We are always up for learning new ways to travel or experience places we're going to see. In this case, we thought we'd experience Venice by spending our days exploring Venice, and our evenings in Mestre, the mainland city connected by bridge to Venice. Our learning objective had to do with the logistics of getting to a cruise ship from our pre-cruise hotel - so, what did we learn?
We have walked all over Venice (Venezia in Italian) and have stayed in hotels on Venice and across the Guidecca Strait on Guidecca Island. The issue for cruisers when you are staying on one of the islands is how to handle your bags. You can get on a water taxi from the airport or you can get off the train at the Venice train station in Piazzale Roma.
Now, how are you going to get your bags either directly to the ship or to your hotel if you are staying in the Venice pre-cruise?
From the airport you can catch a "land" taxi (to distinguish it from water taxi) that will take you across the bridge and directly to your ship since the cruise terminal on the northwest end of the island is accessible by car or bus. While we haven't done it ourselves, it appears you can also take a water taxi (though it might take a transfer or two unless you want to pay for a private ($$$) (as opposed to public) water taxi to take you the cruise port. On a public water taxi, you are handling your bags onto and off the boat.
If you are arriving early in Venice, you will have two challenges... 1) Getting to your hotel and 2) Getting from your hotel to the cruise ship terminal. In both cases, the challenge is getting your bags there with you. Why? Because the only part of Venice with auto access is the northwest corner of Venice where the trains, buses, ships arrive and depart. Guess what? No hotels on the northwest corner of the island...
As it is with all things, if you are willing to spend a fair amount of money, all of these issues go away - you arrange or have your travel agent arrange for private water taxis to and from your hotel, then you book a high end hotel with direct water taxi access, and have your water taxi driver call your hotel as you arrive to deal with your bags. Having researched hotel prices on or near the Grand Canal recently, the hotels that fall into this category are going to set you back at least 500 Euros/night while the pricier ones exceed 1000 Euro's/night.
But with luggage for 24 days and taking a cruise ship from Venice for the first time, we figured there had to be a better way to deal with things. So utilizing my advanced map reading skills (?which way is north again?) and reading a few blogs and Trip Advisor pieces, we decided to look at hotels in Mestre -- the city right across the bridge from Venice.
Mestre is a "regular" city, home to many Italians who work daily at shops, hotels, and attractions on Venice. The public transportation infrastructure from Mestre to Venice is really good - buses, trams, and taxis come and go on a frequent and regular schedule. My first experience with the public transport system was getting back to our hotel from dropping off our rental car at the Euro Car counter in Piazzale Roma. After paying for my 1.50 Euro ticket at the counter (good for 75 minutes of riding buses and trams) and using the helpful "how to" instructions from Hotel Villa Barbarich Hotel Villa Barbarich, I boarded the Red Tram and headed back across the bridge from Venice to Mestre.
At the end of the Tram line (Mestro Central -- Piazalle Cialdini), I walked across the bus station to catch the bus back to our hotel at Lane B3 (look for buses with "Noale" or "Scorze" in their destination sign). Since we were staying at Hotel Villa Barbarich, I got off at stop #98 -- Via Castellana 4/32. All in all this ride took about 35 minutes and the walk from the bus stop to the hotel was about 5 minutes.
Mike, Liz, Valerie, and I reversed these directions the next morning when we headed into Venice to see the sights. Having done it once, the second time was like riding a bicycle -- and can't argue about the price -- according to the hotel, taxis are 30 Euros each way; we paid 6 Euros each way for the 4 of us. In the late afternoon, we headed back to the hotel -- a little curve ball on this trip since the tram service was interrupted but 5 minutes later, a bus arrived to pick up the tram passengers and honestly, it took about the same amount of time to reach our Mestro Central transfer point. So taking travel both ways into account, a day of sightseeing in Venice cost us 12 Euros and about an hour and ten minutes travel time. Not a bad trade off, especially since the next morning, our taxi -- arranged by Hotel Villa Barbarich, arrived promptly at 11:00. For a cost of 35 euros, we arrived 25 minutes later at our cruise ship embarkation point having to drag our bags a grand total of 40 yards for check-in. Wonderfully convenient and cost effective.
We really enjoyed our stay at Hotel Villa Barbarich - a lovely property that will henceforth be known in my vocabulary as the "No Problem" hotel. Whenever I went down to the desk to ask a favor, the answer I received was, "No Problem". I have not stayed at many hotels where this was the case and I had a couple of challenges to solve during our stay -- one involved sending a room key back to our previous hotel. In the end, they made everything easy for us -- perfect.
Our room was wonderfully decorated with a comfortable bed and marble bathroom. Our room included a balcony overlooking the courtyard and a small stream below -- we actually saw what looked like a beaver or muskrat swimming into its home one evening.
Our included breakfast was served in a magnificent restaurant and was the best breakfast we'd enjoyed at any of our hotels along the way.
