Day Trips from Venice

For many people, Venice is a place to spend one day: in by train in the morning, out before dinner. It’s small enough that you can tick off the big sights that way. But as I’ve said half a gajillion times on this site, if you don’t give Venice at least one night, you’ll never fall in love with it. So stay three or four nights, and spend one of those days on a day trip from Venice.

Sleeping in Venice has a bonus these days, too. On set peak days between April and July, day-trippers pay an access fee to enter the historic center, while overnight guests who pay the hotel tax are exempt (they just register for a free QR code). If you’re staying in Venice and taking trips out, the fee doesn’t touch you.

Using Venice as a base isn’t always the cheapest way to see the region. Hostels and budget hotels near the train station exist, but you’ll still pay more than in Padua or Treviso. What you get in return is not packing and unpacking every other day, which matters a lot to me. And flying into Venice is, in my opinion, one of the best ways to start an Italy trip.

How to get out of Venice

Almost every trip below starts at Venezia Santa Lucia, the station at the top of the Grand Canal. Trains on the mainland lines also stop at Venezia Mestre, ten minutes across the causeway. You have two kinds of train:

• Regional trains (Trenitalia Regionale and Regionale Veloce) have fixed, cheap fares and no seat reservations. Buy on the Trenitalia app or site and the ticket is for the train you pick; buy a paper ticket at the station and you must validate it in the machines before you board.
• High-speed trains (Trenitalia’s Frecciarossa and the private Italo) are faster on the longer runs to Verona, Bologna and Lake Garda. Fares are dynamic, like airfares, so book a few days ahead; Italo listed Venice to Verona from about 9 euros in 2026.

Check times and fares on trenitalia.com and italotreno.com. For anything beyond a couple of hours each way, ask yourself whether you’d rather move hotels.

The best day trips from Venice

• The lagoon islands. The easiest day out doesn’t involve a train at all. Take the ACTV water buses to Murano for glassblowing, on to Burano for its painted houses and lace, and then to Torcello, which has a thousand-year-old cathedral with superb mosaics and almost nobody around by late afternoon. Boats leave from Fondamente Nove. If you’ll ride more than twice, a 24-hour ACTV pass (about 25 euros in 2026) beats single tickets. In summer, add the Lido’s beaches.
• Padua. Under half an hour on a fast train. Giotto’s frescoes in the Scrovegni Chapel are one of the great sights of Italian art, and you must book a timed slot ahead. The Basilica of Sant’Antonio, the old university and the market squares (Piazza delle Erbe and Piazza della Frutta) fill the rest of the day. My top pick if you only do one trip.
• Verona. A little over an hour by high-speed train. The Roman Arena is still used for summer opera, and the old center along the Adige river is one of the prettiest in the north. Skip the queue at “Juliet’s balcony,” which is a 20th-century tourist invention, and climb up to Castel San Pietro for the view instead. More in the Verona guide.
• Vicenza. Around 45 minutes. This is Palladio’s city: the Basilica Palladiana on the main square, the Teatro Olimpico with its fake-perspective stage streets, and the Villa La Rotonda just outside town. The city and the Palladian villas of the Veneto are a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and Vicenza is quieter than it deserves to be.
• Treviso. About half an hour on a regional train. Small canals, frescoed arcades, a fish market on an island in the river, and very few tourists. This is where you go when Venice’s crowds get to you. Tiramisu is said to have been born here.
• The Brenta Riviera. Venetian nobles built summer villas along the Brenta canal between Venice and Padua. The Il Burchiello boat cruises the canal from mid-March to the start of November, passing through locks and stopping inside villas such as the Malcontenta. In 2026 the full-day cruise between Venice and Padua costs about 147 euros, with half-day options for less. It’s pricey, but it’s the only way to see the villas from the water.
• The Prosecco Hills. The steep vineyards between Conegliano and Valdobbiadene became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2019. Conegliano is on the regional line to Udine, around an hour from Venice. To visit wineries, though, you really need a car, a bike or an organized tour, because the cellars are spread across the hills.
• Lake Garda. Peschiera and Desenzano are stations on the main line to Milan, about 75 to 80 minutes on a fast train. From either, ferries run across the lake, and Sirmione is a short bus ride from Desenzano. Read more about the Italian lakes.
• Asolo and Castelfranco Veneto. Asolo is a gorgeous hill town, and Castelfranco is a pretty walled town with a Giorgione altarpiece in its cathedral. Castelfranco is on a rail line from Venice; Asolo is hard to reach without a car, so rent one if you want both in a day, and add Palladio’s Villa Barbaro at Maser nearby.
• Trieste. About two hours each way on the fastest trains, so it’s a long day. Trieste feels more Vienna than Venice: grand Habsburg cafes, a huge square open to the sea, and Miramare Castle on the coast. It’s on the edge of the Friuli region, and it deserves a night if you can spare one.
• Ravenna. If you loved the mosaics in the Basilica di San Marco, Ravenna’s are older and, to many people, even better. The catch: there’s no direct fast train, and with a change at Ferrara or Bologna it takes around three hours each way. Worth it only if you’re a mosaic lover; otherwise visit Ravenna from Bologna instead.
• Cortina d’Ampezzo and the Dolomites. There’s no train to Cortina; its railway closed in the 1960s. Cortina Express runs coaches from Venice (Piazzale Roma, Mestre and the airport) into the Dolomites, taking around two and a half hours. That makes a day trip possible but rushed. I’d spend at least one night, or join an organized tour that covers the mountain passes by minibus.

Coming off a cruise ship? Large ships haven’t sailed into the historic center since 2021, so most now dock on the mainland at Marghera or Fusina. See how to get from the cruise terminal into Venice.