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The Best Day Trips from Venice

Venice sits at the centre of the best-connected corner of Italy, and the trips people actually take are rarely the ones worth the day. Ranked here by what you get back for the hours you spend travelling.

See day tours from VeniceGuided trips and skip the line tickets
By Oliver10 min readPublished
Table of contents
A canal on Burano in the Venetian lagoon, the day trip most visitors remember
Photo: Jorge Franganillo · CC BY 2.0

In Brief

What is the best day trip from Venice?

Padua, at 26 minutes each way on the fastest trains, which is the best return on travel time in northern Italy. The lagoon islands are the better trip if you would rather stay on the water. Verona is the one most often over-sold: it is a genuine 1h26 each way at best, not the hour people expect.

Key takeaways

  • Padua: 26 minutes each way, and the Giotto chapel cannot be booked on the day
  • Murano, Burano and Torcello: the lagoon, and the trip children remember
  • Check whether a quoted time starts at Santa Lucia or at Mestre. It is often Mestre.
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The 10 best day trips, ranked

Ordered by how well they repay a full day - factoring travel time, what you can actually see, and how easy they are without a car.

  1. Padua, a day trip from Venice

    40 km west · ~26–40 min by train

    Padua

    The best payoff per hour

    The Scrovegni Chapel holds Giotto's fresco cycle, the work that begins Western painting's move toward realism, and it is the single greatest thing you can see within half an hour of Venice. Padua also has the oldest surviving university botanical garden in the world, the enormous Prato della Valle, and a genuine student city's prices, which after Venice is its own kind of relief.

    Getting there
    Trains run from Venezia Santa Lucia to Padova constantly, with the fastest services at 26 minutes and regional trains taking closer to 40 for a much lower fare. Padova station is a 15-minute walk or a short tram ride from the Scrovegni Chapel, and the historic centre is compact and flat once you are in it.
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  2. Murano, Burano and Torcello, a day trip from Venice

    In the northern lagoon · ~45 min to Burano by vaporetto

    Murano, Burano and Torcello

    Families, and the trip that is its own reward

    Three islands that are nothing like each other: Murano for glass furnaces that still work, Burano for painted fishermen's houses and lace, and Torcello for a nearly empty island holding a Byzantine cathedral with an 11th-century mosaic of the Last Judgement. It is the day most families remember, and the only one where the travelling is itself the pleasure.

    Getting there
    ACTV line 12 leaves from Fondamente Nove on the northern shore of Venice roughly every 30 minutes and reaches Burano in about 45 minutes, calling at Murano Faro and Mazzorbo on the way. Torcello is a short hop from Burano, but to board there you have to telephone at least 20 minutes ahead, which catches people out. A vaporetto pass pays for itself on this trip and rarely on any other.
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  3. Vicenza, a day trip from Venice

    70 km west · ~33–42 min by train

    Vicenza

    Architecture, and empty streets

    Vicenza is Andrea Palladio's city, and Palladio is the architect whose ideas ended up in Washington, in London and in half the country houses of England. The Teatro Olimpico is the oldest surviving indoor theatre in the world and its permanent stage set of a receding street is a genuine surprise. The whole city is UNESCO-listed and it is astonishingly under-visited given how close it is.

    Getting there
    Around 21 direct trains a day, fastest at 33 minutes and averaging about 42. The station sits at the southern end of the old town and everything is walkable from there.
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  4. Verona, a day trip from Venice

    120 km west · ~1 hr 26 min at best, often nearer 1 hr 50

    Verona

    Opera and a full second city

    A working Roman amphitheatre that still stages opera through the summer, a beautiful compact centre on a bend in the Adige, and the Piazza delle Erbe. It is a proper city rather than a sight, which is why it also works as a base in its own right.

