Can anyone help with advice for travelling Venice to Ravenna via train

[Swampduck]

Hi

we are arriving into Venice to meet the Celebrity Constellation for the cruise starting in Ravenna in Aug, ideally we would like to travel that same day to Ravenna and spend at least 3 days there before our cruise.

I have no idea where to start with the planning of this.   What I do know is that Celebrity do not run transfers unless it is on the day the ship departs and if we were to do a private transfer by taxi it would be approx £350.    So that in mind we are thinking of travelling by train!

 

Is there anyone on here who could give me advice as to what trains to get and where and if we need to change?    Someone mentioned 1st class trains only because your luggage will be with you, is this a thing? 

 

Any advice is welcomed.. if you have done this trip can you please help

 

thanks

Debbie 

[mapleleaves]

Are you flying into Venice first in order to sightsee?

There are frequent trains from Venice to Ravenna but I believe a connection is required, usually in Bologna. So if you aren't sightseeing in Venice, perhaps you can fly to Bologna instead.

I think the trains are almost hourly between Bologna and Ravenna.

 

And if you look further down the page there's a post on transportation between Bologna and Ravenna.

[CruiserBruce]

I would start by looking at trenitalia.com. Takes a little getting used to. Best rates will be about 4 months prior to actually traveling. 

 

First class is not a bad idea, I would recommend it, but not required. 

[Swampduck]

Thank you for the replies.

The only flights to Bologna are with RyanAir, whiich out travel agent doesnt recommend.. so we will be with AirLingus to Venice.   We are only flying into Venice and then hopefully heading to Ravenna..  

20 hours ago, mapleleaves said:

Are you flying into Venice first in order to sightsee?

There are frequent trains from Venice to Ravenna but I believe a connection is required, usually in Bologna. So if you aren't sightseeing in Venice, perhaps you can fly to Bologna instead.

I think the trains are almost hourly between Bologna and Ravenna.

 

And if you look further down the page there's a post on transportation between Bologna and Ravenna.

and the travel agent doesnt book RyanAir 

[Swampduck]

20 hours ago, CruiserBruce said:

I would start by looking at trenitalia.com. Takes a little getting used to. Best rates will be about 4 months prior to actually traveling. 

 

First class is not a bad idea, I would recommend it, but not required. 

Hi thank you  for replying.   So do you know is the train station near the airport in Venice.   I will certainly look at trenitalia.   and hopefully get used to it before i try and book.   thanks again 

[Cooper30]

We just did this back in October for a Royal Caribbean cruise. 

 

We flew into Venice - Marco Polo International Airport, spent a couple nights in Venice, then took the train from Venice to Ravenna, and spent a night there before our cruise.  The only thing we would have done differently is spent more time in Ravenna.  It is an amazing city.

 

There are two train stations in Venice... Mestre, which is on the mainland, and Santa Lucia which is on the main island, right near Piazzale Roma, which is where the road ends.

 

Since we stayed in Venice proper, we caught the train at the Santa Lucia station.  We took a high speed train (Italo) from there to Ferrara, then took a regional train (Trenitalia) from Ferrara to Ravenna.  The train change at Ferrara was very easy as there are only six tracks there.

 

Seats are assigned on the high speed train but not on the regional.  We had no problems with luggage.  There were overhead compartments on the high speed and plenty of space on the regional.  As a matter of fact, we met another cruising couple at the Ferrara Station who had twice as much luggage as we had, and they had no issues with their bags.

 

We purchased our Italo high speed rail tickets (Venice --> Ferrara) at the self service machine in the Venice station.   For the Trenitalia regional train (Ferrara --> Ravenna), we purchased tickets via the Trenitalia app that we downloaded to our phones.

 

Here's what I would do if I was going straight from the airport to Ravenna.

 

• From the airport to Venezia Mestre Station either bus or taxi.  Taxi would be the easiest.
• From Venezia Mestre, take the train to Ferrara (either Italo or Trenitalia).
• Change trains in Ferrara for the regional train to Ravenna (Trenitalia)

 

To get from Ravenna station to your accomodations, you could see what is recommended by the host/proprietor.  We walked to our B&B (15-16 minutes).  We could have taken a city bus, but we wanted to walk through the city.  We didn't see many taxis around the train station, and our B&B host told us there weren't many around in general.

 

To get from Ravenna to Porto Corsini (to board the ship), we arranged a ride through our B&B host.  The cost was 40 €.  There was a shuttle from the train station to the port on the day of the cruise offered by Royal Caribbean.  While I cannot remember the exact amount, it was cheaper than we paid, but it was nice to have a private car take us there.  It was an easy ride.

