Riding the Rails: Train Ride from Vienna to Venice

I am a proud Canadian, loyal to my country, in love with its beauty, aware of its size and the variety of landscapes it boasts from coast to coast. Because Canada is so big, travelling from one province to the other, or from Canada to its neighbouring nation of the United States, either requires a multi-day road trip or more commonly, a few hours flying time.

Hopping from place to place via train is not something you do in Canada.

Which is why, when we visited Austria in October of 2018, I was more than ready to ditch airports and car rental shops in favour of cruising to Venice, Italy on a smooth and sleek Eurorail high-speed train.

If you've never travelled around Europe by train, then I highly suggest (next time you find yourself hopping from one European country to the next) that you give it a try.

Our group was very excited to travel across Europe via train!

When planning our itinerary for our whirlwind European getaway, we knew the journey between Vienna and Venice had to be made, but it was up for debate on how that would be accomplished. We were planning the trip with two other friends who were in the process of house-hunting, and it was imperative that we were as cost-efficient as possible.

Flying to Venice from Vienna was indeed quicker, and would allow us more time for sightseeing in the "floating city", but the price was somewhat higher than everyone was willing to pay. (Not unreasonable at around $220 per person at the time we were looking.) We checked out prices from Rail Europe, and found that the cost was approximately $75 CAD for an adult, which was more in the price range we were looking for.

Not only did the price seem appealing, but we all kind of enjoyed the idea of seeing Europe through the windows as the landscape passed us by. The Austrian countryside was rumoured to be incredibly beautiful, and we were happy with the idea of seeing it more fully, but without the stress of making one of us drive in a foreign nation. Nobody in our party wanted to be responsible for renting and driving a car.

The beauty of the Italian countryside!

The only downside of opting for a rail journey over flying to Venice was the time factor. Flying to Venice was only about four hours, whereas the train trip was slated to be just over seven hours.

In the end, the idea of saving some money while seeing the countryside from a cozy Eurorail seat won over the efficiency of flying. We purchased our tickets (very early, as our planning session occurred in March for a trip scheduled all the way in October).

Flash alllllll the way forward to that October, and we were ready to hit the train station. From our hotel in downtown Vienna, we grabbed a city train to the main train station and searched for our departure platform. We were purposely about an hour early, as we'd wanted to eat lunch and double-check the tickets I'd printed out.

A quaint and pretty Austrian town, as seen from our train.

I do admit, I'm a bit of a fretful person on travel days. I have a thing with being early - just in case - and I always need our tickets double-checked - just in case. I like to reweigh my suitcases - just in case, and I'm always fiddling with either my passport, wallet, computer equipment, you name it, making sure everything is in its place - just in case. My husband rolls his eyes at me most of the time, but let me tell you, it is better than the alternative.

And that's exactly what happened at the Vienna train station. I took the tickets to the information center in the train station while the rest of my group was drinking coffee. I had a feeling in my gut that something would be wrong. The paper copy of the tickets I'd printed out hadn't properly printed the QR codes, forcing me to do a screenshot of the codes and print them separately on a piece of paper. They printed in quite a large size, and the train station's scanners couldn't process them. The lady at the information desk told me we'd need to print all new tickets, and I'd need proper ID in order to do that.

More sights from the window of our train as we speed from Vienna to Venice.

I had to run back to where everyone was relaxing, dodging suitcases and throngs of people, collect everyone's passports, sprint back to the information center, wait again in line, and then have the lady re-enter our info and re-print tickets. It was a good thing we'd gotten there early, and it was a good thing I'd listened to my instincts! Being slightly paranoid and double-checking everything isn't a bad thing, so don't let anyone tell you otherwise.

With proper tickets in hand, tummies full and blood caffeinated, we headed to our platform to board our 7 hour train to Venice.

Once on board, we piled our suitcases right where we could keep a watchful eye on them. There is no luggage security on Eurorail trains, and I know of two people personally who had their suitcases whisked away and off the train at random stops without the owners realizing it. So make sure you store your luggage within sight line of where you choose to sit, and watch it at every single stop. Better yet, stay within an arm's reach of it if possible, so if someone either purposely or mistakenly tries to exit with your bag in hand, you can politely tell them they've grabbed the wrong case.

Austria had such beautiful farms and fields!

We didn't really have to worry for about five hours of our trip - we had the entire compartment to ourselves. It was not a very busy voyage at all! Closer towards Venice more people began to board, but overall it was a quiet and relaxing trip.

We had packed a couple of drinks and snacks for us along the way, but there was a snack trolley that passed by us occasionally, so you don't have to bring your own goodies.

For the most part, we gazed serenely out of the window, watching the vibrant green fields of Austria pass us by. Beautiful churches, sprawling vineyards, quaint farmhouses... it was all a wonderful treat for our eyes. I tried to film and photograph as much as I could, but typically by the time I'd spotted something beautiful I wanted to capture, it was gone before I could turn my camera on and get it focused.

Every now and then you'd pass by some amazing and picturesque architecture!

There's not too much to say about the ride itself - I have made a video which is posted below that shows what it was like much better than I could ever describe. Everyone else in my group slept for a portion of the ride, but I was too enamoured with the landscape to sleep a wink. I did manage to edit a blog post and do a little vlog work while travelling, but mostly I tried to enjoy the moment. I mean, when else am I going to get to voyage between Vienna and Venice, surrounded by such natural beauty?

By the time we arrived in Venice, it was dark. We could see light glinting off the rippling waters of the lagoon surrounding the city, but the cloak of night prevented us from getting too much of a first impression.

Our first view of Venice was dim, but still very pretty.

We exited the train station and looked for the proper water taxi to take us up the Grand Canal to the Rialto Bridge stop, where our AirBnB owner Francesca had promised to meet us. On the way out of the train station, we were bombarded with 'helpful' porters offering to take our luggage down to the water taxis for us. Aware that they could be either thieves or scam artists who would then demand money for carrying our suitcases 3 meters, we declined all offers. I am perfectly capable of carrying my own suitcase, no matter how heavy! (And it was heavy - it had that stinkin' ball gown in it, and that thing wasn't light!)

We successfully made it to the right water taxi, to the right stop at Rialto, and found Francesca, who led us to the apartment where we'd be staying. We celebrated that evening on a successful travel day, a beautiful train ride, and on our first night of enjoying Venice.