The secret to seeing Venice without getting fleeced

Venice is expensive, there’s no getting away from that. However, there are ways to avoid becoming the latest victim of some of its dearest establishments – like the poor British family that this week felt compelled to write to the mayor after being charged €526 (£463) for lunch near St Mark’s Square.

Typically, the largest parts of most people’s budget when they visit the Italian city is the hotel and cost of eating out. But if you know where to look and how to book, there are places offering extremely competitive prices.

For example, when booking hotels, check websites carefully: you may find last-minute places at knock-down prices. Even better, go when the city’s virtually empty – between the end of October and the beginning of February. It may be chilly, but the winter light can be beautiful and a room in low season can cost less than a third of its high-season price.

To eat (reasonably) inexpensively and well, avoid any establishment with a super-cheap menu turistico: the food will most likely be dire. Instead, seek out bacari (traditional wine bars) where you can graze on cicheti (bar snacks), or grab a place and a plate at the counter where charges are lower than for a table.

If you do opt for the luxury of a table in a bacaro or a smarter restaurant, remember: you are not obliged to eat three courses or order an expensive bottle. A carafe of house plonk and a pasta dish will fill an empty stomach without breaking the bank. Lunchtime menus are usually much cheaper than evening ones too, so consider having your main meal at midday, and a pizza in the evening.

Getting there

Venice Marco Polo is the closest airport to central Venice, while Treviso, 70 minutes by bus from Piazzale Roma (the main Venice road terminus), is used by most low-cost airlines.

The seven-mile journey from Marco Polo to Venice can be made by road or water. The bus trip is quicker and cheaper, but the boat option is so much more Venetian. Treviso (19 miles north of Venice) is connected to Piazzale Roma road terminus by ATVO bus (atvo.it; 70min, €12 one way, €22 return). The buses normally wait for late incoming flights.

A cursory glance at flights for a long weekend next May finds return bookings to Marco Polo Airport with EasyJet from £54, to Treviso Airport with Ryanair from £55, and BA to Marco Polo from £88. 

Where to stay

La Villeggiatura

La Villeggiatura is airy, elegant, and with a touch more originality in its design than so many hotels with that ‘traditional’ 18th-century Venetian look. The communal breakfast table gives the place a congenial air as guests swap advice and anecdotes over their cappuccino.

Mid- and low-season deals can make this a remarkably good-value accommodation option.

Locanda Fiorita

A friendly little 10-roomer, the Locanda lives up to its name (fiorita means ‘in flower’) with wisteria-covered terraces and bright window boxes. Décor is simple Venetian – nothing too ornate but with some nice pieces of antique furniture and lovely fabrics.

Wonderfully friendly staff, always ready to provide excellent advice and assistance, are the hallmark of the hotel. Surprisingly for a one-star, air-conditioning is good throughout. The rooms are bright and airy, and done out comfortably in tastefully subdued Venetian style in pale natural-hue pastels. Expect a good, fresh breakfast.

B&B San Marco

There is absolutely nothing hotel-y about this b&b which is truly three lovely rooms (all with canal views) in what you will come to regard as your Venetian home. The experience begins at breakfast when the owners will sit with you in the kitchen and discuss not only things to do and places to eat, but Venice’s history, its current situation and what the future may hold for it.

Immersed in the heart of ‘real’ Venice – about half way between San Marco and the Arsenale – this is a lively, residential part of the city that many visitors miss.

See our complete guide to the best budget hotels in Venice

Where to eat

Alla Basilica

Run by the Diocese of Venice, this huge canteen-like diner around the back of the Doge’s Palace offers what could well be the cheapest hot lunch in Venice. You get a pasta or soup starter, a meaty or fishy secondo and a vegetable side for €16 with bread and water. The lighting is unforgiving and the only music is the hum of the fridge, but all the ingredients are fresh, portions are generous, and some dishes (like the steamed dentice fish with grilled courgettes) are actually quite refined. The place was set up to offer hungry tourists a decent meal at a reasonable price, but it has proved a hit with working locals too, much to the chagrin of local restaurateurs. Wine, soft drinks and desserts are also available – but in the best Catholic tradition, you pay extra for such temptations. It's lunch only, though dinner can be arranged for large groups that book well in advance.

Address: Castello 4255, Calle degli Albanesi, 30122
Getting there: Vaporetto stop San Marco - San Zaccaria
Contact: 00 39 041 522 0524; allabasilicavenezia.it
Opening times: Mon, Wed-Sun, midday-3pm
Prices: set-price lunch €16
Payment type: credit cards accepted
Cuisine: Italian
Reservations: not necessary

Dai Tosi

If you're stuck for somewhere to eat after a visit to the Art or Architecture Biennale and are in the mood for cheap and cheerful refuelling, this neighbourhood trattoria-pizzeria, in a residential street that always seems to be festooned with laundry, should fit the bill perfectly. In summer, when they put tables outside in the street, there are few more picturesque dining backdrops in Venice. The pizzas are fine and filling (try the gorgonzola, radicchio and walnut topping), and they also do a good range of Venetian and pan-Italian pasta dishes. This is a good place to come with kids, who can work up an appetite in the play area near the Giardini vaporetto stop. Beware of mixing this up with another nearby namesake restaurant; if you're in any doubt, ask for 'Dai Tosi Piccoli' (Little Dai Tosi).

