Hello everyone-
I'm really having a hard time finding a day train that goes from Paris to Venice for the specific date of May 11. I've read through many blogs, websites, and forums using insutructions some people have posted. I"m only finding night trains and we really don't want to do that. Please advise. Thank you so much in advance!
There are no direct Paris-Venice day trains. Your route options are Paris-Zurich-Milan-Venice, Paris-Basel-Milan-Venice, and Paris-Lyon-Geneva-Milan-Venice. See the timetables at www.bahn.de. Click on the drop-down flag menu for English. Enter Paris as your starting point and Venezia Santa Lucia as your arrival point. Enter 06:00 as your departure time. After you get summary timetables, click on the arrow to the left of each departure time to see the connecting points.
When you've chosen a route, post another note on this thread if you'd like advice on how to book tickets in advance for that route in order to get discount fares.
Any advice on how to book the tickets in advance would be great. Thanks Tim!
Which routes and departure times are you considering?
Any departure time in the morning would work. I think going through Switz. would be amazing. But I will take anything they are offering.
Paris-Zurich-Milan-Venezia Santa Lucia, departing Paris at 06:24 and arriving at Venezia Santa Lucia at 17:40. Book Paris-Zurich at www.tgv-europe.com. To keep the site in English and to avoid being bumped to the Rail Europe site which doesn't offer discount fares, choose Great Britain as your country of residence. If you book today, you should still be able to get a Piccolo fare of 62 EUR. Pick up your tickets in Paris. Book Zurich-Venezia Santa Lucia at www.sbb.ch/en. Choose the 11:09 departure from Zurich. That gives you only 9 minutes to make the connection after you arrive in Zurich, but it's enough. Be standing at the door when you arrive so you will be the first people to get off the train. You should be able to get a discount fare of 78 CHF.
Paris-Basel-Milan-Venezia Santa Lucia, departing Paris at 08:24 and arriving at Venezia Santa Lucia at 20:02. Book Paris-Basel today at www.tgv-europe.com to get a Piccolo fare of 53 EUR. Book Basel-Venezia Santa Lucia at www.sbb.ch/en, departing Basel at 12:28 and arriving at Venezia Santa Lucia at 20:02. (Choose the route that does not require you to change trains at Venezia Mestre, the mainland station.) You should be able to get a discount fare of 78 CHF.
When you book your tickets on the Swiss Rail site, choose to have them mailed to your home. You definitely won't have time to retrieve them in Zurich and in Basel you might run into trouble if the lines are long. You'll have to pay a fee, but you'll have the tickets in hand.
THANK YOU SOOOOOO MUCH!!!!! I really appreciate your help! You saved me lots of sleepless nights! Can I book the tickets using my debit, which only has USD in it?
You're most welcome!
I've only booked tickets with a credit card, but I expect your debit card will work. However, before you book, call your card provider's customer service number, talk to a real person, and tell him/her that you will be making some transactions in France and Switzerland. If you don't, a computer may block your card for what it recognizes as unusual--and therefore possibly fraudulent--activity.
