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Venice with kids

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We are flying out of Venice at 12pm on a Tuesday. and I have 2 questions.

  1. I think i have decided to cut a night off from our trip to Slovenia and come to the Venice area the day before our flight, so my kids can see Venice. Realistically we would arrive in that area around 11ish. We will have a car that needs to be retuned to the airport the day we fly out. Should I book a hotel in venice proper or closer to the hotel? I’m assuming it’s worth it to stay in Venice proper, but can we leave our car overnight at the train/bus station? We would also like to leave most of our bags and just take our valuables and overnight clothes with us so we aren’t lugging suitcases around venice.

Obviously if we stayed near the hotel we would just leave our car and things at the hotel and plan on spending the afternoon/night in Venice. Would it then be hard to get back to our hotel later at night?

This is really just about the kids getting to say they went to Venice which they think is really cool. My husband and I have been twice previously, so we don’t feel like we need to see everything.

  1. How busy should we expect the airport to be and how long to get there from Venice proper if we do stay there. This is in July. Assuming we should get there by 9am to return the car and check in for 12pm flight.

I’m probably way overthinking this!

Posted by
171 posts

We will have a car that needs to be retuned to the airport the day we fly out.

If you drive to Venice-proper, it'll cost you one day rental and parking but not have to pay for transport back and forth. If you keep the car at a hotel near the airport/mainland, you'll have the same costs plus the cost to get back and forth to Venice-proper. But for Venice activities, the car is basically a brick otherwise.

Maybe book a hotel in Venice-proper, return the car a day early, take the Alilaguna from the airport (kids will like that), then bus to from Piazzale Roma to airport the next day.

I think there's value to not having to worry about getting back to the mainland that day. The airport isn't that far.

Posted by
2039 posts

I think coming in a day early is probably the smart move. I think you should reserve overnight parking at Piazzale Roma and stay relatively close to the train station/Piazzale Roma area in Venice. Park, decamp to your hotel and then spend the day exploring Venice with the kids.

You will need to be up relatively early - I'd probably aim to leave driving for the airport at 9:00. It's only about a 25 minute drive to the airport but you need to drop off the car and still be there early. Venice is a small and easy airport to navigate but unlucky timing can put you there on a cruise ship departure day which can lead to crowds.

You could also try and drop the car off a day early but this will probably lead to logistical shenanigans that will cut into your exploring Venice time. With one person I might recommend it but with a family I think that's overly complicated. [@nixit71 makes this point well, but it's up to you. Probably 50e to park and an extra day of car rental but also 18e/person for the Alilaguna ride but you approach by water.]

Sounds like a great last day of your trip,
=Tod

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