http://www.italylogue.com/accommodation/11-hotels-near-st-marks-square-in-venice.html
Visitors to Venice, especially those who are traveling to this famous canal city for the first time, generally want to make their homebase a hotel that’s as close as possible to the center of activity. And while Venice is easily walkable so that just about any hotel is going to be close to something worth seeing, St. Mark’s Square is arguably the hub of most of the stuff going on in Venice.
If you’re looking at a map of Venice, the placement of this bustling piazza way off to one side of the city doesn’t make it seem like it would be so “central” to tourist life in Venice, but it is. So it’s not surprising that there are a gajillion hotels near St. Mark’s Square (yes, a gajillion – I counted). This is by no means, therefore, an exhaustive list – but it is a list of 11 of the hotels around Piazza San Marco that I think are worth checking out.
How to reach the Hotel Paganelli from the San Zaccaria airport-boat stop:
- As you leave the Alilaguna Linea Blu waterbus station, bear right.
- The Hotel Paganelli will be a few meters ahead of you, to the right of the Hotel Savoia & Jolanda.
$76
Hotel Palazzo Vitturi
Campo Santa
Maria Formosa, Castello 5246, Venice, VE, 30122, Italy, 800-491-6126
BOOK A HOTEL NEAR A WATER TAXI STOP
I highly recommend staying at least two
nights in Venice Proper and booking a hotel near a water taxi stop. Trust me,
you do not want to drag your luggage very far in Venice.
I
stayed at Hotel Palazzo Vitturi,
which is within a 5-minute walk from both the Rialto and San Marco water taxi
stops. This hotel is in the perfect location for exploring the top spots in
Venice — including the Piazza San Marco, Riva Degli Schiavoni, and Bridge
of Sighs.
The rooms are HUGE, the
WiFi worked great, the staff was extremely helpful, and I was amazed with the spread they
served for breakfast — which is included in your room price. I stayed in March
and it was just over 100 USD per night. Keep in mind, prices everywhere
in Venice increase during the summer season. http://ordinarytraveler.com/articles/venice-italy-travel-tips
DON’T IGNORE THE TOP TOURIST SITES
Places like Piazza San
Marco, Riva Degli Schiavoni, and Bridge of Sighs are popular for a reason.
Don’t ignore these tourist hot spots in Venice. I also highly recommend a trip
to the top of Campanile di San Marco for a bird’s eye view of the city.
Plan on getting there when the building opens for the shortest wait time.
GET UP EARLY
I’m usually up before
sunrise when I travel and Venice was no exception (this is also where jet lag
comes in handy). I practically had the place to myself — even the famous Piazza
San Marco (St. Marks Square) was empty! When I visited the square in the afternoon, I could not
believe the crowds and I didn’t even travel to Venice during the busy summer
season.
What to do instead: Graze at Venice’s best cicchetti bars Cicchetti are like Spanish tapas and cost €1-2 each. They are typically eaten standing up and are the most authentic Venetian cuisine you can have. A couple of my personal favorites are all located just steps away from the Rialto Bridge and frequented by locals. You won’t find any menus; just point to a couple that make your mouth water from the case of the day’s freshly made cicchetti. Try: Cantina Do Mori at Sestiere San Polo, 429 or All’Arco at San Polo, 436.
ReplyDeleteRead more at: http://www.johnnyjet.com/2013/09/venices-biggest-tourist-traps-and-how-to-avoid-them/
The tiny Gelateria Alaska, tucked away on Calle Larga dei Bari, 1159, in the Santa Croce neighborhood, is Venice’s best gelateria in my opinion. Run by owner Carlo, who you’ll almost always find behind the counter, makes his homemade gelato daily. When he’s out of a certain flavor, that’s it for the day. Some of the flavors sound wild, but give them a try! His ginger gelato (zenzero) is a bit spicy, but surprisingly delicious.
ReplyDeleteRead more at: http://www.johnnyjet.com/2013/09/venices-biggest-tourist-traps-and-how-to-avoid-them/
What to do instead: Take a trip to Murano Murano is easy to reach from Venice via vaporetto (water bus) on the 4.2 line from S. Zaccaria (the stop just in front of Doge’s Palace in St. Mark’s Square) or the 3 line from Piazzale Roma or Ferrovia (the bus and train stations). Once on Murano, wander in and out of the various glass shops and factories. Even if you’re not buying, it’s fun to see the glass makers melting and then molding glass into works of art. A 12-hour travel card costs €18 per person.
ReplyDeleteRead more at: http://www.johnnyjet.com/2013/09/venices-biggest-tourist-traps-and-how-to-avoid-them/
A 7€ ticket allows you to travel for 70m and enjoy the fantastic scenery. If you can get a chair in the front part of the vaporetto you will certainly enjoy an unforgettable experience
ReplyDeleteWe went to murano Burano ,lido and all over Venice with this ticket
The service runs quite late to and from st marks square and is every 10 minutes depending on line
Great way to experience Venice
Great way to get to our hotel. Reliable on time and easy to purchase tickets for .
