Venice is definitely not a budget traveler's friend. As expected, when you've got one of the most unique and popular tourist destinations of the world in a confined area, things are going to be expensive - especially lodging.
Here's the Venice-Croatia connection. A ferry runs from Venice to Croatia through the Adriatic Sea. We thought, wouldn't our travels be a lot more interesting if we took this ferry instead of flying directly from Tangier to the main city of Croatia? Plus, we just love Venice. We were here 7 years ago and wanted to come back. So instead, we flew from Tangier back to Madrid on RyanAir; then flew the next day from Madrid to Venice on EasyJet. Both are European budget airlines that charge extra for everything, including: printing a boarding pass at the airport, checking-in luggage, any inflight beverages, using the restroom on board (okay, just kidding on that one), etc.
Overall, our desire to take the ferry across the Adriatic is turning out to be an expensive adventure, what with 2 extra flights and 2 nights in Venice, but what the heck. One unexpected bonus towards our budget has been several freebie lodging in Spain and Morocco, thanks to the generosity of friends. So, we don't think our plan will be too damaging to our bottom line.
To save some cash, we decided to stay in Mestre, Italy - just across the expanse of water from Venice. By doing this, we were able to cut our hotel expense in half. Currently, a basic hotel with air-conditioning in Venice is going for minimum $200/night. We didn't even bother looking at places without A/C. Good thinking, because we nearly killed ourselves from heat exhaustion on our first day. We actually like being in Mestre. A 10-minute bus ride from across the street gets us into Venice, so the location is very convenient.
We found many of the bars, restaurants, and shops were the same and in the same exact spots we frequented 7 years ago. So we went to our favorite enoteca, a familiar osteria, then bought a Murano glass heart necklace from the same Domaghi store to replace the one that Akiko broke a few years ago.
Now that you know why we are in Venice, here are some photos to inspire you to come visit! Captions are hardly necessary as the sites are quite self-explanatory. And yes, the entire place looks just like a movie set...but real.
The beautiful Piazza San Marco, the basilica, palazzo!
Who doesn't love Italian food?
Our favorite enoteca (wine bar) in Venice.
A great foodie find in Mestre. Hostaria Vita Rossa serves tapas style snacks and a great wine list where people stand around with friends and eat/drink. It also has a small restaurant with ~12 tables and a hand written menu with a variety of antipasto, fresh pastas, and seafood secondi courses that changes daily. It looked very popular amongst the locals as well as hotel guests who dared to walk down a non-descript side street.
View all photos of Venice here.
