Where to stay in the Veneto?
 

My husband & I are in the very preliminary stage of planning a trip in September 2016. One idea we are considering is to start in Venice (4 nights) and then explore more of the Veneto (min. 4 nights) by car. This will be our 3rd trip to Venice but our first time into the Veneto.

Our hope is to stay in a town or a village that will be convenient as a base for our explorations. Ideally, it would be big enough to have some choices for accommodations & restaurants. We do prefer to stay in town so we can walk to dinner & enjoy a glass of wine, or two!

Padua, Vincenza & Treviso come to mind but are there other, maybe smaller towns we should consider?

Also, we are thinking of following this up with a few days in a town on Lake Garda or in Verona. We would return our rental car in Verona and continue on by train. (The plan gets really vague here!)Eventually, we would end in Milan.

Any suggestions or insights would be greatly appreciated! Thanks so much!

We spent 3 days in Asolo, doing day trips to Padua and Treviso and environs and really enjoyed it.

On that same trip, after Asolo we spent 3 days in Cormons and REALLY loved it. Gorgeous scenery, biking and hiking paths everywhere, very few tourists, great food and super friendly people (even by Italian standards).

I have a great winery I can recommend. It's Alice Relais, just outside the town of Vittorio Veneto.
The town itself has a few good restaurants and would be OK as a base if you have a car.

Definitely can recommend Vicenza as a base and a nice B&B/apartment there: B'Charme.

We enjoyed Bassano del Grappa as a base for Veneto for 3 nights one trip. Very nice town and well located.

We stayed in Vicenza and found it a perfect location. We also considered Bassano del Grappa as we have visited and would be happy to base there too. We used the Palladian villas as our theme for the Veneto.

Many thanks for all your suggestions & recommendations! I am so excited by the possibilities!

<b>ekc</b>: Asolo has been on my radar! So, it's good to know that you enjoyed the town & visiting places nearby. Would you mind sharing where you stayed and whether you discovered any good restaurants in Asolo?

Too bad my husband & I are traveling in the opposite direction or I would have put Cormons on my list!

<b>vincenzo32951</b>: Alice Relais is a lovely inn & winery! And the nearby town of Vittorio Veneto is very attractive with its canals. In addition, it holds some historical importance which will be interesting to my husband.

The B'Charme B&B is a fantastic recommendation should we choose to stay in Vicenza. Thank you!

<b>bobthenavigator</b>: Thanks for mentioning Bassano del Grappa. It is on my list, too. By chance, did you do a trip report about your trip to the Veneto?

<b>HappyTrvlr</b>: Well another vote for Vicenza + Bassano del Grappa! How am I ever going to choose?

Re: Palladian villas ... what an interesting theme! I can see that I will need to do some studying about this style of architecture before we leave for the Veneto!

Just came back from a trip that included Bassano and Asolo and have been to Padua, Vicenza, Treviso etc on previous trips. While I though Asolo had an interesting sort of charm - 'prosperous shabby' - I wouldn't have wanted to base there, seemed to small (but then we just stopped for a few hours so no expert). We stayed in Bassano and thought that would make a good base. The town had a nice vibe and was big enough to have plenty of choices for restaurants but was still easy to drive in and out. I would think Treviso would work as well. But where in the Veneto do you want to visit. Places like Padua and Verona are highlights but I think best done by train rather than car. Bassano has a train station so you could base there and do some day trips by car and some by train.

For Lake Garda I stayed in Malcesine and loved it. Though that was definitely the best base there. The northern part of the lake is by far the most scenic. Sirmione is worth visiting though. You mentioned dropping the car before Lake Garda. I didn't have a car and it is quite doable, but I can see that if you wanted to visit several places a car might be beneficial (since you'll have it already). I stayed at Hotel Erica and she has parking.

isabel: Thanks for sharing your observations about Asolo & your experiences visiting other places in the Veneto. The fact that Bassano has a train station gives us the choice to go out by train or take the car. It makes sense to use the rail system to go to busy, larger cities like Padua & Vicenza and leave the car at home base. Great suggestion!

We will have the car for Lake Garda to drive to places around the lake. In contrast, when we were in Bellagio on Lake Como, we parked the car and used the ferries for our entire stay! I will check out Malcesine as a destination.

I've been looking at hotels in Bassano Del Grappa with the idea of easy access in & out of town by car for day trips + within close walking distance to the old town & the train station.

The Hotel Belvedere and the Hotel Brennero seem to fit the bill in many ways: have breakfast, WiFi, a/c, parking. Everything about them is fine but I feel they lack charm. (Is charm over-rated?) Nothing about either hotel excites me ... except maybe, the on-site (free) parking!

www.bonotto.it/en

www.hotelbrennero.com (in Italian)

Ca Sette looks lovely but it is just a bit too far for us to walk into town for dinner.

www.ca-sette.it

Can anyone shed any light on these choices or have suggestions for hotels that would meet our criteria?

Thanks!

On site parking is a real plus just about anywhere in Italy. Have you looked at reviews of these places (and other places) on booking.com to see what a lot of people have to say? Also, have you considered an apartment? For a 4 night stay, it is nice to have an option for light dinners at home, and breakfast just as you prefer. You might start by looking at airbnb.

We just stayed at Brennero. It was "fine". As you said, no charm (well actually my husband thought it had a sort of 'slightly older Italian hotel charm'. Everything was clean and worked fine. Was very easy to drive to and he has a pretty large (8-10 car) garage about half a block back. It's right across the street from the town walls, so excellent location. Breakfast was 'average' (but then we had just spent 5 nights at a hotel in Bolzano with an amazing breakfast so pretty much anything would be dull compared to that). But for the price I was happy. Location and ease of driving/parking is more important to me than charm. The Belvedere was next door so same location but don't know about their parking or what it's like inside.

<b>sandralist</b>: You are right ... finding hotels, especially in/near town with private parking is a bonus! They are not easy to find!

Both Hotel Belvedere & Hotel Brennero get good marks from other travelers (on various sites) for cleanliness, comfort, location, staff & value. So it really is a toss-up between the two.

Being our first time in the Veneto and with our limited Italian language skills, we would prefer staying in a hotel or B&B where we can ask for assistance when we need it: for directions, information, restaurant reservations ... etc. We are not adverse to apartment stays. We have done so twice now in Paris where we feel comfortable & have some proficiency in the language. Thanks for the suggestion though!

<b>isabel</b>: Once again, your personal experience has been most helpful! We will be coming from Venice where we will be staying at a lovely hotel that's full of charm. So, it does seem like a bit of a let down looking at plain-Jane hotels in Bassano. In this situation, perhaps location & ease of driving/parking trumps charm!

BTW - In the meantime, I checked out Treviso. I found a charming hotel in the walled town which met our criteria but it was twice the price! In this case, 'value' trumped charm! :-)