Doesn't it take a boat ride to get to the Lido from central Venice?

We took the vaporetto, I think. Line 1 goes there. And so does Line 82.

My memories are quite vague. I think that we went to Quadri or Florian for coffee and burned a huge hole in the wallet. Then my mom wanted to get on the vaporetto, so I agreed. But she wanted to stay on and we finally got off at Lido.

Somehow. Somewhere. I just don't remember the details, but I remember thinking and panicking that I didn't know how to get us back to the hotel. And being very upset about the whole experience.

(We stayed at Hotel San Moise. I actually just found the fax confirmation I sent them the other day -- the rate was still in lira.)

I think I booked it through venere.com. It is a "recommended by Rick Steves" hotel. We couldn't get 2 nites at the same hotel, so we were at a different hotel our first nite in Venice. The other one was cheap and okay, and we liked the neighborhood, but the Astoria was more convenient. I don't know if the desk is 24 hours, but we surely came in late when we were there. They were very friendly, and the desk clerk and my son had lengthy discussions about the world cup soccer matches. Great gelato store nearby, too.

Thanks, leslie. So it's very close to San Marco -- say within a 5-10 minute walk? Your trip report doesn't give directions and I'm trying to see if I can locate the hotel more precisely.

I'll look into it.

Don't know this website, but it came up in a search.

Good way to locate a hotel if you know the name of the hotel. Has detailed maps.

I found the location of Astoria this way:

http://www.veneziasi.it/pol/en/venic...ommodation.asp

Foresteria is booked anyway, but took the time to write me a nice e-mail (with a number for the tourist office). If only they'd answer their phone!

But bonus points, certainly.

Foscari, to my surprise, also wrote back to say that there's a double at 72 euros with a bathroom down the hall. No a/c. When I called earlier they said no availability (and I didn't ask for a private bath on the phone).

I'll call Astoria tomorrow and see what they say.

Have you looked at this site for the Astoria?

http://www.hotelastoriavenezia.it/

Leslie suggested it -- I'll call them tomorrow.

Thanks for the website though (I couldn't find it).

I think that the Fodor's forum is amazing.

Venice is not all that big and you can walk from one part to another fairly easily. Well, maybe not from Giudecca.

Our last time there it was early September, and we counted it an advantage to be staying in Dorsoduro away from San Marco. Venice was very crowded with tourists; the vaporettos on the Grand Canal were a sweaty standing-room-only. We hung out on the Zattere.

The Lido is NOT Venice. Given your worry about money, paying for an expensive Venice hotel and spending time in Lido seems silly. You want to go to a beach, pick another beach.

Maybe I shouldn't be too excited about Astoria. Some bad reviews here:

"Type Astoria Venice" in search box and look at results from "TripAdvisor forums." There's also an actual listing.

I guess I'll call them tomorrow anyway. But the hostelscentral rate of 60 euros is an illusion. It's actually 100 euros for the first night (9/3) and then 60 euros for the second. Why, I don't know.

So 160 euros vs. 210 euros for Campaniel (but I do like San Marco better). Else I can take a shared bath at Foscari (72 x 2 = 144 euros).

It's helping me get a baseline cost.

It looks like Venere doesn't list Astoria anymore (leslie mentioned she booked it there), but maybe I didn't look too carefully.

Thanks for the advice, Mimar. I'm just selective about how I spend money.

I know that Lido is NOT Venice, but I've some personal reasons for being interested in spending some time there. Plus the Film Festival is staged there (if I understand this right), so I think that I'll end up on Lido anyway.

Hope that clarifies things.

I think I missed how many nights you're staying, but you can sometimes get a discount if you offer to pay cash and stay multiple nights. Doesn't hurt to ask.

Only two nights, Saturday and Sunday.

But I should ask if Al Campaniel will reduce its rate if I don't eat breakfast. It's not a big deal for me. I think that someone mentioned this in another thread on the hotel.

This won't work for 111op's stay, because it requires a 3-day minimum, but it looks intriguing, and I'll add it for future posters' reference:
Ca'Orfeo
http://users.libero.it/venezia.musica/
I passed by a signpost for this when I was visiting the Miracoli church in Venice. That looked intriguing, and I looked up the place when I returned home. I think it is is linked to the Vivaldi musical association.

Ryanairhostels.com is also worth a look. Many of their properties are small, budget hotels and B&Bs. (I think they use the same engine as hostelworld.com, but sometimes Ryanairhostels has better rates.)

Your higher rate for the night of 09/03 is likely because that's a Saturday night. Rate goes down Sunday through Thursday nights in most places in Venice.

It looks interesting -- a bit unclear to me what the rates are though (the x2 is throwing me off -- are they quoting a rate per person?).

I can always tell them how much I love classical music.

I'll take a look at Ryanhostels (looked at Ryanhotels).

When I read a complaint against Astoria on TA, the person had written that Astoria wouldn't credit them with the pre-paid deposit through a website booking. Interesting, if true, but I'm curious to call them to see what sorts of rates they'll offer on the phone.

In case anyone is still following this thread, I called Astoria this morning, and they quoted 70 euros a night for a single with private bath.

I also called Locanda Silva. 50 euros a night for a single with shared bath. 110 euros for double with private bath (not sure if the rate is cheaper for one-person use).

Locanda Martin is fully booked.

I think that Al Campaniel has a/c. How essential do people think a/c is in the first week of September?

I'm tempted to take the single with shared bath at Silva, but I remember reading a few mixed reviews online yesterday.

I'll mull over it more.

111op -- I found the business card for Hotel Europa -- in Venice:

Europa
Campo SS Filippo e Giacomo Castello 4359
Tel 041-523-4810

I thought I found them on Venere.com...I'll do a search and check back. They WERE the only hotel I recall having to fax a reservation to in Europe in 2003 that didn't take online reservations at the time. They sent a confirmation snail mail to me, along with a cute map of how to get there from the train station, etc.

Happy travels...

jules

Thanks very much Jules. I'll see what else I can find about it.

I'm sure that this rec. will also be useful to someone else looking at the thread in the future.

Hi Jules, it looks like this could have changed to Hotel Rio:

http://www.net4.com/venedig-hotels/rio.html

(Note that the phone number matches your phone number, and this was how I found this listing by Google.)

TripAdvisor:

http://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Rev...ce_Veneto.html

The address given though is 4356 (your address is 4359).

I'm not sure if it's the same hotel. The TA reviews give me a little pause, but Time Out Venice also recommends this hotel, so I thought about looking into it.