Travel from Frankfurt to Venice

Fly! These are the non-stop flights: Lufthansa from Frankfurt Int'l (FRA) to Venice-Tessera (VCE)
or Ryanair from Frankfurt-Hahn (HHN) to Venice-Treviso (TSF). These airports are a little distant from the respective cities, but cheaper than Lufthansa. If you are willing to fly with one stop, then there are a lot more possibilities (just search online). By train it's a long journey. From Frankfurt to Venice is about the same distance as from Cincinnati to Philadelphia. Train travel time from Frankfurt to Venice ranges from over 10 hrs to over 11 hours, with 1 to 3 train changes. Train not that cheap either. Standard train fare is Euro 169 one way.

Thanks! I will check for flights..

Since Lufthansa has pretty much a monopoly on that route it might pay to go to Hahn airport and catch a Ryanair flight to Treviso. I checked for May just to try and Ryanair has fares as low as 28 euro one way. Lufthansa was exorbitant. To go to Hahn airport take a bus from the Frankfurt main station (it's marked Ryanair-Bohr). It's 14 euro and the bus trip is 1h 45min. Once in Treviso airport take an ATVO bus to Venice (70 min ride). I think you can purchase the ticket even on board of the Ryanair flight, otherwise at the ticket machine at the airport. The bus fare is only Euro 7.

There is a fast train, the ICE, either with no changes or one change. Because of the very long distance it is not quick. It will take 6:43 or 6:45. That is borderline for train plane comparison. Remember that the train only needs you there moments before and takes you centre to centre. The flight may only be a relatively short duration but then you have to add on getting to the airport (pretty easy in Frankfurt), clearing security and checking in, schlepping to the departure gate, waiting, flying, reclaiming, and getting into the town. At 6 hours it would pretty much be a push, I would have thought. EDIT: >>>> Disregard my comments here <<<<< I misread Venice and saw Vienna. oops.. good catch James.

Venice is my favorite city anywhere, and Frankfurt is my easy-access gateway to Europe from Seattle, so I am often pricing that connection. Lufthansa is so expensive out that route - it's outrageous. I got around the pricing for my trip this summer by purchasing my airfare from Condor. Condor sold me SEA-FRA-VCE and CDG-FRA-SEA, using Lufthansa for the Paris and Venice legs, for less than $200 over the original SEA-FRA simple roundtrip ticket. Total price was $1100 and then I paid more for an upgrade to premium economy. My travel agent was unable to book that fare - her price was $500 more. I had to do it on the Condor website.

We are taking Air Berlin Frankfurt to Rome later this year as one leg of our flight from the US. They do have flights to Italy, not sure about Venice.

Thanks for your comments/suggestions! George - I found decent flights through Air Berlin from Frankfurt to Milan that were quite reasonable. This will allow us to also spend a day in Milan. We will take the train from Milan to Venice and beyond...

Pat, go to Whichbudget.com to find all of the lo-cost excellent airlines that ply inter-EU routes. We have used many of these airlines for inter EU flights, with great results. Be careful about carry-ons; most allow only one item, NOT a purse and a carry-on; one item ONLY! Many have very tight weight restrictions. Read their T&C's! And check out exactly which airport they use. MANY of Ryan air's flights are at obscure airports.