Day train from Venice to Paris

[glavine4746]

I was wanting some advice and input on a day train from Venice to Paris. We will be ending our cruise in Venice on June 16 and my wife and kids want to ride a train. I tried to talk them into flying but they insist on the train.

 

1) Best advice about booking the train tickets?

 

2) Best advice for transfer from port to train station?

 

Thank you for your help.

[rebeccalouiseagain]

The train ride from Venice to Paris takes 13 hours and costs about $240 per person. Book in advance (60 days at least in advance). With luggage my advice would be to take a taxi to Mestre (will be about 20 Euros). The closer train station is in Venice but you can either taxi there (there is a back entrance to the train station for land taxi's) or take the People Mover with your luggage to Piazzale Roma and cross the bridge to the train station.

[CathyCruises]

For that much money, you should consider renting a car and driving--it's beautiful!

[dogs4fun]

I was wanting some advice and input on a day train from Venice to Paris. We will be ending our cruise in Venice on June 16 and my wife and kids want to ride a train. I tried to talk them into flying but they insist on the train.

 

1) Best advice about booking the train tickets?

 

2) Best advice for transfer from port to train station?

 

Thank you for your help.

 

There is a direct night train (Thello) from Venice to Paris.

http://www.seat61.com/thello-train-from-paris-to-italy.htm

From your post, I assume that you are only interested in day trains.

Checking the TGV site, the least expensive option is adult 92.50€ (approx $121), 2nd class. The train leaves Venice S. Lucia at 11:50 am & arrives Paris, Gare De Lyon at 11:19 pm. Travel time is 11 hours, 29 mins with one connection (Milan Centrale from where you would need to transfer to Milan P Garibaldi).

The fastest train takes 10 hours, 59 mins. It leaves Venice S Lucia at 8:50 am & arrives Paris, Gare De Lyon at 7:49 pm. Cost for 2nd class ticket is adult 184.50€ (approx $241) with 2 connections (Milan Centrale & Geneva Cornavin).

You can check-out the prices/schedules on the TGV site at:

http://www.tgv-europe.com/en/

There may be some less expensive solutions by booking via Trenitalia for the Italy portion of your trip & TGV for the French portion … not sure. Perhaps someone with that specific experience will post.

Assuming you can manage your luggage, I would follow RebeccaLouise’s advice and take people mover to P Roma to S Lucia. If not, take taxi to train station.

If your wife & kids want to see the countryside & the experience of riding the train is not of paramount importance, I would second Cathy's suggestion of renting a car.

jill

[kuldalai]

If you want to see the scenery by daylight then do it easy over two days :

Seat reservations compulsory on all trains. have your TA get the Train tickets and seat reservations from Rail Europe. You can do it in a single day by same route but it is a hell of a rush and a long trip for a single day .

You will see Milano, Lake Maggiore, Simplon tunnel and Pass, lovely Swiss scenery between Brig and Basel. Then picturesque French countryside between Basel and Paris .

 

Day 1 :

Venezia St Lucia (Italia) dep 0858 Milano centrale (Italia) arr 1125 Change trains Milano Centrale (Italia) dep 1228 Brig (Switzerland) arr 1416

Stay overnight Brig . Recommend Ambassador , Hotel close to station, book via Hotel website.

 

Day 2 : Brig (Switzerland) dep 0920 Basel SBB (Switzerland) arr 1132 Change trains Basel SBB(Switzerland) dep 1234 Paris Gare de Lyon (France) arr 1537

 

Notes : To get from Venice cruise terminal to St Lucia station take the People Mover to Piazzale de Roma. You come out of the People Mover in the rear right hand corner of the Piazzale d R . Head towards the front left hand corner of P d R and walk over the new glass footbridge and along the quay to St Lucia station . It is not adviseable to catch trains at Venezia Mestre station on the mainland as many trains do not stop there .

[euro cruiser]

The train ride from Venice to Paris takes 13 hours and costs about $240 per person. Book in advance (60 days at least in advance). With luggage my advice would be to take a taxi to Mestre (will be about 20 Euros). The closer train station is in Venice but you can either taxi there (there is a back entrance to the train station for land taxi's) or take the People Mover with your luggage to Piazzale Roma and cross the bridge to the train station.

:confused: Can you clarify this please? Are you saying that a land taxi can get to Venice Santa Lucia station?

[rebeccalouiseagain]

I know- I was a total skeptic when I heard that you can take a land taxi to the Santa Lucia station but there is an entrance. From the port, there is a road that goes to an entrance behind the train station. If you google map it and zoom in you'll see it. The taxi can drive up to the front of the building.

[euro cruiser]

Much clearer now. That's not the train station, it's a work area adjacent to the station, but there's no way to get from there to the station itself.

[rebeccalouiseagain]

I've never gone this way to the train station. There was someone else who posted a while back about this entrance and had it on good authority that it can be done.

 

Because it looks odd to me- I would say from the port- if weighed down with luggage, it make the most sense to do the train station in Mestre. If for some reason you have to depart from Santa Lucia- then I would use the people mover and the bridge. It shouldn't be that difficult.

[CasaM]

If you all change your mind about the train, Easyjet has a plane that goes Venice to Paris for 50.99Euro. We've flown Easyjet a few times and will be doing so again in the fall.

[Twickenham]

For anyone interested in this journey, I found a wonderful video of the TGV journey between Paris and Milan here:

[Tommy3putts]

We did a 12 day tour of Italy and Switzerland by train in July 2011 (Zurich, Cuomo, Bergamo, Santa Margherita, Rome,Venice and Zurich). Train is the way to go. Spend the few extra $$$ and go 1st class by day. Totally enjoyed it.