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Best place to rent car Milan or Venice

Posted by (Vancouver Canada) on

We are planning a trip for next September.

We are not touring cities as we are getting older and want to focus on hiking while we are still able.

Current plan
Fly to Zurich and stay for a week or more.
Train to Italy - probably Bernina Express - possibly Gotthard Express.
Trains to Venice to pick up rental car.
Tour Dolomites and then Slovenia by car approx 10 days total
Return to Italy to drop off car and overnight before flight home.

I was looking at Venice as place to rent car and fly home. Now I am now wondering if we would be better to use Milan. If we come by Bernina Express to Tirano we would probably overnight near Milan since it would be too long a day to travel to Venice - get the car - and travel to Dolomites

The flight costs are almost identical.

Would we have better choices and pricing for car rentals in Milan?

Any other considerations I might not have thought of?

Posted by
5602 posts

Perhaps consider spending a night or two in Varenna, Lake Como, to break up that leg of the trip, as the regional train from Tirano goes right by the Varenna stop.
Flying out of Venice can be difficult if the flights are early in the morning. It works better to fly into Venice.
Have a wonderful trip.

From a Search here-

https://search.ricksteves.com/?button=&date_range=2y&filter=Travel+Forum&query=Milan+car+rental&utf8=%E2%9C%93

https://search.ricksteves.com/?button=&date_range=2y&filter=Travel+Forum&query=Venice+car+rental&utf8=%E2%9C%93

Posted by
105 posts

The rates and choices should be identical for renting and options out of Venice, if using say Auto Europe for instance. I rented out of Milan MXP earlier this year and the traffic is crazy in the Milan metropolitan area. I expect the driving around Venice would be more relaxed, so Venice would be my vote.

Posted by
15 posts

Thank you both. I think Varenna could be a really good option. And will stick with Venice for car rental and return flight

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