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flights and rail

We will leave Boston MA for last week of April in Florence and first week May in Paris. What is the cheapest way to fly there, then back to Boston? One-way Boston to Florence and one-way Paris to Boston seems very costly. Weatherwise, we prefer starting in Florence, but we could reverse those weeks if that would somehow help to save money. Thanks for considering my question!

Posted by
32353 posts

Celine, Your best option for that type of Itinerary is to use open-jaw flights, which will be listed on the booking websites as "multiple destination". While these are often a bit more expensive than "return" flights, they eliminate the cost and time of returning to the starting city, so are often a more efficient travel method. I ALWAYS use open-jaw flights for every trip to Europe! You might check with a Travel Agent, as they may be able to find some good prices on flights. How were you planning to get from Florence to Paris? Good luck with your planning!

Posted by
23626 posts

Ken is correct. We have not flown RT to a single city in many years. And sometimes open jaw tickets are cheaper. Four years ago into Rome and home from Zurich was $200/pp cheaper than a RT to Rome. Also flying in and out of major airports can be cheaper. The leg to Florence could add to the ticket over Rome but you have the expense of getting to Florence from Rome.

Posted by
2 posts

Thank you both for your advice about the open jaws flights for multiple destinations. This will be our first trip abroad. We're just into our 60's.
To answer Ken's question, we were thinking of taking a train from Florence to Paris, assuming that this was the cheaper way to go. Is that what you would recommend?

Posted by
8700 posts

The cheapest way to get from Florence to Paris is to take a train to Pisa and an easyJet flight from there to Orly. It's a long train ride from Florence to Paris. IMO, the best train option is the direct night train. It isn't cheap, but it saves you the cost of a night in a hotel and gives you more daylight hours for sightseeing than does flying.