I've been living in Venice for six years, visiting it on holiday for 20 years before that, so I've learnt more or less everything there is to know about being in Venice on a budget.
#1 Your hotel- Get a hotel off the main island, buses/trams are only €1.50 each way to the island. Buy the tickets before you get on the bus or download the AVM Venezia app on your phone as tickets from the driver cost €3 and don't forget to validate your ticket. It may seem a little daunting to get the hotel on the mainland, but it’s definitely a money saver.
#2 Avoid airport taxis - Avoid taxis from the airport to the city centre. Buses from the airport cost €7.50 each way but if you walk to the Marriot Courtyard hotel which is less than 10 minutes by foot it only costs €1.50 to Venice. (Take the no5 bus from the airport/Marriott to Venice). Also taking the alilaguna boat is far cheaper if travelling alone compared to the water taxis, the water taxi is only worth it for groups of over 4 or 5.
#3 Walk- If your hotel isn't on an island like the Lido or Giudecca you don't need to get a boat. Boat trips cost €7.50 per trip even if it's just one stop. Most places you can get to by foot. If you don't have large suit cases, it's much easier to walk around as Venice has many bridges and can be very crowded at times. There’s nothing better than walking through the streets of Venice with a big ice cream or slice of pizza.
#4 The supermarket is your best friend - Venice, like all of Italy is a paradise for any food lover. However, it can get very expensive if you have an appetite like mine. Buy some snacks at the supermarket and bring them in your day bag.
Buy water and other soft drinks in the supermarket. A 2L bottle of water in a supermarket costs around €0.40 but a 0.5L bottle on the street can cost up to €2.50. I always keep large water bottles in the hotel room and decant them into smaller bottles when I go out in the day.
#5 Service and cover charges- Be careful when you stop for drinks or a meal, a lot of touristy places automatically add cover charges and service charges and it can get very expensive very quickly.
#6 Where to dine- Avoid big tourist areas like the Rialto or St Mark’s. In some places in St. Mark's Square you can pay over €10 for a coffee. Find quieter areas for a drink and looking for a restaurant in the quiet streets would be perfect for your wallet.
#7 No tourist menus - Restaurants with tourist menus tend to serve food of poor quality and it can often be rather expensive. Avoid restaurants where they have photos of the food outside.
#8 Make the most of free museums/attractions- The church Santa Maria della Salute is free to enter, it's absolutely stunning and you can get there on foot. The Campanile Tower in St Mark’s Square is not too expensive (around €8 per person), but you can also get a stunning panoramic view of Venice on the terrace of the Fondaco dei Tedeschi department store near the Rialto bridge and it's completely free.
#9 Avoid gondolas - Gondola ride prices sit at around €80 in the day and €100 after sunset. If you want the feel of a gondola ride without spending so much money, they have traghetti (traghetto meaning ferry in Italian) which are gondolas but they do crossings of the grand Canal for around €2 per person.
#10 No1 vaporetto - Seats on the front or back of the number 1 water bus are quite often hard to find and tourists can sometimes squabble for them, but it is a fantastic way to tour Venice. Even standing outside gives you a spectacular view. It takes you from one side of the island to the other in just over an hour. As you make your way down the grand Canal you pass endless palazzi, churches and stunning sites that you wouldn't see when travelling by foot.
Let me know if you found this helpful, I have more tips for visiting Venice on a budget and I would love to share them with you. Did you know that Venice spans across 118 islands and connecting those islands are 400 bridges of which only 4 cross the grand Canal? It makes this quote seem rather fitting...
"To build a city where it is impossible to build a city is madness in itself, but to build there one of the most elegant and grandest of cities is the madness of genius." - Alexander Herzen
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