I need recommendation for the hotels in the following area:
- Venice
- Florence
- Milan
- Lake Como
We have a party of 5 (this includes 3 children of age 5-12). Prefer to stay in one room if we can, but open to the ideas of having 2 rooms.

How many days would you recommend spending in Venice?
We will be driving there. Is there a place in the mainland Italy when we can park our car overnight while we spend couple days in Venice?

Thanks in advance for your help.

Venice parking at multistory car parks at end of causeway, right near a major canal and municipal boat and water taxi stops and a short walk to some hotels if they are near the kind of neighboring train station area. If going mainly to large cities like seems think twice about car as large cities often have no-go ZTL zones (bone up on those for cities you may drive in) and even if hotel is inside sometimes you can drive to hotel to unload but then have to go to remote parking place to leave car. Lake Como boats are a great way to get around.

So, consider taking the train - unless you have plans for countryside touring too but in Milan and Florence and obviously Venice cars are a poor idea. For lots on trains check Acquista il biglietto con le nostre offerte - Trenitalia and www.italotreno.com - easy to book own trains at a discount if book early enough on those two sites; www.seat61.com; www.budgeteuroeptravel.com and www.ricksteves.com.

Why not land in Venice and pick car up when leaving?

In Bellagio (Lake Como) look at self-catering apartments such as those at Villa Serbeloni and La Limonera - Residence La Limonera --

In Venice, consider renting an apartment or VRBO/HomeAway type place -- due to the expense of hotels and and ability to cook what you find at the Rialto Market.

In Florence, I love Hotel David -- but if you are not set on being "in the city" to stay over, consider an agriturismo nearby, such as in Impruneta (Monteoriolo, which has 2 and 4 br apartments) or Relais Villa L'Olmo, which has at least 1-2 family style units left.

Completely agree about ditching the car during Venice days.

Personally, I wouldn't use a car at all with this itinerary. It will be a handicap, not a benefit. Trains are so easy and cheap if purchased in advance.

I don't understand why you'd choose to drive. There is really no benefit, other than to be able to veer off and explore small towns/villages along the way, but since you haven't said how much time you have for this trip, it's hard to say whether that makes sense or not. But apart from that, you're going to encounter massive headaches (and possibly massive fines) if you contemplate having a car in Milan and Firenze. Obviously, a car is useless in Venice, and on Lake Como it's way easier to use boats. Take the train.

What time of year are you going? It makes a BIG difference.

Finding a single room for 5 people is just not the norm anywhere in Europe. Renting an apartment is a good alternative, though if it's just for a night or two here and there, you'll encounter resistance - no one wants to rent their place for much less than a week. At any rate, until you name a budget for accommodations (in euros), it's hard to make useful recommendations.

in Venice we found a very nice hotel which had a family room (well, at least one) called hotel Flora, superbly situated. We slept at 5 there, big room last floor, great ceiling. Look on booking.com or hotels.com and insert your wishes : 2 adults, 3 children. There may be choices (we foudn apartments on these sites, we never used airbnb yet - I know, silly French who don't know better).

Like Thibaut, I use www.booking.com to find lodging. If you specify 2 adults and 3 children, and 1 room, you'll see both apartments and family rooms in hotels. Apartments are a valid choice for larger groups, but they often entail inconveniences that may be bothersome when traveling with young children. For example, you may not be able to take possession of the apartment at a time convenient to you. Also, someone usually has to do the washing up and keep the place in order, and when I'm on holiday, I prefer that the hotel service the room. Finally, a hotel has someone on duty that can, for instance, advise you about transportation, replace lightbulbs, or call you a taxi .

In general, I prefer an apartment when traveling with extended family, or with someone who has unusual dietary restrictions, or when staying in a single place for more than a few days. In other circumstances, I much prefer a hotel.

Thank you all for all the advices. I really appreciated.

I know I know...it sounds crazy to have car, especially we are going into the cities. But we personally find it much easier with the car when traveling in Europe with 3 relative young kids. We just feel that there is more freedom on when we want to leave and head off to another cities. I feel like i have to start waiting for the train in the morning when my train is in the afternoon. We usually just leave the car in the parking lot when we enter large cities and stay close to the tourist area. We modify our schedule depending the time we have left. It seemed to work ok when we traveled to southern Italy and France. That's why we decided to drive again. As long as there will be parking space for us to park overnight, we would be very happy.

We are going in April and have about 12 days. We already got the tickets so probably will cost too much to change destination.

We don't really have a budget on how much to spend on hotels as long as it is clean, convenient, and safe.

Thank you all again for all of your help.

StCirq: thank you again , we had a great time while we were in France. My kids had fun visiting the Lascaux and the surrounding areas. we were able to hit most of the area that planned to go. although lots of driving, we managed to survive the trip =)

I feel like i have to start waiting for the train in the morning when my train is in the afternoon.

I don't think you've looked at the train schedules on these routes. In the morning and afternoon, trains between Milan, Venice, and Florence leave about every 20 minutes. They also get there faster: driving from Venice to Florence takes at least three hours, while the train takes two hours. When you get to Florence, you can't drive into the city center, or you'll get a big fine, mailed to your home in about six months, plus a hefty fee charged to your credit card by the car rental agency for their time spent helping the police track you down. (Google ZTL Italy.)

Thank you for the reminder on the train schedule. I totally understand that it most likely it takes a lot less time for the train. But it gets very unpredictable when traveling with kids. They just can come up with something very creative the very last minute. That's why we find more flexibility with the time when we leave and drive at our own pace.

Understand why to drive but Italy is different than much of Europe - the ZTL zones where even if your hotel is in the desirable city centers unless the hotel has parking - unlikely - you can drive to hotel to unload but I understand from previous posts that you must then park car in a remote lot outside of ZTL - maybe not in all cities but is the case in Florence TMK and Rome and obviously Venice. And days in those cities cars cannot be driven in city centers. do consider trains and try getting hotels near train stations - lots of them in all three cities and just stroll over to the train. Kids may find trains exciting - some going up to nearly 200 mph - all in all probably cheaper than a car trip with high tolls of autostrada and fuel, etc. You do have to pack light however with trains. I agree cars are great ordinarily for families in much of Europe but for the places in Italy you are going quite a hassle. (And folks come back and report they got steep fines for violating the ZTL zones without knowing it.)