Train travel from Paris to Venice

Sue, The fastest trip I could find on that route departs Paris Lyon at 07:49, arriving Venezia Santa Lucia at 17:33 (time 9H:44M, two changes at Torino Porta Susa and Bologna Centrale, all legs subject to compulsory reservation). In the same situation, that's probably the one I'd use. I'd have to do some research to find the prices. Hopefully one of the "rail experts" here will have some ideas on that. As the trip originates in France and ends in Italy, none of the prices are shown on the Bahn.de website. When will this trip be taking place? Happy travels!

I'd like to be able to give you a definitive answer, but my web searches are not working for some reason. Here is what I know (many others know more); If you use the French national Rail site; http://www.sncf.co.uk/ ...it simply redirects you to RailEurope because it is an international route. I expected to find some (inflated) prices on the RailEurope site, but they were giving me nothing. Maybe there system is down? If you use the Italian Rail site; http://www.trenitalia.com/cms/v/index.jsp?vgnextoid=ad1ce14114bc9110VgnVCM10000080a3e90aRCRD ...it only lists the price for the direct overnight train with your choice of sleeping arrangements. All other options entail a change of train. Perhaps that makes pricing more difficult online. The night train regular fare is 120 euro. But when you buy up to 92 days ahead, you can get fares as low as 35 euro (really!) That's all I know for now. Sorry I couldn't be more helpful. If it was me, I would pay more for a more private sleeping arrangement, but buy 92 days ahead for the best price. It's likely that would be less than a typical day-train fare, and it wouldn't eat up an entire day of travel. But that's me...

A few years ago I took this train trip Paris to Milan to Venice, with a change in Milan. It was about 8am to late afternoon. I had a France/Italy railpass and just had to make reservations.

In case you want to consider a flight, check skyscanner.com for discount airlines. May be cheaper than train and certainly faster. You MUST read the fine print for discount airlines as they have strict rules on number, size, and weight of luggage. And overage is outrageous. The first price is just a teaser and everything costs extra. Make sure you go through the entire booking process to see the final price. Still can save time and money.
Bobbie

Sue, In June we're taking Easy Jet from CDG to Venice.The cost was about $86 each for the one way flight. That included all the taxes and fees plus the charge to each check a bag. The flight is less than 2 hours. This flight is at 11:10 am. Easy Jet also flies to Venice from Orly, and I believe it is a much earlier flight, maybe 8:30...I can't remember. You might like to check the Easy Jet website ad check with Skyscanner as someone else suggested.I know that there are overnight trains to Venice, so it must be a long train trip. Ashley

As others have said, if you decide to fly, easyJet would be a good choice. A plane ticket on Ryanair would be your cheapest option for the flight itself, but Ryanair flies from Beauvais (a 90-minute bus ride from Paris) to Treviso (well outside Venice). By the time you pay for transportation to and from those airports, you'll won't come out much ahead - and you'll use up a lot of time. Here's how to get the cheapest tickets for the daytime train route Ken gave you. Book the 07:49 train from Paris to Torino ASAP (up to 90 days allowed) at 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 ticket retrieval country. Don't worry. You'll either be able to print your own ticket or pick it up at any SNCF station in France. The cheapest advance Mini fare is €35.00. Book Torino-Bologna and Bologna-Venezia Santa Lucia separately ASAP (up to 90 days in advance) at trenitalia.com. The site is available in English. Choose "Ticketless with e-mail confirmation" for each leg. If you want to take the direct Paris-Venice night train, be aware that SNCF no longer is a partner with Trenitalia for this train. The new partnership is with Thello and Trenitalia. You can book (in French) on the Thello site or in English on the Trenitalia site. The Smart fare is €35.00 for a bunk in a six-person couchette and €55.00 for a bunk in a four-bunk couchette. All couchettes are the same size. The only difference is in how many bunks are pulled down. It's worth paying a little more for the extra room for both people and luggage.

I also agree with flying to Paris since it's faster and cheaper. Check www.skyscanner.com to scan across all the low cost airlines in Europe.

Thanks everyone for your help! The reasoning to take the day train from Paris to Venice was to enjoy the scenery on the way. Maybe it's not worth it?