has anyone driven from Venice to Milan airport?

[oceanswimmer]

Hi, well I'm hoping I didn't do something idiotic but here goes. Our cruise departs from Barcelona and ends up in Venice. I could not find any airfare from NYC that was under $1240 round trip (and there are 4 of us). I also couldn't find a return airfare that didn't have either way too short connection times (under 1.5 hours) or way too long (like 6 or more hours). So I decided that on the day the ship docks in Venice we will either take a train or rent a car and leave out of the Milan airport the next day. I booked airfare this way for $620 (so just about half) so even with a hotel stay and car rental we make out ahead.

 

An extra perk on doing this was both going and departing flights are nonstop.

 

I have done multiple searches on getting from Venice to the Milan airport but have not come up with a lot. The train seems like kind of a hassle -- we will have to go into Milan / take a bus shuttle to the airport / then take a taxi or shuttle to the airport hotel. So now I'm thinking of renting a car and driving from Venice directly to our airport hotel. Some of the towns along the way seem really nice and would be nice to stop at.

 

Has anyone done this (drive from Venice to the Milan airport hotels)? I'm getting nervous since no one seems to do this so I may have made a huge mistake. Should we do the train/bus shuttle or rent a car?

[Globaliser]

The train seems like kind of a hassle -- we will have to go into Milan / take a bus shuttle to the airport / then take a taxi or shuttle to the airport hotel. So now I'm thinking of renting a car and driving from Venice directly to our airport hotel. Some of the towns along the way seem really nice and would be nice to stop at.

It looks like there is now a train from Milano Centrale to Malpensa airport (in addition to the one that's been running from Milano Cadorna for some time). So you could quite easily take a train from Venice to Milano Centrale and just change there to get to the airport.

 

But what time is your flight the next day? You might have more fun staying in central Milan, and then just going to the airport in time for the flight the next day.

 

Or if you're going to drive, then why not stay somewhere nice, off the beaten track, along the way? If you've got a car, this will be your chance to do it.

[frugaltravel]

With the entire day to do the drive of only about 150 miles, I would rent the car and take your time. As Globalilser said, don't stay near the airport unless you have a super early flight.

[Gardyloo]

I'd make a bee line for Lake Maggiore, just north of MXP, and spend the day driving through the gorgeous scenery. I'd get a hotel near the airport, however, so that you could return the car that night and just rely on a shuttle the next morning. I'm assuming your flight would depart in the morning, so don't try to squeeze rental car return into the mix if you can avoid it.

[oceanswimmer]

Thanks everyone for the advice. Our flight leaves at 10:30am so I am thinking that I want to be fairly close to the airport. We were thinking of stopping at Verona or Padua along the way though I am now thinking of Lake Maggiore :-).

 

Is it difficult to drive in this area? Does my husband need to get a special driver's license (we are from the USA)?

 

Has anyone visited Verona or Padua?

 

thanks again! At least no one has confirmed my fears that this was an idiotic thing to do!!

[alcpa1]

We took the train from Venice to Milan and then the bus to Malpensa. I wish there had been a train from Milano Centrale to Malpensa when we did it because the biggest hassle was schlepping our luggage through the train station in Milan. We couldn't find an elevator and we ferried our luggage down the escalator. The Italians thought we were nuts but no one would give us a hand.

We checked our bags at the Venice station in their secured storage and spent the day in Venice. We left on the latest train that would connect us to the last bus to Malpensa. Our hotel, which was on the fringe of the airport provided us with a shuttle.

Be sure to get to Malpensa extra early.

[UKBayern]

You have not done an idiotic thing at all. The roads in Italy are very good, especially the highways. Make sure you do have some Euros before you hit the roads, because you have to pay toll on the highways. City centers can be difficult to drive because of the age of the average Italian innercity; they did not exactly have cars a 1000 years ago when these cities were built, so a lot of streets will be narrow and/or one way traffic. Just be prepared to pay a few euros for a parking garage, most european cities have excellent signage guiding you to the nearest one right in the center of town.

 

Make sure your husband has an international drivers license. Although it is not always asked for (you will get posters who will say they did not need to show it), technically speaking you need one. On our last cruise, we were one of the very few who could rent a vehicle in Greece: they would not rent to US citizens with only US drivers licenses. Also be sure what kind of car you booked, as most cars in Europe are stick-shift, and a lot of Americans are only used to driving an automatic.

