Challenged by Venice, Italy. Help!!!
 

Even though I've travelled by myself to Spain and France, I'm finding Venice is a little bit of a challenge.
My flight back home departs at 8am. Is it advisable to stay in the islands? Do water taxis operate 24 hours and can I book them through the hotel for the trip to the airport? Do water buses operate 24 hours also? And how do you get from that stop to the airport... land taxi? Is it far?
I've also read complaints from travellers regarding the difficulty of walking to hotels with luggage through crowded sidewalks and bridges. Any suggestions of good and not too expensive hotels (if this is possible in Venice!!) near a water bus stop?
Thanks for your help!

Akua05, we loved staying at Pensione Accademia, a nice B&B on a smaller canal just off the Grand Canal, in the dorsoduro area of Venice. They do have a private dock in case you want to hire a private water taxi to or from the airport. They have a nice included breakfast buffet, and I think their best rooms are the ones with a view of the cute little garden.

I believe our vaporetto stop was the Accademia, but you would need to double-check with the hotel web-site and e-mail them to make sure. We stayed with them last June 2004.

We arrived in Venice by train and decided to take the public vaporetto to our hotel. It was a short walk with luggage from our vaporetto stop to the hotel. Yes I think there was one little bridge to cross but it only had maybe 3 steps, not a big deal. We each had a 21-inch rolling carry-on, plus an 18" smaller duffel sitting on top of our carry-on. This is perfect for travelling in Italy.

When it was time to leave Venice and get to the airport, we planned on getting a private water taxi. As I mentioned the Pensione Accademia does have a private dock for this purpose, so it was convenient. We had our hotel reserve the water taxi in advance for us, ask them about this when you check in and remind them the day before you have to leave. I think it was 70 euros to get the private water taxi for 5 people and luggage to the airport, but this was last June so I'm relying on memory here. Pretty sure that's what we paid. Our flight left at 9:00 am.

For 22 euros per person you can get a 3-day (72-hour) vaporetto pass which gives you unlimited on and off privileges for the vaporetto, including to get to the nearby little islands of burano and murano, etc.

We liked the dorsuduro area of Venice for our hotel, because it was close to San marco, just a 2-minute vaporetto ride (or a walk if we really wanted to walk it would have been maybe a 15-minute walk but the vaporetto was so fun and convenient). San Marco is the busiest and crowded area and it was fun to visit but we are really glad our hotel was in the quieter dorsoduro area!

The dorsoduro area isn't crowded, so your worry about navigating luggage through crowds just won't happen in this area of Venice. If you arrive in Venice by train, and take the vaporetto to your hotel, you will have to stand with your luggage on the vaporetto. But we found this was fine, as long as you don't take more lugagge than you can handle. As I mentioned our rolling luggage was carry-on size, with a small duffel sitting on top.

How did we manage to pack so light? Well, we just plan on doing laundry on vacation. In Italy we actually found it was interesting to take a taxi to the laundromat in a neighborhood where the locals do their laundry...It's another slice of life. Next door to the laundromat was a little neighborhood store. (but we did our laundry in Florence, not in Venice.)

Yes, water taxis operate 24 hours. There have been extensive discussions of early morning departures from VCE; here's a fairly recent one: http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=34612480

Walking to your hotel with luggage is not such a challenge, if you have luggage you can manage (by yourself) in the first place. Can you carry (or roll) your own luggage 200 yards? Can you carry (all of it once) up one flight of stairs and down? These are sensible "screening" tests for "too much luggage", for any destination.

Best wishes,

Rex

Akua05, the web-site for the hotel I mentioned above is www.pensioneaccademia.it I think our double room with garden view was about 180 euros. Great price for expensive Venice. Price includes breakfast buffet.

ttt

Many flight to the US from Venice seem to leave at the crack of dawn, so lots of people go thru the same situation (taking a water taxis arranged by their hotels extremely early morning seems the favored solution).

I have not had trouble but only take 1 small rolling suitcase or duffle bag (I've arrived by train and gone to the hotel by vaporetto and it was not too difficult).

My hotel favorite is Penione La Calcina www.lacalcina.com but it is extremely popular so book early if interested.

Yes, the vaporetti run 24 hours, though on a reduced schedule in the wee hours.

Timetables here:
http://www.actv.it/

The Alilaguna airport boats don't run between around midnight and four+ a.m.

Schedules:
http://www.alilaguna.it/

Thank you all for the great advice! Keep it coming!
Melissa4: Liked Pensione Accademia but haven't found availability through internet; maybe it's full (dates are 15-18 oct/05).

You could call or fax the hotel directly.

Another option would be Pensione Wildner. It is right by the AliLaguna (airport boat) stop, as well as vaporetto, convenient to San Marco area as well. For a first-time visitor, that means no hassles with luggage and easy to find. While the area is somewhat busy, it is not nearly as much a zoo as those areas near Plaza Roma and the bus/train/car causeway arrivals. It does *not* have an elevator, though the rooms were fine and had AC. The waterfront rooms would have a great view, though they are a chunk more expensive. I thought it was a good value - we booked through venere.com, which let us compare a variety of places in Venice.

Hi Akua05,

We had an early flight and chose to stay near the bus depot for easy access to the airport shuttle eliminating the need for a water taxi. We got our tickets the day before and found the stop so we had adequate time. The bus and train stations are very close, so it worked to our advantage when arrived in the evening in the pouring rain as well.
The Hotel Gardena was quite charming with a good breakfast, clean bathrooms and fairly spacious rooms. I'm not sure of the rates but if you're saving time and money on transportation, that has some benefits.
Venice is a very easy city to navigate so staying outside the city centre, isn't really a problem. In fact, the more you're forced to walk, the more you'll discover to love!
Good luck.