Justcol

Been looking around for flights to uk for me holiday in May, just thought I'd let everyone that KLM are coming up by far the cheapest.
I'm doing a euro holiday while I'm there so the flights are not straight forward returns but even taking that into account they are very good prices.

Going out
Flying Auckland to Amsterdam
3 days in Amsterdam then connection to Manchester
I will be doing a road trip from the UK to Rome
Return flights
Rome to Kuala Lumpur
3 days in KL
Flying KL to Auckland

All flights with KLM total $2174 Best price from anywhere else $2698.

KLM dont always come up on a lot of searches so it pays to look on their website

Persephone

Never thought of travelling with them from here, that's a very good price. I've only flown once with them and they were great though that was 5 years ago now. I remember that the entire cabin crew was male, good looking and definitely not effeminate-very strange but I wasn't complaining!

I'm jealous, I want to go back to Italy and Rome-what route are you taking?. One piece of advice is get a Satnav or a very good map. We didn't and thought we could get by with a Europe road atlas and by following the road signs Yeah I know, we were stupid!. France was ok but Italy was a disaster, we even got lost on a motorway because the signage is such a work of fiction. Even Mr S admits that my mapreading is pretty good so that was nothing at all to do with me!!

Justcol

the plan at this stage, which will change as the time gets nearer is Calais - Normandy then across to Tuscany and Rome.
I'm not bothered about the stretch from Normandy to Tuscany, I just need to cover the distance as quickly as possible.
Any idea how long I should set aside to cover it comfortably but quickly without killing myself ??

BEVS

Thanks so much for sharing that Col.
Will be looking to send the husband back to see the smother-outlaw some time during the next 12 months and will def. look at KLM.

sr71

I regularly used to take two week road trips across Europe, something I miss dearly, but there are some really good routes between the UK and Italy.

It's a pity you are not bothered by the stretch between Normandy and Tuscany, IMO it has some of the best Europe has to offer. Either going across through Reims, then Germany through Bavaria, down through Austria into Italy via the Brenner Pass, or the more Southern route via Provence and the Mediterranean coast. If you have never visited either it is worth taking a few days just driving down to Italy. Otherwise you may as well just fly from Paris to Florence. Otherwise it's really just 2 days of motorway driving.

Justcol

Not sure 2 days would do it, i dont want to spend all day driving

nero

[QUOTEKLM dont always come up on a lot of searches so it pays to look on their website[/QUOTE]

Last time we went home 3 years ago we went with KLM and they were brilliant and they were the cheapest. It was a combined Air NZ and KLM flight via Tokyo to Amsterdam to London and then back via KL. The only thing was that it was a bit annoying was to get off the plane in Amsterdam for three hours only to get back on for the 45 minutes trip to London. But otherwise excellent

Justcol

I'm extending the stop over in Amsterdam to 3 days, it'd be silly not to take advantage of all the place
has to offer while I'm there

ellenl

Sounds good.

Anyone looking at one way flights to Christchurch from Manchester - Singapore airlines are about £200 cheaper than all the others (for October anyway)

babybella

We used to do that trip every year. We stopped at Susten in Switzerland, we used a eurocamp site, they have static caravans that you can overnight at. Nice site with lovely pool, close to the matterhorn so it is worth a couple of nights if you can spare it. About 10 hour drive from Calais, then another 10 to Tuscany and the route through the alps is fab.
Kaz

Persephone

Not sure, we flew to Rome and did a big [too big] loop from there. Having just driven over there I feel we tried to do too much and travel too far. Even driving on the motorways seemed to take longer than expected and we did regret setting out on such a large loop as he was driving too much and I spent all my time trying to mapread with a map that was totally useless for the job [we did buy a decent map mid trip but why oh why didn't we buy a satnav!].
Are you hiring a car? If Tuscany is the area you're interested in, what about making your way to Rome or one of the other big cities and hiring from there? We got an Easyjet flight for £40 each [total cost], Gatwick to Rome. Would work out cheaper than driving all that way and give you more time in the places you want to go to. Otherwise it is 2-3 days [or more] driving just to get somewhere which could be a frustrating start to the trip. On average we did 56km/h over the whole trip and we'll be using that as a benchmark in future!

Justcol

got to go to Normandy from the uk then the plan is to go to tuscany for few days then on to rome

Persephone

That explains it! Maybe just accept that you'll have 2-3 days of driving and nothing else and prepare mentally for that. We didn't and when everything took longer than expected it really started to affect the holiday. If you get it over and done with in one big push, at least you know you'll only be driving long distances those days and then it'll be only short days once in Tuscany.
I hadn't been to Tuscany before my last trip and wish we'd spent more time in the area. And Rome is still one of my favourite cities
Can I come with you?

Justcol

If you can fit yourself into my cabin bag your more than welcome

Persephone

Excellent, I'm only little I'll start packing