Greetings!
I will be taking the train from Florence to Venice (2 nights in Venice) and then an early flight to Paris. Originally, I thought it would be good to stay in Venice on the mainland near the airport but the hotel I selected is not close to the Venice Mestre train station.
What is the best way to get from Venice Mestre to a hotel near the airport? I plan to go over to the island both days.
Thanks!
What hotel? If you don't have to got to the airport, you save a lot, since any bus to the airport has about 5 EUR added to the ticket price.
Venice Mestre is equally inconvenient for both Venice city (the islands) and Venice airport.
I would stay on the Venice islands, somewhere near to Venice station (Venezia S. Lucia). That would allow you to arrive from Florence, dump your bags and hit Venice with no time delay. That would also put you close to Piazzale Roma, the only road access in Venice and the place buses leave for the airport.
Unless your flight is so ridiculously early that you have to stay at the airport the last night.
Yeah, I really wouldn't stay at Mestre if possible - you miss the best part of Venice (mornings and evenings, when you can stroll without worrying about catching a bus or train back to Mestre). It may sound like, "Oh, I can always take the train whenever I want to," but it just doesn't work out that way in my experience. If you have to worry about what time the last train is (or waiting 30 min for one or something), that kind of ruins the fun. Or in the morning, you can't just roll out of bed and go for a walk.
But if I HAD to stay in Mestre, I'd surely stay right at the train station - there are hotels across the street (not sure if they are nice or cheap). From there, at least, I could hop right on the train to Venice, and I could catch an airport bus in the morning from there. Then again, if you say near Piazzale Roma on Venice, you can achieve basically the same thing (catch an early airport bus in the morning).
Thanks, everyone, for your suggestions. I'm going to stay on the island after all, at Hotel Al Ponte Mocenigo. We will enjoy Venice and get up early to travel to the airport!
