Fodorites. . . Is anyone familiar with hotel
Des Bains Hotel (Starwood Hotel) in Venice italy? Itīs 2.99 mi/4.81 km from center of venice, but I am confused how much time, or how much I would pay to take a ferry from the main train staion in Venice to the hotel.

thanks

If you click on

http://tinyurl.com/fn4lx

you will bring up a link to the hotel web site which will give you detailed information on access and location. The hotel is in an area of Venice known as 'Lido' which is about 30 minutes by vaporetto (5 euro or less per journey) to the hotel.

The Lido is a separate beach resort island on the far eastern side of Venice. It has all the good and bad characteristics of a beach resort with the most activity during the summer--nothing like historic Venice at all.

It is true that you have to take the short vaporetto rides to go back and forth from the Lido to the main part of Venice, but I wouldn't say that the Lido isn't historic Venice. The Lido has a long history as well, some sightseeing opportunities such as an old cemetery, and a residential area also. The Des Bains hotel itself is a historic property, figuring for example in Thomas Mann's novel "Death in Venice." (the hotel did not cause the death. )

My friend and her husband just returned this week from visiting Italy for the first time. She had told me in advance that her agent put her in a nice hotel on the Lido, because they had a car. I was afraid she might regret it, as that is not in the city of Venice itself. Unfortunately, she was extremely disappointed. Not only was their rental car not parked in the small car park, as advertised, (they parked it on the street), but they learned the hard way about the transportation challenges into Venice. It was a good 65+ euros by private water taxi each way (the hotel taxi was not always available), and the vaporettos were not available after 8:00pm. As a result, they didn't feel they could stay "in town" for dinner and enjoy the less-touristy evening time. The vaporetto is a fun way to see much of the lagoon, when it is operating, but it does make many stops and so can be time-consuming.

Casa Rezzonico is getting some good reviews on this site and it's right in Venice. I think you would prefer to be right in Venice as we did.

Before you take a hotel on the Lido find out if there is a major convention in town. The Convention Center is on the Lido and if a big convention is in town the vaporetti back and forth to St Marks are often mobbed/overfull - and I have heard convention goers say they had to wait more than 30 minutes to even get on a boat - in addition to the trip back and forth.

Naturally staying in Venice proper would be preferable. But the Lido is not so inconvenient - except with a major convention. Then I wouldn;t even consider doing it.

I stayed on the Lido 2 1/2 weeks ago. Our hotel was located close to the St. Maria Elisabetta vaporetto stop. It took us only about 15 minutes to reach St. Mark's. The vaporetto was available after 8:00 p.m.

It does take about 15 minutes once you get onto the vaporetto, but do also consider that you might have to wait a bit for a vaporetto to arrive--they aren't lined up waiting for people. It's like a bus stop. If you get there just as a bus is arriving, great. If you just miss the bus, then you do have to wait a bit for the next bus.