My husband and I are planning to go to Florence for the month of June. We have our accomodations reserved, and I've been looking into flights from Orlando to Florence. Ouch! $1500+ is what I'm finding on Kayak and fly.com! The website "I Dream of Italy" is saying book now - prices to Italy are just going to climb from now on (for travel this summer)? What do you all think? Any suggestions to help us save some money will be greatly appreciated. Thanks.
Posted by
Huntsville, AL, USA
8125 posts
If at all possible, begin your trip a little earlylike in May. It's quite a bit cheaper up thru the first 3 days of June. Orlando flights are to London Gatwick on Virgin Atlantic and British Airways. Air Lingus flies Orlando-Dublin. In either place you could catch a budget air carrier deeper into Europe. If you go online to see if these flights could save you $. We flew Gatwick-Pisa on EasyJet.com (cheap) instead of flying into Florence in April on EasyJet. Then we flew out of Rome on U.S. Air thru Philadelphia. You may have to fly thru Miami to get home to Orlando.
Posted by
New York, NY, USA
11294 posts
Look at flying into Pisa, Bologna, or even Rome or Milan (in order of ease of getting from the airport to Florence). If there are savings on the airfare, you then have to factor in the time and money it will take to get to Florence, and see if it's worth it vs flying into FLR itself. Similarly, if you follow David's plan and use a budget carrier for part of your trip, remember that you will have to allow enough time for the connection (which may involve an overnight in London or Dublin). You'll be on separate tickets, so there's no recourse if you miss a flight, and you will have to buy a new, last minute ticket at high cost. I personally wouldn't take this risk without an overnight in between (particularly on the return leg, where a last minute ticket from Europe to the US would be thousands of dollars), but obviously others do. I agree with the answer on your other post; for summer travel from Florida to Florence, $1500, unfortunately, isn't out of line this year. I'd probably wait a bit, and check frequently, but you're not going to get some super cheap fare to Italy in peak season.