Venice to Ravenna - our experience

[SOPOME]

We  (group of 5 adults, 70ish in age, some more fit than others!)  just returned from a cruise on Voyager of the Seas from Ravenna to Barcelona.  In planning this trip, we wanted to fly into Venice (from Boston) stay 2 nights and then travel to Ravenna and stay there 2 nights before starting the cruise. .(In reality it was about 1.5 days in each city, taking travel time into consideration.)  Overall we were looking to save money on hotels and transportation, so that played a large part in some of the planning decisions.  We decided we would take the train from Venice to Ravenna at the end of the first 2 nights, so it made sense to us to stay somewhere near the train station in Venice, vs heading further down the Grand Canal.  That worked out well for us.  We chose Albergo Marin that was a charming small boutique hotel and about 5 minutes from the train station.  They even reserved a porter for us to help with the luggage the day we left.  They also provided an excellent breakfast. 

We had also decided that we would take the ATVO bus from the airport to Piazzale Roma, which was about a 6-7 minute walk to our hotel. 

(After we got our luggage at baggage claim we went to the ATVO counter and bought the tickets (about $10 each) and the clerk directed us to the bus stop.  Once outside there was an employee directing people to the correct stop and showing people how to validate their ticket in a machine before getting on the bus.  It was very easy overall.

We each had a 24" piece of luggage and a carry on piece, so it was a bit challenging, but not impossible.  There were 2 bridges to navigate from Piazzale Roma to our hotel, one with a "ramp" on one side that made it easy with luggage.  The other bridge did not.  But as I struggled a bit with my luggage I had 2 different strangers offer to help me which was so nice!  I'm sure the locals see this every day!  (You can see now why we hired the porter to help us to the train station 2 days later.  That was only one BIG bridge! haha)

There were a few different choices of trains/routes to get us to Ravenna, but we ended up choosing the regional train from Venice to Ravenna, with a change in Ferrara. I bought the tickets online ahead of time costing approximately $19 each. 

One thing to note is if you buy the tickets online you can download the app Trainline and the tickets will show there.  You have to "check in" a day ahead and that was easy right on the app.   When the conductor comes around on the train you can just show him the tickets on the app,

There were no seat assignments and it was unclear about luggage storage, but it all worked out fine.  The train starts out in Venice, so it's very doubtful you will be dealing with huge numbers of people.  Even with 20+ ahead of us in line we were able to board in a choice of several cars and immediately stack all our luggage together in a spot that was for luggage/baby strollers/bikes and sit across from it to keep our eyes on it all.  

There are monitors on the train that show where they are on the route and when you are approaching Ferrara, so it's not hard to know when it's time to get off.   Ferrara is a small station, but the track we needed to Ravenna was on the other side and the only way to get over there was a tunnel underneath.  It ended up that there was an elevator (Lift!) but we didn't see it and ended up using the stairs.  That was challenging with the luggage, but we did it!

The train to Ravenna is a slower regional route, with no problem at all finding seats and space for your luggage.  Once again we sat directly across from the luggage.

When we arrived at Ravenna we quickly saw that we had another tunnel challenge under the tracks to get into the station and out into the city.  We were smarter this time and looked for an elevator and found the sign for the Lift....but it had an "Out of Order" sign on it!!!  So once again we schlepped our luggage down and up the train station stairs!!   Not for the faint of heart, but we were all laughing about it later!

We had reservations for M Club Deluxe B&B, which turned out to be a fantastic choice!  I highly recommend this place!  We already knew, communicating with the M Club, that there are limited taxis in town.  They gave me a phone number to call if we wanted to get one, or walk about 20 minutes there.  Once outside we were going to walk but we were in luck as there was a mini van taxi sitting outside, so we grabbed it.

We loved our short stay in Ravenna.  We prebooked a mosaic tour and saw 5 UNESCO sites that were amazing.  So many photo ops.   The shops and restaurants were excellent and we all commented that the prices were very reasonable, as my guess is it's not really known yet as a busy tourist destination, so no inflated prices! 

We had prebooked through M Club for a car service to take us to the ship, so check out day at the hotel and check in at the ship was very easy.

I hope this helps answer questions you might have on alternatives to the cruise shuttle or hiring a private transfer from Venice.

[erby2283]

Thanks for taking the time to post. I'm sure it will be very helpful for others looking to do the same thing.  Isn't Venice just magical? I loved it. 

[SOPOME]

On 6/13/2024 at 1:49 PM, erby2283 said:

Thanks for taking the time to post. I'm sure it will be very helpful for others looking to do the same thing.  Isn't Venice just magical? I loved it. 

This was our second time in Venice, and it is definitely magical! 💖