Ideal number of days in Venice?
 

We have a week...would you spend it all in Venice, or are there suggestions for areas due West (we must return to Nice, France)?

If you are budget constrained at all, then I would recommend 36 or 60 hours in Venice - - i.e., one overnight or two.<BR><BR>Because lodging is expensive there, I recommend trying to stay nearby the night before you arrive in Venice and also the night after you leave. That way, you can get TO Venice with all the day left upon you arrival, and stay most of the day on the day of your departure. Yhat minimizes you need for expensive Venice lodging.<BR><BR>And the area west of Venice from Padova to Lake Maggiore (speaking rather broadly) has a lot to like: Verona, the Palladio villas, Bassano del Grappa, Sirmione and Lake Garda, Trento, Bergamo, Bellagio/Menaggio/Varenna and Lake Como, Milan and Lake Maggiore - - all of these are great. And I am still leaving out tons.<BR><BR>You have so many great choices.<BR><BR>Best wishes,<BR><BR>Rex<BR><BR><BR>

I'm going in October, and have enough stuff on my to-do list to last 10-12 days, easily. Unfortunately, I've only got 2! From what I've read about Venice, you could easily spend a week there. I've got lots of posts on Venice compiled...if you like it, send me an email.<BR><BR>Anne

I spent 6 nights in Venice in March and had a wonderful time. I did talk to many people beforehand who told me that was way too much time to spend in Venice and that 3 nights would be enough. I loved Venice so much that I didn't even take any day trips, but I think if you have a week you could easily spend 3-4 full days in Venice and do day trips to Padua, Verona, etc.

Hi MR! October should be a nice time to go. My first trip was in March, cool, damp & nearly deserted. It was great to have Venice almost all to ourselves. In 1 1/2 days we visited the Doge's Place, St. Mark's, Rialto Brige & did lots of wandering.<BR><BR>On my second trip, May, Venice was busier, but not too bad. I had 4 full days & 4 nights during which I did:<BR><BR>Murano & Burano<BR>Campanille<BR>Santa Maria della Salute<BR>Il Fari (SP?) never can remember<BR>Accademia<BR>Guggenheim<BR>La Scuola de San Rocco<BR>Ca d'Oro<BR>St. Mark's again<BR>Piazza San Marco at night<BR>lots of wandering & some shopping<BR><BR>I still could have spent 1 more day.<BR>Buon viaggio!

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It completely depends on what type of experience you enjoy. Yes, there are those who love Venice for two weeks--I'm more of a two day kind of gal. Rex has given a lot of good choices for other regional exploration.

I'd say spend the week in Venice - there are places to visit outside of Venice that are easy day trips: boat trip on the Brenta Canal, Stra, Verona, Chioggia....<BR><BR>I sort of like the sleep-in-a-different-bed-every-night tours, but it seems out of place in Italy...

3 days is plenty. Then go spend the rest in Florence or driving around the small town of Tuscany. If you like mountains, the Alto Aldige area is gorgeous. So are the lakes (Como, Garda).

You can never spend enough time in Venice! Stay away from St Marks and you will be amazed at what you can find. There are plenty of inexpensive hotels so that shouldn't be a deterrent to staying longer. However, Asolo is a nice day trip and you can see all the amazing Palladian estates on the way.<BR>Trieste is also fun.<BR>

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Hi guys:<BR><BR>Cheryl says that there are plenty of cheap hotels in Venice, I would love if somebody could tell me where some of these are...I can't seem to find any and am having real difficulties finding anywhere available for September.<BR>Thanks! <BR>Kind regards,<BR>Jade

We stayed at the La Calcina hotel -- perfect location (very secluded but with a canal view). It was around $175 per night but that is the most expensive the rooms get (mid-July), and the accommodations were spectacular with a canal view. We spent more than that in New York recently, and the hotel was horrible and unclean.<BR><BR>As for length of time there, we spent four days and could (and should) have stayed another. There were still so many things we missed -- the Guggenheim, the fish market at the Rialto Bridge, Torcello (we were there, but it rained so we didn't stay long), seeing a concert in the evening, visit to Lido... We did see enough of the city and islands though within four days to really appreciate and love it. Perhaps longer and we wouldn't still be wanting more.

