We went to Venice in February when everyone wants to avoid it for cold weather & it was best decision by us.
Pros : 1) Less crowd in all tourist places, means no extra charges for Skip the lines for entering to Museums 2) Cheaper Stays 3) Valentine Carnival 4) Less crowd in Public Transport
Cons : No Cons
Our Venice visit cost us just Indian Rupees 8.6K per person for 2 days which includes Stay, Food, Transportation & entry to various places. Here is how & when we planned everything.
We started planning for this trip 2 months before the schedule departure from India. First thing that we decided was that we are going to use Public Transport over Cabs for our daily commute on which basis we decided our stay places which should be near to metro stations. Then we decided to go for Homestays over Hotels, they were cheap (approx Rs 3K with tax per day for 2 persons during our whole Trip), comfy, perks of having advice on travel from Local people & they have kitchen. Kitchen is major point because we use to carry our water from kitchen otherwise which costs around Euro 2.5 (Rs 200)for each bottle.
We travelled from Florence to Venice by Train. As soon as we got down at Venice Mestre we took a 1.5 Hour pass (Euro 1.5) through which we can travel for 3 hours in any Bus for unlimited time. Our stay was quite on outskirts of city (7Kms from railway station and 14Kms from main attractions). We booked 1 full small villa to ourselves in Venice and that was the best stay of our whole Europe trip with Private lawn, living area, Kitchen with all basic groceries, Big Bed Room, etc. We reached Venice by evening and thought to explore the nearby areas of our stay on Day 1.
Day 2: We purchased pass for Day 2 which was including unlimited water transportation for Euros 10 , otherwise it costs Euros 1.5 every time. We packed ourselves some basic food from groceries provided by our host. We headed for Grand Canal at 9am. It was beyond Beautiful. Then we headed for St. Mark’s Square (Where Khuda Jaane song was shoot), too many pigeons were there, and people were feeding them with food. The place was quite crowded as preparation for Valentine Carnival was going on. Then we headed for Saint Mark’s Basilica, Doge’s Palace- which we went inside palace to have a look. Bridge of Sighs was as beautiful as can be seen in pictures. We were hoping from 1 lane to another through narrow passages of Venice which was very nice experience.
We had our Lunch at local Fast Food hotel (to save on washroom cost which was Euros 3 per person in Venice) and post Lunch treated ourselves with Gelato. Then we went to Ponte dell’Accademia which is wodden and metal Bridge. Post which we headed for Murano Burano (2 islands of Venice).
Murano – its famous for its colorful houses and glass shops. We can get all varieties of glass items here from neckpiece to showpiece. They have glass Museum and glass factory too (we didn’t visit both places). Their glass collection is beyond beautiful but at same time cheap for small products that can be used for gifting.
Burano - Picturesque Burano is known for its brightly colored houses and its casual eateries serving seafood from the lagoon. The Island has exhibits on the development of lacemaking in the area, and shops sell lace products like linens and clothes which was expensive on higher side.
Post visit of Murano Burano we left for St. Mark’s Square by sunset (sit and enjoy sunset from water ride in Venice). At this place we attended Valentine Carnival (Free of cost for everyone), experience of same cannot be expressed in words. Carnival was in Italian, but we enjoyed a lot the whole vibe. Dance performances were magnificent. Local people were dressed differently for Carnival and which was all pleasure to eyes.
At this beautiful note we ended our Europe trip and next day morning were having flight from Venice Airport for India (via Rome).
Note : this post is just based for Venice, for our whole Europe Trip there is separate post which covers all Flight Tickets and other Visa expenses.
Detail of whole Europe Trip is in below link :
https://www.tripoto.com/trip/india-to-europe-in-budget-608fd3f3658e2
Connect on Instagram if you need more details.
