cheaply, from the airport outside Roma.

we night trained from munich to rome in first class,private-sleepers..it was awesome! but we flew from fiumimcino to paris for about 80 euro total and it took about 2.5 hours...just depends on your agenda..we wanted to get back to paris without the 14-15 hour train ride.