Early morning travel from Modena to Venice Marco Polo airport

It is far too early to see train schedules for next April but it does look like first train to Mestre would be 4:49-change in Bologna
( train does not go to VCE)

Your tour guide will usually arrange transportation to the airport for those in the group that need it
( about a 2.5 hr drive A private driver would probably be 350-400 euros?)

Otherwise you would need to travel to at least Mestre the night before your flight

Trains will take 2 1/2 - 3 hours, and only get you to Venice Mestre. You need to take a taxi or bus from there to the airport. You dont say if you need to be at the airport 2 or 3 hours before departure. IntraSchengen - 2 hours. Outside Schengen - 3 hours.

A car service would take around 2 hours. Daytrip.com gives a price of €450.

Have you considered taking the train the evening before departure and staying at a hotel with a shuttle service close to the airport?

This was just discussed, again.

https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/italy/modena-italy-to-venice-airport

I would also advocate for getting closer to the airport the day before. You could stay your last in Venice nearish enough to Piazzale Roma that you can walk over there and catch an early bus or taxi to the airport which would be fine for an 11:00am flight. Venice airport is small and can be really busy depending on the cruise ship schedule.

If you do attempt to do this from Modena know that the transition between the local and fast trains in Bologna requires an airport like transfer because the fast trains leave from Level -4 and most local trains come on on ground level or exit out at Level -1 at their deepest. Especially with luggage do go directly to your train connection. Go to Level -3, confirm your track and descend the last level at the appropriate set of tracks.

Have a great trip,
=Tod

Thanks everyone for this helpful information.

Too tight. You need to be at the airport around 9am. Too many variables that you cannot control. I take the prior afternoon for a slow trip to Venice and stay near the airport. You really do not have a choice unless you enjoy living on high stress. Good luck.

I was curious what the tour info on this website might have to say about this obvious problem that seems to come up often, and what they advise is that “it’s a breeze” to go from Modena to the Venice or Bologna airports by train. With respect to Venice, one might reasonably think a “breeze” means it’s not hard to travel by train to VCE and fly that day to the US, but that’s clearly virtually impossible since (among other reasons) the train doesn’t actually go all the way to that airport, and the vast majority of VCE to US flights are early departures with a connection elsewhere in Europe. If I were on this tour I would consider the option of missing the tour farewell dinner and my last night of paid for hotel so I could stay at an airport hotel at my own expense to be unacceptable. If RSE was a tour company like many others that will make the air arrangements for their travelers, they would be responsible for getting you to VCE (if that was the airport they used) and their bus would take you with a very early departure from Modena, but they don’t so they can afford to be more flippant about it (at least until they get enough complaints from their travelers).