 

We have actually been to all the places you are thinking about. For us northern Italy is relatively near, and we have done a lot of landtravel in that part of the world. Everything there is equally great. Unfortunately, you don't mention what time of year you will be there and what your interests are (nature, history, Shakespeare). In the off-season, when it is cold, the Lago Maggiore will not be very interesting, and in the height of the high-season you might not want to go either. The lake is very large, and you will not have time to drive round in the time frame you have.

 

Are you a history buff or into opera? Verona has an amazing ampfi-theater, where large opera concerts are being held in the summer. Concerts sell out months in advance, find more info here. The must-see in Padua is the Scrovegni Chapel, built in 1305 with awsome frescos by Giotto. Because of the delicacy of the frescos, a limited number of visitors are allowed in every day, you need to prebook at their website. Other nice towns on the way are for example Brescia, Bergamo or Vicenza. I personally think the whole Shakespeare thing in Verona is overrated. There is a balcony where Julliet could have been, although it is not proven Shakespeare was even ever in Verona.

 

If you have anymore questions, don't hesitate to ask!

[ab0si]

UKBayern gave some excellent advice. A few other thoughts:

 

1) Most rental cars in Italy are manual shift. If you need an automatic, reserve one specifically and be prepared to pay much more for it.

 

2) If you stay on the main highway, it is only a 3-hour drive to Malpensa.

 

3) There are way too many places to visit with only a travel day to do it. I suggest picking one and have a relaxed trip rather than rushing to "check off" several.

 

4) Like UKBayern, I find the Romeo and Juliet silliness in Verona is off-putting. Despite that, it is a great town.

[new salt]

If you do opt to drive, and I vote for Maggiore and the hilltop town of Bergamo, remember to make sure your possessions are in the boot and you leave nothing of even minor value in view in the car when you leave it to see the sights. Northern Italy is lovely, so is the South for that matter:D

[oceanswimmer]

Everyone, this is all great advice. I had not thought about tolls,etc at all. We are going to be in Venice in the end of April. We love history. I seem to love ancient Roman history in particular.

 

It's a good thing you mentioned that about the driver's license. Our cruise is stopping at a couple of Greek isles and we did not know that about the driver's license. My husband and daughter are big bird watchers and in April / May there is a major bird migration that goes through the Greek isles from Africa. We wanted to rent a car so that they could do some bird watching.

 

We used to have stick shifts when we were younger so hopefully that skill will come back --- it might be a little rough in the beginning though. :-)

 

Thanks again -- great suggestions.

[FlyerTalker]

International Driver's License is easily obtained through your local AAA office.

[UKBayern]

The only people who do not need an international drivers license in the EU are those who have an EU-drivers license (like us). Since you were talking about New York, I presumed you had a US license. In that case, go to the AAA, they will help you with the international license. It is not very expensive, and when you see it you think "is this all?" Do not forget to take your original US license with you on your trip too, since it is only valid in combination.

 

Umm...Roman structures... northern Italy was more towards the outskirts of the empire, and Roman buildings are not in abundance there as they are near Rome or Naples. The already mentioned Roman Arena in Verona is the one to go to of course. At Sirmione del Garda, there are large Roman ruins, called Grotto di Catullo. I found some pictures on the net here. In Brescia, you can find a rather smallish ruin of a Roman temple. The Middle Ages were more the heighdays of the north. That makes northern Italy so unusual, since a lot of buildings from the 10th to the 15th centuries are still preserved. Bergamo and Ferrara are gorgeous, for example.

 

The end of April might be a good time to see some of the lakes. The Lago Maggiore is not on your route, I would rather suggest the Gardalake, which we actually like more too. Little towns like Sirmione, Peschiera del Garda or Descenzano del Garda are quaint, and they are only a small detour from the motorway you are travelling on anyway. Lago del Garda has a much milder climate, as have the Lago d'Iseo and Lake Como, than the Lago Maggiore, so more suitable for a trip in April.

 

I am warning you already that you might get frustrated how much there is to see and do. Even after an initial 4 week landtrip, we still had not seen it all....Just pick 1 or 2 things, enjoy the countryside whilst driving, get a taste of the real Italy, and come back another time for more....

 

I would suggest Verona, then on the coast road along the south shore of Lake Garda to Sirmione, and when you have some time stop in Bergamo. That is already a lot to cover in one day. Enjoy!

[tracesmom]

We rented a car last summer in Italy to drive in the countryside for several days. I just wanted to warn you we paid a good bit for a car large enough to hold four people with four carry on size rolling bags. Despite a relatively small amount of luggage between the 4 bags and our large totes we filled up the trunk area. I don't think 4 cruise size suitcases, the size we would use for a week would have fit.