Jade: We are staying at the Hotel Galleria in October for around $100. I had a hard time finding anything in that price range, and in fact, managed to get a room at their "dependence" because the hotel is full. Worth a try... good reviews in several books and on several boards. A friend stayed at Locanda Nova last year and really liked it. They had a quad for less than $200/night. Guess it depends on what type of room you need and what you consider inexpensive. I'm happy if I can keep it to $100/night, which I really thought would not be possible in Venice, but it is!<BR><BR>I have a file on stuff I've gathered on Venice which I'll be happy to share. If you want it, send me an email.<BR><BR>Anne

Hmmm ! Venice in Oct.--what a great idea. We will be spending a week there,arriving on 3 Oct. this year. We have rented an apt. for the week--a good idea if you decide on that long.<BR>From there, we spend a week in Slovenia, and then back to Venice to fly home. We have done most of Veneto before, so Venice in-depth is the idea.

I was about to post but Cecilia's post is almost word for word the same as mine would have been.<BR><BR>We were there for 6 nights in April/ March. We were advised to spend less time but infact loved all 6 days there. We had thought we'd get out of Venice and do some day trips, but with the exception of a trip to Murano/ Burano we didn't do that. <BR><BR>I'd also day you could easily fill 4 days or more in Venice itself and there are plenty of day trips you could do if you would like to see more than one destination.<BR><BR>Whilst Rex is quite right than accommodation is expensive, I think it's probably still better for your budget to spend the time in one place rather than also factor in travel costs. Travelling to a new destination will also eat time which could be spent sightseeing.<BR><BR>Booking 6 nights in a hotel, especially when in low season, might possibly help you to negotiate a better rate.<BR><BR>Lastly I would recommend you do a search for posts by Elaine, a poster here who has excellent advice to share on Venice, and a file full of data which she has put together and mails out to interested posters. <BR><BR>I wrote a trip report of my own trip, if you would like a copy please email me.<BR><BR>Good luck!<BR><BR>Kavey

I appreciate the pleasant/civil tone of Kavey's disagreement with me. I hope this post carries the same tone.<BR><BR>I may have started the thread off on the wrong foot by bringing in the issue of cost. MR did not mention budgetary constraints. My reply is based on the POSSIBLE need to economize (and others reading this thread may identify with that).<BR><BR>But MR does say that hee needs to head west eventually, to get to Nice. And I think that the cost of a train ticket to Verona (starting at 9,40 euro) will be recovered many times over, through the less expensive lodging options available there(or even cheaper in many other destinations).<BR><BR>And in fact, relocating to Verona involves really NO extra travel time (except train station to hotel and back). To get to Nice, the travel time is recovered since MR is headed onward to Nice.<BR><BR>I have no disagreement that MR can spend a week enoyably in Venice. I bet I'd like to do that someday, when I can not worry about the cost.<BR><BR>In essense, there were two questions:<BR><BR>"would you spend it all in Venice?"<BR><BR>some answered this yes, and others answered it no.<BR><BR>"are there suggestions for areas due West (we must return to Nice, France)?"<BR><BR>I concentrated on this half of the question.<BR><BR>

My best friend and I went to Venice in December for 6 nights 7 days. We spent almost nothing the whole time we were there for a couple of reasons: We would get up, enjoy our complimentary breakfast (the best coffee I've ever had in my life!) and walk walk walk explore explore explore. We got lost and loved it. We took tons of pictures, acted silly, and stopped for the occassional cup of coffee. We found a grocers and bought bread and cheese or some fruit and sat on the edge of the canal and ate lunch and we almost never ate a meal anywhere right near Piazza San Marco (found a great trattoria about 15 minute walk from the piazza). You can get anything for have the price the further you walk from San Marco. We did take a day trip to Padova which was easy and glorious. We had a full and yet very relaxing week and left with at least a million things we had meant to do while we were there. It remains the best vacation I have ever taken. I recommend staying there for the week--leave so that you feel like you have come to know that place.

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I've been to Venice twice, each time ~5 days as part of a longer European trip. If I only had one week (i.e. 7 days) I would spend it mostly in Venice with maybe the 1 last day to make your way calmly, peacefully back to Nice. 6 days in Venice would be perfect (IMHO).