I am interested in booking a trip to Venice in the next year. I am in new York. When is the most economical time of year for airfare and lodgings?

Winter. January and February (until Carnival) definitely, I'm not sure about December.

I like going during Thanksgiving (mid to late November). It's colder and you do risk the chance of acqua alta (although I haven't experienced it yet), but the crowds are fewer and you can generally get off-season pricing for hotels. Airfare is also cheaper. Last year my roundtrip airfare from Washington DC to Venice was $435 on Air France...just watch for their early bird sales.

acqua alta? is that high tide?

Hi PP

Aqua alta is high tide.

The lowest parts of the city (Plaza San Marco for example) will get a foot or so of water.

It drains away fairly quickly.

Low season airfares used to be from November 2 til March 30, with blackout dates for major holiday periods. For flights to Europe, Thanksgiving is not a holiday, but Christmas through New Years is. Whether this is changing with all the other airline changes of late, I do not know.

I have travelled to Venice about 10 times, mostly in low season in last 7 years and from my search on hotels, I can tell, low season generally is :
Mid/late november to early March, except Christmas/New Year and Carnavale.

Book OFF SEASON. High Season is March 15 to November 5. So, plan accordingly. Book in ADVANCE. Plus, see if you can disembark at a secondary airport. That will cost you much lesser. Everything, from airfare to hotels and car rentals are low during winters. It's good to travel off season because you are SAVED from the tourist hordes

All my best!

We were in Venice between Christmas and New Year's just a couple months ago. One of the shopkeepers said that January and February are their lowest in terms of tourists. We got a great deal on our hotel and flights and didn't experience the acqua alta.

> High Season is March 15 to November 5

I think earthhopper oversimplfies the seasons. It's not as clear as that. He/she forget to consider shoulder/middle seasons. e.g. most hotels offer middle season rate for mid-summer, beginning of November and mid march, etc. Some hotels have clear season dates on the price list such as :

http://www.lacalcina.com/HTML/en/calcina_prezzi_en.html

Just to give you an idea. Different hotels, slightly different dates.

If you really want low season, I think that would be November, through March but excluding Christmas - Epiphany, Carnival, and Holy Week, whenever they fall, which will be high seasons ratewise . Personally I would go for Jan-march (and have done so - several times. You are more likely to have a bad acqua alta experience in November or early December meaning with heavy rains and bad winds (the main causes of a bad acqua alta) in Nov-early December. Its no fun seeing the city in extremis or vacationing in a major coldweather rainstorm. The only disadvantages to Jan-Feb are that some of the restaurants (but not all by any means) will be closed nad that if it is very cold there will be a lesser supply of local/lagoon seafood. Last year we were there in early Feb and most of the seafood in the marked was shipped in - there were a very small number of local items.

> You are more likely to have a bad acqua alta experience in November or early December meaning with heavy rains and bad winds (the main causes of a bad acqua alta) in Nov-early December. Its no fun seeing the city in extremis or vacationing in a major coldweather rainstorm.

The problem is you really cannot tell if it is really in NOV/DEC. I have done many of my low season visits to Venice exactly in late Nov/early Dec because first time I was in Vencie for 5 days (again Nov/Dec), all 5 days were misty in early morning and sunny for the rest of the day. That's why I think I hooked up visiting Venice at this time of a year. With lowest prices, little crowd and lots of sun (I was lucky about this), I had nothing to complain (ok daytime is a bit too short). True on my following visits I experienced a few light acqua alta but it happened either with rain or not. Window may be a factor but I thought it was mainly tide. I had the same (a bit of acqua alta, rain, etc) in Jan - Mar too so it's really hard to say. But it's true, the best (sorry, the worst)acqua alta I have ever experienced was in Dec 2005. San Marco square under water yet sky blue above was so surreal and I'm glad to have had that experience. I walked from my hotel in Cannaregio to San Marco in plastic high boots that I bought in front of my hotel. This was the time I took the elevator up the campanille of San Marco. Ok, if the weather had been bad I might have had a slighty different opinion. Perhaps you want to see what sort of fun I had that day on my album. It lasted for a few hours of about 9 - 12:00 as it usually does. In the late afternoon that day the square was dry. The other days were, bit of rain but most of the time cloudy or sunny.

http://s23.photobucket.com/albums/b3...20Acqa%20Alta/