To Lourdes from Normandie

Hello,

We are group of 8 people traveling from Normandie to Lourdes. Can you recommend the best way to travel to Lourdes. Our plan is to stay 3 night from May 12th to May 15th. Is this a busy time of year? Can you recommend places to stay and will we need a car to travel around? Also, what would be the best way to travel to Italy from Lourdes? Should we take the train?

Thanks in advance for your time. Much appreciated!

U2

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%26quot;Normandie%26quot; is a very large region, Italy an entire country. A few specifics would help...

Assuming you would be travelling from Caen to Lourdes, it would take you about 9-10 hours to get to Lourdes with a change of trains and stations in Paris. There is a night train from Paris to Lourdes and that might be your best option. Train timetables and fares at www.voyages-sncf.com. Read this %26quot;how to%26quot; by MorganB *before* you try to book travel on the SNCF site. Also note that you cannot book more than six seats online at one time. You will either have to book 2 x 4, or, and this is the better option, use the phone number in MorganB%26#39;s post to call the SNCF English speaking reservations agents during business hours in France.

Only Air France flies from Paris to Lourdes and one way fares are likely to be prohibitively expensive. You could fly from Paris to Toulouse, about 2 hours from Lourdes by train with EasyJet. No other budget airline will get you conveniently from anywhere in France to anywhere closer to Lourdes. You *could* consider flying from Dinan to Stansted then Stansted to Pau with Ryanair but that is getting a bit baroque, don%26#39;t you think? Pau is only 30 minutes from Lourdes by train. (Watch out for Ryanair%26#39;s baggage limits if you think about trying this route.)

Travelling by train from Lourdes to anywhere in Ialy would be enormously time consuming. Rome would take you most of 24 hours with many changes, Milan probably at least 15. Your best option would be to return to Paris either by train or plane and pick up a low cost flight to wherever you are trying to get to in Italy from there. if you did this then flying RT from paris to Lourdes with Air France might be an affordable option.

of course there is always driving but you would need two cars. I do not think any of the rental companies woul have a van big enough for eight people with their luggage.

Good luck!

www.voyages-sncf.com

www.bahn.de (much the easiest place to scope out internaional train routings)

www.trenitalia.it

www.airfrance.fr

www.easyjet.com

www.ryanair.com

www.whichbudget.com

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Thanks so much for your help. I think we will skip Lourdes. I would like to fly from Paris to Venice and then to Rome. Are there flights that take you directly from Paris to Venice?

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