My wife and I will be arriving in April at St lucia station on our first trip to Venice. We like the look of a few hotels in different parts of the city. We accept that the hotels themselves will be expensive, but the price for transfers from the station to hotels (by private boat)in the san marco or Rialto areas is exorbitant. We don't generally seek &quot;hand-holding&quot; in new places, but we have heard that Venice can be intimidating for new arrivals. We are resigning ourselves to getting a hotel close to the station and &quot;commuting&quot; to the attractions therafter.<BR>Are we restricting ourselves unneccessarily? Is it easy enough to get to a hotel further afield than the station if we are arriving with luggage and don't wish to pay a king's ransom to have someone meet us? Is walking to (say) Rialto practical, or even further? Can we catch a public &quot;vaporetto&quot; (#82 it would seem)with luggage? Are there &quot;taxis&quot; for hire? Alternatively, would anyone say that staying in the station area (Cannaregio?) is desirable anyway, even if there were other options?. This is the first time we have posted, and would really welcome advice from from some Venetian veterans.

russell: It isn't that intimdating. Crowded, yes. But not intimidating. You can take a vaporetto; #82 or #101. Both provide a scenic first look at Venice. Just get in line and push gently forward until you come to the head of the line and board the next vaporetto paying close attention to the number. It is fun and it is exciting the first time. In fact, it is still exciting. <BR>The Cannaregio Area is one of my favorites. You would be very dissapointed if you did not go in to Venice instead of staying at the station area. Have a great trip.

Go into Venice and do not be intimidated for long! One of the best experiences will be emerging from the train station and finding Venice waiting for you. There is a ticket booth to your right as you emerge from the station. You can buy tickets there.<BR>If you are staying for a few days buy a ticket for the period you will be in Venice. Call your hotel or e mail them prior to arrival to find out which boat you should take. Since you will be arriving by train you will hopefully have limited your luggage. One carry-on for each person is more than enough on the trains and is managable on the vaporetti. You might be packed onto the boat with crowds of folks but thatis part of the experience of Venice. I fancy myself to be the adventuresome type and yet was intimidated at the idea of navigating Venice. One catches on quickly to the transport. Check out the Dursoduro area as a place to stay. It is easily reached by the vaporetto and much less congested than either san marco or the rialto...plus just a far better place to stay in my opinion. We were in Venice for a week last October. The boat routes are easy to discern..you can become a master of the routes in a short time. A point of comparison..I found the metro of Paris to be fairly easy to figure out...I found the vaporetto system of Venice to be infinitely easier. Venture forth..it's an amazing place, quite welcomming and relaxing in ways you can't yet imagine.

Russell,<BR>As long as you don't have a huge amount of luggage, you should be able to easily buy a ticket and hop onto the vaporetto. My husband and I had 1 piece of luggage each plus a daypack and had no trouble getting on to the vaporetto, there were quite a few people with luggage on board. There is a small space as you get on that you may be asked to leave your luggage in but only if it's really crowded. <BR>When you exit the station, you will see the Grand Canal in front of you, down some steps. Head to the booth near the water to buy a ticket. It's better value to buy a pass for the days you will be there, but don't worry too much about that, just get a ticket. Then wait for a vaporetto (No. 82 goes to all stops) to come along and board along with everyone else. There is usually quite a crowd but it's orderly. If you are not sure if the vaporetto is going the right way, just say your stop, e.g. &quot;Accademia?&quot; to the boat man before you get on. They are well used to tourists and will nod or say no. The name of each stop is clearly marked and you should get ready to get off at the stop before your stop, particularly if it's busy, just pick up your luggage and move towards the area where you step off the boat. They don't hang around, each stop is about a minute.<BR>We stayed in the Dorsoduro area, at the budget priced Hotel Galleria, right on the Grand Canal and used the vaporettos constantly. The area around the station is OK, more touristy than other areas but fine. I wouldn't recommend walking to San Marco when you first arrive, with luggage, it's not that far, but Venice can be a bit of a maze and the signs don't help much. I've been to Venice 3 times now, it's a truly beautiful place, if I can help more, feel free to email me at [email protected]<BR>Kay

Above posters are spot on--as long as you don't have mounds of luggage, taking the vaporetto will be fine. But if you want to stay near the station that is OK, too.<BR><BR>It's not the nicest area in the city partly because of the daytripper crowds--so you have more people and a concentration of businesses catering to the daytrippers. But on our first visit, we stayed at the Continental which is just up the street from S. Lucia right on the Grand Canal. And it was very nice. It was, of course, perfect for exploring Cannaregio and Santa Croce. Venice is not huge, so a nice vaporetto ride or pleasant walk gets you to the better known sights pretty quickly.<BR><BR>Based on our experiences, I would prefer to stay in Dorsoduro or San Palo, but if you feel overwhelmed by it all, your trip won't be spoiled if you stay near the station.

Hi Russell,<BR> Some suggestions that might help you.<BR>Multimap.com will give you a zoomable map of the city that can find individual streets.<BR><BR>http://www.actv.it/eng/home.php gives the routes and schedules of the vaporetto system.<BR><BR>www.venere.com has a number of hotels and B&amp;B's. Venice is not necessarily exorbitant.<BR><BR> Have a nice trip.

Thanks to everyone who has responded to our question. It is really appreciated. Based on the advice, it seems that we can safely choose a hotel on merit rather than grabbing the closest one to the station. This will be my first time in Venice and my wife's first time in Europe. Reading the commentaries on this site (which we have only just found) it is obvious that many of you love the city, and I am more excited about this trip than I have been for years.Thanks again everybody.

I've been to Venice twice (female, solo) both times guided in planning by a friend who lives in Europe.<BR><BR>I arrived by train at San Lucia and caught a vaporetto (with directions provided by my hotel) right outside the station. I had only one medium duffle bag &amp; one large pocketbook. Got off at the Zaterre stop and walked a short distance to Pensione La Calcina. Wonderful 3-star hotel in nice location on the Guidecca canal about 10-15 mins. walk into San Marcos, yet peaceful neighborhood. For what it is, what you get, it is not too expensive by Venice standards. www.lacalcina.com<BR><BR>From my point of view... what sounds *much* more intimidating is arriving in Venice without a place to stay &amp; to look at a few hotels in different parts of the city. Now *that* sounds like a huge and unneccessary headache.

Two more tips: We used the map from the Rough Guide to Venice. We pulled it out of the book and carried it everywhere, It was easy to read with many of the places we wanted to see marked on the map and it was waterproof!<BR><BR>2)Do yourselves a favor and rent &quot;Summertime&quot; (1955) with Katherine Hepburn. She emerges from the train station to have the Grand Canal before her. We just rented it and thought it had some of the best shots of Venice. The hotel she is staying at in the movie is now the Accademia in the Dursoduro. At least from our perspective the beauty of the film was much of the landscape seemed the same to us 47 years later.

Obviously..I have alot to say about Venice. We stayed at La Calcina and recommend it as well. It's an easy boat ride from the train station and the boat to the airport is just outside their front door. It might be hard to get a room there now for APril but try.

Staying near the train station saves you only *one* time each way coming/going, but then you have to hike to every other thing you want to see &amp; do in the heart of the city. I know I'm repeating myself as I posted above, but I'd book a hotel ahead and ask them the directions via vaporetto from the train station. Neither the hotel nor this transport need be 'exorbitant'.<BR><BR>I found Venice less intimidating than many other new cities because it is geographically fairly small and there's no car or bus traffic to confuse things!