    Getting there
    About 19 direct trains a day from Venezia Santa Lucia to Verona Porta Nuova. The fastest is 1h26 and the average is closer to 1h52, so this is a real commitment rather than the hour it is often described as. Porta Nuova to Piazza Bra is about 20 minutes on foot.
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  5. Treviso, a day trip from Venice

    30 km north · ~30 min by regional train

    Treviso

    A half day with no crowds

    Treviso has canals, water wheels, frescoed houses and medieval walls, and roughly none of the crowds, because most people who land at its airport get straight on a bus to Venice. It is where you go when you want the Veneto without queueing, and it is the home of radicchio and of tiramisu.

    Getting there
    Frequent regional trains, up to 57 a day on the corridor. Watch the origin station on any time you are quoted: the very fast figures published for this route start at Venezia Mestre on the mainland, not at Santa Lucia on the island, so add the Mestre leg if you are starting in the historic centre.
  6. Chioggia, a day trip from Venice

    50 km south, at the foot of the lagoon · ~1 hr 15 min by bus and boat

    Chioggia

    Seeing a lagoon town that still works

    A working fishing town laid out like a smaller, poorer, entirely unselfconscious Venice, with canals, bridges and a fish market that exists for the people who live there. It is the antidote to the feeling that Venice has become a museum, and the seafood is better and half the price.

    Getting there
    The scenic way is the bus down the Lido and Pellestrina barrier islands with two short ferry hops, which is a genuine lagoon journey in itself. The quicker way is a bus from Piazzale Roma. Neither is fast, and that is rather the point.
  7. Bologna, a day trip from Venice

    155 km southwest · ~1 hr 15 min – 1 hr 35 min by fast train

    Bologna

    Eating, and walking in the rain

    Nearly 40 km of covered porticoes, UNESCO-listed since 2021, which means a whole city you can walk in any weather. It is also the best place to eat in Italy on most reckonings, and it has the oldest university in the Western world. A long day, but a rich one.

    Getting there
    Around 33 trains a day, fastest at 1h15 and averaging about 1h35 on the high-speed line. Bologna Centrale is a 10-minute walk from Piazza Maggiore.
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  8. Ferrara, a day trip from Venice

    110 km southwest · ~1 hr 15 min by train

    Ferrara

    Renaissance planning without the queues

    A Renaissance city built to a plan by the Este dukes, with a moated castle in the middle of it and city walls you can cycle the whole way round. UNESCO-listed and almost entirely overlooked by people doing Venice, Florence and Rome.

    Getting there
    Direct regional and intercity trains on the Bologna line. The moated castle is a ten-minute walk from the station, and the city is flat and famously ridden rather than walked.
  9. The Dolomites, a day trip from Venice

    160 km north to Cortina d'Ampezzo · ~2 hr 30 min – 3 hr each way by bus or car

    The Dolomites

    Mountains, and better as an overnight

    The mountains are extraordinary and they are genuinely reachable from Venice, which surprises people looking at a map of Italy. Be clear-eyed about the arithmetic though: five to six hours on a coach for a few hours in the valley is a poor trade, and this is the one entry here we would rather you did as an overnight.

    Getting there
    Cortina Express and ATVO run direct coaches from Piazzale Roma and from Marco Polo airport, taking roughly two and a half to three hours. There is no direct rail. Departures are limited and seasonal, so this is one to book rather than turn up for.
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  10. Lake Garda, a day trip from Venice

    150 km west to Peschiera del Garda · ~1 hr 45 min – 2 hr by train

    Lake Garda

    Water, mountains and a slow day

    Italy's largest lake, with a Roman villa and thermal water at Sirmione and ferries linking most of the shore towns. It is a long day from Venice and it earns the effort only if the lake itself is the point rather than a stop on a list.

    Getting there
    Peschiera del Garda and Desenzano both sit on the Milan to Venice mainline, so you can reach the southern shore by train without a car and pick up a ferry at the harbour. Sirmione needs a short bus from Desenzano.
    Find Lake Garda toursGuided day trips and skip-the-line tickets

Padua: 26 minutes from Venice, and almost nobody goes

This is the trip we would push hardest, because the ratio is absurd. Padua is closer to Venice than most Londoners live from central London, and it holds one of the two or three most important rooms in the history of European painting. Almost every visitor to Venice goes to Verona instead, which is three times further for a comparable day.

