We are a family of four, two adults and two children 3 and 8. We are flyinf into Franfurt then taking a ryan air to venice for 4 day and on to Florence for 10 ten days. My question is about our return to Franfurt from Florence. We want to take a train and are thinking about getting rail rail passes to travel for the remaining 14 days of our trip around southern germany and Northern italy. What would be the best pass to buy? My 3 year old wants to spend his 4th birthday in a sleeper car so we thought an overnight trip from Florence to Munich might work? Any suggestions on rail pass purchase and must sees with kids?
Michele
Posted by
Elk Grove, CA, USA
6898 posts
First, you will not be flying from Frankfurt to Venice on Ryan Air. You will be flying from cities nearby. For Frankfurt, you will be flying from Hahn. For Venice, you will be flying into Treviso which is a 40 minute ride by train for bus from Venice. Read the instructions carefully so that you can take the correct bus to and from these airports.
Next, you really don't need a railpass for the Italy portion of your trip. In Italy, you pay extra with a pass when you ride a Eurostar-category or night train. For the Eurostar it's an extra 18Euro each time you ride one. P2P is less expensive. Also, children 3 and under ride free so why buy a pass for the 3-yr old.
Next, if you buy multi-country Eurail passes, the countries must share a common border. Germany and Italy do not share a common border. You have Switzerland in the middle. You'll have to pay extra to cross Switzerland.
You idea of a sleeper trip from Florence to Munich is just fine. It's a popular train so you will have to book as soon as the run becomes available for purchase. You won't be able to buy this run on Trenitalia but you should be able to purchase on the German webssite www.bahn.de. As a last resort, you can pay more to purchase on Raileurope. Just don't select the "I have a pass" box and you'll get the P2P fares.
Posted by
Boston
4132 posts
I'd suggest not returning to Frankfurt at all-there are much closer airports in Italy from which you can fly home. (See Frankfurt when you arrive, if that's one of your stops.).
This will save you time and probably money, not to mention the trouble of making these transportation connections with your family and gear.
Otherwise, looks like you have two night-train options to Frankfurt, one via Munich an one via Berne.
Posted by
Lakewood, Colorado
19091 posts
As for travel in Germany, look carefully at point2point tickets. Railpasses for children over 3 are half the adult price, but in Germany, children under 15 travel free with their parents if the parents have full fare tickets and declare the children at the time of purchasing the ticket. You will also find that there are many group (up to 5) tickets for regional rail travel in the individual states, as well as substantually reduced promotional tickets (eg, Dauer-Spezial).
Learn to use the German Rail website to find fares.
Posted by
Lakewood, Colorado
19091 posts
And, BTW, Hahn airport is 1¾ hour by bus from Frankfurt. There are no trains all the way to Hahn. You can also take the train from Frankfurt to Koblenz or Bullay and a bus from there. See here for bus schedules.
Ryan is a "Low Fare" airline, and as such, they consider themselves a "Point to point" carrier. They do not coordinate with other airlines. Making the connecting flight is YOUR responsibility. If your flight into FRA is late and you miss the Ryan flight, you will lose your original tickets and they will make no accomodations for a later flight.