Best hotel in Venice to stay without paying a fortune

Try this website www.cross-pollinate.com it is a bed and breakfast booking service owned by an American family living in Rome. They have accommodations in Rome, Florence and Venice. I have stayed at many properties that they offer and they are very reasonable and very nice!! Happy travels.

Thank you Mark, we will check it out. I have another question that maybe you can answer - our flight departs at 6:00 am from Venice....will it be difficult to get to the airport that early in the morning? Thanks again!

Dwight,

It's getting a bit late for booking late July/early August (PEAK travel season!). I'd suggest getting something arranged fairly soon.

Check the listings in the Italy or Venice Guidebooks as you may find one that has a vacancy. At this late date, you may have to pay more than you anticipated.

You might also try www.albergodoni.it/ or www.pensioneguerrato.it/.

Good luck!

Dwight, with a 6:00am departure from Venice-Marco Polo, you won't find a bus or Alilaguna boat that can get you there before 5:05am. The first No.5 ACTV bus departs the Piazzale Roma at 4:40 on weekdays and Saturdays. It's later on Sundays. The first ATVO bus departs at 5:00am getting you there at 5:20am. If that is a choice for you, you will need to research the night vaporetto to get to the Piazzale Roma on time for the first bus out.

Other than the above, you have 3 choices. 1) stay nearby the airport. There's a Marriott Courtyard and there is the Titian Inn Hotel & Residence - both quite OK, reasonable and with shuttles. You can actually walk to the terminal from the Marriott. 2) take what I call the "James Bond" water taxi ride from your hotel to the airport. 100E-125E ($140-$175)for up to 5-6 people. Your hotel can make the arrangements. It's expensive but watching Venice come alive in the morning on a fast boat is supposed to be unforgettable. 3) Take one of the last buses from the Piazzale Roma to the airport the evening before and sleep in the airport. See www.sleepinginairports.com. It's done quite a lot.

Hotel Messner in the Dorsoduro area is good and reasonably priced. Hopefully they're not booked up already. We've also stayed at the Palace Bonvecchiati - good and expensive, Pensione Accademia - good and somewhat expensive. Just returned in June from our last Venice trip and stayed in B&B Venezia in St. Elena down at the tip of the island with gardens, trees, flowers, local families - it was wonderful. B&B Venezia is also VERY affordable, clean, nice - exactly what we wanted.

Larry is right - the water taxi is expensive but unforgettable. Our B&B called for one to arrive at 4:20 AM and about 5 minutes prior we heard it putt-putting up to our embarkation point. There were 4 of us, and since we had been on the gondolas on a previous trip, we decided to go this route instead. It was very "James Bond-like" - cruising through the back canals while Venice was just beginning to awaken, then flying across the open water. The water taxi lets you off at a pier, where it's a covered, easy 10 minute walk to the airport. With such an early flight, I'd give it some consideration.

I'll second the Hotel Messner. We have stayed there. They actually have two places to stay there. One is the main hotel (which I believe is at least a 2-star) and the other is an "annex" which is a 1-star building about 200 feet down a back canal. We stayed in the annex. Clean, comfortable and quiet. The bathroom was quite small. The shower was the size of a telephone booth. Still, it was just fine for a couple of nights. Nice breakfast (included) in the main hotel dining room. Very easy access from the Salute vaporetto stop.

We stayed at the Hotel al Piave and really liked it. Very close to everything, clean, new bathrooms.

We skipped the gondola ride (I tell ya, at one point we were watching the line of gondola's and we thought it was a Disneyland ride. That ruined the "magic" of that) We did do the water taxi to the airport, which was 95 euros, arranged through the hotel. One of the top ten things on our trip without question. It was very very fun.

Enjoy Venice!!

One man's fortune is another man's pittance, or something like that. How about giving a specific number in euros that you don't want to exceed?

Thanks everyone for the overwelming responses! We looked at the various hotels mentioned here and have decided to stay at the B&B in Venezia - I emailed them and they were very quick in their response and answering my questions (80 euro for a superior double). From what I read here it is a nice place in a somewhat quiet area.

Dwight,

Just curious, which B&B will you be staying at?

It is called the BB in Venezia. Here are 2 web sites you can see it at:

http://www.bbvenezia.com/Superior/Superior.html
(80 euro for superior double room)
www.bbvenezia.com

The first web site is a pic gallery/video of the superior double room and area outside hotel. The second website is the hotel. They were very prompt when I emailed them...The only thing to be aware of it that they accept cashh for payment - although you can hold the rooms with a credit card. But at least they told me this in advance.