After our huge lunch -- a separate blog post by itself -- on our arrival day and a late lunch in Venice on our walking tour day, we ended up having the front desk order pizza delivery for us ("No Problem"). There is nothing quite like eating pizza, drinking a robust red wine from Chianti, and sitting on your balcony watching the sun set and moon rise with the best of friends.
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| Location of our hotel (top left) and cruise terminal (right center) |
Now, how are you going to get your bags either directly to the ship or to your hotel if you are staying in the Venice pre-cruise?
From the airport you can catch a "land" taxi (to distinguish it from water taxi) that will take you across the bridge and directly to your ship since the cruise terminal on the northwest end of the island is accessible by car or bus. While we haven't done it ourselves, it appears you can also take a water taxi (though it might take a transfer or two unless you want to pay for a private ($$$) (as opposed to public) water taxi to take you the cruise port. On a public water taxi, you are handling your bags onto and off the boat.
If you are arriving early in Venice, you will have two challenges... 1) Getting to your hotel and 2) Getting from your hotel to the cruise ship terminal. In both cases, the challenge is getting your bags there with you. Why? Because the only part of Venice with auto access is the northwest corner of Venice where the trains, buses, ships arrive and depart. Guess what? No hotels on the northwest corner of the island...
As it is with all things, if you are willing to spend a fair amount of money, all of these issues go away - you arrange or have your travel agent arrange for private water taxis to and from your hotel, then you book a high end hotel with direct water taxi access, and have your water taxi driver call your hotel as you arrive to deal with your bags. Having researched hotel prices on or near the Grand Canal recently, the hotels that fall into this category are going to set you back at least 500 Euros/night while the pricier ones exceed 1000 Euro's/night.
But with luggage for 24 days and taking a cruise ship from Venice for the first time, we figured there had to be a better way to deal with things. So utilizing my advanced map reading skills (?which way is north again?) and reading a few blogs and Trip Advisor pieces, we decided to look at hotels in Mestre -- the city right across the bridge from Venice.
Mestre is a "regular" city, home to many Italians who work daily at shops, hotels, and attractions on Venice. The public transportation infrastructure from Mestre to Venice is really good - buses, trams, and taxis come and go on a frequent and regular schedule. My first experience with the public transport system was getting back to our hotel from dropping off our rental car at the Euro Car counter in Piazzale Roma. After paying for my 1.50 Euro ticket at the counter (good for 75 minutes of riding buses and trams) and using the helpful "how to" instructions from Hotel Villa Barbarich Hotel Villa Barbarich, I boarded the Red Tram and headed back across the bridge from Venice to Mestre.
At the end of the Tram line (Mestro Central -- Piazalle Cialdini), I walked across the bus station to catch the bus back to our hotel at Lane B3 (look for buses with "Noale" or "Scorze" in their destination sign). Since we were staying at Hotel Villa Barbarich, I got off at stop #98 -- Via Castellana 4/32. All in all this ride took about 35 minutes and the walk from the bus stop to the hotel was about 5 minutes.
Mike, Liz, Valerie, and I reversed these directions the next morning when we headed into Venice to see the sights. Having done it once, the second time was like riding a bicycle -- and can't argue about the price -- according to the hotel, taxis are 30 Euros each way; we paid 6 Euros each way for the 4 of us. In the late afternoon, we headed back to the hotel -- a little curve ball on this trip since the tram service was interrupted but 5 minutes later, a bus arrived to pick up the tram passengers and honestly, it took about the same amount of time to reach our Mestro Central transfer point. So taking travel both ways into account, a day of sightseeing in Venice cost us 12 Euros and about an hour and ten minutes travel time. Not a bad trade off, especially since the next morning, our taxi -- arranged by Hotel Villa Barbarich, arrived promptly at 11:00. For a cost of 35 euros, we arrived 25 minutes later at our cruise ship embarkation point having to drag our bags a grand total of 40 yards for check-in. Wonderfully convenient and cost effective.
We really enjoyed our stay at Hotel Villa Barbarich - a lovely property that will henceforth be known in my vocabulary as the "No Problem" hotel. Whenever I went down to the desk to ask a favor, the answer I received was, "No Problem". I have not stayed at many hotels where this was the case and I had a couple of challenges to solve during our stay -- one involved sending a room key back to our previous hotel. In the end, they made everything easy for us -- perfect.
Our room was wonderfully decorated with a comfortable bed and marble bathroom. Our room included a balcony overlooking the courtyard and a small stream below -- we actually saw what looked like a beaver or muskrat swimming into its home one evening.
Our included breakfast was served in a magnificent restaurant and was the best breakfast we'd enjoyed at any of our hotels along the way.
After our huge lunch -- a separate blog post by itself -- on our arrival day and a late lunch in Venice on our walking tour day, we ended up having the front desk order pizza delivery for us ("No Problem"). There is nothing quite like eating pizza, drinking a robust red wine from Chianti, and sitting on your balcony watching the sun set and moon rise with the best of friends.