[oceanswimmer]

I'd like to thank everyone for all their input. I had searched and searched on various websites and couldn't find much information at all about doing this. I did read one posting on cruise critic about taking the train and having to change to a bus or train in Milan. That posting made me start thinking about driving.

 

All of your posts have really put my mind at ease and given me a lot of great ideas. Thanks again!

[annimal]

I hope our experience helps... This past May, my family and I (total of 5) were on a cruise from Athens to Venice. Our post-cruise itinerary was a stay in the Cinque Terre region (southwest of Milan) followed by one night in Milan before our morning departure out of Milan Linate airport. We rented a mini-van (considering we had 3 large suitcases, a couple carry-on bags and a stroller) and had enough room to transport everyone and everything. We actually walked from the pier up to the part of Venice that is connected to the mainland (Mestre?) to get our rental car. It's about a 10 - 15 minute walk with our luggage. The directions I had from ViaMichelin had us do a sort of zig-zag across Italy. We stopped about 1/3 of the way to have lunch in Bologna and do a little sightseeing. We got a little turned around in Bologna so it took us a lot longer to finally find the city center. (GPS would have really helped!) Then we continued along to our destination in the Cinque Terre. We actually drove around the Riviera and then up to Milan for our last night. We stayed at a hotel in the city where we had stayed before on a previous trip (decent for a one night stay) and we headed out at 7am the next morning and drove to Linate airport. Directions for rental car return area by the airport was easiest enough, but we were dumbfounded to find that there were no attendants at 7:30am for our return. It took a drive up to the airport for one of us to ask an airport information agent about what to do with the rental car and he said that we were supposed to park the car in a spot designated for our rental car company and then simply drop the keys through the mail slot on the door of the rental car company's office/hut.

 

Not sure if your flight is out of Milan Linate or Milan Malpensa airport. Linate is the regional airport where most connections between European countries go through and Malpensa is the larger airport a bit further out from the city where most international flight connect.

 

Driving is pretty easy. The autostrada is relatively straightforward, but like a previous poster mentioned, make sure you have some smaller bills and coins with you for toll. If you map out your drive on ViaMichelin, it will give you an estimate for toll and gas.

 

Finally, since you are going directly to Milan, ViaMichelin suggests going a straighter route than the route we took (since we were headed for Cinque Terre). The suggested routing goes through Padova, Verona and Brescia. I have never been to any of those towns, so I can't comment on them, but I'm sure you can look them up and determine what works better for your preferences. I have read that Verona is nice and it does look like an almost halfway point to Milan on the map, so you may want to consider a stop there. If you don't mind driving, enjoy the scenery and the opportunity to basically stop anywhere along the way and explore.

[Hlitner]

We do a lot of driving in Italy (more then 10,000 miles to date) and think driving is often a better option then trains when you have to deal with luggage, changing trains, getting to airports, etc. As a generaly rule we can find a one-day rental in Italy for about 100 Euros (a lot cheaper if you rent for 3 or more days). Of course you do need to factor in gas prices and tolls, but driving gives you many options. Its easy to pick-up a rental car in Venice (all the rental car companies are located near the Piazale Roma) and then drop it at either Milan airport. As to the International Drivers Permit, sometimes we have one and sometimes we don't bother. Technically it is required but in twenty-five years of driving within Italy nobody has ever asked to see the darn document. We agree with most of the other comments about Maggiore (we generally stay near Stresa) and Verona. The thing about Verona is that if you can possibly be there in the summer season their outdoor opera (it is the largest opera facility in the world and held at the ancient Roman Amphitheater) is amazing.

 

Hank

[MMDown Under]

If you decide to take the train from Venice to Milan Malpensa Airport, it is easy to stay in a hotel near the Milan Central railway station over night.

 

Our B&B Owner at the beautiful hilltop Bergamo recommended we stay in Milan the night prior to our morning flight from Malpensa, as "staying at an airport hotel would be such a waste of time".

 

She was right! We fell in love with Milan, as we joined the crowds strolling the city streets, soaking up the atmosphere, whilst our daughter attended a ballet performance at the Opera House. (Train and Opera House performances can both be booked on the internet.)

