Just a recap: our trip is 34 days long. We live in Sydney, Australia, so all costs are in AUD.
$5361.16 Return economy airfares Sydney to London (Stansted) with Singapore Airlines for two adults and two children
Boy, did we get a terrific deal on this. We purchased the flights first in November 2024. I'd been keeping an eye on the prices since the middle of last year using SkyScanner and when these prices popped up on sale, I jumped on them.
Booked direct through Singapore Airlines. 25 kilos luggage allowance and because we had a child under 12, we were able to select our seats for free.
$368.39 Eurostar from London to Paris for two adults and two children
You'll need to wait for the booking window (horizon) to open on the Eurostar website, which is about six months ahead of the date you require. The sooner you book, the better. The prices rise the closer you get to the date. I booked in early January for the price listed. To get identical tickets for the same date and time, the price is currently showing as $786.
$201.42 Eurostar from Paris to Amsterdam for two adults and two children
Same as above. Book as soon as convenient to get the best price. We chose four seats with a table between us.
$688.80 OEBB Nightjet from Amsterdam to Munich for two adults and two children
A fair-dinkem night train experience! This was a bucket list for me. I liked the idea of going to sleep and waking up at your next destination. We already save $$$ by not having to pay for a hotel that night and we went all out and booked the deluxe sleeper cabins. Our booking includes two rooms, a private toilet and breakfast, as well as snacks and a bottle of Austrian sparkling wine. Both of the night trains booked are the new comfort-line model. You can choose the cheaper couchette or seat car alternatives. They even have 'mini' cabins which resemble a capsule hotel! Looking forward to reporting back on this.
$640.77 OEBB Nightjet from Munich to Rome for two adults and two children
Same as above. Overnight train in deluxe sleeper. Photos below are from the OEBB Nightjet website for reference
This is the only part of the trip that I haven't paid for, as the booking window is not available yet. Looking at closer dates, I'm anticipating it will be around the listed price.
$648 Round trip Transfer from Venice to Ravenna for two adults and two children
Upon anticipating a fair amount of dragging a teen and a pre-teen around Europe, we decided to do a Royal Caribbean cruise instead of Greek Island hopping. I think it'll be much better for the kids, as we can truly have days of down-time and enjoy what the ship has to offer.
Getting from Venice to Ravenna seemed a little complicated to be honest. Upon my research, I discovered Royal Caribbean offer a shuttle service for the three hour trip. It's not brilliantly advertised and there is very little available about it on the official website. You have to call the guest services number. I contacted the RC Facebook page about it and they gave me the Australian number to call.
I don't think the Australian call centre knew much about it, to be honest. I was on hold for about 45 minutes while the staff member tried to find out about it from the other staff. When they finally found the information and booked me in, I was told I would receive a confirmation letter with the details.
The confirmation letter had the pier transport added, but no details regarding time or location, so I had to ring again to get further details.
I'll be including the actual cruise cost in the next post with the accommodation details.
$1008.78 Ryanair Flight from Venice to London for two adults and two children
We disembark the cruise in the early morning. Our RC transfer will return us to Venice and then our flight back to London leaves at around 11:30 from Marco Polo airport. We've given ourselves plenty of time to get there, as well as contingency/additional time if our flight is cancelled.
$9091.32
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