My family and I (14 in total) will be traveling from Venice to Cinque Terre. I am trying to figure out if it would be better to rent a car (pick up when leaving Venice and drop off when we arrive in Cinque Terre) or just take a train straight through. I am not sure if you are able to pick up a rental in 1 location and drop off in another, but if it is possible, I thought it might be fun to take a 2 day trip and explore the country side. Perhaps visit Tuscany and Parma. Is it worth the headache of renting a car, or do we just take a train? We will be traveling with little kids as well. Also, which train would be the best to take? Thank you for any advice you are able to give.
Posted by
Gettysburg PA
6015 posts
You’ll need 3 or 4 cars or at least 2 vans
Have to allow room for luggage as well
Be sure to include gas and tolls for each vehicle
Most car rental agencies in Italy are now charging drop off fees
All drivers will need an IDP
You might want to price it out on AutoEurope.com
Rental rates are high this year as well
When is this trip?
Posted by
OP
15 posts
Thank you, the trip would be for next summer
Posted by
Green Bay
20028 posts
Another factor: What is the family make up? Trenitalia has some good family deals depending on the ages of the family members.
https://www.trenitalia.com/en/offers/travelling_in_groups.html
https://www.trenitalia.com/en/offers/famiglia_offer.html
https://www.trenitalia.com/en/offers/bimbi_gratis.html
Posted by
Seattle, WA
16190 posts
The train would be much better for your group. What village in Cinque Terre will be your home? Most cannot be accessed by car—-you have to park in a lot above the village (where space may or may not be available) and then walk in with your luggage from there.
Also, note that Italy has strict laws requiring car seats or boosters for children up to 1.5 meters tall.
The train is much simpler and probably more cost-effective, given that you would need 3 or 4 cars for that many people. There are discounts for families and for groups, as well as for advance purchase.
Of the 2 major train companies in Italy, only Trenitalia will get you all the way to your Cinque Terre village from Venice. Italo is a newer company with a very user-friendly website for ticket purchase, but does not serve all routes in Italy.
There are several alternatives for travel between Venice and Cinque Terre, but with a group that size and small children, I would favor the simplest route (fewest train changes) over the fastest route. So that would be Venice to Milan, changing there to one of the few trains that goes down the coast to Monterosso al Mare without the need to change again at Genoa. The pre-covid schedules had an intercity train departing Milan shortly after noon, but I did not check to see if it still exists. If so, that would be easy to reach from Venice, and would get you to Cinque Terre with the fewest changes. Of course if your village is not Monterosso al Mare, you will have to change again to the regional train that serves all 5 villages.
The other main route goes from Venice to La Spezia with changes at Florence and (usually) Pisa. At La Spezia you board the regional train to your village.
Posted by
Italy
3812 posts
Tuscany would be a little out of the way by car. You could take an high speed train to Florence and get the cars there, then roam around the countryside in the direction of the Cinque Terre. You'd pass by Pisa and Lucca. After a couple of days, drop the cars off in La Spezia, to avoid wasting time on mountain roads, and get on a local train to the Cinque Terre village of your choice.
ViaMichelin will give you realistic driving times and the overall costs for tolls and gas. Use the same site to learn why nobody drives between the villages.
There are nice places and centuries-old towns to visit on the most direct road from Venice to the Cinque Terre; Parma is the perfect example, but you could also see Mantua, Verona and Padua along the way. But do not expect the countryside in the Po River Valley to be a neverending, bigger version of Southern Tuscany! That's the industrial hearth of Italy. You can't just exit the tolled motorways and head to the hill town you see in the distance, to find the nice areas you must know where they are.
As a side note, because of ZTLs you can't park close to the city centers. Who's staying with the luggage while the family is exploring?
Posted by
Northamptonshire, England
32709 posts
rene (that was my mother's name) the others have done a decent summary...
I will say that do help determine how many actual cars you'll need, we will need to know the breakdown of your family. How many babies and toddlers, how many children, teens, adults, seniors. As Lola said you will need to budget money for child seats/boosters/baby seats, and they all take up room because there are only so many ISO fixing points in a car, and everybody has to be strapped in.
Also how much and large luggage? European cars by and large have quite small boots/trunks. If you go the minivan/people mover route you should know that if the tip up seats are being used there is an extremely small luggage area between the seat back and the back of the vehicle.
If the kids have never been on trains it could be a fun adventure for them...
Posted by
The Heartland USA
8423 posts
Hire a coach and driver?
Posted by
OP
15 posts
Thank you all for your input. As for the breakdown of the family, we have
2 - 4-5yrs
1 - 8 yrs
2 - 12-13 yrs
6 - 20 - 40 yrs
2 - 60 - 70 yrs
1 - 78 yrs
The kids are excellent travelers and hike for miles, we are also use to going from hotel to hotel across America. The older group is also in pretty good shape, but high elevations may be challenging. Sounds like our best bet will probably be the train. I didn't think about booster seats for the 2 younger ones. Thank you for pointing that out. My youngest son loves trains, so that is one more reason to go that route. Thank you all so much