  • The fastest trains take 26 minutes from Venezia Santa Lucia and run all day. Regional services take nearer 40 minutes and cost a fraction of the fast fare, which on a journey this short is usually the better buy.
  • The Scrovegni Chapel cannot be booked on the day. The chapel's own site states plainly that same-day reservations are not possible, and it publishes a booking window that opens months ahead. This is the single fact that ruins the most Padua day trips, and it is entirely avoidable.
  • Groups are told to reach the ticket office at least 45 minutes before their slot, and a 9:00 booking can collect from 8:30. Build that into your train, not into your hopes.
  • Giotto painted the chapel's interior around 1305, and the cycle is the moment European painting starts to describe real space and real human feeling. You do not need to care about art history for it to land.
  • The Orto Botanico, founded in 1545, is the oldest university botanical garden still on its original site and is UNESCO-listed. It is a ten-minute walk from the Basilica of St Anthony and is usually empty.
  • Prato della Valle is one of the largest squares in Europe, ringed by a moat and 78 statues. It holds a market on Saturdays that is worth arranging the day around.
  • Padua's prices are a student city's prices. After three days of Venice, lunch here comes as a shock in the right direction.

Day trips from Venice: FAQ

The questions travelers ask most when planning day trips from here.

Padua first, on the strength of being 26 minutes away on the fastest trains and holding Giotto's Scrovegni Chapel. The lagoon islands of Murano, Burano and Torcello come next and are the better choice if you would rather not leave the water. Vicenza is the under-visited one, at 33 minutes and UNESCO-listed for its Palladian architecture. Verona is the famous choice and the most over-sold, because it is a genuine hour and a half each way at best. Bologna and Ferrara both work if you are happy with a long day.

Take ACTV vaporetto line 12 from Fondamente Nove, on the northern edge of the historic centre. It runs roughly every 30 minutes and reaches Burano in about 45 minutes, stopping at Murano Faro and Mazzorbo on the way. Torcello is a short hop onward from Burano, with one catch worth knowing: to be picked up at Torcello you must telephone at least 20 minutes in advance. A single vaporetto ticket is 9.50 euro for 75 minutes, so this is the one trip where a 24-hour pass at 25 euro is clearly the better buy.

Yes, if you accept what it costs you. The honest number is 1h26 each way on the fastest of about 19 direct trains a day, with the average closer to 1h52, so a Verona day is three hours of travelling at best. The city rewards it: a Roman arena still in use for opera, a beautiful centre and the Piazza delle Erbe. But if you have only one day to spend outside Venice and you have not seen Padua, Padua is the better use of it. Verona makes more sense as an overnight or as a base in its own right.

Yes, and you cannot do it on the day. The chapel's official site states that same-day reservations cannot be made, and its booking window opens months in advance. Groups are asked to arrive at the ticket office at least 45 minutes before their slot. Because visitor numbers are strictly controlled to protect the frescoes, this is not a queue you can talk your way into, so book it before you book anything else about your Padua day.

You can, and we would gently suggest you do not. Cortina Express and ATVO run direct coaches from Piazzale Roma and Marco Polo airport to Cortina d'Ampezzo in roughly two and a half to three hours each way, which means five to six hours on a bus for a few hours in the mountains. There is no direct train. If the Dolomites matter to you, give them a night: the difference between a rushed afternoon in a valley and a morning up in the mountains is the whole experience.

Because two different stations are both called Venice. Venezia Santa Lucia is on the island at the end of the causeway, and Venezia Mestre is on the mainland about ten minutes further out. Many published journey times, particularly the eye-catching short ones, are measured from Mestre. If you are staying in the historic centre you start at Santa Lucia, so add the Mestre leg and the connection to any figure that looks too good. It is the single most common reason a day trip runs an hour longer than planned.

Every trip on this page starts in Venice

Each of these is a day out and back, so the thing that decides the whole trip is where you sleep between them and how far that is from the station. These go into the detail:

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Photos via Wikimedia Commons, used under their respective licences.