Hi!
My husband and I will visit Venice (by rail) for 2 days only. I hate the thought of dragging my luggage for miles to a hotel - but in Rick Steve's books - he suggests staying away from the hotels by the train station. Any ideas of the best hotels with the least distance to drag luggage? (Alternatively, does the hotel or anyone provide assistance with luggage?)
Is that two nights? Would it be possible for you and your husband to leave the bulk of your stuff at the train station and just take a smaller bag or two into the city?
First off, no one is dragging their luggage for miles to a hotel or even a mile. As you hotel for the nearest vaporetto (water bus) stop. Walk off the train to the front of the station and hope on the correct vaporetto going the closest to your hotel. And the next question, How much luggage do you have?
You wont have to drag your luggage for miles if you use a vaporetto and get a hotel not too far from one of the stops. Nor should you feel weird about it, you will see everyone else doing the same! I'm amazed at how much luggage I've seen people dragging around Venice, up and down the bridges, etc. You'd think people cant survive a couple weeks without lugging half their worldly possessions around Europe with them.
A good reason to pack light, dont ya think?
I imagine we will each have medium sized bag on wheels (but not certain yet).
And yes - we will have 2 nights in Venice.
We slept at Hotel Florida about 30 meters from the train station -- vaporetto stop close by. Since we were out most of the day, the hotel location wasn't that important to us except for the luggage-toting (over the bridge for the bus to airport on the way out of town. )
With one bag each that should be doable at any hotel in the tourist area of Venice. Just wheel it when you can and pick it up for steps, etc. I would rather pack light and have all my stuff with me.
Thanks so much for the reassurance, everyone!
You are not certain if it will be a medium size bag. Good - if that means you are considering something small as an option. Weight is the critical issue. Shoot for something less than 25 lbs. Larger bags tend to mean that you pack stuff you don't really need. Two wheeled rolling bags work pretty well on cobble stones and other rough surfaces. The four wheel spinner type - not so well on anything other than smooth surfaces.
You do have the option to leave some bags at the train station storage facility, but packing light in an airline carry-on sized bag will serve you best for all the situations where you'll handle your luggage. Stairs can crop up in a train station, hotel, Venice bridge, or a couple of steps to board a train. Even in a small bag, it's possible to pack more heavy items than you can carry, so the discipline of a small bag is just a starting point to controlling your total gear. I use a carry-on sized of bag for trips that are months long, doing laundry every two weeks or so.
Don't know why Rick doesn't like them. The Hotel Continental is 2 blocks from the train station and an easy walk, its on the Grand Canal and for a higher end room rate you can get a canal view. Being on the Lista di Spagna, there is a lot of foot traffic in front, but for 2 nights its as convenient as heck.
I saw plenty of people hauling large bags up and down the bridges (after getting off their Vaporetto) -- it made me so glad that I followed my husband's suggestion to do carry-only and those images of people in Venice are how I convince others to go smaller :) But since you can't wheel the bags anymore and have to carry the entire time, weight will be a huge factor for you, so you might want to practice to see if it will bother you with your medium bag? We stayed down in the Dorsoduro area and wound up walking about five minutes after we got off our Vaporetto -- I don't think your bags should dictate where you stay.
"Since you can't wheel the bags anymore. .." what does that mean?
The urban myth. There was a short story or misunderstanding that the Venice fathers were banning rolling luggage because of all the noise on the cobble stone. Actually it was directed towards service and delivery carts and not at tourists and their luggage. It got some press for awhile and, unfortunately, the story gets repeated from time to time. Don't worry. You can roll your luggage. But you still have to carry it over all the bridges.
And it seemed to me that most of the bridges had steps going up and down--not a smooth ramp. I think the Rialto Bridge was 2 or 3 stories up and down--all steps. Not as easy to wheel and I carried my bag so my 16 pounds wasn't so heavy.
