How to take the rail journey from Venice/Venezia to Innsbruck

Final Destination: Munchen

Train also calls at: Bolzano and Brennero

Connect in Innsbruck for Garmisch, Landeck, St Anton and Seefeld

Book early and save: Yes

Online bookings open: 4 months ahead of the travel date

When making an online booking, check that you’re looking at booking info for the direct EC train.

When booking tickets for this journey, look for the train that departs Venezia at 13:35 daily or at 15:35 on Sat/Sun only.

It can be worth comparing prices on the OBB website with the other websites on which this journey can be booked; these trains are operated by OBB.

Booking with OBB

The discounted tickets are the 'Sparscheine' tickets and they can be booked online up until the day of departure, but they CAN'T be booked at stations, so booking last minute at the station is always more expensive.

Though you'll usually need to book the 'Sparscheine' tickets at least a couple of days ahead to obtain them at the cheapest possible price

It can pay off to take a look at the guide to Austrian train tickets - it should help you save time and money and confusion.

• Sparscheine tickets = cannot be refunded or exchanged at all.
• Standard-Ticket = can be cancelled and obtain a full refund at any time pre-travel date.
  Instead of an Exchange policy the idea is that once a Standard ticket has been refunded, an alternative ticket can then be purchased.

Booking with Trenitalia

The discounted tickets are the 'Europa 1 tickets', but they cannot be exchanged and refunded.
The more expensive 'Standard tickets' can be refunded.

Seat Reservations:

When booking tickets online on OBB a €3 price will be added to the shopping basket and you need to accept this price.
It is the cost of the mandatory seat reservation that is required when travelling by these trains from Austria into Italy.

Child tickets - booking with OBB

When booking 'Sparschiene' tickets each adult (aged 15 and over) can take up to four children aged 14 and under for free!
These children will still require tickets, but there will be no charge for them.

When not booking 'Sparschiene' tickets;

• Children aged 5 and under travel for free
• Children aged 6 – 14 travel at half-fare

Note that when booking with Trenitalia, there is seemingly no cheaper child rate on its discounted Europa tickets.
Its more expensive Standard Tickets will be discounted by 50%, so booking with OBB is the cheaper option.

Bike tickets - booking with OBB

You will need purchase both a bike ticket AND a reservation for your bike prior to boarding; more info on how to do this is available on the [bikes on trains guide](/travel-info-and-tips/taking-a-bike-on-a-european-train/).

Dog tickets - booking with OBB

If your dog is too large to be taken in a pet carrier you will need to add a dog ticket when making your booking;

Using rail passes

When travelling in on the Brenner route taken by these trains over the Italy / Austria border paying a 'supplement' is required [when using 'global' Eurail or InterRail passes]https://www.interrail.eu/en/plan-your-trip/reservations/trains-with-additional-supplements).
The fees for the supplement are €15 in 1st class and €10 in 2nd class.
However, the supplement is not a seat reservation.

You can purchase the supplements on the Eurail reservation service or the InterRail reservation service and the seat reservation will also be included - though you will be charged a €2 booking fee per reservation, per person.

Booking at a Trenitalia ticket desk is a more expensive option, as in addition to the supplement costs you will also have to pay a €2 booking fee for using the ticket desk + the seat reservation will cost an additional €3.50 - as per the info on this page.
The supplements are not available from the Trenitalia ticket machines.

OR if you book the supplement on the OBB website, the instructions are here,, you will need to proactively also add the seat reservation when booking- and pay the additional cost of €3.50 in both 1st class and 2nd class.

If you take a direct train it isn't possible to arrive in Innsbruck before 18:30 - and in winter the train will travel on the most scenic part of the journey after night fall, the final hour of the journey is the highlight.

The optimum alternatives involve making one connection between trains in Verona.
When the usual timetable is available if you depart Venezia at around 07:15, you will be taking a Frecce express train from Venezia / Venice - and the time between trains in Verona will be around 30 mins.
Though if you depart at around 09:10 or 11:10 the train from from Venezia / Venice will be a Regionale Veloce service - on which seat reservations are not available.

When ShowMeTheJourney looked up this route we anticipated that these end-to-end journeys with one connection would be available to book on Trainline or RailEurope, but they weren't listed.
They were available to book on the OBB website, managed by Austria's national rail operator, but it doesn't sell the Regionale Veloce trains for the part of the journey from Venice to Verona.
So if you book with OBB, you may have to book tickets to travel by those trains at Venezia S.Lucia station.