Help needed for London to Italy journey

What kind of advice are you looking for?

If you'd like a route proposition, then please mention your travel dates.

Also see:

https://www.seat61.com/Italy.htm

Thanks for your reply, rvdborgt.

I was considering going this September and am flexible with dates - I would prefer to travel on weekdays as they are less crowded.  If it’s too late to go this year, I’m considering next spring or autumn.

I’m looking for advice on:

• Which routes are the least tiring or daunting?
• How to make the trip as inexpensive as possible, given that I’ll need overnight accommodation?
• Should I travel this year with my interrail pass + seat reservation fees, or wait until next year and book individual tickets?
  
  Many thanks!

You’re going to struggle to find a route that meets all your objectives (fast, cheap, easy, not overnight). So it’s probably best to pick which of these is most important.

You’ll need to take the Eurostar to Paris or Lille, and at the other end you’ll be going via Milan. So the choice is which route you take between France and Milan.

The cheapest (reasonable) route will cost

• Eurostar London to Paris €35
• Frecciarossa Paris to Milan €13
• From Milan to Bologna, you can take regional train with no reservation fees, or faster Frecciarossa for €13.

You won’t be able to do that in a single day, so you can overnight in Paris or Milan.

You can, however, get all the way to Bologna in a single day if you’re willing to pay for the more expensive reservations. You just need to decide which is worth more to you. It sounds like it might be better to take the slightly slower, cheaper journey and pay for a hotel in Paris or Milan.

Hi Ralderton,

Thanks so much for your helpful reply.

The prices you quoted seem very reasonable.  I was thinking it was going to cost at least £200-300.  I bought a 4-day Interrail pass in the Black Friday sale last November and it’s valid for a year - but I would need to pay seat reservation fees on top.  I can get a refund if I don’t use it by November.

If I book individual tickets rather than using my Interrail pass, will I be in trouble if any of the trains are cancelled or delayed, or if I miss my connection?  

For a stopover, I was deciding between Paris and Chambéry (in the French Alps).  Chambéry is geographically more halfway, but would involve buying four high-speed train tickets rather than three each way.  If I chose Paris the journey might be simpler but might involve arriving in Bologna quite late in the evening with less time to settle in.  However, I noticed that on Saturdays and Sundays there’s a TGV that arrives in Milano Garibaldi at 4.53pm (although I’d need to get from there to Milano Centrale for the connection to Bologna).

Do you have any thoughts on which of those stopovers is better?

Many thanks!

 

To be clear, those prices I quote above are the reservation fees, not full tickets!

Although you can often find a Eurostar ticket for around €39 if you look around, wait for a sale, travel at an unpopular time etc.

-

As above, I think you’ve already answered it yourself. It’s always a trade off between the perfect itinerary, the cheapest cost, arriving earlier or later than you’d like, and of course the hotel rates you find. 

They’re all good options. I think you just have to trust your gut.