 

Some thoughts on navigating that area of Italy....English is everywhere.  Even the signs in the train stations had English on them.

 

I spent over a year learning enough basic Italian to be understood and understand people.  In Venice, no one wanted to speak Italian to me when they found out we were American.  It was pretty much all English, all the time.   I suspect they just wanted to get the transaction (with yet another tourist) finished as quickly as possible.

 

Once we got away from Venice, people were more inclined to speak to me in Italian.

 

 

 

[euro cruiser]

Thanks for posting the details of your train trip, it does help people to hear how it works before they try it.

 

I have the same situation with Italian, mostly, as you point out, in transactional situations.  In Rome this fall two different people asked if I was French, which left me wondering if I wasn't hitting my "r's" hard enough in Italian.  In Rome I ran into a store clerk who spoke no English (unusual, but this was a specialty store not tourist focused); I was excited that I could follow her directions to another store.  Often I can speak just fine but have a hard time understanding the responses. 

[mapleleaves]

Yep, RyanAir sure doesn't have a good reputation, but sometimes their prices can't be beat.   My cousin in the UK uses them frequently to visit her vacation home in Portugal.  Her theory is she can put up anything for 2 hrs when the flight only costs 15E.  

 

If you fly into VCE, Mestre train station is a good option.  Only 15-20 minutes by taxi or ATVO express bus.  A taxi will cost about 40E and ATVO is 10E pp.   ATVO will drop you off at the far end of the block where the train station is located.  It usually has 3 departures per hr to Mestre.  Comfortable ride.

 

linea035b_29.10.23-30.04.24_(3)6412.pdf (atvo.it)

 

 

 

 

[Swampduck]

On 1/16/2024 at 9:01 PM, Cooper30 said:

We just did this back in October for a Royal Caribbean cruise. 

 

We flew into Venice - Marco Polo International Airport, spent a couple nights in Venice, then took the train from Venice to Ravenna, and spent a night there before our cruise.  The only thing we would have done differently is spent more time in Ravenna.  It is an amazing city.

 

There are two train stations in Venice... Mestre, which is on the mainland, and Santa Lucia which is on the main island, right near Piazzale Roma, which is where the road ends.

 

Since we stayed in Venice proper, we caught the train at the Santa Lucia station.  We took a high speed train (Italo) from there to Ferrara, then took a regional train (Trenitalia) from Ferrara to Ravenna.  The train change at Ferrara was very easy as there are only six tracks there.

 

Seats are assigned on the high speed train but not on the regional.  We had no problems with luggage.  There were overhead compartments on the high speed and plenty of space on the regional.  As a matter of fact, we met another cruising couple at the Ferrara Station who had twice as much luggage as we had, and they had no issues with their bags.

 

We purchased our Italo high speed rail tickets (Venice --> Ferrara) at the self service machine in the Venice station.   For the Trenitalia regional train (Ferrara --> Ravenna), we purchased tickets via the Trenitalia app that we downloaded to our phones.

 

Here's what I would do if I was going straight from the airport to Ravenna.

 

• From the airport to Venezia Mestre Station either bus or taxi.  Taxi would be the easiest.
• From Venezia Mestre, take the train to Ferrara (either Italo or Trenitalia).
• Change trains in Ferrara for the regional train to Ravenna (Trenitalia)

 

To get from Ravenna station to your accomodations, you could see what is recommended by the host/proprietor.  We walked to our B&B (15-16 minutes).  We could have taken a city bus, but we wanted to walk through the city.  We didn't see many taxis around the train station, and our B&B host told us there weren't many around in general.

 

To get from Ravenna to Porto Corsini (to board the ship), we arranged a ride through our B&B host.  The cost was 40 €.  There was a shuttle from the train station to the port on the day of the cruise offered by Royal Caribbean.  While I cannot remember the exact amount, it was cheaper than we paid, but it was nice to have a private car take us there.  It was an easy ride.

 

Some thoughts on navigating that area of Italy....English is everywhere.  Even the signs in the train stations had English on them.

 

I spent over a year learning enough basic Italian to be understood and understand people.  In Venice, no one wanted to speak Italian to me when they found out we were American.  It was pretty much all English, all the time.   I suspect they just wanted to get the transaction (with yet another tourist) finished as quickly as possible.

 

Once we got away from Venice, people were more inclined to speak to me in Italian.

 

 

 

Thank you so much for such a detailed answer.. that is exactly what i've been looking for.  I booked my flights and hotel today, and since then have been in a panic again about getting from Venice to Ravenna.   I will print this out and then research it.. thank you once again, Debbie