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London to Montpellier: help me decide

Posted by (English but living in Melbourne, Australia) on

In June next year I return from a group tour to Ravenna, Bologna airport to Heathrow arriving about 2 pm. I then want to get to Montpellier. I couldn't find any direct flights from Bologna to Montpellier, or any via CDG or LHR in the right time frame. By train would take ages and be too complicated. And my fare back to LHR is paid anyway as part of the tour cost.

So I'm weighing up:
1. Fly that same afternoon LHR to Lyon, and then train to Montpellier.
Pro: gets me earlier to Montpellier.
Con: rather tight connection at Lyon, as I have to get from the flight arrival to train station within an hour to arrive at Montpellier at 9.30 pm, or next train a little after 10 pm. Rather late to arrive in a (to-me) unknown city. Train is TGV so would have to be pre-booked.

Or 2. Take it easy on arrival at LHR, overnight hotel near St Pancras station, then early Eurostar direct to Lyon, easy change there to TGV Lyon to Montpellier, arrive 3.30.
Pro: should be a less stressful journey; whole journey pre-booked.
Con: v. early start for direct TGV (later one would involve crossing Paris), would rather have extra time in Montpellier than in London. (Hotel cost probably similar.)

Which would you choose?

Posted by
28080 posts

Could you just throw away that Bologna-London flight and go straight to Montpellier or a French city with a good connection to Montpellier?

HOP! has a non-stop from Bologna at 1 PM that arrives in Lyon at 2:40. (I don't know whether it runs every day.) Montpellier's less than 2 hours by train from Lyon. There's also a 6 PM departure arriving at 7:15 PM.

There are of course also non-stops from Bologna to Paris, on several different airlines.

Posted by
432 posts

That's brilliant, acraven. Many thanks. My flight search site failed to find that flight - perhaps it ignores low-cost airlines. Fortunately the 1 pm flight is available on the day I want and meshes well with the time the group is scheduled to arrive for their LHR flight half-an-hour earlier. I've gone straight ahead and booked a senior flexible and refundable flight (at higher cost but to guard against any unforeseen hitches). HOP had some very negative reviews in the past on airlinequality.com, but the most recent ones are much more favourable. I'm truly grateful for your help. Now to re-organize my hotel bookings.

Posted by
28080 posts

It has been ages since I took a separate intra-European flight, but I've learned from others here that skyscanner.com is a good source of information on the budget airlines.

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