Best neighborhood in Venice for a true Venetian experience? Hotel?

We like San Polo best of all. We always rent a little apartment there or stay at Ca'Angeli. It's an easy walk over the Rialto Bridge and a Vaporetto stop is nearby. There is no real reason to be close to San Marco.

I liked the quietness of Dorsoduro on our last trip, but I found it less convenient to get to other parts of Venice than it was from San Polo.

Venice is small enough that anywhere you stay will be close enough to wherever you want to go. We've always stayed at Pensione Guerrato in the Rialto area but several blocks from the bridge itself. It is quiet, not too crowded, and close to the fish and vegetable market so you'll get a take of the real Venice.

Have also stayed at the Ca'Angeli--in fact, will be back there in six weeks, yeah!--and would also recommend it. My last trip in October, however, I stayed at Alloggi Barbaria, which is not as upscale as Ca'Angeli, but costs much less and is definitely in a less-crowded area than Ca'Angeli. It was about a 10 minute walk to St. Mark's. Without going out to, say, Sant' Elena, it was about as true a neighborhood feel as you're going to find in Venice proper.

Venice proper is compact enough that you don't need to worry about being able to get to St. Mark's. Just hop on a vaporetto. For smaller crowds, consider Cannaregio or Castello. But we last stayed at Casa Rezzonico in Dorsoduro and really liked it. Right on a small canal.

We have stayed in both Cannaregio and Castello. Castello is a little farther from St. Marks, but in a quiet area.

Cannaregio is also a residential area, and we felt like we were living with locals, not the tourists. We stayed in a B&B and preferred the area more than Castello.

https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/2783287

I've only stayed in the Dorsoduro (4 times), near the Academia. It's more residential, easy access to the Grand Canal and the Giudecca Canal. La Calcina is lovely if you have the budget (I stayed there once before Venetian rates skyrocketed). Now I stay at a "guest house." It's budget-friendly, clean, comfy, though the furnishing is mostly Ikea, no dining room but fridges and kettles in every room and a small kitchen for guest use.

For our honeymoon, my husband and I stayed at the Hotel Sant’ Antonine in Castello and were very satisfied. The hotel is in an old mansion and with historic plasterwork and furniture. We loved the private garden in the back of the hotel and the generous breakfast buffet served every morning. The price was very reasonable, considering how lovely the place was.
Castello is an easy walk to Saint Marks square but is quiet and in the opposite direction from the Rialto bridge madness.

Another very good option is Cannaregio. It’s a nice neighbourhood with a long commercial promenade. I get the sense that locals actually live there because they have hardware stores and small non-touristy bars.

Google: Hotel Le Isole.

We stayed there a little over a year ago in early October, based on high Trip Advisor marks. We wanted to be close to the action yet in a quiet location, and we also wanted to be close to transportation stops.

My husband called finding this little hotel a "homerun." Less than a 5-minute walk to St. Mark's, on its own little canal, and VERY quiet. The staff (front desk and breakfast/tea servers) were fabulous. The hotel has a little courtyard in the back, so if you are exhausted from touring, it is easy to pick up food to go, bring it to the courtyard and enjoy a quiet little private dinner there in the evening. The hotel stocks complimentary soft drinks and beer in the room fridges. In the a.m., you can choose to enjoy breakfast in the inside dining area or outside in the courtyard, ditto for afternoon tea/cookies.

What my husband especially enjoyed were the views from out little French balcony on one side of our room and our full-length window on the other side of the room. In the mornings, he watched the laundry boats pick up and restock towels to a few locations on their route, the UPS equivalent boat dropping off packages, and the gondoliers preparing their boats for the day, all while I was getting ready for the day. Then as the morning began, we could watch the quiet parade of people riding thru the small, quiet canal on gondolas. My husband has a few photos taken from that little balcony as his screen saver on his PC.

The bathroom in our room was very small, but okay for a night or two. Shower was small, but do-able. Plenty of towels, supplies, comfortable bed, spacious room, and clean. Breakfast is your choice of Italian meat/cheese/cereals/breads of a full American-style breakfast with eggs and bacon/sausage, etc., included in the overnight cost.

If returning to Venice we would absolutely stay there again, and we would request the same room. Could not have asked for a better, quieter or more private location while being so very close to the action. Just a few minutes to walk to the main canal where all the water bus stops are, etc. And, when we were on the main drag, we were sooooo thankful to return to our quiet hotel on the quiet small canal. Water taxis can stop there, too.

As you move away from the Grand Canal and the San Marco district, you will experience a more local, less touristy environment. Castello (easternmost district of the historical center of Venice) is probably the district with the most local residents, but it is farther from most sights. San Marco is the most crowded with tourists. San Polo, Cannaregio, Dorsoduro are all good, just move away from the main drags near the Grand Canal, and tourists will disappear.

How can you go wrong in a place like Venice? Castello is wonderful, and it happens to be where I have stayed every time I visited the city, so I guess that is my favorite, although I can't recall why I chose that area.

HOWEVER, an important note that I have never seen addressed on ANY post about Venice, and one which has to be mentioned to all potential travelers.

THE MOSQUITOS IN VENICE ARE AMAZING IN THEIR VICIOUSNESS AND PERSEVERENCE!

Seriously, every time I have stayed there I have been bitten, many times, and the bites hang around for weeks afterward. Parisian mosquitos are wimps; the little buggers in the south of France are run of the mill pests; Roman mosquitos are negligible; Florentine critters are annoying, but there are none so impressive as the Venetian Lagoon biters.

DEEP WOODS OFF! IS YOUR FRIEND. Just sayin'.

We want to be close enough to tour St. Marks, etc, but don't want to be in a crowded tourist area.

Your desire doesn't really exist.

Once you learn the streets around Piazza San Marco, you'll discover which streets make it easier to slip in and out. This takes a little practice and self-discovery. Given that Piazza San Marco is such an important hub, it's very difficult to find quiet and seclusion without crossing a few bridges.

For instance, to the north of San Marco you have the Mercerie district, which connects to the Rialto. This area is swamped with people traversing back and forth. To the east of San Marco, you have the Bridge of Sighs, which is enormously popular. It gets a little quieter near the Chiesa di San Zaccaria. To the west of San Marco you have Campo San Stefano and the Accademia Bridge, both enormously popular. But the area just west of Campo San Stefano, near Chiesa di San Samuele and Hotel San Samuele can be quiet.

With millions of tourists visiting, it's difficult to escape the feeling of "crowded tourist area" in Venice, unless you walk the far away places. Eventually, no matter how much time you have to explore, you will eventually hit upon a well-walked path, and you'll need to stand on that path with hundreds of visitors to get to your next destination.

The good news is that no matter where you stay, you're never really more than a 40-minute walk away from anywhere else.

I stayed in a hotel near St. Maurizio last fall and it was great. It was my first visit and I based myself there and learned my way around. The tourist routes around the city are predictable and easy to recognize. You can join them when you need to, but they're also fairly easy to avoid when you want to wander.

I'm returning in September. Wanting a more 'authentic' experience I'm staying in an apartment near the Ghetto.