Where should we be flying to get as close as possible? (Greek islands cruise)

[octaviocloss]

Hey guys, while we are only a few days left for our new years eve cruise on harmony, we are slowly booking our planes for the Greek Islands tour next year. 

Explorer set sails from Ravenna, where is the closest airport? We should be flying from Madrid straight into it, but im clueless about where to! 

Hoping some people that did this itinerary this year could help us. Thank you so much fellow cruisers ♥

[RoyalGreek]

The closest airport to Ravenna is in Bologna. It is a one hour train ride to the center of Ravenna. 

[octaviocloss]

29 minutes ago, RoyalGreek said:

The closest airport to Ravenna is in Bologna. It is a one hour train ride to the center of Ravenna. 

after disembark, is there any way to get to rome, by train? 

[KristiZ]

22 minutes ago, octaviocloss said:

after disembark, is there any way to get to rome, by train? 

yes, there is a nice train option. I use the site Rome2Rio.com to look for travel options whenever I'm somewhere new.

[octaviocloss]

44 minutes ago, KristiZ said:

yes, there is a nice train option. I use the site Rome2Rio.com to look for travel options whenever I'm somewhere new.

mind sharing which train station i should be looking for (departure)? I can't find any using Ravenna as my starting point. Thank you!

[KristiZ]

24 minutes ago, octaviocloss said:

mind sharing which train station i should be looking for (departure)? I can't find any using Ravenna as my starting point. Thank you!

I believe Ravenna Station is actually the name. Ravenna to Rome (rome2rio.com) Try this.

 

[RoyalGreek]

The closest airport to Ravenna is in Bologna. It is a one hour train ride to the center of Ravenna. 
 

down load the Trenitalia app. You can get all your train tickets In Italy on it. It’s the national rail system site. 
Fyi. The main station in Rome is called Roma Termini. 

[teddy]

I researched Bologna to Ravenna in depth for our October 2023 cruise.....although that just changed last night and we are now flying into Venice....so my research starts over.

Anyway...

To get from Bologna Airport to Bologna Central Train Station, there is a monorail at the airport that goes directly there.  It's around 7 minutes from the airport to the train station, then approximately an hour on the train to Ravenna. 

 

[Zacharius]

Do you already have your flights booked? If not, and assuming you are flying out of Buenos Aires, it may be worth looking at the nonstop flight from EZE to Rome. Both ITA and Aerolineas Argentinas fly that route. Sure, it's a longer train ride once you get in to Rome, but that would still offset the time of changing in Madrid and taking a train from Bologna. Just something to cosnider. 

[octaviocloss]

4 hours ago, Zacharius said:

Do you already have your flights booked? If not, and assuming you are flying out of Buenos Aires, it may be worth looking at the nonstop flight from EZE to Rome. Both ITA and Aerolineas Argentinas fly that route. Sure, it's a longer train ride once you get in to Rome, but that would still offset the time of changing in Madrid and taking a train from Bologna. Just something to cosnider. 

im from Misiones living right in the border with brazil, we are taking our plane from IGU to GRU and then to Madrid. Flying from Brazil is faster, cheaper (way cheaper) and easier for us. Its Madrid because im flying with a group of people that wanted Madrid as our main city for the  21 days trip we having, we are heading to Rome for 3 days after the cruise and then flying from Rome to Barcelona. 

[Zacharius]

44 minutes ago, octaviocloss said:

im from Misiones living right in the border with brazil, we are taking our plane from IGU to GRU and then to Madrid. Flying from Brazil is faster, cheaper (way cheaper) and easier for us. Its Madrid because im flying with a group of people that wanted Madrid as our main city for the  21 days trip we having, we are heading to Rome for 3 days after the cruise and then flying from Rome to Barcelona. 

[Ray]

Forli airport is actually the Nearest to cruiseport however flights to this airport are not the best. 

Bologna is as has been mentioned next closest and has better opinion of flights 

[FionaMG]

There's also Rimini, which used to be very busy with European charter flights back in the days of package holidays. I worked on that coast for a summer season and used to get the train from Ravenna to Rimini every week when it was accounts day. I'm sure it's all very different now and the airport appears to have only limited low-cost traffic, so also unlikely to be much use for most cruisers.

[Zacharius]

41 minutes ago, FionaMG said:

There's also Rimini, which used to be very busy with European charter flights back in the days of package holidays. I worked on that coast for a summer season and used to get the train from Ravenna to Rimini every week when it was accounts day. I'm sure it's all very different now and the airport appears to have only limited low-cost traffic, so also unlikely to be much use for most cruisers.

 

Yeah, Rimini is a fairly obscure, little used airport outside of certain times of year these days. Nothing connects it to Madrid during any time of the year, unfortunately.

[FionaMG]

1 hour ago, Zacharius said:

 

Yeah, Rimini is a fairly obscure, little used airport outside of certain times of year these days. Nothing connects it to Madrid during any time of the year, unfortunately.

How things change. Back in the day, the tour operator I worked for had about a dozen flights from UK airports into Rimini every week over the summer season and that was just one of the many companies - British, German, Dutch, French and others - that used the airport at that time. 

[DouglasW]

Sailed out of Ravenna back in June and flew into Bologna (through Munich).  There is an express train from the airport to Bologna Centrale. You can buy tickets on the website (if you want the family pass and its sizable discount its the only way)

https://www.marconiexpress.it/en/

From Bologna Centrale you can take the train out to Ravenna on the Rimini line (pay attention its hard to hear the announcements for the stops).  You can also catch a train from Bologna Centrale out to Rome.

I don't know if Royal has finally gotten around to mentioning it but when I asked about transport on the phone back in May they said there was none.  It was only from Venice.  HOWEVER, on the boat they were offering transfers $40 from Ravenna Port to Bologna airport.  They also were running a free shuttle from the port to Ravenna station.  

Private transport is difficult to find in Ravenna, its a sleepy town not equipped for what Royal is doing to it by making it their Eastern Italy hub.  My guess is it will take them a few years to catch up.

 

 

[Zacharius]

15 hours ago, FionaMG said:

How things change. Back in the day, the tour operator I worked for had about a dozen flights from UK airports into Rimini every week over the summer season and that was just one of the many companies - British, German, Dutch, French and others - that used the airport at that time. 

It does still get somewhat busy during the summer with airlines from various parts of Europe. But, it's just that part of the year, and most of the flights don't offer connections outside of Europe, and none offer connections to South America (or even Madrid, for that matter).