EvenMary

We will be traveling to Italy in May and in Venice for 3 nights. We are looking for hotels/ B&B's in approx. 100-125 Euro range. Have found a few, but I'm not sure about the area. We don't really mind a 30 min walk to sightsee. I guess I am more asking for safety reasons. Are there any unsafe/rundown areas in Venice that we should stay away from? Does anyone have particular suggestions for hotels in this range? Thank you in advance!

EvenMary

Oops, I just posted this twice. Sorry!

faredolce

I'm no expert, but I have been to Venice a few times and I find that it is a very safe city. Italy in general has a very low rate of violent crime, if that is your concern.

The six sestieri of Venice all have their own characeteristics. My choices for accomodations would be Cannaregio and Dorsoduro, but you will find a wide range of options in each.

There are numerous threads on Venice hotels in this forum. As clunky as it is, you might want to do a search. Pensione La Calcina is a very popular choice here, it may not be within your price range in May, which is high season. http://www.lacalcina.com/

curmudgeon

I would agree that all parts of Venice proper seemed quite safe. Mestre (on the mainland, where the discount tours would book hotes) looked rather charmless when I passed through. Lido seemed like it would be inconvenient.

As a general rule, it seemed like the areas closest to Plaza Roma, where the daytrippers start out, were a bit dirtier and less pleasant, but still ok. I've seen a couple of hotels out at the far tip of Venice past the naval station area that seemed to offer larger, nicer rooms for the money - but it would be a definite walk or vaporetto ride to the main tourist areas. It's definitely worth using the search box in this to look for old threads on Venice hotels. Venere.com is good for checking availability/booking.

lyb

I'm already planning my 2006 trip (though my 2005 trip is 3 weeks away) and I've decided to go back to Venice and stay there a whole week. I looked up the website for Pensione La Calcina and I'm amazed at how cheap their prices are in comparison to all the other hotels I've been looking at all weekend. And it looks great...what's wrong with it? Is it very hard to get reservations?

g33kgrl

Where is it located? I stayed at a place in 2003 that was very cheap (for Venice), absolutely gorgeous modern furniture and architure, and a huge buffet breakfast (inc. eggs and meat)--it was at the opposite end of Venice from St. Mark's though, that's why it was so cheap. But you can walk from one end of Venice to the other in about 30 minutes, so big deal. My hotel was about 20 min. from St. Marks, I think.

caroline_edinburgh

Yes, La Calcina is hard to get reservations at. It's not very big & is very popular. It's on the Zattere, on the south side of Dorsoduro.

JJBhoy

EvenMary,

Did you know you had replies on your other thread? See;

http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=34675972

If you click on your name (in blue at the top of this thread) you will see all of your posts.

JIm

lyb

Caroline,

How far in advance would you suggest reservations? Once I know my vacation dates for next year, I have no problems making the reservations right away. For this year's vacation coming up on October 1st, I made my hotel reservations in mid-February.

caroline_edinburgh

No harm booking as soon as you know the dates. For our trip in June, I booked last October - and still couldn't get my first choice room for the full week.

caroline_edinburgh

In case you didn't know perhaps I should mention La Calcina's deposit policy, as it seems to put some people off. You are required to send a personal cheque within a few weeks of booking. For a stay of one week, they wanted 3 night's payment in advance from me. Some peoople have calculated that the exchange rate isn't very good & think they've been conned if they need a refund & apparently get it at a different rate. I wasn't too concerned - I didn't bother to work it out but the amount in GBP didn't seem excessive.

No idea why they require deposits this way - you can pay the rest of your bill, on leaving, with a card.

EvenMary

Thanks for the advice, everyone! I have found a few places. I think La Calcina is a little more than what we want to pay. (Although it does look very nice!) I have found a lot of B&B's in our price range that almost seem too good to be true. Each has gotten good reviews (like the Ca' Turrelei, Campiello S. Giustiva, and Ca' Alexander) on venere, I'm just wondering what's the catch? I know that obviously B&B's are smaller and don't have a 24 hr front desk, but what else am I missing? They seem to be so much cheaper than hotels in the same areas (for Rome, also)

RufusTFirefly

B&Bs often don't have meeting rooms, elevators, indoor pools and exercise rooms, full-service restaurants and bars, concierges, gift shops, bellhops.

Like hotels, quality can vary, so do your research.