The complete guide to renting a car in Venice in 2024
Ok, let’s clear up something from the start: if Venice is all you wish to dedicate your holiday time to, then this page is not really for you. There's absolutely no point in having access to a vehicle in the ultimate road-free city.
Let me also add that, if during your Venetian holiday you are interested in taking day trips to nearby historical cities such as Padua or Verona, then this page is not really for you either: to connect Italian cities, no means of transportation can beat low cost, environmentally-friendly, and stress-free railway travel.
There are, however, a few scenarios in which renting a car is non-negotiable:
as widespread as Italian railways are, some beautiful destinations can only be reached by road. So, if you think that one city is enough for your holiday, a pleasant drive from Venice can take you to some gems off the beaten track or give you access to a wide range of natural areas. You could hike or bike on stunning green hills crisscrossed by trails and peppered with charming villages; get that bronze-suntanned skin on long sandy beaches; visit an atmospheric sanctuary nestled on the side of a mountain; or marvel at the deep blue of Italy’s largest lake while exploring enchanting old castles.
Venice may mark the beginning of a longer journey and you are planning to continue by road.
Venice may not be your actual destination at all, but you are using it as a starting point to get where you need to. For example, Venice airport is often a convenient choice for those coming to Italy to explore the Dolomites: Cortina d’Ampezzo, one of the main hubs, is only two hours away by car. Also, renting a vehicle is a good idea if planning a wider trip across Northern Italy or even to reach neighbouring countries such as Slovenia, Croatia, or Austria.
As a former resident and now a regular visitor, through the years I have rented numerous cars in Venice to either have freedom of movement in the area when I visit my family or to start road trips destined elsewhere. In fact, I would go as far as to say that I have dealt with most rental agencies in the area.
And I am here to share all I have learned in the process.
Contents
Where can you rent a car in Venice?
The majority of the rental agencies around Venice are clustered around three main locations:
1) Piazzale Roma
Piazzale Roma is the large square serving as the terminus of all buses to Venice and, together with the Santa Lucia railway station, the main point of access to the city via land.
If you are basing yourself on the islands of the historical city and are only considering getting a car for a day trip, this is the most convenient location for you. Rental offices in this area are either on the ground floor of the largest multi-storey car park on the final section of the road leading to Piazzale Roma, or at the very opposite end of the square, by the short-term car park.
Be aware that renting from Piazzale Roma can often mean higher prices and lower company ratings. Personally, I prefer dealing with the agencies around the Mestre-Venezia train station (next in the list) instead.
2) Venezia-Mestre train station
Mestre is the mainland continuation of Venice, an old city (now mostly modern and non-descript) that saw a population boom when Venetians started leaving the islands for larger houses and jobs in the nearby industrial centres.
The area just around Mestre’s train station is scattered with car rental agencies, some of them a little hidden away. I have rented vehicles from offices facing platforms inside the station, on the ground floor of a multi-storey car park next to the station, on a roundabout nearby, and down a half-hidden alleyway leading to Hotel Tritone. Prices in this area are generally lower than in Piazzale Roma.
HOW TO GET TO VENEZIA MESTRE TRAIN STATION FROM VENICE
Mestre’s railway station (whose official name is Venezia-Mestre) is only a 10-minute train journey away from Santa Lucia, Venice’s main station. Virtually all trains leaving from Venice stop in Mestre, so there are a lot of available trains at any given time, and a one-way ticket costs €1.45.
You can buy your ticket either on the Omio website (which will also show all the available trains throughout the whole day, so you can plan ahead), the Italian Railways website and app (available from the Apple Store or Google Play), at any station’s ticket machines and ticket offices, or newsagents.
3) Venice Marco Polo Airport
If Venice is your first stop on a journey continuing on the road, and you are planning to return and fly out of Marco Polo Airport at the end, then this may just be the perfect location for your rental. Surprisingly, while rental agencies often charge premium prices from airport locations, Venice’s airport is instead a budget-friendly choice. It is usually the most budget-friendly of the three Venice rental spots.
Rental companies have their premises either inside the airport, on the top floor of a large multi-storey car park next to the airport, or in offices further away from the area – in which case there will be a free shuttle service picking you up at the airport when you arrive, and driving you back after the car has been returned.
HOW TO GET TO MARCO POLO AIRPORT FROM VENICE
Below are your options to reach the airport from Venice, from the most affordable to the most expensive.
BY BUS
Two types of buses can take you from Piazzale Roma to the airport:
- the ordinary white ACTV bus no 5, which stops along the way and takes between 20 and 30 minutes, or
- the ATVO Venezia Express coach, which doesn’t stop along the way and takes around 20 minutes.