[oceanswimmer]

I thought I would come back and let everyone know how the driving to Milan from Venice to save money on airplane tickets worked out (I hate it when someone posts a problem but then you never know how it turns out for them :-))

 

It worked out great! It did end up saving us almost $2400 doing it this way and the drive was not bad at all. We picked up our rental car in the Piazale Roma which was easy to get to from our cruise ship (we took the People Mover from the dock to Piazale Roma) and then the rental agency was just around the block. We had brought our GPS from home and downloaded the map of Italy so that turned out to be handy. The driving was absolutely fine -- the drivers did not seem super aggressive at all. We stopped in Verona for 3 hours. We parked the car in a secure parking garage very near to the entrance to the Roman walled part of Verona (really really cool btw) and walked into the walled section of town. We loved Verona --- we walked by the amphitheater and ate lunch in an outdoor cafe in one of the town squares. There were so many Roman ruins everywhere you walked. I went into the ladies room in one restaurant which was in the basement and a part of the wall in the bathroom had a big piece of plexiglass walling off some ancient Roman steps! I was like "wow" -- there are so many Roman artifacts this just gets incorporated into a bathroom!!

We then drove on to the airport at Milan Malpenxa. We stayed at the Sheraton at the airport which is a rather strange hotel. It's absolutely huge --- it's on a scale that's I've never seen before in a hotel. It's connected to the airport terminal and to get to the terminal you walk through this huge dark cavernous room with artistic lights and fog. It was kind of creepy in a way -- you felt more like you were being loaded into an alien spaceship but that was just my impression (I'm sure some people love it). The rooms in the Sheraton were beautiful and it was a nice place to stay. The only thing we really had a problem with was finding the Sheraton -- if there were signs along the highway we missed them. We drove around for about an hour until I told my husband to just actually drive into the airport -- then we saw it as we pulled into the gate area.

A few more comments about driving --- many of the gas station stores were closed all the time -- you think that the gas station is closed because the store is (which is the case in the US) but it seems that, even though the gas station store is closed, you can buy gas by using a credit card at the pump. Also, and this is one of the great things about traveling --- the concept of buying "coffee to go" seems to be an American habit. Nowhere in Italy or Greece did I see a place to buy coffee to go. We stopped at a road stop on the way to Milan and in the road stop there were only tall tables and everyone was downing their expresso before getting back on the road. I love to see how other people live.

[MMDown Under]

I thought I would come back and let everyone know how the driving to Milan from Venice to save money on airplane tickets worked out (I hate it when someone posts a problem but then you never know how it turns out for them :-))

 

It worked out great! It did end up saving us almost $2400 doing it this way and the drive was not bad at all. We picked up our rental car in the Piazale Roma which was easy to get to from our cruise ship (we took the People Mover from the dock to Piazale Roma) and then the rental agency was just around the block. We had brought our GPS from home and downloaded the map of Italy so that turned out to be handy. The driving was absolutely fine -- the drivers did not seem super aggressive at all. We stopped in Verona for 3 hours. We parked the car in a secure parking garage very near to the entrance to the Roman walled part of Verona (really really cool btw) and walked into the walled section of town. We loved Verona --- we walked by the amphitheater and ate lunch in an outdoor cafe in one of the town squares. There were so many Roman ruins everywhere you walked. I went into the ladies room in one restaurant which was in the basement and a part of the wall in the bathroom had a big piece of plexiglass walling off some ancient Roman steps! I was like "wow" -- there are so many Roman artifacts this just gets incorporated into a bathroom!!

We then drove on to the airport at Milan Malpenxa. We stayed at the Sheraton at the airport which is a rather strange hotel. It's absolutely huge --- it's on a scale that's I've never seen before in a hotel. It's connected to the airport terminal and to get to the terminal you walk through this huge dark cavernous room with artistic lights and fog. It was kind of creepy in a way -- you felt more like you were being loaded into an alien spaceship but that was just my impression (I'm sure some people love it). The rooms in the Sheraton were beautiful and it was a nice place to stay. The only thing we really had a problem with was finding the Sheraton -- if there were signs along the highway we missed them. We drove around for about an hour until I told my husband to just actually drive into the airport -- then we saw it as we pulled into the gate area.

A few more comments about driving --- many of the gas station stores were closed all the time -- you think that the gas station is closed because the store is (which is the case in the US) but it seems that, even though the gas station store is closed, you can buy gas by using a credit card at the pump. Also, and this is one of the great things about traveling --- the concept of buying "coffee to go" seems to be an American habit. Nowhere in Italy or Greece did I see a place to buy coffee to go. We stopped at a road stop on the way to Milan and in the road stop there were only tall tables and everyone was downing their expresso before getting back on the road. I love to see how other people live.

 

Thank you for letting us know your experiences driving from Venice to Milan. It is lovely to hear how people got on travelling independently.

 

Wow - $2400 was some saving!