Suggestions for Venice lodging

You can walk everywhere safely at night—-as long as you know the way! As for noise and crowding, the main source of noise is the boat traffic—-delivery, trash pickup, as well as the vaporetto—-so if you are away from the larger canals used by these working boats, it will be quieter. As for crowded streets, only certain main routes are used by the visitors, and not late at night in any case (unless you are there during a major festival like Carnevale). The only “noise” I can recall hearing from the apartments we rented in Venice was the sweet sound of a string quartet playing Vivaldi in the little square (Campo San Lio) below our window, to promote a concert.

We rent our Venice apartments from a local agency rather than from AirBnB; they are easy to work with, speak excellent English, and have a very reasonable cancellation policy.

https://www.veniceredhouse.com/

You might take a look at this one in Dorsoduro, close to the Guggenheim museum:

https://www.veniceredhouse.com/apartments-in-venice/mansarda-magritte-apartment/

We had reserved this one for our March 2020 trip, but of course we had to cancel that. We don’t need two bedrooms for our next visit, but I like the location so much I reserved a smaller apartment nearby.

On our last visit (2017) we stayed near Campo San Boldo. Nice, quiet and very much a neighborhood. Our current plan for this fall has us off Ruga do Pozzi - uncertain what the area is called. I utilize Google Maps to virtually walk around an area before deciding on where to stay.

Our location this fall has us closer to the docks, so that could be an option for you if planning on Murano and others.

Lola is correct - your biggest risk is not knowing where/how to get back to your place in the evening rather than it being safe.

Lola,
Thank you for all the information. I thought there might be noise from people out and about in the later evenings. I’d LOVE to hear a string quartet outside my window, how fortunate for you! I have not been to Venice, so I’m trying to learn all I can. The Air BnB I am looking at is on the north side of Cannaregio. How does that sound? I read that San Polo is a good location also. After reading more, Castello seems to be too far removed from where we want to be so that’s out.
Thank you for the lodging suggestions.

Marc,
That is a really good idea to google walk the area. When you say stay near the docks, do you mean the northern side of Venice? Both you and Lola have a good point about being able to find our way home. Yikes, that’s a little concerning. So, if we stayed in Cannaregio, does that mean we would walk the blocks to the vaporetto to go to San Marco?

Castello is next to San Marco, I wouldn’t consider that out of the way

The most important factors to me would be ease of access- close to a vaporetto stop and with least number of bridges and canals to cross to get there. Dragging luggage up and down all those steps is no fun.

You might try looking in Dorsoduro.

However…

As your first stay in Italy I’d encourage you to stay at a hotel with a helpful front desk.
I think your trip is next year, is that correct?
You might look at Hotel Abbazia, easy to get to, close to train and vaporetto and if you book well in advance you can get really good rates.
You don’t mention budget but I just booked Abbazia for a few nights in September 2022 for about 140 euros/ night- a steal for Venice.

I’ll mention this as well
We’ve always stayed at Hotel Ala and highly recommend it. Do a search here, others are big fans of Ala too

We stayed at the Istituto San Giuseppe, a nun operated accomodation located halfway between San Marco and Rialto Bridge. Quiet, not expensive. Look at it on the www.monasterystays.com website. In Florence we stayed at the Casa per ferie .. Borgo Pinti, another great place near the Duomo. Our cab driver said it was the best location in Florence

We're two sisters in a comparable age range who stayed in Venice for three nights in 2019. We make limited use of Airbnbs unless we feel it is time to schedule for laundry. The fees and hassle aren't worth it to us. On our travels, we'll often see people hanging out with luggage waiting for their check-in time. We like nice hotels where we can either check-in or leave our luggage at the front desk without trouble. We like Italian breakfasts. For what it's worth, I will never, ever regret our decision to stay at a lovely hotel near a less-used vaporetto stop with a room that overlooked the Grand Canal. It was magical at night and very accessible. It was thoughts of that that sustained me through my COVID lockdown.

CT: what was the name of your hotel please? I understand your reasons for choosing a nice hotel.
Stephen: I will look at your suggestions. Thank you for your help.
Christine: yes, our trip is next year. I think the reason I said Castello was too far is that the air BnB is located on an island at the far east end. I really don’t know the size of Venice, so maybe it is smaller than I imagine and things aren’t that far.
The reasons you give for staying in a hotel make sense to me. Hotel Abbazia is indeed in a good location and maybe we will just need to get our own rooms.
We touched bases on this before, so please indulge me. What are the advantages of a September trip vs. a May trip? Costs, crowds, weather?

Both May and September are good times to go for all of those reasons
We are actually going to Italy twice this year - end of April into May and again mid-Sept.

Venice is smaller than you think. It doesn’t take long to walk from one side to the other…as long as you don’t get lost ;)

It helps to use Google maps to see how far things are. Put in the address then get directions to another place- San Marco Basilica or Rialto for example-and click the “walk” icon.

I've found Google Maps' walking-time estimates to be very good all over Europe. They seem to be based on a 20-minute mile. However, in Venice it is not trivial to be sure you follow the most direct route. That's part of the charm of the place.

We (66 and 64) prefer the Castello area. It reasonably quiet and not too far from San Marco (we love to enjoy the music and a glass of wine there after dinner).

More advice on https://europeforvisitors.com/venice/venice-hotels.htm

Hi all:
There is more to getting around in Venice than I imagined. I will definitely keep in mind to stay near a
Vaporetto and try to avoid bridges. The word maze has come up in several articles so it sounds like a fun adventure.
The google map walk idea is a great one. I did use maps.me on my last trip and it was wonderful especially because it is offline and saves cell phone battery.
The monastery idea is interesting.
Christine: how awesome is it that you have two Italy trips this year?
Thank you for all the information. It has been a challenge (more than a challenge) to figure out where to stay in Venice, but you have made it easier.