Day trip from VENICE to FLORENCE

While in Venice see Venice. If you want to see Florence it’s going to take more than a couple of hours. It’s a 2 hour trip on a fast train. You can purchase tickets on www.trenitalia.com or trainline.eu

Train way faster. 2h5m trip. 45€ fare full price walk up fare one way but you can save over 50% if you buy ahead.
two companies to choose from
www.trenitalia.com
www.italotreno.it

If you go to www.thetrainline.com website they show and sell train tickets from both companies at no extra charge.

If you stay 3 nights or less in Venice, then you barely have time to see Venice. Stay out in that case.

If one day is all you have, then you can see and do a lot in one day. I'm a believer in taking those day trips when you can, and plotting your own course. Be sure to pre-purchase your ticket/s for the Accademia (the "David") and/or the Uffizi Gallery, if you want to see either of those. One possible day: Use trenitalia.com to find and pre-purchase your train tickets in order to save a lot of money (or italotreno.it, the other train company, which has fewer choices, but fine trains). Take the 8:12-10:30 am direct trenitalia train. The station that you want is "Firenze SMN". Schedule your Accademia entrance for 11:00 and expect to spend about one hour there. Walk to the Mercato Centrale for lunch upstairs from the various food vendors there (or eat outside at Trattoria Za Za very close to it), then stroll through the Mercato San Lorenzo (street stalls around Mercato Centrale) for possible shopping. From there, walk to the Duomo and the Baptistry (buy tickets in the Piazza near the Baptistry; see Rick's book for specifics, if you want to go in). Then, either over to Santa Croce or straight down to the Ponte Vecchio. Take a break for coffee or gelato, and if you're going to the Uffizi, schedule late afternoon entrance and plan on about 2 hours there. (Or skip the Uffizi and take the bus up to Piazzale Michelangelo for a great view of Venice and maybe the sunset.) Many options for dinner. There is a direct train back, 19:15-21:20 on trenitalia or a 19:54 departure on italotreno. If you take a train back that has a change, be sure that the change is in "Venezia Mestre" which is just 10" from the Venezia Santa Lucia station which is the main station. Take a look at Rick's list of "Major sites" (or something like that) in his Italy book (or Florence book), to decide what is important to you. Most everything you would want to see or do is fairly close together, within the center of the city

Like going to New York City and visiting Boston on a day trip. What will you have time to see? Sights are all over the place, not in one place so that they can be seen quickly.

More than almost any other place, the sight in Venice is the city itself, rather than designated "attractions" like museums or churches (of course, Venice has these too). So, with proper preparation, a day trip can work.

Get advance tickets for the earliest train you feel you can make to Venice, and the latest possible train back.

Accept that you will only get a tiny impression of the place, and can, maybe, see one or two sights. If you spend the day running around to see specific things, you'll just be exhausted and frustrated, not to mention overwhelmed by crowds.

Plan out, in advance, if there are any specific sights you want to see. Be prepared for extreme crowds if you are going near the train station, the Rialto, St. Marks square, and the most direct foot paths between them. Therefore, even if you do want to see these areas, be sure to see some other ones as well. The ghetto, Castello, Dorsoduro, etc, are all much less crowded, and will give you a completely different impression of the city.

Also expect crowds on the vaporetti up and down the Grand Canal; again, other vaporetti can be less crowded.

Expect to get lost - it's part of the Venice experience, no matter how much you prepare. Do make sure you allow enough time to get back to the station for your train to Florence - this will take more time than you think, whether by foot or by vaporetto.

EDIT: My mistake - I misread the question, and answered the opposite question! See my follow up post below.

Like going to New York City and visiting Boston on a day trip.

Well, not really. That would be 4 hours on the train each way and maybe not practical at all. Venice to Florence is 2 hours on the train. 2 hours is usually my limit for a day trip but I have stretched that to 3 on occasion based on the particular situation.

Since the OP didn't say how long they will be in Venice and was only asking about doing it independently vs a guided tour, I assume that they will have enough time to do Venice justice before venturing out on a day trip to Florence. If that one day is all they have for Florence and they want to take the opportunity, then I say they should do it - I would.

My opinion would be that, if you feel comfortable (in general) taking the train in Italy and know what you want to see for your few hours in Florence, then do it on your own. If you're not sure about the best way to accomplish what you want to do and see in Florence, then just take the train and hook up with a guided tour once in Florence. For me, the worst part about a full day tour from Venice would be the bus ride vs the train ride and it actually takes longer in a bus and there's always the chance that traffic or other obstacles could make the bus an even longer.

Thanks so all for guidance. We have 5 nights in Venice, arriving the first day around 14:00, so I feel like we can take a day to go to Florence, especially since my wife and daughter really want to do so. I was thinking we might be able to squeeze in Padua, too, as an option since it's so close . . . but only if the time in Venice seems sufficient.

OOPS - I completely misread your question, and answered the opposite question!

The main difference is that for Florence, the highlights definitely are museums and churches, so you will need to have pre-booked tickets for any of these that interest you.

It's certainly possible to do this yourself. Look at Rick's "one day in Florence" plan, and adjust it according to your interests.

https://www.ricksteves.com/europe/italy/florence-itinerary

NO, NO, what an absurd idea. A day trip spending more than half the day on the train.

If you want to see Florence, then spend some time there. Some real time.

Also, hotel prices are way higher in Venice than Florence.

Also, you don't need a tour to see the city. Buy a guidebook like Rick Steves Italy.

So what is you overall itinerary and where are your flights? Your earlier posts indicate you had '14 days' and had wide ranging travel in Croatia.

A day trip to Florence from Venice seems to me to be ill advised, but not impossible. Just need to have reservation for the sites/museums you want to see and accept that it will be a really quick glance and not in depth experience. If you try to 'squeeze in Padua' on your day dash to Florence, I expect it will be a really unsatisfying day.

If Padua is planned for a day of its own, then you have a reasonable plan.

Right now I have 2 1/2 days in Venice, then a day trip to Florence, a final day in Venice, then leave the next morning for Ljublijana. I was able to get the train RT tickets to Florence, so we arrive there at 09:30. Our train back leaves at 21:30, We'll plan to follow the suggestions sent earlier from the Rick Steve's team . . . wife and daughter are excited to do it. I'd like to make the short trip to Padua, but don't know that we will . . .