The ticket price was 7.50 euro each person and luggage one way down the grand canal .
easy to visit Murano and Lido.
It also simplified getting to Murano and Burano, although the routes to these islands can be confusing, a quick google search tells you which line etc you will need.
you pretty much see everything you see from a gondola
one that makes every stop along the way to one that makes a few stops to be the express route.
The #2 line will let you see beautiful palazzos along the Grand Canal.
Get day (or more) pass and forget about single tickets.
a great way to tour the Grand Canal. Just get on Vaporetto No. 1.
You can either purchase a ticket for 7.50 euros( valid for 75 minutes) or a 24- hour duration ticket for 20 euros(unlimited trips)or even for longer duration
The tickets have a chip inside so do not throw it after using it. For you can recharge on a machine and avoid the queue. You can check the validity of your ticket by running it against the sensor.You can pay by credit card at a kiosk or in a machine as long as you have a PIN
We spent a day touring the Grand Canal, hopping off for lunch and a museum
If you are looking for a gondola experience without the cost, then you can use the public gondola across the Grand Canal for 2 euros per person each way, which takes your from the Rialto bridge across to the fish market, an interesting place to look around, and back again.
Water Bus Routes 1 & 2
ReplyDeleteVenice Water Bus Line 1 Pulling Into Landing Stage
Venice Water Bus Route Map
The workhorse route is route number 1 that stops at every stop along the Grand Canal.
These are the largest boats, (see image above) and even in Winter there are five boats an hour most of the day.
The scheduled journey time between Santa Lucia Railway Station and St Mark's Square is about 45 minutes. There are 14 stops along the way. Number 1 ferry continues another 20 minutes across to Venice Lido Island.
There is also another express boat, route number 2 that does the journey between Santa Lucia Railway Station and St Mark's Square in a scheduled 30 minutes making only 5 stops including Rialto Bridge. Though make sure the boat you get is travelling along the Grand Canal as this route is a circular route that loops around the south of Venice.
Water Bus Routes 4 & 5
ReplyDeleteUsing smaller boats routes 4 and 5 circumnavigate the main island of Venice in each direction and do not go through the Grand canal that splits the main island in two. Route number 4 just follows the coastline all around the island, hopping across and back from the island of Murano along the way.
Route 5 follows a near identical route around the island but doesn't make the short detour to Murano Island. instead it detours over to the Venice Lido.
Water Bus Route 12 (Outer Island Route)
ReplyDeleteThis route is your transport to the smaller outer islands of Murano, Burano and Torcello and is well travelled by tourists.
Route 12 departs from a terminus on the north shore of Venice called Fondamente Nove.
Most visitors will have to travel to Fondamente Nove using water bus routes 4 or 5.
Boats used are mid-size larger than the small water bus routes 4 and 5, but smaller than route 1. There are a minimum of two services an hour even in winter.
Getting to Burano from Venice. One vaporetto line runs from Venice to Burano: the 12. The large, express ferry runs from Venice's San Zaccaria stop (near St. Mark's), to Burano and Murano, with another stop at Venice's Fondamente Nove stop. It takes about 45 minutes, and costs €6.50 per person
ReplyDelete“We learned of a service provided by the Gondola Association with the intention of improving the image of gondoliers. For only fifty cents each we could cross from one side of the canal to the other! After a lot of walking and searching we found the traghetto (poor man’s gondola) station where we boarded a rather plain gondola for the short trip across the canal to the Church of Saint Maria Della Salute.” – Cullism
ReplyDeleteTraghetti (Gondola ferries across the Grand Canal)
ReplyDeleteHead for the nearest traghetto pier and get rowed to the other side. As a tourist, you'll be expected to pay €2,-- (nearly three times the resident rate of 70 cents), but there is an unofficial workaround that sometimes works
Cicchetti are like Spanish tapas and cost €1-2 each. They are typically eaten standing up and are the most authentic Venetian cuisine you can have. A couple of my personal favorites are all located just steps away from the Rialto Bridge and frequented by locals. You won’t find any menus; just point to a couple that make your mouth water from the case of the day’s freshly made cicchetti. Try: Cantina Do Mori at Sestiere San Polo, 429 or All’Arco at San Polo, 436.
ReplyDeleteRead more at: http://www.johnnyjet.com/venices-biggest-tourist-traps-and-how-to-avoid-them/
wander out of St. Mark’s Square. You’ll find bars in just about any alley leading out of it. Second, live like a local and order your coffee at the bar standing up. You can actually get a coffee and a delicious pastr
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Well we have been here twice a day for the last 4 days. Every time we have enjoyed it tremendously. Cheap drinks and not a tourism trap. Bacaro Risorto near our hotel http://www.cntraveler.com/stories/2014-10-30/where-the-locals-eat-in-venice-italy
ReplyDeleteCoop San Lio EXCELLENT!!!! one of very few corner stores round where we were stayin, so very very handy. Had most things that you would need. Amazing! Prices are great. Cheap place to get a meal in Venice for under €10.
ReplyDelete