What’s the best way to travel from Milan to Venice? When visiting Italy no one can deny that Venice has to be on your bucket list of priorities. What will be your travel to Italy without Venice, called ‘Serenissima’, ‘ Queen of the Adriatic’, ‘City of Bridges’ or ‘City of Canals’.
Intro
If you have landed at Malpensa airport I suppose that after visiting Milan city a day or two, your plan will include certainly Venice, not to mention other destinations such as Florence and Rome.
It is not an unusual custom, according to my opinion a wrong one, that Milan could be skipped over trying to travel to Venice, as soon as one lands off the plane. If this is your case, no problem! You can travel to Venice, directly from Malpensa or Linate airport.
What is the best way to travel from Milan to Venice?
- Traveling by train
- Traveling by bus
- Most popular way to travel
- Traveling from Malpensa airport to Venice
Do you need to rent a car to travel to Venice?
Traveling by train
There are approximately 48 trains running between two cities, the earliest leaves at 5AM and the last departs at 8:45PM. The most of trains are direct except those that require a transfer in either Bologna or Verona.
Trains from Milan depart from Milan Central Station (Centrale) or Rogoredo train station and in Venice trains arrive at either Santa Maria or Mestre train station.
The train journey lasts as little as 2 hours up to 5 hours that depends on the service chosen and if a transfer is required.On this route two companies are operating – Trenitalia (state owned) and Italo (private owned).
How much does it cost to travel from Milan to Venice by train? The train journey usually costs 20 when booked in advance
- Tickets purchased online 1 week in advance are 29% cheaper on average of the date when you intend to travel.
- Ticket are lower for 46 % on average when booked 1 to 3 months in advance of the tickets purchased on the day of traveling
Departure journeys for trains from Milan to Venice
Return journeys for trains from Venice to Milan
Traveling by bus
Traveling by bus in Italy is the cheapest way of traveling. Nothing changes even in the case of traveling to Venice from Milan. Traveling by bus is slower than the train, but it’s significantly cheaper and it takes approximately 4 hours to arrive in Venice.
The majority of buses from Milan are direct and usually depart from Milan’s Lampugnano bus station and in Venice arrive at Tronchetto bus station. This bus line between two cities is covered by several bus companies.
I recommend two, Flixbus and Baltour, but my favorite is Flixbus as they offer tree departures in a day’s time from (08AM to 08PM). All are direct lines and it takes from 3 to 4 hours to get to Venice but Flixbus offers also promotional prices from 8 one way. Even Baltour has two daily departures but require longer transit times
- Although bus tickets are cheap, booking online a week before it’s 8 % cheaper than buying on the day of departure.
- If you book your ticket 1 month in advance, average 15 % tickets will be applied, comparing the price of the ticket purchased on the day of departure.
Departure buses from Milan to Venice
Return buses from Venice to Milan
Most popular way to travel
Considering only two ways of traveling to Venice from Milan, the most popular (not the cheapest) way is taking a direct train from Milan Central Station to Venice. Fast Trenitalia’s ‘Freccia Rossa (Red arrow) will take you in less than two hours to Venice. It’s an ideal way for planning a day tour from Milan.
Traveling from Malpensa airport to Venice
Many travelers have asked me about the way to travel from Malpensa airport directly to Venice. Booking a train to Venice you can choose several trains during the day. (In search form indicate (from ‘Milano Malpensa MXP’ and to ‘Venice’)
On the left screenshot you can get an idea about train schedule with one train change at Milano Centrale station. You’ll have enough time between Malpensa Express train to Milan Central Station and your fast Trenitalia train ‘Freccia Rossa’.
In this case you have 39 minutes to switch to right binary (it’s question of a hundred meters).This train take less than 4 hours from Malpensa to Venice (Santa Lucia Train Station. The price in this case, a standard seating class is 35,50 with additional choices if you are traveling for business reasons. Have a nice trip!