San Marcos/Doges Palace easy to find?

[pammers816]

I need advice! We are leaving on our cruise Sept 20th and have pretty much booked every shore excursion. Since we will spend the night in Venice I have booked an excursion the day we arrive. I was thinking we would go on our own the next day...no guide....no group....just us. Do you think we could navigate ourselves to find San Marcos and Doges Palace or would we be overwhelmed. Thanks!:o

[CAKER]

Get a Venice map from http://www.mapeasy.com about $ 7.50 delivered in 3 days. It's a 4" x 11" that folds out to about 24" square. It's great. Very easy to read. I got them also for Rome, Florence, and Barcelona.

 

Doges Palace is in front of St. Marks Square at the right end of the Grand Canal on the Southeast Corner of Venice (Island). The Alilaguna (Blue and Red lines) and ATVO water bus services both stop there.

 

Get a Venice Card (Blue) for 17 euro for 24 consecutive hours (or 37 euro including Alilaguna service, depending upon your needs). You can get them at several places. (Go to http://www.venicecard.com/aq_pre_eng.jsp)

[Cruisingonceagain]

I also used Mapeasy for Venice when we were there last month. St. Mark's and Doges Palace are hard to miss. If you do not like crowds (like us), you may consider buying Rick Steves' Venice guidebook. He offers excellent walks in Venice. We saw Venice in a completely different light; because of these walks, we fell in love with Venice. Had we stayed in the crowded areas, we would have missed the "real" Venice. By the way, if you want to shop in Venice, the markets beyond the Rialto Bridge have excellent buys. I am not referring to the shops right on the bridge - you cross the bridge and you will see market stalls - including those that sell fruits and vegetables. We found very decent bargains here, including beautiful Murano glass. My best buys - including a copy of Van Gogh's Starry Night on Murano glass - were from this area. Enjoy Venice.

[pammers816]

Thanks for all the great advice! How far is it from where the cruise lines dock to getting to San Marco? Is it hard to get from the dock to where I need to go? I appreciate your ideas on guide books - I will be sure to get them! Also the shopping advice is right up my alley!:)

[cberge]

I need advice! We are leaving on our cruise Sept 20th and have pretty much booked every shore excursion. Since we will spend the night in Venice I have booked an excursion the day we arrive. I was thinking we would go on our own the next day...no guide....no group....just us. Do you think we could navigate ourselves to find San Marcos and Doges Palace or would we be overwhelmed. Thanks!:o

 

You can't miss them..trust me. I am never sure why people are so afraid of getting around in Venice...must be the war storeis of lost souls.If by chance you don't even have a map you can get back to S.Marco really easy.Above most of the streets(alley's to us) even in the far reaches of Venice there are signs that direct you in the direction of S.Marco even across the bridges,and most people will be happy to help you as well.Enjoy Venice it really is a fun place to explore...and get lost in:D

[notmartha]

Venice is a city that's real easy to get lost in, but it's really hard not to find St. Mark's.

 

There are painted signs everyone (look up, they are painted on the buildings) that points to St. Mark's. You'll also find signs to Rialto, Accademia, and Termini.

 

Just have to remember generally that St. Marks is south, Termini is north, Rialto is between the two, and Academia is to the West.

[Cruisingonceagain]

Thanks for all the great advice! How far is it from where the cruise lines dock to getting to San Marco? Is it hard to get from the dock to where I need to go? I appreciate your ideas on guide books - I will be sure to get them! Also the shopping advice is right up my alley!:)

 

