I am going to be flying in to Brussels then going on to Liege. From there, we would like to go to Venice,Florence & Rome. It looks like a rail pass is the best way to travel in Italy but any suggestions on travel from Belgium to Venice? We have looked at Ryan Air, but that would require going back to Brussels. Am wondering if there is a train from Liege to Venice? Any other suggestions? Thanks.
Posted by
Minneapolis, MN, USA
8700 posts
A railpass usually is NOT cost effective for Italy alone. Point-to-point tickets are relatively inexpensive. Go to www.trenitalia.com/en/index.html and do dummy bookings within the next 60 days to get timetables and fares for Venezia Santa Lucia-Firenze and Firenze-Roma. Then compare them to the cost of a railpass. Then add the 15€ reservation fee for passholders on the fast EuroStar Italia trains that you will likely be taking.
By train you could travel from Liege-Guillemins to Frankfurt, from Frankfurt to Milano (night train), and from Milano to Venezia Santa Lucia. SparNight (discount) fares are available on the night train, but to get them you'll have to book that leg separately at www.bahn.de. Use that site for timetables. After you get summary timetables for the whole route, click on "Details for all" to see the connecting points.
Posted by
OP
Keystone
4 posts
Thanks for info Tim!
Posted by
Northampton, UK
4 posts
It is only 50 miles from Liege to Charleroi airport (Ryanair base), i look to see if there is a bus to get you to you to the airport or even a taxi.
Posted by
Elk Grove, CA, USA
6898 posts
Note that if you take RyanAir, they don't fly to Venice-Marco Polo. They fly to Treviso which is about a 40 minute train ride away.
BTW, if you take the train, the quickest run I saw on www.bahn.de was 14.5hrs with 6 train changes. All other runs were 18.0hrs-19.0hrs. I would suggest flying to Treviso on RyanAir and taking the short train ride into Venezia Santa Lucia.
Posted by
OP
Keystone
4 posts
Thanks to everyone for your suggestions. Looks like Ryan air is the way to go. One question though. I don't see how to book one way - only RT on their website. We need to fly in to Venice (or as close as we can get) and out of Rome on the return. Am I missing something?
Posted by
Ottawa, Canada
4555 posts
Just above where you enter your departure and arrival cities are two "radio" buttons...one labelled "return," the other labelled "one way." Click on the one-way button and the "return date" box turns to dashes.
Posted by
OP
Keystone
4 posts
Thanks Norm. Don't know how I missed that!
Posted by
White Bear Lake, MN, USA
479 posts
Sandra, if I were you I would contact the Rick Steves people who help with the Eurail. They could look for you to see if they can get you a night train. There may (and I mean MAY) be one train car that you could get on that would take you overnight from Brussels to Venice. That way you could just get one the train once.