Traveling To Venice For 2:50pm US Flight

Having just flown out of Venice airport in June, I suggest allowing 3 hours once you are at the airport. In our experience, passport control flying into Venice involved a 2 hour wait for non-EU travellers. When flying out, there are incredibly long waits to check in, security and then passport control again to leave Venice. The airport is not large enough for the demand during the summer, and our driver who brought us back to the airport said chaos is the norm as a result. Better to be safe then sorry.

hey shckimmel
don't know how many days you have for this trip, i would defintely say no way. have you been to europe before? what time is arrival into venice, going thru immigration/passport, getting to hotel and checking in, jetlag, tired/groggy to drive, checking out next day. are you picking up car in venice, do you have an IDP (international driving permit) for each driver from AAA/CAA, car big enough for your stuff, rules and laws about taking car out of country. drive back to venice night before flight, return car and stay near airport. this is peace of mind option. other option, you'll have to leave early, overslept, traffic conditions, white knuckles, too much stress trying to hurry and worst scenario you're late and miss your flight!!! that's triple duty of stress. totally amazes me what tourists expect to see in a short amount of time, like a relay race or as fellow poster joe32F says "amazing race". add more days to vacation, enjoy and slow down.
aloha

we were only planning on spending the first day and night, then second whole day in Venice before traveling to Klagenfurt, Austria for the second night...

So, just to be clear: you are flying overnight, arriving in Venice, staying one night (the night of the day that you arrive)....don't expect much out of that arrival day, as you will probably be wiped out and just yearning to go to bed. Then the next day, you get up in Venice - this is actually the first day of your time in Europe, and on that day, are you going to spend that night in Venice, and move on to Austria - or after waking up that first night in Venice, you're going to get up, take a quick look around, then jump into a car and drive off to Austria? If the latter, you're not really going to be spending any meaningful time in Venice. If the former, then you will have one full day in Venice. I assume you have been there before and don't feel any need to see it?

As to your question about your return to venice...if it were me, I would spend my last night in Venice. I would not try and drive there from any of your proposed locations in Croatia/Slovenia. If you encounter a road problem or just awful traffic, you might be in a real jam. What would be the consequences of missing your flight home - would that be expensive? Something to factor in.

Thank you both for your suggestions. We have not booked anything yet, so very flexible.
Right now planning on waking up early the day of our flight and driving into Venice to arrive by 11:30am before our 2:50pm flight. Any other thoughts or suggestions would be great! Hate to drive into Venice the night before and stay at an airport hotel when we have a 2:50pm flight the next day. Wouldn't be able to enjoy Venice, and would be missing out on a last fun night in Croatia or Slovenia.

Yes, this will be my 5th trip to Europe, my husband's 10th. This will, however, be our first time in this part of Europe. We will be in Europe from July 3rd-14th, 2019. Wish we could stay longer! We are not affected by jet lag and lack of sleep as long as we get on local time as soon as we arrive (no naps, go to bed and wake up at normal times). We are 29, so relaxation and R&R isn't the point of our travels at this time : ) Our main reason for coming to this area is an Ironman Triathlon 140.6 in Klagenfurt, Austria. All the other days are just cherries on top of the cake, but yes trying to see as much as we can in the amount of time we have as we will probably not return to this part of Europe any time soon.

This is the tentative Itinerary:
July 3rd arrive in Veince, pick up rental car at airport, drive to garage and leave luggage in rental car, taking only small bag to hotel in San Marco. No rush this day, understand it will take time to get through customs.
July 4th Explore Venice, drive to Klagenfurt in the evening.
July 5th-7th Klagenfurt for race.
July 8th Drive to Bled in AM.
July 10th Drive to Opatija
July 12th Drive to Rovinj
July 14th Drive back to Venice to return rental and fly out.

Driving across boarders looks to not be an issue if renting a car from a company like Hertz, as long as you have the right information before traveling into Slovenia. And yes, we will have an IDP. We have rented a car and driven throughout France, Germany, Austria, Ireland, and Scotland in the past, so this is a great option for us. We are from Kansas and not privy to public transportation at home, so we do not use it on vacations either. Mid-size SUV will be a fine size as we will lay the back seats down.

All of your options are about a three-hour drive from Venice. I think I would skip Opatija and spend all that time in Rovinj, and then perhaps you could drive to Trieste or somewhere close by for the last night to be closer to the airport. That is about two hours, and to me that sounds much more manageable than being in Venice the last night.

It sounds quite clear that you have made up your mind.

Good luck in the competition.

You know your energy levels better than we ever can after 2 posts, and more importantly your risk tolerance.

Mine is way lower than yours. Nobody could pay me enough to get up at crack of dawn on my last day to drive 3 or 4 hours (who knows what traffic or weather will be?) to turn a car in (make sure they see that you have photos all around) and get to the airport 3 hours before what is likely a long day of travel.

Remember that on a Sunday most of the fuel stations will be closed and you will have to use a machine so have enough cash or a card that works the machine, and that many rental places are either closed or reduced hours and/or short staffed on a Sunday.

YMMV, or obviously YMDV

According to Via Michelin, the long and winding road from Rovinj to VCE takes 4 hours and 39 minutes. Not including loading the car, stopping for breaks along the way or morning traffic tie ups. Why not spend the night before your flight in either Trieste or Treviso. Treviso is sorta like a mini-Venice without the galloping hoards. Great little city for your last night in Europe.

I just drove from Bled to Venice less than a year ago. It is a longer drive than you think it will be because of those pesky speed limits and quite a bit of construction all along the route. I will also add that the Venice airport has a very different system of checking in, handing over luggage and going through security than any other airport I have ever flown from. It takes longer than most places, is quite chaotic, and has multiple levels of security checks - you think you're done and then you have additional checks just to get to your gate. You have to physically wait to check in until your flight appears on a flight board and it tells you which window to line up at...it's a race to get there before everyone else who is on your flight. Employees with numbered paddles splitting lines and saying "follow me" and leading hundreds of people to the opposite end of the airport for security checks and very odd things like that. Allow PLENTY of time.