How to spend a frugal weekend in Venice?

I’ve recently written a guest post for Lisa in her blog which I’d love to share it here with my readers. The original post was featured in Wanderlust’s Women Travel Dreams:

This is a ‘fresh from the oven’ experience from me. Spending a weekend in Venice can be extremely costly. However, if you wish to explore the city in a frugal way for 2 days and 1 weekend night, here is how I did it…

First we need to book our weekend accommodation in advance to get discounted rate. Hotels in Venice city centre are extremely pricey. Since I was traveling in a group of 5, the best bet is to book an apartment. There are many nice and large apartments in Venice that can stay up to 8 family members. By booking a nice full service apartment in either Santa Croce or St. Polo area, you are basically at the centre of everywhere in Venice. We booked a 6-person apartment in St. Polo region which cost us 200Euro or only 34EURO per person.

We arrived at Venice in the Spring weekend afternoon, once we had checked into our apartment, we headed back out and started strolling down the streets and alleys of Venice. We grabbed a sandwich with coke as our quick lunch, for 5.50Euro. There are tourists signboards all around to lead travelers to the main tourits spots. We followed the signboard to go to the main touristic Rialto Bridge to admire the magnificent view of the Grand Canal. There we had a scoop of Gelato for only 1Euro! From there we took a Gondola tour for 25Euro.

Later in the afternoon, we got off at the St. Marco Square, the main tourism square in Venice. We Wandered around and took some beautiful photos of the square, cathedral and the famous Bridge of Sigh. You can try beating the queue to get into the St. Marco Cathedral for its gorgeous interiors. When you come out, head to the popular Cafe Florian in the square for your high tea! A piece of cake with a cup of cappucino should cost you 15Euro.

In the evening, we walked back to the Rialto Bridge and from there to the BILLA supermarket nearby to buy some foods and drinks for our breakfast next morning. Carrying our shopping goods back to our apartment, we had a nap and took shower to freshen up our bodies.

At night, we went out for our pizza dinner in St. Polo area where food is cheaper. A 16-inch pepperoni pizza cost us 5.60EURO. Yummy! My last activity at night was to set up my tripod and captured some of the splendid night scenes of Venice.

On the next morning, we spent our time chatting around, enjoying our breakfast prepared by ourselves and started packing our luggage. Before leaving Venice, we headed to St Lucia train station via the Cannaregio area. Along the main streets of Cannaregio, there are many souvenirs shops and restaurants. There are also fruits market where we bought some bananas for couple of Euros and another scoop of Gelato!Crossing bridges after bridges, we reached the train station and we left Venice in the afternoon.

This was how I spent my frugal weekend in Venice! 🙂 – Travel Feeder, your ultimate travel photo blog

About The Author

Cecil Lee

The author is an avid traveler and photography hobbyist who loves to share with others his travel and photo-taking experience in many popular tourist destinations around Europe, Asia and Australasia. Read the exciting stories with many photos captured on his journeys.