Ryan Air blues

In my last vacation in Europe, I happened to book a flight on Ryan Air. I was tempted by their low fares. Before I booked the tickets, I did some research on the internet where I read experiences of some people who had used the airline. From what I read, there is no inflight service, and severe restrictions on the baggage weight. Also, airports from where this airline operates are normally far away from the major airports. However, if you are fine with no inflight service and have light baggage and if you can manage to find your own transportation to these far flung airports, Ryan air is okay.

Having read this material, I decided to go ahead and buy the tickets thinking that Venice might have just one airport. The actual cost of a ticket from Venice to Brussels was Euro 2.99 and Euro 20 tax. That was a less than cab fare in most places!

I had not read the fine print very well, and did not realize that Treviso and Venice are two different airports. The Ryan air itenary mentioned Venice as the airport and had Treviso in parentheses. For a first time traveller this can be quite confusing. Treviso is actually 40 minutes drive from Venice airport.

We first ended up at Venice airport and then ended up paying dearly for the cab, after I realized my folly. Also, when we got to Treviso airport the flight had left. So we were stuck in the middle of nowhere...literally nowhere. There were no hotels nearby and no cabs either. So we had to wait in the airport for the whole night.

We found some fellow travellers. So the night away, chatting and sharing jokes. We met this Algerian girl, whose name I still remember, Thilleli, who is a medical student at Padova( Italy) and was on her way to Algiers via Rome. We also met a group of Irish backpackers. Having met so many people, in the end there was no reason to complain. Afterall, every cloud has a silver lining...

In summary, unless you know the place you are going well and have friends who can drop you to the far flung airports, avoid Ryan air. You actually end up paying quite a bit!