Venice area recommendations

[Wazzzzzuuuuuuup]

We are looking to extend a cruise holiday this summer with a few days in Venice.

I'm looking at an Airbnb or other rental rather than a hotel as we will be travelling with two late teen dcs and would need two rooms. I'm also attracted by the idea of having a bit more space after 10 days in compact cabins.

What are the best areas to stay in terms of getting around the city, and of course, safe? If anyone has specific accommodation recommdations that would be great.

Also, this may be a really stupid question, but how easy is it to get into the city with luggage? We will be docking in Trieste so will need to organise transport in. I've got images of us trying to wrestle big cases onto a gondola 🤣

Any other Venice tips and recommendations welcome. It's my first visit and I'm very excited.

I think the quickest/easiest way would be to get the train to Venice and then a water taxi (essentially a private speedboat) but it wouldn't be cheap. There's are also a public-transit boat system, so essentially bigger boats that function as buses - they're used to carrying passengers with luggage but I guess it depends how much you have and where your accommodation is!

Make sure you have wheels on luggage. I did it with a cabin bag and it was easy.

Definitely book a private taxi (gondola) to take you to Venezia main island, especially if landing later or leaving later as the water buses stop fairly early. It makes you feels a bit James Bond-esque!! I loved it!!

Visit burano and murano island too, San michele if cemeteries are your thing. Main island is busy by the square and bridge but lovely once you go through the alleyways. No heels- there's a lot of cobbles on main island.

Enjoy!!!

Water taxi is expensive. There will be many many people lugging cases on to the Vaporetto. Arriving by train crossing the lagoon is awesome, then coming out of the station straight on the Grand Canal.

We stayed in an AirBnB in Castello and it was a great location - 5 minute walk round the back of San Marco so easy to get everywhere, lots of restaurants right outside and far far less crowded.

If you don't have the budget for a water taxi, Vaporetto goes everywhere. Just going on the Line 1 Vaporetto up the Grand Canal is great - there are lots of guides available online/in guide books to tell you about everything you are looking at.

My other tips are that getting a traghetto is far far cheaper than shelling out for a gondola ride, while still actually getting on a gondola. And if you want to go to the Basilica San Marco book tickets in advance! The queues are long and stretch across a hot shadeless piazza. The Secret Tours of the Doge's Palace are really well done. Just make sure you are booking on the official websites as there are a lot of reselling sites that look official but aren't.

Great tips thanks. Luggage wise I think we will have one big case, three hand luggage cases ( all wheeled) and a backpack, so we are only wrangling one case each.

I've found a couple of apartments in San Marco but wonder if it will be too busy/ noisy and staying a few minutes further out may be better.

Yes, arriving by train is amazing, the thrill of coming out of a modern train station into another world. I’d avoid staying anywhere on the train station to Rialto Bridge to Piazza San Marco walking route which daytrippers take. It’s all safe. I like around Campo Santa Marguerita/Friari but it’s all very atmospheric. Up past San Marco towards Arsenale, there’s a nice residential area too. Pick somewhere that you can walk to with your luggage easily or that you can get a waterbus to and short walk. Dragging luggage through narrow, crowded, cobbled alleys can be hard work. Then explore, get lost (you will). There are signs on the walls directing you to the main touristy places - you can orientate yourself using them - pick one near your Air BnB eg the train station or San Marco etc. Don’t worry about taking the most direct route, the joy of staying there is having the time to get lost.

The city itself is the main attraction- the galleries and museums etc are great but you could just wander for days. Plenty of shops (but a lot of glass/masks etc.)Look out for the specialist shops - stationery, marbled papers etc. There are waterbuses to the islands (I like Burano) but you might not have the time. Go to Piazza San Marco in the evenings, and listen to the various musicians playing at the different cafes.

For food - there are delis/bakeries for breakfast/small supermarkets in the various neighbourhoods or loads of trattorias/restaurants- again if you wander off the train to San Marco route, you probably will find better food.

As you can tell I love it, no cars, blue skies, water everywhere, Italian food, great architecture - just make sure to bring very comfy shoes - you will do a lot of walking. I’m very envious!

Personally I would recommend avoiding San Marco. It gets crazy busy - you can just be fighting for your square foot of standing room. It's also overpriced food wise. Bear in mind all the cruise trip/day trip people probably go to San Marco and nowhere else.

Just going a street away from San Marco can make a radical difference.

Venice is not really a late night noise place - only place in Italy we found where 7pm is a normal restaurant time. Everywhere has to pack up in time for the staff to get back home to Mestre.

Food wise it is worth learning what Venetian food is and trying to look for it. There is a huge amount of v bad pizza sold there - your teens might not mind but I suspect you would. Definitely try a bacaro, sort of a coffee/winebar cross. They are everywhere, in the morning you can get your coffee and croissant absurdly cheap, and you can see them making all the cicchetti for later. We had the best espresso of our lives at our local one for 1Euro every morning.

Thanks @AnnaMagnani and @GetOffYourPhone, I will look a but further out and plan to walk a bit further. The joy of older teens is at least they can manage their own bags!

