Today we're talking about Venice and we're going to give you tips on how to plan a trip
to Venice.
This includes how to get from Marco Polo International Airport to the island.
But also how to choose a hotel.
Venice is one of the most beautiful cities we've ever visited, and we've been there on
several occasions.
But, it can also be one of the more frustrating places to visit.
So a little bit of extra planning and extra information at hand can make for a much more
enjoyable experience.
And, if you can imagine, Venice is a bunch of islands, maybe a hundred or so islands,
all connected by small little bridges and these bridges are step bridges.
They're not ramp bridges.
So you're going to have to cross twenty to thirty of these bridges
With your luggage in tow it can be pretty tiring.
It can be a disaster.
And the other thing to remember is that it's almost a maze.
A maze of alleyways, canals, and a lot of dead-ends; where you end up at a canal with
no bridge and you've got to backtrack, hopefully finding the right alley that will get you
to the bridge to cross over.
So here's what you need to do when planning your trip to Venice.
Before you book your hotel, you should go to the Alilaguna website.
Alilaguna is the company that operates the water bus system.
The water bus in Venice is called the vaporetto.
You should look at their routes.
They have three routes; an orange route, a blue route, and a red route.
And you should select a hotel that's very close to one of these vaporetto docks.
And what's important when you're choosing a hotel is also to book a hotel outside of
the main tourist area.
This is really important because it can reduce the cost of your hotel.
But it also gives you a local feel for the community in a less touristy atmosphere.
And it also gives you access to things like grocery stores or fruit stands where you can
actually buy something for in your hotel room
At lower prices.
At much lower prices.
So, what we did is we booked the hotel
Alloggi Barbaria in the Castello neighborhood.
We highly recommend staying at this hotel.
It's a 2-star hotel.
It's pretty basic; pretty simple, but comfortable.
It's very easy to get to from the vaporetto dock.
It was maybe a 2-minute walk, if that.
Really easy.
So, that would be our recommendation on where to stay.
It's only about a 15-minute walk to the tourist area.
So that's not that bad either.
It was nice to get out of all the people - the cruise ship people - to stay in that area.
We really enjoyed it.
So when booking your trip or thinking about getting to the island, there are two methods
for getting from Marco Polo International Airport to the island.
One is by bus and we don't recommend taking the bus.
It's cheaper and it's a little bit quicker to get to the island, but you still have to
negotiate getting from the train station, where the bus drops you off, to your hotel.
And we definitely do not recommend staying near the train station.
This is really not a nice area to be in.
The other way to get from Marco Polo International Airport to the island is via vaporetto, as
we had mentioned.
And it's real easy to get to the vaporetto dock.
First thing you'll want to do, you want to exit the baggage area, and you can purchase
your tickets right outside of the baggage area.
Now here's a tip: If the line is really long, skip that line and then take the 7-minute
walk directly to the docks.
And at that point you can purchase your tickets at the small kiiosk at the dock.
It's the same service.
It's the same company.
Same price.
They just have a kiosk there to purchase your tickets if you forgot to purchase them at
the airport.
Once you've purchased your ticket, you'll want to go over to the dock that is serviced
by the vaporetto you're taking.
That would be the orange, red, or blue lines.
As the vaporetto approaches, you'll want to make sure that you allow the passengers that
were on the vaporetto to exit the vaporetto, and then board your vaporetto, handing the
conductor the ticket for them to validate it.
Also, let them know at that moment which vaporetto stop you'll need to get out at, because they
do not stop at all of them.
And they also arrange the luggage based on those stops.
So, board the vaporetto, sit back and enjoy the ride.
For us it was about a 42-minute ride to get to our dock.
As it's time to approach your stop, you'll want to go towards the exit of the vaporetto,
collect your luggage and
be ready to exit, because it's sometimes a very quick change over.
Obviously, have your luggage in hand then exit the vaporetto and walk directly to your
hotel.
So, it can be a really fun trip, but it requires a little bit of planning.
It's not an ordinary place to visit.
But, it is so beautiful.
Anyway, that's it for this episode.
Thanks for joining us.
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