Day trip to Venice from Milan

Hello, lorna, and welcome to the forum,

The train from Milan to Venice is 2.5 hours each way so as long as that's okay with you it's possible.

I guess my advice would be get an early start and know when the last train back to Milan is - currently it's 7:48 pm. Because the Venice "bus" runs on water leave some extra time when planning to get back to the train station.

You can buy your tickets in advance and a discount but you trade flexibility for price. So whether you want to pre-buy your return ticket and make it back for a specific train pre-booked is up to you.

I love Venice, have a great trip,
=Tod

Also good know about train tickets:
There are two train companies in Italy - the state run Trenitalia and the private run .Italo that only runs fast trains between big cities.
https://www.trenitalia.com/en.html (Use Italian names for cities - Venezia for Venice and Roma for Rome - for best results)
https://www.italotreno.com/en
The station in Venice proper is Venice Santa Lucia you'll see others like Venice Mestre which the last station on the mainland.

Both companies have apps that let you buy and store tickets as well check trains in motion. I recommend getting at least the Trenitalia one if not both.

A great resource for train travel in general is here: https://www.seat61.com/train-travel-in-italy.htm

Hope that helps,
=Tod

I guess my tip is to consider an overnight in Venice so that you can experience the magic of the place in the evening after the day trippers have gone home and in the early morning before they arrive!

You can't see Venice well in a fraction of a day. Your travel time will take up at least half a day if you do a day trip.

Go to Venice when you can enjoy it well.
Visit something closer to Milan.