Driving to Venice

There is a parking lot in Mestre right across the street from the train station. Very convenient and the trains run frequently into Venice. The cost to park there as of last May was 4.50 euro per day. That is cheaper than going in closer to the bigger parking lots.

There are two parking garages in Venice proper. The Tronchetto is the first one after you cross the bridge and costs 20 Euro a day. From there you catch the vaporatto for all destinations in Venice. Park as close to the opposite side of the garage entrance to be close to the vaporetto stop.

It's very easy to drive into Venice and park, but it's cheaper to park in Mestre and take the train in.

5 of us?
is paying 20E and walking to the boat better than the 4.50E and train? will be in for 2 days.
40E vs 9E and train x5 RT.
Or airport and water taxi?

Be careful when you mention "water taxi". Water taxis cost 100E to ride. It's a shared cost but still, that's $150. The vaporetto is the local water bus in Venice. For transportation between the airport and the Piazzale Roma in Venice, there are regularly scheduled buses that cost 1Euro-3Euro depending on the carrier.

Are your plans finalized? What works best is to not have a car at all in Venice. Why pay to park and rent the thing when you can't use it. If you can, fly open jaw into Venice, enjoy Venice then rent the car as you leave and drop off at the airport at departure. Or make Venice the last stop and drop the rental on arrival.

And even though Doug says it's an easy drive to Venice...it's not easy for everybody. I've driven to Venice (unfortunately) 2 times and both times have been miserably lost. It's not fun and not easy (for me). Do yourself a favor and take the train or catch one of those bargain intra-european flights into Venice.

We will be driving from Rome, Sorento, Pisa, Parma then Venice we have the car with GPS for 3 weeks, so we are set to drive. Ill do the 20E parking and take it from there.

The train from Mestre to Venice is only about 2Euro and they run about every 20 minutes. Hope you have a gps. It will make your driving easier.

OK, now I have a good idea of the cost.
30E vs 40E....is the train fun, or should we just park in venice?
We will be taking a train from Paris to London; could not dreive :(