Top travel guide to Venice on a budget – How to Holiday Better – BBC One (VIDEO)
Summary
This video provides budget travel tips for Venice, Italy, from a frequent visitor. The tips include choosing accommodation near a landmark, avoiding crowds by exploring the backstreets, booking a secret itinerary tour to avoid queues, eating at cecchetti bars for authentic Venetian cuisine, drinking coffee at the bar like locals, identifying authentic gelato, using the Vaporetto water bus to get around, and sharing a gondola ride to split the cost.
Highlights
šØ Choose accommodation near a landmark to avoid getting lost.
š¶ Explore the backstreets for authentic Venetian cuisine and lower prices.
š« Book a secret itinerary tour to avoid queues at popular attractions.
ā Drink coffee at the bar to save money like the locals.
š¦ Identify authentic gelato by checking for a dense texture instead of whipped cream.
š¤ Use the Vaporetto water bus for affordable transportation.
š£ Share a gondola ride to split the cost with up to six people.
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he is gorgeous
stay on ludo island not the Venice islands and get a bus boat pass go out of slightly out of season stay a wek for the price of cpl days enjoy ludo island and Venice
1) Donāt stay in Venice if you are poor and have no taste. Instead, check sky scanner for the cheapest months to fly. The cheapest days of the month usually correspond with hotel prices. Also, try to rent an apartment if you can find one; preferably with a kitchen oven/stove. Better still, bring an electric stove as I will explain below.
2) The train station isnāt cheap. Sandwiches in there are not 1 or 2 euros. The cheapest sandwich is 1.95 Euros and is the size of a babyās hand. However, the train station is where the true Gelatoās are. Fake Gelato is usually piled up and puffy because of air. True Gelato is fairly flat and there are two Gelato shops in the train station. Bring about 15 Euros for two el grande cones, each being around 5 to 6 Euros for 4 different scoops each. It may look pricey but the taste and experience is well worth it.
3)Take the Gondolas but haggle. Why? Venice is sinking and wonāt be around forever. So go on the true gondolas if you have the chance. Besides, 80 Euros is not the fixed price and most drivers are willing to negotiate.
4) I agree with this but the problem with doing this throughout are other tourists. The place is packed full and the city never sleeps. The narrow alleys and paths donāt help either. My suggestion is that you buy the 24hr tickets. You donāt have to use them all up on the same day either. You can use it on any day for a total of 24 hours worth. So if you buy say today and you use 3 hrs worth, you still have 21 hrs worth for the next day.
Also, there are two main ticket operators. One is Alilaguna and the other is Unic ( I will edit this with the proper names later).
5)Donāt buy water if that is the only thing you want. Bring an empty flask or bottle from your house instead, then fill it up in your hotel or guest rooms. People say that the fountains are fresh; fresh my ass! Just donāt risk it if you have another means of supply.
6)Venice is daunting when it comes to price. 15 Euros is already about Ā£20 depending on the price you pay to exchange. Also, stay away from Saint Marks Square, the Rialto and anywhere there are loads of people when it comes to just snacking. Head for the outskirts or residential areas of the city if you want to eat out or if you have an apartment with a kitchen stove, then head for the COOP or SPAR for food and ingredients to cook. If you head out before 10am, the seafood markets are usually open by then and buying fresh seafood like sardines which are cheap as chips can cost as little as 3Euros for half a kilo and can feed 4 to 6 people. Do a weeks shopping if you are staying for 10 days. There are plenty of cafeterias and restaurants hiding about where prices are decent. Avoid fast food joints like KFC, BK and McDonalds. These places are a rip off!
7)Learn basic Italian. English is known in Venice but the locals prefer it if you can speak basic Italian. Knowing how to say Hello/Hi, please/thank you, can I have and where is and how much can go a very long way.
8)Have about 500 to 600 Euros money if you want to enjoy and experience everything.
9)Donāt buy masks in the main tourist areas, those are all fake and made in China. This goes for hats, Murano glass and Burano lace. Look for artisan mask sellers and you have to visit Murano and Burano for the authentic Glass and Lace. However, there are stalls in Murano and Burano that pretend to sell genuine glass; avoid these fakes. Get off at Colonia water bus stop on Murano and go inside the big shop to the right. They sell only genuine glass and have a factory on the island. Their glass also comes with certificates of authenticity for your own peace of mind. Once youāre ready for Burano, be prepared to que up for a very long time. If you leave for Murano early, around 6 or 8am, then you can avoid this huge line. We left late, so we had to stand there for over an hour just to get to Burano. This also applies if you are coming back from Burano to Venice. The lines at around 2pm on Burano are a joke.
10) it costs 25 Euros for an adult to go into the Dogeās palace and 9 Euros to go into the clock tower. The basilica is free but there are entrance fees inside for other parts of it.
11)Haggle, haggle and haggle! Thereās nothing wrong with haggling and you will actually earn respect for it. Weāre still in Venice right now and Iāve lost count when it comes to how many times Iāve haggled. š
Great video, but this was not a budget-friendly guide. The average traveler probably would prefer to spend less than 100 euros a day, 50 if they are on a tight-budget. I know I am going to try to keep it under 50 when I go. Hope I can do it, haha.
Where is the "on a budget" thing?
Walk or take the Vaporetto, there is absolutely no reason to take a water taxi or the bus. Get out of Venice during high tourist times and take a train to Verona or Milan.
This Video us rubbish: no hotel with views to San Marco' square is budget. A little further away you'd get delicious wood oven pizza for 6ā¬, and cappucino for less than 1ā¬. As impressive as the doge's palace is, or the Basilica, I would skip it if on a budget and look it up on youtube instead…
I READ THE COMMENTS ..WHY ARE U TELLING PEOPLE THE MOST EXPENSIVE PLACE ….THIS IS NOT PROFESSIONAL !
Anyone noticed the music?
Anyone noticed the music?
When you English speaking people will learn that we italians do not have that weird tone/accent in our language? BA BA DA BOO PI? You are truly pathetic, just listen, there's no place in Italy where they speak like that
Venice on a budget and he's staying in one of the most expensive hotels…haha
avoid harrys its a rip off.
This guy has travelled to Venice "frequently" ????? Hard to believe because the info provided here is terrible.
0:44 – "Almost none of the streets have names on them, even the postmen get confused". Uh, no. All the "streets" have names, except we don't use the name "street". Postmen don't get confused. Also, beware, being on a budget and going to the Harry's Bar are things that live in different universes.
Nice big pockets in that coat Richard, could fit a bottle of wine in them quite easy.
I beseech thee all……..listen to this without watching and I guarantee you will HAVE to look now and then, just to make sure it is NOT Partridge!!!
Did he.. bite into the ice cream?….
Water~way to have a good time.
V helpful, thanks guys