Venice as a day trip from Florence?

Best train schedule I can see has you on the train for a bit over 4.5 hrs( total rt) and gives you 6 hrs to be IN Venice

You will be there with all the other 'day trippers'

Your decision on if its 'worth it'.

If it were my only ( or last) trip to Italy, I probably would choose to do it.

However, if you are less than age 75, plan on going back. Makes a good excuse for 'one more trip' to Italy

We did this in April as a day trip during one of our own first trips to Florence many years ago and although it made for a very long day it was doable - the 5 hours on the train was at least partly offset by being able to nap on the return to Florence in the late afternoon.
Our rookie mistake, however, was in not checking the weather forecast before we set off. April weather can be notoriously unpredictable and in our case it turned out to be cold, rainy, and a generally miserable day to be outside. We spent most of the day hustling from one enclosed space to another just trying to stay warm and dry. Though we were able to get outside for some strolling during the few breaks in the weather it wasn't exactly the pleasant experience we were expecting.
Whether it'll be worth it to you to devote a very long day to the journey is really a personal call, but my advice would be not to commit to anything until a few days in advance in order to ensure that you'll have pleasant weather for your time Venice.
The tradeoff will be slightly higher ticket prices for the train but at least you won't repeat our mistake and will have some assurance that it's worth going at all.

The problem with doing Venice as a day trip from anywhere is that Venice sucks during daytime: crowds are crazy. You really have to stay on the island to have any kind of enjoyable experience, IMO.

I decided against a day trip from Florence to Venice based on my Old Faithful Geyser analogy. Old Faithful is impressive when it erupts, but the massive crowds make it less of an experience and more of an ordeal. I wish we had stayed in north Yellowstone or checked out one of the smaller geyser basins, instead of squandering a day on a "must see".

I would stay in Florence or take a shorter day trip.

"The problem with doing Venice as a day trip from anywhere is that Venice sucks during daytime: crowds are crazy. "
True enough - especially if the cruise ships are in, though in early April you'll be visiting during what passes for their shoulder season so it won't be quite the mosh pit that it is during the height of summer. And if you catch a pretty Spring day you won't have to deal with the summer heat either.

Best train schedule I can see has you on the train for a bit over 4.5 hrs( total rt) and gives you 6 hrs to be IN Venice

You can do better than 6 hrs in Venice if you're willing to leave early and come back fairly late - which is what I do if I want to take a day trip that takes more than 2 hrs each way. Just plan on snoozing on the train if getting up early isn't your thing. You can leave Florence around 7:20 and get into Venice before 10 am and then stay in Venice until between 7-8 pm. You'll still get back to Florence before 11 pm and you'll have 9-10 hrs to explore Venice. If you can pick a day when there aren't too many cruise ships in Venice and do some back alley exploring to get away from the worst of the crowds, it shouldn't be bad in April. Hopefully you'll have a day with nice weather and it should be lovely. I'd probably do it.

We've never done this, but what if you took the train to Venice the night before, checked into a hotel with only your clothes for the next day, got up REALLY early and did what you want to do in the heavily-touristed parts of Venice, had lunch and then visited the less touristed areas, and then checked out of your hotel in the evening and went back to Florence. You could actually have a picnic dinner on the train both ways.

I hope that one of the things you want to do is to ride the vaporetto the whole length of the Grand Canal. We had already spent two weeks in Venice on earlier trips and had gone up and down the Grand Canal many times, but last September, while staying in Treviso, we went on a day-trip to Chioggia and as part of that got to see the whole Grand Canal again twice. It was just as Grand as ever and we loved it. Chioggia, not so much.

On that vaporetto ride, we could see the huge, huge crowds at San Marco and at the Rialto bridge, but it looked (from the water) reasonable everywhere else. See those two places in the early, early morning and then explore elsewhere the rest of the time.

I would do this if I really thought it was my only chance to see Venice.

I’m not sure when I’ll get the chance to see Italy again

We all have that fear that we'll never be able to return, that we'll miss something. We try to cram in too much. In our attempt to see it all, we end up seeing nothing. I encourage you to not shortchange Florence. I don't know if your intent was to spend a day each in Lucca and Siena, but you won't do either justice if you try to cram both into one day. Saying that, you need to make sure you spend at least three days in Florence. Make sure you schedule in at least a morning or an afternoon as unscheduled time, time you just relax and wander about.

Start as early as possible. Take the Vaporetto along the Grand Canal to San Marco Square. See the Church and Doge’s palace, then just wander around and take a gondola ride. To use the previous Old Faithful analogy, if you go a hundred yards or so away from the geyser, you will almost be alone.

No, No, not only No, but He-- NO

Nooooo to day tripping to Venice! If you want to hate Venice on your very first time to visit then do it as a daytrip. You’ll be shoulder deep with all the other tourists daytripping...not to mention those horrible cruise ships that drop thousands and thousands of people into the beautifully delicate city.

We did it as a day trip from Florence when we were tight on money and time in 2002 during a week in Italy trip covering Rome Florence and Venice and even the local hotel person thought what a shame.
But it was a wow moment taking the boat snaking down the Grand Canal and I got another chance to go again in 2017.

I just read some of your other posts --- it sounds like you don't especially want to go to museums. Does that also mean art galleries and churches? You also mention liking to wander the streets. For that, I would say skip Lucca and Pistoia (both lovely towns to stay in for someone with more time), and stick with Florence and Siena, and if you don't mind the extra cost of spending a night in Venice, then Venice, too. For the places you mention and for wandering, Siena and Venice would be my top choices. I've spent a total of six weeks staying in Florence and walking a lot, but, while it is my favorite city on earth, I did not find it as good for just wandering around. Especially not if you only have a few days. Also, parts of Florence will be super crowded, just like Venice.

Well, we are planning to do the exact same thing this spring. We're basing our stay in Florence and just want to see Venice while we are comparatively close. (When you live in the Western U.S. and cannot travel to Europe frequently, Venice is comparatively close to Florence.)

We are taking the first train from Florence and getting in around 9:30 or 9:45, I believe. We are leaving around 6:30 pm.

I know people encourage longer stays in cities while minimizing unnecessary travelling, but I think the occasional long day trip to see a special place can well be worth it.

On our first trip to Europe, we were based in London and did a day trip to Paris via the Eurostar. I had family members who were horrified at our plans, and predicted we would have a miserable time. But we went in with a good plan and realistic expectations, and ended up having a beautiful, memorable day. For our circumstances, "perfect" (a nice long stay in Paris) would have been the enemy of "good" (getting a fantastic one-day introduction to the city). I'm hoping to have a similar experience with our day trip to Venice.

Hope you have a good trip, regardless of what you decide. :)

Hi. I went to Venice as a day trip from Padua. I had been to Venice a few times so I figured it would be easy to navigate around the crowds. Transportation was quick. Unfortunately, my plans were not successful - not saying crowd avoidance is not possible, just that I did not achieve it. I will formulate plans other than day trips for visiting Venice. I loved it in winter for multiple days.

After reading everyone’s input, I’ve decided I’ll just have to plan a separate trip to Venice in the future. Thanks everyone!

Venice is a long way from Florence for a day trip, and is worthy of several days in and of itself. Although I haven't been there, Chianti is approximately 1.5 hours from Florence, and from what I've heard, is lovely. If you like wine, you could consider a taking a wine tour, with transportation included, from Florence.