We are planning a trip to Venice in September. Flying in to Venice and then catching water taxi or the like to hotel. No car for the duration in Venice of course, but on the way out, we would like to rent a vehicle for the rest of our trip to Lake Como and Santa M. Ligure. Can anyone advise if it is closer/better to catch a water taxi back to the airport and rent a car from there, or is Stazione Centrale a better choice. Thanks for the advise....

I think renting at Piazzale Roma is much simpler than going all the way to the airport. That would be my choice.

No car rentals at the Santa Lucia train station. No roads, you know.

The car rental agencies are located at the Piazzale Roma where the parking garage is. Very easy to get there by vaporetto... and then it's even easier to drive off and be on your way. (Providing the car you reserved is there -

Thanks for the input. Alamo actually rents from Stazione Centrale, that is why I asked - don't know if that is Santa Lucia with no roads?!? Can you recommend any companies that hire from Piazzale Roma - I have checked Hertz and they do not have an office there. I need a reliable company that allows drop offs, as I will be returning the car to Genoa.

Sixt has an outlet at Piazzale Roma, just beside the large parking garage. The other car rental offices are on the left side of the parking garage. Looking at it from the Parking area at Roma.

www.autoeurope.com 800-223-5555
They are what you want.

I have a car reserved for pick-up at Piazzale Roma this October. I booked through Kemwel but my car pick-up is at Hertz. It is listed as their Downtown Venice location.

I got mine from EuropCar. It was easy to ride the vap to Piazzale Roma, walk across the street to the big parking garage that houses most of the car rental places.

From there, it's very easy to get on the road out of town -- only one way to go!

(We had a GPS handheld guide us through the lakes region. well worth the cost!

This past June when we picked our car up at Piazzale Roma I believe the Hertz place was next door to Europcar.

Seconding Bob's req to use AutoEurope -- if you have a better price from Hertz they'll match it or try to beat it.

I have no idea what the Alamo website means when it refers to Venice Stazione Centrale. That is not the name of the train station there. Perhaps it is referring to the BUS station, which is located at Piazzale Roma. . .

Hi O,

Stazione Centrale refers, I think, to the train station in Mestre, on the mainland.

Unless the price is significantly lower, I suggest getting the car at Piazzale Roma.

Check rates at www.kemwll.com, www.novacarhire.com and www.autoeurope.com

Ira is correct. Just googled it and was given the Venice Mestre station.

We rented from Europcar through AutoEurope with pickup at Piazzale Roma. Advice: I think getting there as early as you can may be to your benefit.

It was easy to get there on the vaporetto. We arrived at the office at a bit before 10 am on a Saturday. There were about 3 people in front of us in the queue, with 2 agents working. It took about half an hour to get to the front of the line and get the paperwork completed.

Then we waited for at least another half hour or maybe an hour to have the car brought around to us. The line at the Europcar office had really lengthened by this time so we were happy we had made it through when we did...I think Sat. is probably a very busy day for them. There is no comfortable place to wait..you are just lining the sidewalk with lots of other people waiting for their cars, luggage piled everywhere.

(Also, the car was supposed to be 100% undamaged according to the paperwork we were given at first, but had several scratches and problems...we were careful to have them recorded by the guy who brought the car around.)

Thank you so much for all your input. Especially LynAK - We will be picking the car up on a Saturday, so your advise is really valuable.

BEWARE of Car Rentals in Venice!!!
We rented from AutoEurope and then
drove through Croatia. The car rental agency at the airport (Europcar) was not open (carpark or in the airport) when we dropped off our vehicle in a timely manner. When we returned home, we were charged for four extra days. They claimed they could not find the keys to the car, which we had left on the seat of the rental vehicle.
We are still fighting this charge, but AutoEurope agent mentioned that this is a constnt problem when renting in Venice. AutoEurope was no help to us in negotiating for a credit, and we are now trying to dispute with our credit card company. Let the buyer beware!

Would someone be kind enough to tell me how close the St. Lucia train station is to the Piazzale Roma? It looks close on the map, but across a canal and, of course, those maps can be deceiving. Does anyone have suggestions for getting fromSt Lucia to the Cruise Port? We're arriving by train, planning to store our luggage and explore for about 2 hours, then we have to get to the ship. Upon our return, we're departing from Hertz at Piazzale Roma... but we want to spend some time exploring Venice again on that day. SHould we store our luggage at St Lucia again? Thank you for your assistance with these multiple questions!

As mentioned above, we also picked up our Europcar rental from AutoEurope in the Piazzale Roma. We chose a water taxi and arrived there early. If you have too much luggage there are people who will carry your baggage to your rental agency (for a price). Other rental agencies in same area. There were a couple of people ahead of us but within 1 hour we had our car. As LynAK said there is no comfortable place to wait, and people were lingering outside their various rental car agencies waiting for their rentals with luggage all along the sidewalk. AutoEurope had to park our car on the busy main street as the parking areas were full, so we turned around and headed back over the bridge towards Lake Garda.

Hi sallydil,

have a look at www.veniceforvisitors.com - it's specifially aimed at cruise passengers and can answer most of your quesions I think.

your best route it seems to depend upon where your cruise ship will be berthed - but it seems likely to be in walking distance of Piazzale Roma.

there are frequent vaporetti from the staion to P'zale Rome.

regards, ann

bookmarking