That's great intell re standard evening meal times. We've been to Italy a few times (bay of Naples, Rome, Florence) and find we are always awkwardly early in eating at 8pm, and the locals swan in any time from 9.30 onwards, even with small kids. We'll be coming through Naples on the cruise so will get our pizza fill there 😁

We will have three full days in Venice, as we will be off the cruise ship by 9am. What would be your must Dos if you had three days?

We found the same re: mealtimes! Had got used to coming home, having a rest and going out at 9pm. In Venice everywhere was deserted by then.

Not sure if I am the best for must-dos as I didn't have teens in tow.

DH has helpfully suggested his must-don'ts

• don't queue for San Marco
• don't have any food within 5 minutes of San Marco
• definitely don't sit down for coffee on San Marco unless you want a second mortgage
• the Rialto bridge is very disappointing

My suggestions are:
Scuola di San Giorgio degli Schiavoni - beautiful and fun paintings (lots of animals) by Carpaccio.
Vaporetto day trip to Burano, Murano and Torcello - worth going all the way to Torcello for the mosaics
Eat a lot of ciccheti - possibly a food tour?
Find a shop that makes their own masks, there are a few and they are fab. Most of the shops will be selling ones made in China, same for glass that is supposedly Murano
Wander around and generally get lost
Do one of the Doge's palace tours
Scuola Grande di San Rocco for mahoosive paintings and a lot of gold
Peggy Guggenheim - if nothing else your teens will be distracted by the man on horse statue outside

Forgot - if you think your teens can go for an opera then Musica a Palazzo is an amazing experience.

They perform a shortened version of operas in an old palazzo with each act in a different room of the palazzo. It's very evocative and personal and the music standards are very high.

www.musicapalazzo.com/en/

We stayed outside of Venice and drove in, there's a train and buses too. We had a mobile home and there was a water park. I loved Venice but it was so crowded, so hot in summer and too many con artists (aka restauranteurs) trying to charge you if you just sit on steps in the shade for a minute to apply sunscreen . You need to get at least 15 mins walk from San marco before the rip off merchants seem to dissipate. Oh and none of the museums had air conditioning either it seemed. One full day really was enough

Coming from Trieste by train - there are regionale trains and then there are 1 or 2 Freccia trains - ( look at Trenitalia) they cost more but take them as the regionale trains have no space for luggage they are Local trains stop everywhere.
If it was me I would stay withn the station area - Its as safe as any other area easier to reach with luggage you wont have to lug anything on a vaporetto . I know there are some B&Bs in Calle Priuli that are reasonable , ansd probably Air BNBs as they are everywhere, Or look along the Canal di Cannaregio , It is also easier for when you then go back to the airport. Get a 2 day vaporetto pass dont forget to validate it .

Oh yes, the con artists. I was standing in St Mark's Square and one of them tried to round up the entire pigeon population to land on my head and body so that he could then charge me for the honour. I managed a death stare just in time so he backed off.
Big suitcases are a pain in Venice, no doubt about that one. If you stay in Carnareggio just by the station, then you won't have to move heavy luggage over bridges in the blistering heat and it has a great food scene.
The vaparetto is great but make sure it is going the right way around the loop or you could end up being on it for a lot longer than you want which is stressful if you have a train to catch (don't ask me how I know!).

Ahhh but you can eat/ drink within 5 mins of San Marco if you know where to go , and reasonably as well . Just go down the back streets
No need to queue for San Marco book your skip the line tix on the Basilica website direct - same for the Ducale.
Totally agree with San rocco , Also look at Fortuny , Palazzo Grimani.
Look out for the authentic made in Murano logo and anything wth a gold made in Murano sticker on it its probably fake

Hi OP, just curious and maybe I've got it wrong, but are you at the end of your cruise when you get to Venice? Just wondered if not, why you need to drag all your luggage with you for three days! I'm sure there is a very good reason, but I am so nosey....

Hope you have a great time in Venice, it is absolutely stunning but can get very very crowded. However it calms a bit in the evening time so it's great that you have three days to wander and absorb that beautiful place.

I should read the OP properly! Sorry - I see now that you are staying on after the cruise is finished. Sunday morning confusion need coffee again.

Definitely do Murano/Burano.

No need for a gondola, they are £££ - just go everywhere by vaporetto. If possible, I'd look for somewhere to stay near a vaporetto stop, our hotel was just one block away from one so it was always super-easy to get home. (You absolutely will get lost and I highly recommend doing so, but when you want to go home, you want to go home.)

The food market is super-cute and easily doable in the morning. If your teens like art then the Guggenheim is fab, we also saw stuff where they have the biennale, but that might have been temporary.

It is an extraordinary place. It really makes you think about the role cars play in our society. Seeing the equivalent of a Tesco delivery being made by boat... the little things like that are really unsettling in a good way.

OP, I meant to say - if you fancy trying your hand at rowing a traditional Venetian voga then I would heartily recommend booking a lesson with Row Venice.

We had a lesson with them a few years back and it was so much fun! It wasn't super cheaper but it felt like good value and rowing in the lagoon was a real experience. I just looked up their page about their instructors to see if the lady who did our lesson was still there - she isn't, but good grief they are some talented, accomplished, fearsome women!!

N.b. We did this on a sunny winter's day - your mileage may vary in the hot Venetian sun, but it's still lovely out on the water!