Landing in VCE (Rental Car for Padua Trieste ???)

I vote for picking up car later when public transportation isn't as available. I remember the train from Venice to Padua was a short trip and easy peasy.

Thank You Laurie Beth! :)
Do you think we can do Venice & Trieste in 1 day using public transportation?
(we have already stayed in Venice 3 nights and just want to stop by and say Hi lol)
Sincerely, Joe :)

Padua/Padova (use Italian Padova for trains etc) to Treviso [Edit: I answered here for Treviso not Trieste.] are about 40-50 minutes direct - many change in Venice Mestre and may take a bit longer but none of them are more than 1:15. Padova to Venice Santa Lucia (Venice center) is about 30-40 minutes.

Mestre is the last land point to Venice so Venice and Treviso would be Padova > Venice SL, Venice SL > Treviso (maybe with a change in Mestre), Treviso > Padova (maybe with a change in Mestre) which is doable but I think is a lot for one day. You would probably spend at least 3 hours on the train itself and given how logistically difficult Venice can be I think I would choose just one. Even my friends from Venice described Treviso as beautiful which is saying something so I think it's worth seeing.

I think public transportation will do everything you need for this part of your trip so I would wait on a car as long as possible. There is a bus direct from the Venice airport to Padova so I would definitely look into that landing in VCE and skipping the bus/taxi to Mestre and then continuing onto Padova.

Have a great trip,
=Tod

To me, it would make sense (depending on what time you arrive) to go from the airport to Venice on the bus, drop your luggage, go say hi to Venice, pick up your luggage, and then take the 1/2 hour train to Padua. Rent your car during or after your 3 nights in Padua, then make visiting Trieste part of your Dolomites driving around. (You do mean Trieste and not Treviso, right?)

We did once, while staying in Padua, take the train to Venice and then, having previously spent 2 weeks in Venice, enjoyed two perfectly satisfying vaporetto rides through the Grand Canal while on our way to and from Chioggia. I'm not recommending the Chioggia roundtrip (interesting but quite time consuming and I wasn't crazy about the town except for a good lunch) ---- I'm just saying it's doable and not silly to want to say hi to Venice.

3 nites only gives you 2 full days so if you want to spend any time at all seeing Padua you need to give Padua one of those full days

What time does your flight from Paris arrive? Could you stop in Venice on your way to Padua?

That leaves the other full day for both Trieste and Venice
Pretty tight!

I would get the car as you leave Padua-you don’t need or want it in Padua and I suspect parking will be an issue

Or
Trieste has an airport-can you fly there from Paris?
Or go directly to Trieste from VCE and spend a night then on to Padua
Maybe use second afternoon/evening in Padua for hop over to Venice for dinner

Padua to Trieste is a 2 hr 21 min fast train-I wouldn’t consider that a day trip
( are you sure you mean Trieste and not Treviso?)

Thank You Everyone!!! :)

I mean Trieste. 90 miles East of Venice.

I will look into what you all have said.

Sincerely, Joe :)

Rent a car at the end of your stay when you are headed to the Dolomites.
It’s easier to use the train for both Venice (where a car cannot be used) and Trieste. You can reach Trieste from Padua in less than 2h30min by train. By car it will take you just as long, or longer once you factor in the time necessary to find parking.

Apologies Tigger, I did misread Trieste as Treviso. Treviso is possible but at 3 hours I think a trip to Trieste needs to be your only focus because of the travel time involved. I guess I assumed Treviso because Trieste is outside my daytrip limit of travel time.

If you have 3 nights in Padova then you have 2 full days so that's one day to see Padova and then 6 hours on the train to spend part of day in Trieste. I can definitely say that 6 hours behind the wheel is not what I would want for a vacation so the train is my strong recommendation.
It looks like the last train back is 10:06 pm – 12:30 am so if you don't mind arriving back after midnight you could leave on the 7:22 am and arrive at 9:44 you get a really full 12 hour day and leave you time for dinner there before heading back. Otherwise the trains leave 2 hours later and come back 3 hours earlier really starting to compress your day to 10 or 7 hours there.

You could steal a night from Padova, stay one night in Trieste which would break up the travel time. I wouldn't want to do this, but I guess I would choose that over 6 hours in one day and it would give you 2 partial days there. But it's your vacation and you're arriving from Paris, not internationally so if you're not dealing with jetlag then maybe this is reasonable.

Whatever you decide, have a great trip,
=Tod

Hello Everyone :)
Im rereading all of these comments. Thank you again! :)
Treviso.... Hmmmmm Now you have me thinking... Would love to visit there. Maybe thats our 3 night home base... Hmmmm
Any other thoughts?
We already have 5 Other home bases planned so we would not want to split up these 3 nights even though that does make sense.
Thank you in advance.
Sincerely, Joe :)