I have a choice of 3 hotels near the Vencie train station. Carlton(expensive),Olimpia(mid range),Canal &amp; Walter(lowest). Has anyone stayed at any of these ? I am looking for hotels within walking distance due to luggage and an early moring departure.<BR>Thanks

Have not stayed at any of those hotels, but IMO that area of Venice is the least attractive. We had an early departure on our last trip to Venice in May 2002 and it was pouring rain, but had no trouble by water taxi from very near Piazza San Marco to the train station. Expensive but worth it to us.

Hi Fred!<BR><BR>I agree. The area right near the train station would be my very last choice. It's not hard to take your luggage on the vaporetti, unless you're traveling with too much to start with! <BR><BR>There are so many more wonderful and charming places to stay. The station area is very crowded.<BR><BR>Venice is small &amp; it's not difficult to get to the station early. The vaporetti start early too! Lots of Venicians work on the mainland, after all.<BR><BR>Buon viaggio!

Fred,<BR>we stayed at the Canal &amp; Walter the very last of August this past year. We are coming to Venice again in March, and would have stayed there again, but the price had risen to $150 and we found a cheaper hotel. <BR>If you have gotten a low rate, by all means stay there. It was spotless, with a nice big marble bath and even a chandelier in the small bedroom. The floors were so shiry (marble) that my husband thought there was a pool of water under one chair. (no kidding) The breakfast buffet was ample and at that time of the year, we had it in the garden. We had a room overlooking the Grand Canal but the room was quiet with no obstrustive pedestrian noise and we could hear no noise from the RR station across the canal.There was a TV, safe, and a honor bar with Proseco etc in it. We just told them what we had out of it as we paid out in the morning. It was very convenient to the P Roma as we were dropped off there and simply had to walk over two SMALL bridges and we were right at our hotel. When we left, we had no problem wheeling our luggage back to the P Roma and then took a taxi from there, but if you are going to the airport, you can catch a bus there (of course!).<BR><BR>Best wishes!<BR>

Also stayed at the canal and walter last July and would definitly stay there again. As the last poster says, it was spotless, pleasant and the staff was great. Very convientient to the train station. I don't see what everyone has against this area of Venice, just walk around the back and you're on a quiet canal in a very nice residential area. Certainly in some cities the train station area can be seedy or ugly, but that really isn't the case in Venice. You certainly can't see or hear the trains from the hotel. My next trip to Venice I plan to stay there again.

I stayed at Hotel Marin which was very close to the train station, across the Grand Canal and behind a church on a quiet alley. It was quite nice and had a good breakfast included.

I stayed at the Hotel Marin also, but the owners informed me they were closing the hotel in Dec.'02 and converting the building to apartments.<BR>It was a great value, I thought.

We stayed across the bridge from the train station at the Ai Due Fanali and loved it. It's a wonderful small hotel, reasonably priced (especially for Venice), and the neighborhood is lovely. I do agree that the area close to the train station on that side of the canal is not so nice, but just a few short yards away, it changes drastically. The only thing I will add, is if you have heavy luggage, getting it over the bridge may not be that easy.