If you are ambitious and have GPS, can you drive from Venice to Cinque Terre ? we plan to leave very early in the morning during a weekday. will it save us time ? i understand the train to milan then to CT is approx 6 hours.

Of course you can drive, but will it be faster? Maybe. Maybe not. On the driving side option, you need to factor in the time needed to actually rent the car, stops for lunch and/or comfort, possible traffic delays, and the overall time of the journey depends on where your final destination in the CT is.

IMO, it only makes sense to drive if you plan to make a sightseeing stop or two along the way. If you're just looking to get from A to B, take the train.

Well, you don't want a car in Venice and you don't want a car in the CT. You get between the villages by foot or boat or train. The road is inland. You may have to pay to park your car uphill out of the town.

So I agree with Jean. Take the train. Or change your itinerary.

thanks jean ... we we're just trying to avoid getting in to monterossa too late to enjoy part of the day. i guess we should just try to get on the earliest train out of venice. do you know how early they start ?

You might also look at trains from Venice to Florence and then to La Spezia, where you will change to one of the frequent local trains to get to Monterossa. It may be faster.

Check trenitalia.com for schedules and prices.

dgio1960,
I keyed in an upcoming date (9/27) for an idea of train travel times betwn Venice & Monterosso. Early train leaves from Venice Mestre station at 7:39 am, and then w/ couple changes you'll finally end up at Monterosso by 1:00 pm (actually schedule for route shows 12:54). Of course if you're staying in Venice (island), then you'll need to begin journey a bit earlier by taking one of regional trains from Venice Santa Lucia station ("Ve S.L.") to Mestre --- that only takes about 11 or 12 minutes.

Since the car rental offices in Venice don't open until 8:00 or 8:30, I think you'd arrive earlier if you took the train.

Out of curiosity, what does the rest of your itinerary look like?

If you are going to Florence, try putting your Florence time in between Venice and the CT. It makes the travel days more reasonable.

It is about 2 hours from Florence to Venice and the about 3 hours to Monterosso from Florence.

4 days in Venice
4 days in Cinque Terre
4 days in Tuscany (San Gig something .. northeast of Volterra)
we will have a car on this leg to take day trips (Volterra, Sienna, Florence)

4 days in Rome (fly back to Detroit)

BTW ... thanks Jean, JBX, notbob, and zoecat

we'll probably take the train to CT, then after that stay rent a car in La Spezia and traverse to San Gig

San Gimignano