We were on the Carnival Liberty and we had a couple of options to get to St. Mark's Square. We opted to take the private shuttle, Alilaguna. Carnival provided shuttles (I believe it was €5 per person, round trip) from the ship to the closest vaporetto stop in P. Roma. From there, you could take a vaporetto (I believe it is no.1 and 82) to St. Mark's; I understand it could be anywhere from 30 to 45 minutes, depending on the stops. The shuttle ride would be around 5 or 10 minutes. If you decide to take the Alilaguna, you can walk from the ship to its terminal; around a 5 minute walk. The Alilaguna shuttle took around 20 minutes. While the Alilaguna was convenient, their schedules seemed to be "suggestions" rather than a real schedule. We nearly missed our Doges' Secret Itineraries Tour on the second day since the first shuttle did not leave until after 9 a.m. - it was scheduled to leave at 8:35 a.m. Also, Alilaguna tends to change their schedules depending on the need that day. On the day we came, the last shuttle was supposed to leave St. Mark's at 4:10 p.m., but they had them running until much, much later. Just check with the person at the ticket window when you purchase your ticket. Also, their ticket window on the dock near St. Mark's closes around 6 p.m., but you can purchase the ticket on board their shuttle. People who took the shuttle to P. Roma and then took the vaporetto said it was convenient, although longer. We did take the vaporetto back to the ship the first night, and it was a beautiful ride along the Grand Canal, although the vaporetto was packed and this was nearly 10 p.m. We walked to the ship, although we got lost initially - it was about a 20 minute walk. You could also take a cab from P. Roma to the ship if you choose not to take the ship's shuttle or walk.

[gone cruisen]

Did anyone purchase the Venice card? Red or orange? We'll be in Venice for 3 days after our Sept. cruise. Is it worth the extra cost for Alilaguna back to the airport on Sunday morning? Our plane leaves at 6:35 am-is all transportation available that early?

[gone cruisen]

OOps-blue or orange??

[CAKER]

The Venice card is definitely worthwhile for 3 days (actually 72 consecutive hours) (which is twice the 2 day rate, so the 3rd day is free).

 

It depends where you are coming from to go to the airport. If you are close to one of the Alilaguna stops, then it makes sense to incur that extra cost. However, since you have to get the the airport at 4:30 a.m. or earlier, and the trip takes about 1 - 1 1/2 hours depending on where you get it, you have to check on the schedule for your route at 2:30-3 a.m. If there is no service at that hour, you'll have to make other plans. They have a great website with all of their routes, and the schedules for each. The Red and Blue lines go from St. Marks Square to the airport. The new Gold ORO line is an express from St. Marks to the airport, but may not run at the hour you need it. Possibly you could take the last one, and hang out in the area of the airport, as an option.

 

We are getting the BLUE card because we are not interested in the free admission to the 15 state museums. That is the only additional benefit in the ORANGE card. If you think you'll be visiting several during your 3 days, which is probable, then get the ORANGE card (with the Alilaguna option subject to your other research). There does not appear to be any benefit to getting a 1 day with Alilaguna for your last day, and 1 or 2 one day cards without it rather than a 3 day, according to my math gyrations.

 

Since the Venice card is easily available there, I don't see any benefit in getting it in advance.

[gone cruisen]

Judy and David,

Thanks so much for your advice. Here are directions from the hotel: Crossing the lagoon you can arrive at St. Marks Square using the boat service Alilaguna or by land with the bus service ATVO or with bus No 5 ACTV until Piazzale Roma. Perhaps we don't need the Alilaguna option (since we were only going to use it one way)and should go with one of the buses. Any idea which would get us there faster? We are coming in on a cruise ship so we only need to get to the airport for our return home. Looks like the last line out is Red at 22:55 getting to airport at 24:05, I think the 4:35 arriving airport at 5:45 may be cutting it too close with the new airport security. Does this mean we don't need that last night in the hotel? Do people "hang out" at the ariport all night? When you will be in Venice? We'll be there Oct 5, 6, 7. If we want to do the Secret Doge tour will our orange card help with that at all?

Thanks again, Carol

[CAKER]

Thanks for the transportation info. Believe it or not, I got a call from our Venice hotel concierge today (his choice, rather than continuing e-mails), and he said the only problems now are water taxis are not permitted at the port. Alilaguna water buses are allowed. He said there are no problems with water taxi service from the airport, but it is expensive. He recommends the Alilaguna Red, Blue, or Gold if you are going to San Marco area.

 

We won't be in Venice until Monday, 10/16.

 

I don't think you need a hotel room your last night in Venice, since you have to be at the airport at 4 a.m. anyway. You sleep well on the plane.

 

The Venice card does not save you anything on the Doges Secret tour.