Venice hotels

It would be helpful if you provide some budget information as well as age of your kids.
If they are young, it's doubtful they are going to be interested in the same "main" attractions as you, but they might enjoy getting there by boat more than when they arrive at the destination. .
Anyway, your question is very vague so more detail would be helpful for anyone to respond with advice that would be beneficial.

Here are 2 links that might be of interest:

http://travelwithkids.about.com/od/italy/fr/Venice_with_kids.htm
http://travelforkids.com/Funtodo/Italy/venice.htm

Hello Cindy, my family and I stayed in Venice using AirBNB last year. We stayed about a 5 minute walk away from St.Mark square. It cost about 220 a night which was much less than the hotel's in the area plus it had a lot more room. It was a 3 bedroom apt. Of course your budget and what you prefer will make the difference for you and your family. Have a great trip.

I highly recommend Airbnb. You can get a nice, affordable flat in a great location. We found the hotels way overpriced.

We will be in Venice in May and last week we booked a very modern apartment in the old Jewish area for $250 a night. That's a huge discount to what hotels are charging (at least any place half okay).

Megan

There are many apartment booking sites besides AirBnB. Try also VRBO.com and Booking.com. Booking.com also displays hotels and B&Bs which may give you more options. I use VRBO and Booking.com almost exclusively and we travel ALL THE TIME.

I have been unimpressed with AirBnB as many owners seem less professional and there no longer seems to be a lower cost for AirBnB, which was originally a concept.

You can also Google "apartments in Venice" and come up with some local agencies in the city.

Note that Venice is VERY small so you will be no more than 20-25 minutes walking from anything if you stay in Venice. Do not stay in Mestre.