Venice, Italy
 

We are thinking about taking a cruise out of Venice for 6 nights in July. Got a great flight from boston arriving early and staying 3 nights. We are not big siteseeing people but love the beach, relaxing and great dinners. Can we find this here or are we better off spending the 3 nights elsewhere? Does Venice have any decent beaches? Thanks for you input.

You can stay on the Venice Lido if you want a beach or about 45 minutes north (public boat transport) to Lido di Jesolo which is a vacation beach town.

http://www.jesolo.it/eng/info.html

http://www.venicelido.it/en/spiaggia.htm

No, you don't go to Venice for the beach. Are you not familiar with what Venice is all about and has been for centuries?

You can go to the Lido, of course, but to go all the way to Venice from Boston to spend time at the beach near Venice seems, well, simple-minded.

Check out a map, please. And a guidebook.

Well StCirq, this is our vacation not yours.

Kybourbon...thank you so much! I will check out the links your provided.

The Lido island in Venice has hotels, the beach, and restaurants and you can take a vaporetto to visit a few sites in the main island as well, for a change of pace.

If you are taking a cruise that is going out of Venice you will need to know the departure information. Since you will only have three days you might find it more relaxing to stay closer, rather than further from Venice, as you will need to travel from your hotel to the cruise ship. If you have a late boarding time that would not matter as much.

Venice is not famous for the beaches........step onto the land instead...

oh, also, venice just got very bad flood according to the news yesterday. good luck mate

Don't think you have to worry about flooding now since you aren't going until next July. While it isn't my cup of tea, I stayed on the Lido once and actually enjoyed it, but that was early Spring, not middle of summer, so don't know what it will be like then. If you have not been before, you may be surprised by Venice and really like staying there, especially in early morning and evening after day trippers have gone. If you must have a beach, it is easy to stay in Venice and catch a vaporetto for a quick trip to the Lido for a morning or afternoon.

But OP is going in July, not the typical seaso^n for flooding.

Neither the Lido beaches nor the view from them are very attractive, and it is hard to get really good food there. I live in Venice & the Lido is OK for the odd afternoon to listen to the waves & have a swim, but I wouldn't go there on holiday.

If that's really what you want to do for those 3 days, I'd recommend researching places which would be good for that, within a 2-3 hour train ride, & getting a train there immediately on arrival. It would be feasible to spend the time at Lake Garda which is quite picturesque, although the beaches aren't big sandy beaches like those of the Caribbean, for example, and personally I'm not too keen on swimming in the lake. You'd get a train to Verona or Peschiera del Garda then a bus.

For really beautiful coast, I believe Croatia is the nearest place but obviously not feasible here.

But what time do you need to check in for your cruise - is it early enough that you'll need to stay nearby the night before anyway?

And btw, have you visited Venice? There's an awful lot to do & see here, it's just not a beach resort.

I know that you say that you like relaxing on a beach, but this would offer you what might be a once in a lifetime opportunity to spend a very few days in Venice, which might surprise you!

so what about a hotel with a swimming pool? there aren't that many in venice but the Stucky has one, and might make a nice compromise. and you could always do an excursion to the Lido if the mood took you.

http://www.molinostuckyhilton.it/

they have some pretty good rates for a hotel of that standard if you book in advance.

Or there is the San Clemente Palace (with a pool) on its own island in the lagoon.

You have two identical threads running. Click on your user name to see the responses to your other thread.

Ok...based on everyones replies, this is all sounding exciting. The Molino Stucky Hilton looks good too and we like the fact it has a pool. I'm a little suprised by the food comments. Is there an area where you can find nice italian food, not touristy traps/restaurants in Venice?

Also, I did not intentionally post twice. I don't know how that happened. Thanks again for everyones input!

gladav - yes, you can find good italian food in Venice, but you have to work a little harder to find it as with so many tourists at their mercy, in some places standards have slipped.

there are several threads on this board which discuss this topic in detail or you could start your own!

Here are a couple of recommendations from the current "5 days in Venice" thread to get you started:

<<Taverna del Campiello Remer
Cannaregio 5701 | Sestiere Cannaregio, 30121 Venice, Italy

I had the 20 Euro lunch-a plate of homemade pasta, a plate from the buffet table, bread, a 1/4 carafe of wine, water and a coffee.
the happy hour is 5 euros for a drink and lots of little plates of nibbles..
a real local place

and for a memorable meal:
Hosteria Galileo
Campo Sant Angelo 3593, 30124 Venice, Italy (San Marco)
you can sit outside in the campo or better yet indoors where its warm and cozy>>

I did like the beach at Jesolo. If you go be sure to take beach shoes because the sand will be scalding in July.

Honestly, if I were flying from the US for a cruise leaving Venice, with 3 night pre-cruise, and given the logistics of getting to a beach and returning to board the ship, I would embrace the idea of doing something out of my (beach) box, and stay in Venice. You do not need to spend your time in museums, churches or galleries; so much of the Venetian charm is also in strolling the canals and streets, getting lost, stopping often for a glass of wine, people watching. You could spend a whole day exploring Murano, Burano & Torcello via vaporetto. And we have always eaten very well in Venice. If you stay at the Molino Stuckey, then you can have pool time. Just my 2 cents. You will not regret 3 days in Venice.

I didn't say it's hard to find good food in Venice, I said it's hard to find it on the Lido. Venice itself does have a good share of mediocre tourist traps but IMO they're pretty easy to spot.

The suggestion of the San Clemente Palace is a good one - or what about the Cipriani, if you can run to it?

I wouldn't leave Venice. I only commented on Jesolo on because someone mentioned it and the OP seems to want a beach.