How do I get further a field

[TheDoctor]

Oh, fantastic!!! Never been to the Dolomites but I'd like to.
I was being somewhat facetious about Ryanair, but let's face it, they're not always as cheap as they'd like you to hope. £111 return with the bike sound like a good deal though.
Venice is a bit of a hike on the train...

 

[rich p]

For a 5 day break it has to be the plane in this case but I like the idea of train travel for a longer holiday. The Dolomites are beautiful - you must go if you can!
I'm staying at a place recommended by someone on here, incidentally.

 

[BalkanExpress]

Obviously his comments were slightly tongue in cheek and don't bear analysis but to book a return flight to Venice from Gatwick for £111 including bike and baggage (which I have just done) is pretty good when you consider that the 8.30am flight means I shall be cycling in the Dolomites by mid afternoon.

Especially as Venice in Ryanair speak is actually Treviso, so you are closer to the hills

Watch out in Treviso, check in is upstairs and you are not allowed a baggage trolly in the lift

On the plus side some great sandwiches in the bar at the departure gate, much better than the stuff they will have on the plane.

 

[andym]

OK I guess it's probably too late to worry about getting a reputation for being the forum trainspotter.

If anyone is interested in the Amsterdam-Milano sleeper, it stops in Cologne. So quickest route might be to go from London to Cologne (or Köln even ) - on the Eurostar and Thalys. Rail Europe were adverting a lowest fare of 62€ (DeutscheBahn's cheapest advertised fare is 49€). Last train from London is something like 12:27. I've seen reports saying that the Thalys trains were to get 4 bike carriage spaces when they were refurbished in 2008; so they should have them now - but best to check if that's important.

There's a sleeper train from Munich to Venice going via Innsbruck, Bressanone, Bolzano, Trento, Vicenza, Padova etc but unfortunately the train from London arrives 40 minutes too late to catch it. But there is a DeutscheBahn sleeper from Amsterdam via Cologne to Innsbruck from where you should be able to get a connecting local train on into the Dolomites the next morning.

Probably not as cheap or as quick as Ryanair, but definitely not as impossible, or as impossibly expensive, as some people might think.

For more information on the DeutscheBahn sleepers and a route map go here:

http://www.bahn.de/i/view/GBR/en/prices/europe/overnight-travel.shtml

...and of course there's www.seat61.com

I've uploaded the pdf of the network map for their network of sleeper services.

 

[rich p]

Especially as Venice in Ryanair speak is actually Treviso, so you are closer to the hills

Watch out in Treviso, check in is upstairs and you are not allowed a baggage trolly in the lift

On the plus side some great sandwiches in the bar at the departure gate, much better than the stuff they will have on the plane.

Treviso would be better but it's Easyjet from LGW and it lands at Marco Polo so not quite so convenient!