Venice isn’t known for being a bargain destination, but you can still enjoy a visit to the city for less. These top tips for saving money on your Venice trip will help keep a lid on your spending.
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Ways To Save Money on Your Venice Trip
These tips will help bring your Venice trip in within budget – and even leave some Euros over for some treats to bring home.
1. Don't stay on Venice island
When we say Venice we tend to mean the island, but Venice is actually a larger area, including some other islands and part of the Italian mainland too.
It is possible to find affordable places to stay on the island of Venice itself – if you’re hellbent on staying here then Dorsoduro and Cannaregio are the cheaper areas you’ll want to check out.
But you’ll find it easier to find better value for money and a cheaper price by staying outside the city in a spot like Mestre or Treviso.
Mestre
Mestre is a popular spot for budget travellers to Venice, and it has a train station – Venice Mestre – where you can catch the train right into Venice itself in about 10 minutes. You can also get the bus or tram in from here too. It’s not the most beautiful spot, but it’s just a place to lay your head and there are loads of well-priced hotel options.
Treviso
Another option is the nearby town of Treviso, and if you fly with Ryanair, you’ll arrive at the airport here. Treviso is an attractive town in its own right, and also has solid connections to Venice – so you can just travel in each day.
Verona
Or you could combine your visit to Venice with a stay in a completely different city. Verona is a gorgeous city for a night or two, and it’s just 1 hour 15 minutes away on the train.
2. Stick to the streets
One of the best things about Venice is that just being there is an experience in itself. The whole city is like a museum!
Even just strolling its narrow streets and admiring the stunning canals, cute bridges and amazing architecture, can take all day.
If you’re not too into churches, art or museums, you can definitely skip a lot of the paid attractions and still have an amazing time. Roaming the city, getting lost and soaking up the atmosphere doesn’t cost a thing!
3. Take the traghetto
If you want to try out a gondola but don’t want to part with the best part of €100, then take a traghetto. It’s a kind of gondola shuttle – a no-frills version – that takes you from A to B across the Grand Canal at various points, since there are only a handful of bridges that go across.
It’s not as instagrammable, sure, but it only costs €2! You’ll struggle to find many things in Venice that cost €2. Plus it’s a pretty cool way to experience a classic Venice moment without having to pay a fortune.
There are the five traghetto routes across the Grand Canal – tourist gondolas will also depart from these places so make sure you are getting the right one or your wallet will get a bit of a shock! You’re looking for a gondola that carries multiple passengers – check the price before you get in to be sure.
4. Be smart with transport
Venice island doesn’t have cars, buses or trains – apart from on the northern side where you arrive – so you have to get around on foot or by boat.
The public boats, or water taxis, are called vaporetti – they’re good for getting around as they chug along the main routes, but they’re actually not hugely cheap. So taking a bunch of trips really adds up.
To save money, try and plan your sightseeing so you can walk between most locations. For the places where you definitely need to take a boat, line them up all together in your itinerary, so you can get around them in a day.
This is because a standard vaporetto ticket (valid for 75mins) costs €9.50! But a 24h ticket costs €25 – not cheap but much better value than a single, so you can at least try and get your money’s worth. You can order a card to load the ticket onto, or use the iPhone or Android apps.
5. Visit in winter
My top tip for visiting Venice is to go in January. Yes it can be very cold, and foggy, but it’s also one of the cheapest and quietest times to go. And when the sun comes out – nothing beats it!
You’ll find far fewer crowds and much better prices on accommodation, including places on the island that would otherwise be out of your price range.
Just check the weather forecast before you go, pack thermals and a hat – remember it’s on the water so it can get pretty chilly – and enjoy a peaceful version of Venice that few tourists get to see.
6. Load up on cicchetti for dinner
Italians do aperitivo, an evening drink with little snacks. It’s not necessarily a replacement for dinner, but when you’re trying to keep costs down, you can definitely make it work!
So instead of a meal in a restaurant, head to a traditional bar – bacaro – for an Aperol Spritz and some chichetti. These are like small bites – typically slices of bread with delicious toppings.
They’re an affordable way to fill up and try some local flavours without spending too much. Try one with sarde in saor – literally sweet and sour sardines – which are WAY more delicious than they sound! And once you’ve lined your stomach with some of these, you won’t need to fork out for a huge dinner.
7. Be aware of the access charge
Did you know that Venice now charges day trippers an entry fee on its busiest days? This is designed to limit overtourism and prevent too many visitors at the busiest times. It costs €5 if you pay 4 days or more in advance, after that it costs double – €10.
You can pay it online or on the day when you arrive. Visit cda.ve.it to pay and get the exact dates it’s running – it’s more or less every Friday, Saturday and Sunday from April unti July 2026.
If you’re found without a permit in the historic centre between 8.30am and 4pm on a day that the fee applies, you risk being fined €150. The entry fee is just for daytrippers, which includes you if you’re staying on the mainland – you’ll need to pay it each day you come in. If you’re staying on the island, it doesn’t apply.
8. Don't forget your reusable water bottle
As in lots of places in Italy, Venice has lots of public drinking fountains where you can refill your water bottle for free. In a bid to keep the city free from unnecessary plastic waste, there’s even a map with all of them marked.
Travel For Less With These Ways to Save Money on Your Venice Trip
These ways to save money on your Venice trip will help keep your spending down while you’re visiting. The great thing about Venice is most of the highlights are completely free, so if you find affordable accommodation and flights, you really can enjoy it on a budget.
