Parking Garage on Mainland Venice

Take the first Mestre exit and follow the signs to the train station. (The second exit can be used as well, but the train signs were a little harder to follow). Right across the street is a multi story parking garage. There will also be some open air style parking lots. (I've used both-the garage is more expensive, but we liked it better because we could park our own car and keep the keys. The open air one we used required us to leave the keys since they really pack the cars in and need to move them around.) It is a lot cheaper to park here than to cross the causeway and park in Venice. We paid 6 euors a day weekdays and 10 euors week end days in 2008. The train was 1 euros per person day back then (I think I read online here that it had gone up 1.10 Euros) All garages in this area charge you for a whole day even if you have not been there all day. (Arrive at 10:00 pm, you pay for that whole day, leave at 8:00 am, you pay for that whole day) Just the way it is done. Have a great trip.

P.S. Mestre is the last city before you cross the causeway to Venice.

Thanks!

Also - is it safe to leave our stuff in the car. Because we are on a road trip and dnt want to carry all the luggage to venice for 2 days.
And our Hotel is in San Marco, what wld be the most convenient and not soo expensive way to reach San Marco?

Thanks a ton!

We rode a vaperetto to our hotel. Some vaperettos can be crowded but we have always been able to muscle our luggage onto the boat. (We try to avoid the busiest time of the day-rush our. In 2008, we arrived about 8 PM and once we arrived in early afternoon.) As for leaving stuff in the car: I can't guarantee it will be safe. It is possible for a thief to get into the garage and I would not count on any security cameras catching them. Having said that, I have left stuff in my trunk and not had any problems. Do not leave anything out where it can be seen. We even leave the glove compartment open to show there is nothing worth stealing in there. Don't leave anything you can't afford to lose or finish your trip without. (For example, we have left some purchases and a hiking pack and boots that we had used in the alps. We didn't want to lose them, but if they had been stolen we could have finished the trip and replaced the hiking stuff when we got home...we would have had to live without the inexpensive purchases)