Look up a journey by train from Venice/Venezia to Lugano on the rail ticket booking services and most of the journey options you will see involve taking a Frecce train to Milano Centrale station and connecting there for an EC express train to Lugano.
However, there is usually a direct train available, though it isn't due to arrive into Lugano until around 19:30.
If you want to arrive in the Swiss lake resort town (Lake Lugano is cited an Italian lake, but Lugano is in Switzerland) sooner, particularly good connections are usually available when departing from Venezia S. Lucia at 07:18 and 11:48.
When booking tickets for journeys by the direct train or the connecting between Frecce and EC trains in Milano, complimentary seat reservations for both trains will be included.
Though users of Eurail of InterRail passes will have to pay for those seat reservations, so if you will be travelling with a rail pass, a money saving option is to hop between Venice and Lugano on three regional trains, making connections in Verona and Milano.
Final Destination: Zuerich/Zurich
This train also calls at: Monza, Como and Chiasso
There is only one direct train per day from Venice to Lugano and it usually scheduled to depart daily from Santa Lucia station at 15:18.
1 x train per day
Book early and save: Yes
Online bookings open: 4 months ahead of the travel date
Seat reservations are complimentary when booking tickets to travel by this train to Lugano, which departs from Venezia S. Lucia daily at 15:18; so hone it on this departure time, if you want to travel by this direct train.
If you use the 'other search options' link on the Trenitalia home page, you can access the 'solutions without changing' facility, which will make this direct train easier to find.
Though if the departure times of this train aren't suitable, don't use that other search options facility and you will also see numerous other journey options, all of which will involve changing trains in Milano Centrale station.
Pay particular attention to the connecting time between trains, if you do opt to take make the journey on the indirect trains.
If you book discounted tickets and the train on from Milano is an EC train, your tickets will be specific that particular departure.
Rail Pass Users:
If you will be travelling with a rail pass, you can avoid the rail pass reservation fee on these trains by:
(1) Taking a Regionale Veloce train from Venice to Verona
(2) Taking a Regionale train from Verona to Milan
(3) Taking a Regionale/Ticino train from Milan to Lugano
Ticket Provider | Approximate Cost | |
---|---|---|
Italia Rail | from €29 | |
Trenitalia | from €29 |
This train will reverse direction on departure from Milano Centrale.
This would be a scenic journey if the train departed Venezia/Venice earlier, as the most scenic part of the trip is the final 20 mins before arrival, with the highlight being the crossing of the lake.
So if you opt to depart earlier and make the connections you'll get to experience these scenic highlights.
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This is one of more than 100 train travel guides available on ShowMeTheJourney, which will make it easier to take the train journeys you want or need to make. As always, all images were captured on trips taken by ShowMeTheJourney.