Milan to Venice

It's possible to purchase tickets when you show up at the station. There are trains to Venice every half hour or so. But if you purchase in advance you can get huge discounts. The trip is about 2.5 hours I think.

I second what Angela says. I recently made this same trip. We purchased our train tickets on the internet ahead of time and saved about 50% on the cost of the tickets. Second class Milan to Venice was a great ride, train car felt like first class. We left Milan about 10:30AM and I think the ride was about 2.5 hours?
You can check on the train schedules.

Mary Ann, what date do you arrive in Milan? Are you arriving by plane or train? If by plane, it could be risky to buy a discounted ticket online close to your plane arrival time. The discounted tickets are non-refundable and your place could be late. The trains do leave every 30 minutes. If by train, discounted tickets are a possibility.

We are arriving by plane in Milan; but need to leave for Venice the next day. Sounds like we can go to the train station when we arrive and purchase a ticket for the following day? If 2.5 hours, then a train leaving around noon should get us in Venice by mid afternoon? thanks again for the advice

Mary Ann, If I'm reading your post correctly, you plan on staying one night in Milan, and then proceeding to Venice the following day? If that's the case, I'd suggest buying your tickets for the trip to Venice either: > when you arrive at MXP in the Terminal 1 airport station > when you arrive at Milano Centrale on the way to your hotel > after you've checked-in to your hotel in Milan, go back to Milano Centrale when you're settled. You can buy tickets either at Kiosks or staffed ticket windows. There are likely to be queues of varying lengths at both the airport station and Milano Centrale, so the Kiosks would probably be the easiest option (however you can judge that at the time). You can research the travel times and train details on the Trenitalia website. I'd suggest buying your tickets the day before travel, and that way there are no delays when you get to the station (ie: long queues, Kiosks not working, which does happen). There are both direct trains (no changes) as well as trains with changes. I'd probably use the departure at 09:35, arriving Venice at 12:10 (time 2H:35M). The next direct departure isn't until 11:25, arriving 14:55. When buying tickets, note that your departure station will be Milano Centrale and your arrival station will be Venezia Santa Lucia. When you walk out the front door of the station in Venice, you'll be right at the Grand Canal, and can take a Vaporetto to the area of your hotel (details in the Guidebook). Happy travels!