We need to travel from Venice to Paris (ultimately Reims) in mid-August with two kids ages 10 and 14. We thought there was a direct sleeper train from Venice to Paris, which was our original thought, but realize now that it has been discontinued. We are wondering if we should break up the trip by stopping overnight in Chambery, as we will need to take a train from Venice to Milan before getting on a train to Paris and thought the trip might be too much for our kids (and us). We are also considering leaving Venice a day earlier and staying overnight in Milan so we can catch an early train from Milan to Chambery and get to spend several hours there making the stop worthwhile. Stopping in Chambery adds a bit of cost, but could be a lovely diversion anyway. We definitely want to take the train as opposed to flying because we want to see all of the scenery and the kids are excited about a long train ride. The business class for the Frecciarossa is sold out, so we would need to be in economy.
Posted by
Wengen
4060 posts
If your destination is Reims you should be solving "how to get to Reims", not "how to get to Paris". Do not a priori assume that in order to get to somewhere in France you must always route through Paris....
A good way to explore routes is to use www.bahn.de to plan. You can just enter "Venezia" and "Reims Champagne Ardenne" in the planner and get all the routes.
Best Options in my option.
Take the night train from Venice to Stuttgart (opersated by Nightjet). Then from Stuttgart travel to Reims. Will probably involve going to Paris and backtracking, but there are also trains that avoid that).
Take day time trains via Milan, Zurich, Basel and Strasbourg. You could also have a stopover in Luzern if you wanted.
Take day teme trains via Milan, Paris to Reims. I do not see the point in splitting the trip in Chambery. Look at both Trenitalia and SNCF as both companies run trains on Milano - Paris.
Getting out for a few hours in Chambery does not make much sense in my opinion. You are all acting as if train travel is some sort of hardship that cannot be endured for long, so you need to somehow add even more hours to an already long trip...
What is your exect travel date? There are some odd things with the August schedule that may make some routes possible or not...
Posted by
143 posts
When in August? This summer they are working on the tracks between Venice and Milan and between Turin and Modane, the morning service is quite limited. Because of the same works, you'd better forget the deutsche Bahn site.
Usually there are direct high speed trains from Venice to Turin's Porta Susa station where you can take a direct train to Paris' Gare de Lyon.
Posted by
OP
2 posts
Thanks for the ideas and thoughts. Yes, the destination is really Reims, but it seems like we have to go via Paris to get to Reims as there do not seem to be trains to Reims from elsewhere.
A four part journey Venice-Milan-Paris-Reims does seem like an especially long day for two kids ages 10 and 14, which is why we are considering splitting the trip up. If there were trains directly from Venice to Paris we would absolutely do that. We could do a sleeper train to Germany and then high speed to Paris, but it gets pricier for little benefit. We need to plan an overnight somewhere since we had originally planned to take a sleeper train. We could do that on either end of the trip or somewhere in between.
I appreciate suggestions. The trip is August 13-14.
Posted by
143 posts
On Both days there is a trenitalia direct train that departs from Milano Centrale at 15:53 and arrives in Paris at 22:36.
Besides the late arrival in Paris, this summer getting from Venice to Milan in less than 3 hours seems to be impossible. You could check Flixbus buses, maybe they stop near Milano Centrale.