Looking for reasonable, clean lodging outside of Venice. We have a car to park at docks to take water taxi into city. Have to keep distances in mind for 86 year old Oma and 6 year old. Only reason we don't want to stay in Venice is because parking is so expensive! Help!!

You can stay in Venice without the problems you mention if you park near Mestre station and take the train to Venezia Santa Lucia; you save on the parking and you save on the wildly expensive water taxi.

In Venice, try

www.alcampaniel.com

Clean, inexpensive, very well located, English-speaking owner.

P.S. Al Campaniel is within a few yards of the San Toma vaporetto and the San Toma traghetto (the gondola that plies back and forth across the Grand Canal). Both, but particularly the traghetto, can save you and Oma a great deal of walking.

Thank you so much for this info. We are so looking forward to this trip and a little overwhelmed with 7 of us travelling together! Any advice on organized tours of the city or Palace of the Doges?

I don't think you really need an organized tour of Venice. The city is easily walkable, and with a good guide book you can decide on your own priorities. There are organized tours, however; you might ask about them at the American Express office (go through the arches at the end of the Piazza San Marco opposite the Basilica di San Marco; American Express is on one of the little streets there; I'm sure any Venetian can direct you).

I would think that any organized tour of Venice would include a tour of the Doge's Palace. The Palace itself offers a "Secret Itineraries" tour that takes you to the hidden rooms and offices where the real business of the Venetian Republic was conducted, but I would definitely not recommend it for Oma -- the stairs are steep and the passages narrow.

P.S. Another source of information about organized tours might be the Venice Tourist Office. To get to it, go from the Piazza San Marco into the Piazzetta and turn right (with the lagoon on one side and gardens on the other) and you will come to it; it's a small pavilion.