Address: Castello 738, Secco Marina, 30122
Getting there: Vaporetto stop Giardini
Contact: 00 39 041 523 7102; facebook.com/tosetti738
Opening times: Mon, Tue, Thu-Sun, 11.30am-10.30pm
Prices: pizzas from €5, pasta dishes around €12
Payment type: credit cards accepted
Cuisine: Italian, pizza
Reservations: not necessary

La Perla Ai Bisatei

What a find. A cheap neighbourhood trattoria – in Venice, where 'cheap' is not a concept usually associated with eating out. Granted, you'll have to take the boat across to Murano to find it, but this historic glass island is well worth a visit in any case. La Perla is on a square in a quiet residential part of the island, and is hugely popular with locals, many of them glass-blowers on their lunch break. From the checked tablecloths to the indifferent artwork on the walls, everything in the warm but roomy interior is as it should be. And what's on the plate is equally reassuring: big steaming plates of pasta (spaghetti with clams, spaghetti al bolognese) or seafood risotto, followed by a good mixed seafood fry-up or meaty classics like Milanese-style veal cutlets, all of it washed down with a perfectly decent house wine that costs €5 for half a litre. And they're friendly too. What's not to like? Perhaps only the fact that they're only open for lunch.

Address: Campo San Bernardo 1, 30141, Murano
Getting there: Vaporetto stop Murano Venier or Museo
Contact: 00 39 041 739 528
Opening times: daily, midday-3pm
Prices: lunch around €22
Payment type: credit cards not accepted
Cuisine: Italian
Reservations: not necessary

See our guide to the best restaurants in Venice

The best free attractions

Arsenale

The Serene Republic's shipyard, or Arsenale, occupies a large swathe of eastern Venice. Founded in 1104, this huge city-within-the-city of wet and dry docks, warehouses, rope-walks and workshops was a marvel of the pre-industrial world. 

Burano

The jauntily-hued houses of this populous fishermen's island in the northern lagoon look like the result of a bunch of kids let loose with a giant paintbox. The sheer prettiness of the place tempts plenty of visitors to make the trip across from Venice on the number 12 vaporetto (which, admittedly, isn't free), as does the island's tradition of merletto (lace). 

Giardini Pubblici

Outside of a few frustratingly unreachable private gardens, green space is in short supply in Venice. If the kids need to let off some steam, or you do, head for the eastern end of island Venice, a district laid out late enough in the city's history (the 19th century) for the planners finally to factor a public park into the equation. 

Isola di San Giorgio Maggiore

There's something calmly aloof and cultured about the monastery-island of San Giorgio Maggiore, its Palladian church dominating the lagoon view from Saint Mark's with what Henry James referred to as "a suffusion of rosiness". Up close (thanks to the number 2 vaporetto), you're struck by the harmony of Andrea Palladio's 1565 design, his first solo church project. Inside are two fine, late canvases by Tintoretto (don't miss the delicious detail of the cat peeking into a basket in The Last Supper). 

Lido

Venice's seaside strip, the Lido, is more of a dormitory suburb and family resort these days than the elegant haunt of monied flaneurs that it was when Thomas Mann set his wistful, tragic novella Death in Venice here. But this unfussy quality is all part of its charm. Disembark at the main waterbus stop, walk 10 minutes down the Gran Viale, the Lido's main street, to the sea-facing side of this long, thin island, and you can be making sandcastles in no time.

See our complete guide to the best free attractions in Venice

The cheap alternative to the €80 gondola

Through silken waters my gondola glides – and that’ll be €80, please. But although you'd hardly call it a bargain, a ride in a gondola (for up to six people) is all part of the Venice visitor ritual. So choose a gondola and gondolier you like the look of at one of the many stands around the city, make sure you know the going rates (which are set by regulatory body Ente Gondola) and be aware that you're not obliged to go on the gondolier's standard circuit – you can actually use the service as a taxi to get from A to B. Try the popular starting point of Bacino Orseolo, just north of St Mark's Square; a ride from here will take you through some atmospheric smaller waterways before arriving in the Grand Canal. Don't forget, also, that you can get a gondola ride for just €2 a head by taking one of the large traghetto (ferry) gondolas with two oarsmen that cross the Grand Canal at strategic points – for example between Campo Santa Maria del Giglio (by the Hotel Gritti) and the church of La Salute (daily 9.30am-6pm), or San Samuele and Ca’ Rezzonico (Mon-Sat 8.30am-1.30pm). It’s de rigueur to do the crossing standing up, like the locals.