Both buses cost €10 one-way and €18 for a round-trip.
ACTV tickets can be purchased at any point of sale by the waterbus docks, at the larger ticket office in Piazzale Roma, or via the AVM app (available from the Apple Store or Google Play).
ATVO tickets can be purchased here or at the ATVO ticket office in Piazzale Roma.
BY BOAT
Alilaguna is a boat transfer service that connects several waterbus docks around Venice (including St Mark’s San Zaccaria and Royal Gardens, Rialto, Guglie Bridge, and Fondamente Nove stop A) with the airport.
Tickets cost €15 one-way and €27 for the round-trip, and they can be purchased here, or at the ACTV ticket booths by St Mark’s and Rialto’s docks.
There are two main lines: ‘Blu’ and ‘Arancio’, plus a seasonal ‘Rossa’ between April and October.
The length of the journey depends on where you board the boat. It can take from 40 minutes (Blu Line from Fondamente Nove dock or Arancio Line from the Guglie dock) to around 70 minutes (Blu or Rossa line from St Marks’s San Zaccaria dock) to almost two hours (Blu line from the Railway station dock). All timetables are available here.
VIA SHARED CAR
GoOpti is a transfer service by car that operates from Tronchetto (Piazzale People Mover - you can get there via “People Mover” light rail from Piazzale Roma), can be shared or private and is booked online.
Prices vary depending on how much in advance the booking is made but as a rule of thumb, they start at around €22 for a shared ride and €35 for a private ride.
The journey takes about 20 minutes.
Disclaimer: I have never used this service, and its online reviews differ quite a lot, so I am unable to vouch for its reliability. Please book at your own risk.
BY WATER TAXI
A private water taxi will pick you up at your accommodation or the nearest available dock and deliver you straight to the airport.
This is the most expensive choice and you should agree on a price in advance, or book a fixed-price ride that costs €220 for up to six people. If you are indeed a group of six, this works out as a fabulous option at €37 each.
There is also a shared alternative (where the captain picks up other passengers) that costs €37 per person but is only available after 1:30 pm. It is available all day long from the airport though.
BY TAXI
You can get a taxi from Piazzale Roma.
Taxi rides have extremely unreliable prices in Italy, mainly due to a powerful taxi lobby that allows drivers to charge random additional fees and doesn’t enforce the use of meters. Sometimes a ride from Venice to the airport costs €60, other times €100. It is a good idea to talk to drivers first and try to agree on a price.
Uber has been consistently ostracised by the same lobby, but in recent years some concessions have been made, especially in major Italian cities. As far as I know, Venice is not one of them, but it may be a good idea to check your app anyway, just in case something reasonable comes up.
Depending on traffic, the journey should take between 20 minutes and half an hour.
How do you choose a rental car agency in Venice?
With such a wide offer of car rental agencies in the Venice area, the selection process can be a little daunting.
You could start by determining which of the three locations listed above suits you best, find the available rental companies in that area using Google Maps, and either ask for a quote over the phone or check the rates on the official websites.
Or you can let a car rental search engine do all the work for you and score the best deals. My go-to search engine for the past several years has been Discover Cars. They offer preferential rates we would hardly have access to if renting directly from a car rental company. All we need to do is identify and compare suitable deals and book online. A 48-hour free cancellation policy provides peace of mind and allows us to take advantage of early-bird rates knowing that we can modify or cancel our booking for free if our plans change closer to the pickup date. Last but not least, the full coverage insurance policy is the best value I have ever come across in my many years of car renting around the world, and it is certainly much cheaper than if purchased from a car rental agency.
Typing ‘Venice’ in the Pick-up Location field shows the available location choices. I usually select ‘Venice (all locations)’, which returns all available cars across the whole Venice area. But if I have a specific site in mind, I make sure I choose it from the below options:
Venice Downtown (or Venice Santa Croce Downtown) or Port of Venice for rentals from Piazzale Roma
Venice Mestre Train Station or Mestre Train Station for rentals from Venezia Mestre station
Venice Airport (VCE) for rentals from Marco Polo Airport
Occasionally, it may be more convenient to collect and return the vehicle in different locations, in which case we can untick the box next to ‘Return car in same location’ and enter the preferred return place in the Drop-off location field. However, that sometimes results in an additional fee.
After entering pick-up and drop-off dates, Discover Cars will list all available rentals and we can easily compare deals and review scores of the various providers. I tend to only select companies with a review score of 8 or higher.
