Night train from Salzburg to Venice

Yes there is, buy your tickets at www.nightjet.com (where you will also find information about the train) or www.oebb.at

But, it departs Salzburg rather late so it can be worth it to backtrack a bit and board the night train earlier.

The current schedule only goes as far as Dec 12, but as time goes by, it should show up for next May, which seems to be when you plan on traveling. There are actually 2, but the first requires a connection at Padua and arrives before 6 am, which is awfully early to arrive in Venice. The second is direct, but does not depart until 1:40 am. However, it arrives in Salzburg after midnight and I believe you can board and get into your compartment early.

hey hey lindah
what do you mean by a time crunch? it's too early to book trains as sam mentions, just keep an alert out when calendar comes up. read the fine print about night trains, there may be a limit to how many people in a couchette, book two for 3 people each. check arrival and departure times and does hotel have that early of a checkin and storage hold. how many nights will you spend in venice or book an extra night before arrival and inform hotel of your plans? hopefully your group will sleep well on train and arrive in great shape. i've heard so many "ugly" stories. have you thought about a bus or flying in? even though you want to arrive early at places, checkin is usually after 2-3pm, so take a later train to compensate and less stress if hotel cannot check you in early. you have a large group traveling, all types of feelings, attitudes, grumpiness, tiredness and things don't always go as planned. is this trip a part of your whirlwind travel you're planning beginning of summer 2021 and relatively not expensive?
have all travelers pack light, carry own luggage (practice at home), look in grocery stores for food, snacks, drinks to have with you, you may need a bottle of wine after settled in on train, we always carry corkscrew everywhere we go and pick up something night before or at train station. always be prepared and life/travel goes smoothly with a few bumps. good luck and do keep asking questions to help you out.
aloha

I'm one of those who was never able to sleep really well on trains, even when I was younger. My last attempt was an utter failure--as in not one minute of sleep all night long. If you are a family of two adults and 4 young kids, it may actually be OK. I have a strong suspicion that kids are a lot more likely to sleep well on a train than adults are. If your travel party includes older adults, I'd be very cautious.

Remember, you will be arriving in Venice many, many hours before you can check in at your lodgings. If someone has gotten virtually no sleep, that someone is going to have a miserable time of it until 2 or 3 PM. And crashing in mid-afternoon can throw off ones body clock, leading to jetlag-like symptoms the next day.

You won’t save time when you’re all exhausted from no sleep. Plus, that is a fantastic journey to see during the day.

Thank you all for this wonderful advice & information. We will actually only have 1 day in Venice. Hopefully if we can arrange a night train that will arrive early in the morning, we plan to store our luggage in lockers at the train station (Hopefully they have lockers at the station), spend the day hitting the main attractions in Venice, spend the night at a hotel & leave the next morning for Florence. I fully realize that 1 day in such a beautiful city is not nearly enough, but it’s either that or we don’t get to go at all, & I want my grandchildren to get at least a taste of it.

Anecdote about a night train to Paris. My wife and I took one from Rome to Venice in 2006. I love night trains but on this one I did not get any sleep. The train stopped at Venice Mestre (not Venice Santa Lucia) and did not terminate there but continued on to Croatia. I was deathly afraid of missing my wake up and ending up in Croatia that I slept not a wink that night.

So, if possible, get train that terminates in Venice.

Really good idea. I would definitely have the same worry!

I hope this works out for you. So many people who make quick trips to Venice say the city is overrated--I think because they spent nearly all their time in the busy core of the city, surrounded by mobs of other tourists. To try to see the city in one day after an overnight train trip in a couchette--well, it's not something I'd ever recommend. However, as I said, it may not be too bad for the grandkids. I suggest some careful planning to assure that you see something other than the mob scene between the Rialto Bridge and San Marco.

Vaporetto tickets are very expensive on a per-ride basis (€7.50), so it's a good idea to consider in advance what trips you may want to take. Although I rather doubt you'll want to take as many as three, if you use the vaporetti that often the €20 day-pass will be less expensive. Unfortunately, I don't think there are any vaporetto short-term discounts for children or families.

there are no lockers at Venezia Santa Lucia (Venice station).

There is a left luggage office about half way along platform 1 (just beyond the toilets and the old ramp exit) where you can leave your luggage. You will pay for each piece you leave, there may be a queue to leave and a queue to pick up - check what times they are closed for meals. It certainly won't be open 24 hours a day, and there may be reduced hours on a weekend or holiday.

I greatly appreciate this info. THANK YOU!

Definitely do what was suggested earlier and book your rooms for the night before you arrive. You’re already setting yourself up for a not so enjoyable Venetian visit by staying only 1 night. Do yourself a favor by having your rooms reserved for you when you arrive and just checkin super early and not have the added worry of dealing with bag storage. Staying as near to the train station as possible will minimize your baggage issues also.

Hopefully you’re staying in Venice island and not in Mestre or on Guidecca island.

We did this back in 2010. It was just my husband and I and I booked a private compartment with 'bunk beds'. So, of course we didn't realize that the train would arrive early in Salzburg and we hung out at a Burger King until something like 1am. Then found the train and our compartment. Now, I am someone who can fall asleep at the movie theatre, but I had a hard time even with having beds and not a seat. The issue was the pillow - it was so tiny and as a side sleeper didn't really give much support. If I'd known I'd have found a cheap pillow somewhere and left it behind.

We did arrive bright and early. We walked to our accoms - it was too early to check in (they were expecting us - we'd stayed there a few years earlier). They let us leave our bags and we were able to take a quick pop into a bathroom for a quick clean up. Then we just wandered off to a spot for breakfast (we did get a small breakfast on the train as part of the compartment price) and walked around for a few hours before heading back to the room to change and shower.

I don't think I'd do a night train again, but seeing as how you only have a full day there, it might work. Not sure if you mentioned the ages of the family, but if they are littles and don't get adequate sleep they might just be cranky and Venice may just be a blur.

Just to point out you don’t have to be little to become cranky with lack of sleep!!

This is SO true 😱

A night train thread usually attract a couple of replies from people being unable to sleep on night trains. Then there are other, like me, who sleep very well on night train and love them as you arrive in a new city in the morning without wasting time on transport. But as mentioned, the trip through the alps is pretty scenic and doing it during daytime will let you enjoy the scenery.

My two friends and I took the night train from Vienna to Venice last September. We were taking an early afternoon flight out of Venice the day we arrived on the train (we all fly standby as airline employees/retirees and needed to get to Venice to have an available flight back to the U.S.). We all slept fairly well on the train (we had a couchette compartment). Since the night train arrived very early in Venice, we decided to spend a couple of hours before taking the bus to the airport and took a quick vaporetto self-tour. We had been to Venice a couple of years previously but it had been rainy and cloudy the entire time. Luckily the day we arrived on the train it was warm and sunny, so it was nice to get a different, albeit very quick, perspective of Venice in great weather. I say go for it and see Venice even if it is just for one day. Hopefully you will be able to get some sleep on the train and enjoy your short time there.

I definitely agree that night train will rob us of gorgeous scenery. However, we will be taking trains from Paris to Flumserberg, & from there to Salzburg. So I think those trips will give us many hours of incredible scenery. Thank you, tho for bringing up this very important drawback.