day/overnight trip from Venice? Where to go? Are the Alps possible?

[CruisingGatorGirl]

My family and I will be in Venice for 24 hours in May. The ship arrives at 2pm the first day and leaves 2 pm the next day. My family is interested in doing a day trip from Venice. They would love to see the Alps as I am the only one who has seen them (I saw them in Austria). Would it be possible to go from Venice to see the Alps anywhere?

 

If not the Alps, are there any other good day trips from Venice? Maybe see the countryside, Milan? Cute towns? What? :D

 

Thank you,

Ashley and my family

[TMLAalum]

We spent a week in a timeshare in Maria Alm Austria and one of the daytrips they offered was to Venice so I'm sure it would be doable in reverse.

 

Any reason why you don't want to spend your port day in Venice? With the time frame you're in port, it would be a mad dash to get only a glimpse of Alps, be they in Italy or Austria.

 

Another plan might be to return to Europe for a land trip taking in the Alps of Austria & Switzerland:D Both countries are so beautiful and so worth spending many days in each.

[maryann ns]

Unless you have already been to Venice for at least several days, I would just stay there.

 

A good day trip from Venice is Verona, but only if you have seen Venice.

 

You could drive to Innsbruck over the Brenner Pass in about four hours. This would be a long day by the time you get a rental car, do the driving and return the car. http://g.co/maps/93zc6

[CathyCruises]

Oh geez!!! There is so much to see and appreciate in Venice itself!! Milan doesn't hold a candle to it! Cute town??? Venice is the best!!!!!! It is in a league by itself. Is there some reason you don't want to visit there?

[riffatsea]

I agree that with only 1 day in Venice you need to see Venice!!

It is the most unique city in the world!

[CruisingGatorGirl]

Thank you everybody for the replies. I have been to Venice when I was 18 for a college trip (and other cities/countries, we were in Venice for 1 day), the rest of my family has never been. From what I can remember all we did was take a gondola ride and walk through some shops and get lost :D I didn't see how we could spend 2 days there, I will have to do some research. Any quick must-dos? Thank you for the help!

[CathyCruises]

Well, there's St. Mark's basilica, the Doge's Palace and maybe the secret tour thereof, the Peggy Guggenheim museum collection, a vaporetto ride out to Murano or Burano, seeing the Grand Canal, GETTING LOST! which is an art form in Venice, wandering, meandering and exploring! We were just there for four days and still didn't see everything on our list, and this was our second visit! It is indeed the most unique city in the world by most accounts.

[wisteria1019]

For us, we need 4 days minimun in Venice. Getting lost for the day is half the fun. Great discoveries around every corner.

 

Dawn

[4774Papa]

We have been to Venice several times as well as much of the surrounding area near Venice. One day is not much time to see anything of any consequence. Milan is just too far away. Also, the Alps are not real far away, but the best places are some distance away.

Verona is an interesting town (Romeo and Juliet were from there). Still, I wouldn't spend the effort just to go to Verona.

Ravenna is worth a day trip, but you might need to rent a car.

Bologna is another option, but again, in my opinion not worth the short trip.

[JLC@SD]

The ship arrives at 2pm the first day and leaves 2 pm the next day. They would love to see the Alps :D

 

The train is your most likely mode of travel to go that far.

 

Realisticly......you will spend the first afternoon getting to where you go to.......and the second morning getting back to the ship in time for departure. You will probably only see the alps at night....;)

[Mercury]

We have been to Cortina to ski. It is about a 3hr transfer from Venice airport. It's a lovely resort but it's charm would not be the same in summer without the snow.

 

I would also prefer to stay in Venice!

 

Here's a link with info on Cortina:

http://skiingthealps.com/Default.aspx?go=Resort&ResortID=81

[TMLAalum]

Thank you everybody for the replies. I have been to Venice when I was 18 for a college trip (and other cities/countries, we were in Venice for 1 day), the rest of my family has never been. From what I can remember all we did was take a gondola ride and walk through some shops and get lost :D I didn't see how we could spend 2 days there, I will have to do some research. Any quick must-dos? Thank you for the help!

 

You kind of remind me of a friend of mine, who has no desire to return to Rome because she was there in her 20s on a whirlwind Europe tour:confused:.

 

Other posters have made great suggestions of what to do/see in Venice, In addition, you can climb the Campanile for city views, visit the Friari church, go to the Mercato Rialto, and soak in the atmosphere of St. Mark's square especially at night.

 

What are you planning on for Paris? Notre Dame, the Louvre, la tour Eiffel? A little research will lead you to the equally famous highlights of Venice. IMHO, since your family has never been to Venice, it would be a disservice to spend your time in that port elsewhere...

[riffatsea]

I have so far spent 10 days in Venice and only 1 of them was spend on a day trip out of the city to some nearby villages.

I have not seen everything that the city has to offer!

Please do a little reading either on line or in your local library or book store. The small Top 10 Eyewitness Guide is a good place to start.

[CruisingGatorGirl]

Thank you everyone for the suggestions. I will do some research here on CC and online. I just remember taking a gondola ride and thinking "oh, that's it!"

 

Thank you again for the help, we will stay in Venice :)

[T. Advisor King]

I will offer a slightly contrarian view, which is likely to be misunderstood. Other than the Grand Canal, I don't think there are really any "must see" places in Venice. It's not as if you'll get back home and your friends at work will all gather around and say, "how was the Doge's Palace" the same way they might ask you about the Eiffel tower if you were in Paris. The closest thing is probably St. Mark's square, which is a very busy, bustling tourist area, which I agree is "worth seeing". I would add the Rialto Bridge to that, just because it is famous for being the Rialto Bridge, but few people are likely to ask you about it and other than the fact that it is famous, it isn't remarkably picturesque nor is it an amazing feat of engineering.

 

All that said, we loved Venice. We were there for four nights before flying to Barcelona for our Med cruise in July. We did spend one day going to Murano/Burano. We didn't come close to running out of things to do. In fact, we really never had much opportunity to just "do nothing" and wander around. I would jump at the next opportunity to go back to Venice again.