Dosoduro vs Cannaregio

One question I would ask relates to your exit from Venice. Do you have a really early flight out of Venice when you depart? If you have a flight earlier than 7:00am, you are at a disadvantage in getting public transportation to the airport. In Cannaregio, you can arrange to be quite close to the Piazzale Roma (and the train station). If you are in Dorsoduro, you could be 30-40 minutes farther away by vaporetto. The daytime vaporettos don't begin service until shortly before 5:00am. Plus, if you are near the Salute stop, only the No 1 vaporetto stops there. At least that was our experience when we stayed at the Hotel Messner.

All of the above assumes that you would like to be near the Grand Canal and major tourist sites. You could be on the backside of the Cannaregio Sestieri near the Fondamente Nove stop and pick up the early Alilaguna boat heading for the airport. Or, you could be in the part of the Dorsoduro Sestieri that is very close to the Piazalle Roma. However, these areas are not on or really close to the Grand Canal.

The reason I mention this is that one of the most frequent questions we receive on this website about Venice is from somebody who got a really great hotel in a really great area but didn't plan for the very early flight in the morning.

Agree with Larry. We just returned from Venice and stayed in the Cannaregio and a 5 minute walk to the Ca d'Oro vaporetto stop. Our flight left at 7:20am. We took the 5am vaporetto to Piazzale Roma and the 5:40 bus to the airport, arriving at 6am. There were some lines but we got to our gate well before boarding time. This is not to say that every day would have the same wait time. We were travelling with family and they thought 1.5 hours was enough for check in. I'm the person who wants to be there 2 or more hours early but they were right. If you do go and are there for three days, you might consider the 72 hour vaporetto pass. The on line site shows passes with and without an extra fee for the land bus to the airport. We bought ours at the train station without the extra fee for the bus. Our hotel told us that the 72 hour pass might also cover the land bus and when we boarded the bus and swiped our passes they worked!

We stayed at Hotel At Leonard which you can view at booking.com. They are an annex to Hotel Bernardi Semenzato. Since we were there in mid February we got a reasonable price. Prices are probably different at other times of the year.

Thanks for the information. Your point about departure time is well taken and I should have mentioned that we arrive in Venice at 9:15 Sunday April 6 and depart at 11:30 the next Sunday. I don't think we'll have any problems.

I'm looking at Hotel Leonardo in Cannaregio and Hotel Casa Regonzi in Dorsduro. Their locations on the maps looks like they are quite a distance from St Mark's Square, but their website info claims they are a short distance away. Any suggestions?

Venice is very compact and the vaporettos are great if you don't want to walk the whole distance. Flip a coin between those two neighborhoods. They're both very charming. I have no idea what "Casa Regonzi" is. Looks like a typo. We recently stayed at Casa Rezzonico, a small B&B in Dorsoduro, and loved it. Could that be what you mean? It's right on a side canal and has a lovely interior garden. Here are some photos I took of it and the immediately surrounding area, if you're interested: http://flic.kr/s/aHsjTBGc8B

Michael, You are correct, I misspelled the hotel's name. We are staying at Casa Rezzonico. Great photos by the way. The cafe's and restaurants looked wonderful, any chance I can get some recommendations?