Venice hotel with toddler? Shared water taxi? (and any other recommendations?)

We were in Venice in June, and my wife was on a folding electric power chair due to a back injury limiting her amount of walking.. Luckily we had our 11 year old granddaughter to help with two rolling bags.

We stayed in an apartment next to the train station because moving the wife around is difficult with all the arch bridges, etc. The granddaughter and I got out and explored the city on foot while my wife had to stay around the train station area. Venice is simply not a good city to travel with a child in a stroller and dealing with luggage alone.

You'll find getting into the city is cheapest by bus. Getting to the vaporetto to ride into Venice requires a lot of walking, and it's still expensive. Water taxi's are priced out of sight. Once you get into Venice, riding a vaporetto is 7.50 Euros one way--ouch!

What's nice is that we've been to Venice many, many times, and my wife was fine just staying where we were. She knows what's over at St. Marks Square and was okay with missing it.

About 25 years ago, we stayed at the Hotel Campiello with a very fussy 10 month old. It was a great place to stay because it was so close to the vesporetto and San Marco. Our room had an outside entrance which was a very pleasant surprise because our daughter would often wake up early and be very fussy and loud. At the time, I thought it was a very fancy hotel as we were young and stationed in Italy. I found it in Rick’s book all those years ago. I believe back then we actually had to fax our information to the hotel. No internet!

I agree that Venice is a difficult place for a stroller. We put our daughter in a backpack and I can remember people literally bumping into her while walking in crowds. However, one of my favorite memories was when my daughter woke up at 5am and I took her on a walk to San Marco. We watched the sun come up in with piazza with just the pigeons and a few locals coming into Venice to start their work day.

This past August, we stayed at Hotel Flora, recommended by Rick Steves.

https://www.hotelflora.it/

Right near San Marco. Great place. Rooms are a bit small and outdated ( at least the ones we stayed in). But the property and owners are great. Breakfast included.

We took the private water taxi from the airport. $140 or so. Well worth it - a memorable way to start the trip in Venice.

We were just in Venice 10 days ago and walked from our hotel near Piazza Roma to Punta della Dogana on the tip of Dorsoduro. We found that all the bridges along the Zattere (the wide sidewalk that spans the south side of Dorsoduro, along the Giudecca Canal) had ramps to make them accessible for strollers and wheelchairs. So a hotel along there would offer easy access and walking, although you would have to cross the Accademia Bridge to reach San Marco, and I doubt it has a ramp (we did not get close to that).

La Calcination is a nice little hotel right on the Zattere, close to the Zattere boat dock. I can’t get into their website to see if they have baby cots, but you could check.

Maybe some of the bridges on the San Marco side have ramps too—- does anyone know?

The vaporetto fare recently increased to 9.50 euros per ride. There are many, many websites showing outdated pricing. A 24-hour pass is now 25 euros; a 48-hour pass, 35 euros. Needing to use vaporetti frequently will significantly add to the cost of visiting Venice, even for a solo traveler, but if you're there for a full week or nearly that long, the 168-hour pass for just 65 euros is a comparatively good deal. It's possible you can save 5 euros per pass by buying at least 30 days ahead of time, but given the uncertainty of travel these days, I decided such a minor cost reduction wasn't worth the risk.

https://www.veneziaunica.it/en/e-commerce/services?macrofamily=10&family=84. To see the current on-the-spot prices, scroll down and click on "Public Transport in Venice".

Elizabeth, we’ve used the shared water taxi twice (through www.venicelink.com…they call it a shuttle as opposed to their water taxi reservations)) several years ago…I just checked the website and the only thing that seems to be different is reserving in advance. We just went to their desk in the main airport “hall” and purchased tickets. It looks like the tickets are €32 now, but kids under six are free. They don’t go to every hotel, but will drop you off at nearby docks. It’s such a nice way to go into Venice from the airport! They’ve been very helpful, and I don’t think we waited more than 15 minutes each time.

With a toddler I recommend finding yourself an apartment, but look in https://europeforvisitors.com/venice/ for loads of information about transport and lodging.

Fantastic information, grazie mille everyone! My son is pretty hardy, the buggy is just for airport and backup if he gets tired walking around, so fingers crossed for a fun (though challenging) adventure!