- Venice
- /
- transport
- (17)
-
Italy
The last time I flew to Venice, an air hostess announced 'For those of you on the right-hand side of the plane you will shortly have a wonderful view of Venice in the sunset. For those of you on the left, you really should have sat on the right!'
For quality at a fairly affordable price in Venice, simply stay outside of Venice itself. The Hotel Bologna has been recently refurbished in a modern and tasteful style. But its real beauty is that it's over the road from Mestre railway station and just 10 minutes from Venice station and the Grand Canal.
It's also just over the road from the bus stop that will take you to (Venice) Treviso airport for your budget flight home.
Via Piave 214, Venezia, I-30171, IT
Phone: 39 041 931000
Literally opposite Venezia Mestre railway station
Want to go to Venice but afraid of the hotel prices there? Stay in Mestre and commute to Venice each day. We did and found it fascinating to jump on a bus each morning and go to Venice with the workers. The view of Venice from a bus on the causeway is certainly different.
If you're arriving at San Marco airport, do splash out the 12 euros to get the blue line Alilaguna boat to your nearest stop. Day or night it's the only way to arrive, but once you're there, enjoy Venice most by just walking and getting lost in the quieter backstreets, and seeing a glimpse of what's left of the life of a diminishing non-tourist resident population. Small shops, bars, galleries and markets will welcome you.
Try Arsenale or around Campo Santa Margherita and the beautiful Del Frari Church for a start. If it's raining or misty, so much the better. If it's December, the Christmas market near Accademia Bridge will warm you up. For half a euro cross the canal by shared traghetti gondala and stand like the locals.
www.alilaguna.it/
Then have a map handy for use in emergencies only
I felt perfectly comfortable during my stay in Venice. We were a group of people and our trip was arranged by a local tour operator that I found surfing the net. I contacted them by email and accommodation and all ground services were perfectly organised (boat trip to the islands, restaurants, guide and museums). Since I was the leader of a group of 23 people I felt a bit stressed until our vacation was over, but now I can tell you that it was brilliant! So do not miss the boat trip to Murano, Burano and Torcello, and ask for a trip off the beaten track... far and away from the crowds. They can handle it!
Missing Italia
www.missingitalia.com/en/meeting_incentive.html
The glass factories on Murano take would-be buyers by water taxi from San Marco for a short demonstration of glass blowing.
This is worth a trip anyway, plus it's worthwhile wandering around the shops.
The only catch is that you'll get the sales pitch from the staff on the way out. The prices here are ridiculously high. You can buy exactly the same glassware outside the factory for less. So just stiffen up your lip and walk on out.
Ask at your hotel or look out for agents early in the morning at San Marco.
The water taxi office at the airport is usually surrounded by tourists wondering whether their magical trip to Venice is quite so magical now they've found out just how expensive the water taxis are.
The cost of the trip is the cost for the whole boat, so just go ahead and ask "Does anyone want to share a taxi?" Even if split between just two couples the cost rapidly becomes less eye-watering.
The water taxi office is located with the car rental offices at the south end of the arrivals area.
Details of transfers are available from the Corsozio Motoscafi website: www.motoscafivenezia.it/trans.htm
We decided to be environmentally friendly and go to Venice on the train. Not necessarily cheaper than the plane, but you travel overnight from Paris (it leaves at about 9pm) and arrive in the middle of Venice in the morning. It's a wonderful and romantic way to get there.
Visit www.seat61.com for details.
The gondola epitomises Venice, but avoid the temptation of going on an impossibly expensive journey around the canals with a gondolier who looks like an extra from a stage set. Instead, use the gondola as the locals do, as a ferry across the Grand Canal for literally a few pence. Don’t sit down, stand up like the locals do.
The Grand Canal
A tourist ticket is the best way to get around on the vaporetto. As an introduction to Venice, ride the No 1 from the station down the four kilometres of the Grand Canal until it opens out into St Mark’s Basin.
As warm breezes from the Adriatic ruffle your hair, watch Renaissance palazzos gently slide by, each gazing at its own reflection. Mooring posts for gondolas lean drunkenly, their stripes bright against the plaster walls.
While St. Mark’s Square, the Doge’s Palace and the Basilica are the jewels in the crown of this pearl of the Adriatic, a walk of a few minutes will take you to the silence of side canals where peeling shuttered windows dream of past glories of the Republic. Or a sleek black gondola rocks gently at its mooring post.
This quintessentially Venetian form of transport is always black, in deference to a law of 1562 that attempted to prohibit the extravagances of boat owners. This extraordinarily beautiful vessel is actually asymmetrical to compensate for the rowing by the gondolier at the stern. If travel by a gondola is wanted, then the best way is to use the ferry across the Grand Canal for a handful of small change.
Seven traghetto (ferry) points between the railway station and San Marco allow you to cross the Grand Canal without having to squeeze over the bridges. These decommissioned gondolas ply back and forth until dusk for 60c a trip. Venetians make the crossing standing up. Tourists sit down and worry about the rocking motion.
Look out for small yellow signs pointing down alleys leading to the Canal.
Buy a pass for the vaporetto as soon as you arrive for the number of days you're there. The back of a vaporetto is easily the best (and cheapest) way to see outdoor Venice, and as well, all life is here. The tickets also work for the quicker diretto lines too, and virtually all of the island boats as well.
You can get unlimited travel on the vaporetti with a 24-hour pass (10.5 euros) or 72-hour pass (22euros). Considering a single trip on the Grand Canal costs five euros, it’s pretty good value. We got a 24-hour pass on our last day there and it was the best 10 euros we spent.
Any vaporetto ticket station
I love this part of Venice. It's a little off the beaten track even though the Peggy Guggenheim Museum and the Accademia are only a few blocks away.
Stroll the quiet streets and escape the crowds and for a genuine trip in a gondola for a fraction of the price take a tragetto across to S. Maria Griglio. Be sure to stand up though - sitting is frowned upon.
When you arrive at the airport you have the option of taking a bus, water taxi or an "Alilaguna" boat to Venice. (Alilaguna is the name of the operator.) Especially if you have never been to Venice before, this is a magical way catch your first glimpse of it, unless you are happy and able to pay around £50 for a water taxi. The boat goes round the islands, finally stopping at the Arsenale and San Marco.
This is the best way to get your bearings in Venice, as it goes from one end of the Grand Canale to the other. Take the Dorling Kindersley Eyewitness Travel Guide, with annotated illustrations for every stage of your journey, you get a marvellous guided tour from the station at one end to San Marco and the Arsenale at the other. Approximately 30 minutes each way, and not too expensive.
Most places along the Grand Canal, including the point where you arrive from the mainland
Send your feedback or queries to been.there@guardian.co.uk
Search Been there
Your tips about Venice