Venice > Where to stay > Picking a location
How to pick the right hotel
location in Venice
- In Venice, choosing the wrong
hotel neighborhood can be a costly, frustrating mistake.

ABOVE: On a Saturday in May, newly-arrived visitors waited
patiently in line by the railroad station to take expensive vaporetto
rides to their hotels. If they'd given more thought to location, they could have
avoided the line and saved €19 roundtrip (€38 for a couple) on local transportation.
By
Durant
Imboden
If you heed just one piece
of advice from us, make it this:
-
Don't pick a hotel that's
inconvenient or expensive to reach--and don't be afraid to
change your
booking if you've
had second thoughts about a hotel's location.
If you're in Venice for 1
to 3 days:
If you're loaded with luggage:
-
We recommend staying at a hotel near the
Piazzale Roma (airport
buses and land taxis), Santa Lucia railroad
station, or an Alilaguna
airport boat stop.
Venice's narrow streets can be crowded during the
tourist season or on weekends, and hauling large bags up and down the steps
on bridges is a nuisance--even when you're young and fit. You may also
want to consider leaving large or heavy bags at a
luggage storage office.
If you're arriving or departing
on a cruise ship:
-
Stay at a hotel near the Piazzale Roma (Marittima
check-in terminals), the San Basilio pier, or--less conveniently--the Piazza San
Marco, where you can catch an Alilaguna Blue Line boat to the Marittima
terminals. (Murano, the
glassmaking island, is another possibility for Marittima passengers.)
We
discuss these and other options in
Venice Cruise Terminal
Hotels and 17 Hotels
Closest to Cruise Ships.
If you have a flight
before 10 a.m.:
If you have mobility problems:
-
Stay at a hotel that's easy to reach on foot, or you may find
yourself struggling up and down the steps of pedestrian bridges. See
Accessible Venice Hotels,
or browse our "How Many Bridges to Cross?"
listings for
hotels that are within 0, 1, or 2 bridges of public transportation.

ABOVE: Our
Venice Hotel Directions can help you find hotels that are near major
transportation points such as Alilaguna airport-boat stops, the Santa Lucia
Railroad Station, and the Piazzala Roma (used by taxis and airport buses).
If you're sleeping
on the mainland:
Don't
let someone else make a booking decision for you!
-
If a travel agent, airline,
or other resource has already booked you into an inconveniently-located
hotel, cancel the reservation and
make your own hotel decision--unless you're
stuck with a prepaid, non-cancellable booking.
We've actually had e-mails from
readers who were booked into "Venice hotels" that turned out to be 30 to
60 minutes away in small towns on the Italian mainland.
Here are two final--and important--pieces of
advice:
Reserve early.
-
Hotels in Venice tend to be small (many have fewer than 20 rooms), so it's
best to book ahead while rooms are still available. With a cancellable
reservation, you can always
change your mind later on.
Use a secure booking system.
If you book through a secure
reservations platform like
Booking.com (our hotel
partner), you should be safe. When booking directly with a hotel, make sure
that your credit-card details are protected before you enter any data.
For more
detailed tips on where to stay, see the menu below:
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