The Rough Guide to Venice and the Veneto

British Airways US and Canada t1-800/
AIRWAYS, wwww.ba.com. Daily flights via London
from most major North American cities.
Delta US and Canada t1-800/221-1212, wwww.
delta.com. Daily flights from New York (some direct to
Venice), Chicago and Los Angeles, mostly via Paris.
Lufthansa US t1-800/645-3880 Canada t1-800/
563-5954, wwww.lufthansa.com. Daily fights via
Frankfurt from a large number of North American cities.
Northwest/KLM US t1-800/225-2525, wwww.
nwa .com, wwww.klm.com. Daily flights via Amsterdam
from more than twenty North American cities.
United Airlines US t1-800/UNITED-1, wwww.
united.com. Daily flights via Frankfurt from several
US cities.
Discount agents, consolidators and
travel clubs in North America
Air Brokers International t1-800/883-3273,
wwww.airbrokers.com. Consolidator.
Airtech t212/219-7000, wwww.airtech.com.
Standby seat broker; also deals in consolidator fares.
Educational Travel Center t1-800/747-5551,
wwww.edtrav.com. Student/youth discount agent
with good prices on flights to Rome and Milan.
STA Travel US t1-800/781-4040, Canada t1-
888/427-5639, wwww.statravel.com. Worldwide
specialists in independent travel; also student IDs,
travel insurance, car rental, rail passes and more.
Good discounts for students and under-26s.
Student Flights t1-800/255-8000 or 480/951-
1177, wwww.isecard.com/studentflights.
Student/youth fares, plus student IDs and European
rail and bus passes.
TFI Tours t1-800/745-8000 or 212/736-1140,
wwww.tfitours.com. Consolidator with global fares.
Travel Cuts US t1-800/592-CUTS, Canada t1-
888/246-9762, wwww.travelcuts.com. Popular,
long-established student-travel organization.
Packages and organized tours from
North America
While there’s no shortage of multi-city packages
with a couple of days in Venice as part
of a more extensive Italian itinerary, there’s
not much out there that offers Venice exclusively,
apart from basic city breaks from the
major airlines’ vacation subsidiaries. So your
best bet may be just to get a travel agent to
customize one for you.
Package tour operators
Abercrombie & Kent t1-800/554-7016,
wwww.abercrombiekent.com. Deluxe European
tours, several of which include Venice.
Cross-Culture t1-800/491-1148 or 413/256-
6303, wwww.crosscultureinc.com. Small-group
cultural tours.
Delta Vacations t1-800/654-6559, wwww.
deltavacations.com. City breaks.
Elderhostel t1-877/426-8056, wwww.
elderhostel.org. Not-for-profit specialists in
educational and activity programmes for senior
travellers (companions may be younger), with a
good “Venetian Grandeur: Padua and Venice” twoweek
package.
Italiatour US t1-800/ 845-3365, Canada t1-
888/515-5245, wwww.italiatour.com. Fly-drives,
escorted and individual packages all over Italy, from
Alitalia.
Getting to Venice from
Australia and New
Zealand
There are no direct flights from Australia
to Venice, but you can easily get there via
another European hub, most commonly
London (this route might involve a transfer
between Heathrow and Gatwick airports),
Paris, Frankfurt or Amsterdam. Many flights
refuel or stopover in Bangkok or Singapore
en route to Europe, and some airlines fly
direct from those cities to Italy. Round-trip
fares from the main cities in Australia cost
Aus$1500–1900 in low season (Oct & Nov),
and Aus$1700–2500 in high season (mid-May
to mid-Sept). You are likely to get most flexibility
by travelling with Alitalia, Thai, British
Airways or Qantas; rock-bottom possibilities
include Garuda or Sri Lankan Airlines, but you
might not find the savings substantial enough
to compensate for the lower grade of service.
Many Asian and European airlines have partner
deals, so you can fly a combination of, for
example, Singapore Airlines and Lufthansa
(stopping over in Singapore and Frankfurt).
Round-trip fares from New Zealand cost
from NZ$2000 low season to NZ$3500 high
season. The main question is where you
stop en route to Venice: Alitalia flies in conjunction
with other carriers from Auckland via
Sydney and Bangkok or Singapore to Rome
or Milan; British Airways to Rome from Auckland
via Singapore or Bangkok or LA; JAL to
Rome from Auckland with overnight stop in
Tokyo or Osaka; and Malaysia Airlines and
Thai Airways to Rome from Auckland via
Kuala Lumpur and Bangkok respectively.
BASICS
|
Getting there
23