Truthful Trips

A beautiful place that in the future will be fully underwater – the reason why it has moved up in priority on my bucketlist. I’m sure it has for many of you as well.

There is a lot to Venice to keep in mind, from attractions, to new city fees, and general prices of things. I will talk about all of it in this post.

But before we get into the details, this blog has various links embedded so you can quickly access the things I talk about. Some of those links may be affiliate meaning I earn some commission through them however this is a disclaimer that this does not influence my opinion. I will still share my honest thoughts and feelings.

Let’s start with the new city entrance fee – aimed to reduce the tourism that Venice gets, and is targeted at the visitors that do a day trip but never stay the night. I read that Venice gets around 30 million tourists each year, and only 3 million stay for a night or more. So if you’re coming to Venice for just the day, it is only 5 euros but you have to pay for this in advance or you will get fined!

Now, the exemptions to this fee is if you stay and have accommodation in Venice or the wider Veneto region, such as Mestre. Also the fee does not apply in general if you’re under the age of 14. It also only applies on certain days.

You can read more or apply for the entry code/exemption here.

We stayed at an Airbnb in Mestre which meant we were exempt from the fee – it also meant we didn’t have to pay the expensive prices of staying in the centre of Venice. The stay cost us around £400 for 3 nights and could fit 5 people. However, worth checking out booking.com and comparing the offers they have!

Mestre is just outside of Venice, connected by a bridge, and easily accessible by bus or train. I cannot speak of the buses, but Italian trains are very frequent, cheap and rarely cancelled. For example, our trip from Mestre Station to Saint Lucia Station (central station of Venice City) was around 2.60 euros for a return per person, the trains were every 10 minutes and the journey itself was around 15 minutes.

To back track a bit and inform you about our dates and flights – we managed to get these in the Ryanair sale for £60 return per person. I think the sale was in March. We flew from Manchester Airport, flying early May – the only downside to this were the flight times. Our flight to Venice landed at 21:20, and our flight back to Manchester was at 7 in the morning, so we only got around 2 days in Venice. I thought that was enough to see everything we wanted and enjoy it for a bit, but this will depend on what you aim to see/do. We definitely could have seen more but this can be tricky in a group.

Day 1 Activities

Day 2 Activities

We had no set agenda for the day, so we walked around Venice, just seeing where the different alleys will get us.

Walking along the various canals.

We also explored the Rialto Bridge Market – this can be found just behind the bridge rather than going down the steps.

And of course, we bought a lot of souvenirs along the way, and ate lots of Italian food. Prices are usually more expensive near the attractions and main canals – if you wander into the inner parts of the city, you can dine for cheaper. My pasta cost around 12 euros, and a pizza slice for around 4 euros.

Overall on the trip, we didn’t spend any money on attractions – we mainly focus on sightseeing due to budgets for this trip, but there is more you could do.

Other things you can do depending on your time and budget:

What are your favourite spots in Venice? Any tips for other travelers?