What should your car rental in Venice include?
To maximise the freedom that a car rental affords, I recommend selecting an unlimited mileage rental. That allows for a more relaxed and spontaneous trip, where you can go as far as you like, take detours, and include additional destinations if you feel so inclined. You really shouldn’t have to check your dashboard to determine where to go.
I also always rent cars with a full petrol tank, so I can hit the road immediately instead of having to look for a petrol station before I am familiar with the vehicle and the local roads.
If renting a car between mid-November and mid-April and heading anywhere mountainous (such as the Alps or the Apennines) or even slightly hilly, you are legally required to either have snow chains in your vehicle or have winter tyres on. Rental cars from Venice won't be typically equipped with either, so you will need to specifically request them as an optional extra. Sometimes you can do so by ticking ‘Snow chains’ in the Optional Extras section on the left-hand side of the Discover Cars results page; alternatively, you can request them in advance directly from the rental agency.
If you are planning to drive into any of the neighbouring countries (i.e. Austria, Slovenia, or Switzerland) I recommend you check the ‘Rental conditions’ in each rental deal that Discover Cars shows. There is a dedicated section where you can tick the country you are thinking of visiting and find out what your options are. Some rental agencies don’t allow or charge a supplement for cross-border travel - usually a one-off fee.
Finally, no matter how confident of a driver you are, nothing beats peace of mind: I recommend buying full insurance coverage from Discover Cars. This is likely to be a small additional charge per day, but it is hardly comparable with the steep price of the same product when purchased from a car rental company. I always include it in my rentals from Venice, even if Italy is my home country and where I learned how to drive.
TIP 1 Even when buying full coverage from Discover Cars, at car pick-up time some rental agents will tell you that you need to take on additional insurance; that’s not the case, and you should always reject that offer unless you want duplicate policies in place. They may also warn you that you will still be charged for any damage to the vehicle and that it will be your job to later claim a refund from Discover Cars; that’s accurate, but the refund process is easy and quick, and the customer service in my experience has always been faultless.
TIP 2 When returning your car, it is a good idea to take a picture of:
- the dashboard, as evidence of a full tank of petrol or of the mileage
- any car park ticket issued at the drop-off parking location, as evidence of the return time
- the parked vehicle with the number plate in clear sight. The time stamp of the picture can be used as evidence of the return time.
My May 2024 car rental from Marco Polo Airport
THE FACTS
We rented from Discover Cars a medium car (described as ‘Compact Crossover, Fiat 500X or similar’ - we ended up precisely with a FIAT 500X) with manual transmission for eight days.
We included full insurance coverage.
The total rental price was €146.62 (£125.55, around $156).
We had unlimited mileage and a full tank of petrol to return full.
The rental company was Galdieri Rent.
THE STORY
The agency, located a short drive away from the airport, has a free shuttle for people arriving at the airport - but we did not use it. Once at the rental office, the agent listed all kinds of confusing scenarios where our full coverage from Discover Cars wouldn’t have protected us, and tried to sell us additional insurance for a couple more hundred Euros. As usual, we declined.
At the end of our rental, the car drop-off went smoothly and we took advantage of the shuttle to the airport, where we caught our flight back to Scotland.
What are the legal rules for driving in Italy?
These are some basic but important rules to follow when driving in Italy:
‣ You need a valid driver’s licence. All current EU-issued licences are accepted. Most current non-EU licenses are also considered valid, but rental car agencies often specifically require an International Driving Permit or a certified translation of the licence, especially for those not printed in the Latin alphabet.
‣ In Italy, you will drive on the right-hand side of the road. When in doubt, remember: passenger to the curb!
‣ Speed limits are 50 km/h (30 mph) in cities and towns, 90 km/h (55 mph) on single carriageways, 110 km/h (about 68 mph) on dual carriageways identified by blue signs and 130 km/h (80 mph) on motorways identified by green signs. All motorways (autostradas) have tolls that can be paid with either cash or card.
‣ Headlights must be on, no matter the time of day or season.
‣ Seatbelts are compulsory, including in the back seats.
‣ Between mid-November and mid-April, all cars driving on hilly or alpine roads must have winter tyres or at least carry snow chains.
‣ A tricky rule that often baffles non-Italians when I mention it is that overtaking on the right (the slower lane) is illegal in Italy. You cannot switch to a slower lane on the right to overtake the car in front of you, and then switch back to the faster lane. However, if you are already driving on a slower lane and happen to be faster than a vehicle on your left, you can pass them as long as you don’t change lanes.