Verona. Lake Garda. & 1 day car rental

There is a Maggiore Rental agency right by the Port Nova train station.

Rent a car through a consolidator
www.autoeurope.com or www.kemwel.com (same company after the merger, but check prices with both).

Your option one is doable however You are landing very late and you will be probably jet lagged if you are flying from North America (I bet via Germany). Not sure if it's a good idea to get behind the wheel at night considering you may not be familiar with the area or with driving in Italy. However you should spend at least two nights at the lake.

A better plan might be to visit Verona first (without a car). Verona can easily be visited in less than a day, so the first two nights in Verona would be sufficient. 4 nights are way too many for Verona alone. The morning after the second night, pick up the rental car from a city location (no reason to go back all the way to Villafranca airport) and spend the othe two nights at lake Garda (with the rental car).

Another option is to rent a car and spend your entire time at the lake and visit Verona on a day trip from there. The issue will still be the jet lag and your ability to drive late at night while tired from a long flight.

Where do you go after Verona? If it is within Italy you could use the car to take you from Verona to Lago di Garda to your next destination, and drop the car there. Two nights would be good for Lago di Garda---maybe in Malcescine?

Sam, thank you for reminding me that I can pick up or frop off the car there as well...

Lola, We fly out of Venice Marco polo therefore I do no prefer to have the car mre than 24 hrs or drive it towards Venice. Thanks for the idea though !

Roberto - my husband, who is 30, will be driving and the trip from airport to Bardolino apartment is less than 30 minutes. He has agreed to do it so I guess he is confident. Your comments about Verona really made me rethink the layout of our 4 nights in Italy so I rearranged them.. Maybe we will stay longer in Lago di Garda on a diff trip.. However by flying out of Venice it will be hard for us to bypass a visit there since it is one of our favorite places in IT and we were originnaly planning a day trip anyway so--- Changed to: 1Night Lago Di Gardo. 2Nights Verona 1Night Venice --flight to Prague is at 3PM next day.

Roberto, according to your suggestion, would you first stay 2 nights in Verona and then see Lago di Garda with a car or other flipped? But it would place the trip to the lake on a Sunday and The car rentals are closed near the train.. hmm

If it were my trip I would do either of these 2 options:

1. Drive to Bardolino on arrival stay all 4 nights there, visit Verona on a day trip (there is an underground parking lot on Piazza Cittadella, 5 min walk from the Arena). From Bardolino to Verona it's just over 1/2 drive. If you want to attend the Opera, it will end late at night, but with a car you can go back to Bardolino by car. Drive to Venice in the morning to catch afternoon flight. Return car at Venice airport. The drive from Garda to Venice airport is probably a bit over 1.5 hour.

2. First two nights in Verona, then rent car and move to lake for 2 nights. Then drive to VCE airport on the morning of your flight (same as above).

Also airport rental locations are open every day including Sunday.