Venice + Veneto in 7 Days on a Budget (With Costs)
Seven days: the full Veneto spine, car included
Seven days keeps the 6-day plan’s Padua, Verona, Vicenza, Lake Garda and Dolomites days intact and closes with the Prosecco road, the one trip in this whole family that genuinely needs a rental car rather than a train ticket. It’s the full spine of this itinerary family, extended one last day rather than reinvented.
Book these before you go
- Book the Scrovegni Chapel timed slot first; there are no same-day daytime bookings.
- Book a Verona day trip if you’d rather not plan the trains yourself.
- Book a guided Dolomites day trip to skip the bus-timetable math.
- Rent a car for the Prosecco road through Discover Cars; book it early since the same car can also cover the Dolomites drive if you’d rather skip the bus.
| Day | Focus | Distance/time | Cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Day 1 | Land, settle in Venice or Padua | - | Room rate varies |
| Day 2 | Padua: Scrovegni Chapel + old town | 25-30 min train / EUR 2-9 | Chapel ticket ~EUR 15-16 |
| Day 3 | Verona: Arena + Piazza Erbe | ~54-60 min train / EUR 4-12 | Arena ticket ~EUR 12 |
| Day 4 | Vicenza: Teatro Olimpico + Villa Rotonda | 45-50 min train / EUR 5-8 | Mostly free walking |
| Day 5 | Lake Garda: Peschiera or Sirmione | ~75-90 min train / EUR 10-15 | Free lakefront |
| Day 6 | Dolomites: Cortina d’Ampezzo | ~2h45-3h10 bus | Bus fare + lunch |
| Day 7 | Prosecco road: Conegliano-Valdobbiadene | ~1.5h drive | Car rental + tastings |
Day 1: land, settle in, keep it cheap
Get to your room and pace yourself: a full week of day trips ahead means Day 1 stays low-key, a walk near the water and an early night before tomorrow’s timed Scrovegni slot.
Day 2: Padua on the Scrovegni Chapel’s clock
Book the strict 15-20 minute timed slot ahead: full price about EUR 15 plus a EUR 1 presale fee, reduced around EUR 6 plus EUR 1.
Day 3: Verona, the Arena over the balcony
About an hour out, fares from roughly EUR 4 to EUR 12 on trenitalia.com . The Arena’s daytime ticket runs about EUR 12, details at arena.it ; skip Casa di Giulietta.
Day 4: Vicenza, the cheapest full day on this list
45 to 50 minutes out for roughly EUR 5-8. Villa Rotonda keeps limited hours (commonly Friday through Sunday, April to October); check villalarotonda.it first.
Day 5: Lake Garda, the furthest easy train trip
Roughly 1 hour 15 minutes to 1 hour 30 minutes by train via a change at Verona, landing at Peschiera del Garda or Desenzano del Garda.
Day 6: the Dolomites, on a bus schedule
No direct train to Cortina; the direct ATVO or Cortina Express bus from Piazzale Roma covers it in roughly 2 hours 45 minutes to 3 hours 10 minutes each way. Longest travel day of the week, so keep the sightseeing list short once you’re there.
Day 7: the Prosecco road, the trip that needs a car
The Prosecco hills between Conegliano and Valdobbiadene, a UNESCO World Heritage site since 2019, have no useful public transport running through the wine villages themselves. Pick up the rental you booked on Day 1 (or add one now through Discover Cars ), assign a driver who isn’t tasting, and drive the roughly 90km scenic loop; Valdobbiadene itself is about 1.5 hours from Venice. If you’d rather not drive at all, Conegliano’s own train station, about an hour from Venice, works as a fallback base for a shorter, guided-tour version of the same hills.
Should the Dolomites and Prosecco days share one rental car?
It’s the efficient move if you’re comfortable with two long driving days back to back: one rental covers both the Alpine drive to Cortina (1h50-2h15 via the A27) and the Prosecco loop, splitting the per-day cost of the car across two trips instead of paying for a bus ticket on top of a separate rental.
Is seven days too many for this itinerary, or does it feel padded?
It doesn’t, because each day covers genuinely different ground: amphitheater, fresco chapel, Palladian villa, lake, mountains, vineyards. The only real risk is fatigue from five straight days of day trips, so if energy runs low, Day 5 (Lake Garda) or Day 7 (Prosecco) are the easiest to swap for a rest day back in Venice.
Book the Scrovegni slot and the rental car as soon as your seven dates are fixed; the Verona, Vicenza and Garda days can wait until the week you travel.