My husband and I will arrive at Marco Polo late at night from San Francisco, and plan to spend two full days in Venice before taking a Greek Cruise. My question, is it best to spend the first night near the airport and then the next two nights in Venice? Is there a particular location that would make. It is not important to be right on a canal. We are more interested in making the trip with a lot of luggage without killing ourselves. Any suggestions of hotels that won't break the bank?
Pat

How late are you arriving? While not all that difficult, it's still not effortless/hassle free getting from the airport to Venice. Darkness can make it a more stunning arrival, but also make it more difficult. You mention budget, which means taking a private water taxi from the airport to your hotel is probably out of the question.

Options include taking the airport bus to Mestre and getting a hotel right near the train station. That would make transfer to Venice proper quite easy the following day.

Or airport bus to Piazzale Roma, and getting a hotel close to there. You could use that as a base for 3 nights, and have an easy transfer to the cruise ship as well.

Or a hotel near the airport. Doesn't sound attractive to me.

Or a hotel more centrally located in Venice proper, but may require some late night navigation, with cruise ship ready luggage.

Just thinking quickly I can see lots of advantages to taking a bus to Piazzale Roma and getting a hotel right near there - and staying put for the duration.

If the flight is on time we will arrive at 10:30 PM. After collecting luggage etc....your idea of staying near the Pizzale Roma sounds excellent if it will work for all three nights.

hi partricia,

there are ACTV buses [the no 5] to piazzale Rome at 23.10, 24.10 and 1.10.

on balance, i would still favour getting the bus to piazzale Roma and staying nearby - when you wake up in the morning, you'll be glad you did!

otherwise, stay the first night in Mestre near the station then move into Venice in the morning.

have a great trip,

regards, ann

If you have a lot of luggage, please consider taking a cab right to Venice. There is a Sofitel just off the Piazzale. See if they will give you a special rate. DH thinks it was $30-40 for the cab-can anyone update that info???

I agree, you should go by land to P. Roma in Venice and stay very near there.

For lodging, if you go to www.venere.com, type in Venice, then wait till the entire page loads, then click on "Find hotels on the map" and then again on the area over on the left called "S. Croce Ovest," it will give you a list of hotels in the immediate area of P. Roma. Then you can click on the hotels to get an idea of the star rating and rates for each. Although you can book directly through Venere, I only use that to get hotel names, and then google the names for the hotels' own websites.

Holly gives great advice. Perhaps your cruise company also has info about hotels near the ship. Surely you are not the first to take advantage of the most serene Venice before embarking.