45 min
60 min
20 min
T1 · T2
1.8 / km²
2
1
1,458
−37% vs city
Counted from OpenStreetMap and Inside Airbnb (CC BY 4.0)
Mixed after dark
The streets immediately around Venezia Mestre station, Via Piave and Via Cappuccina in particular, have a long-standing reputation for drug dealing and are unpleasant on foot late at night. The rest of Mestre is an ordinary suburb.
Staying in Mestre
Mestre is the mainland half of the comune, and it is where the waiters, the shopkeepers and a fair number of the gondoliers go home. For a traveller it is a normal post-war Italian city: a pedestrianised centre around Piazza Ferretto, two parks, ordinary supermarkets, and hotels at prices the island cannot approach.
The logistics are genuinely good. Trains to Venezia Santa Lucia take 11 minutes and run frequently, buses reach Piazzale Roma in about 20, Marco Polo airport is 20 minutes away, and you can park a car, which is impossible in Venice and expensive at Piazzale Roma. On a fixed budget, or with a family that needs two rooms, the arithmetic is hard to argue with.
The arithmetic is also not the whole story. Venice before 09:00 and after 19:00, with the day boats gone and the calli empty, is the reason to go to Venice at all, and staying in Mestre is choosing to miss both ends of it. Some of the saving comes back as train fares, paid toilets and the surcharge for sitting down at a cafe. If the choice is four nights in Mestre or two on the island, take the two.
What works
- The cheapest beds in the comune by a wide margin, including hostels and three-star chains.
- Trains to Venezia Santa Lucia take 11 minutes and run frequently until late.
- Marco Polo airport is about 20 minutes by bus, against an hour or more from most of the island.
- You can park a car here, and you can eat and drink at ordinary Italian prices.
- Trams T1 and T2 and a full bus network, so getting about does not depend on a boat timetable.
What does not
- You are not in Venice. Every evening ends with a bus or a train and a walk at the other end.
- The two best hours in Venice, before 09:00 and after 19:00, are the two you will not be there for.
- Part of the saving goes straight back on fares, paid toilets and sit-down charges on the island.
- Mestre itself is an ordinary suburb with nothing much to walk out to in the evening.
- The 45 minutes to San Marco is a walk, a train and another walk, not a stroll.
Besides, due to frequent overcrowding, the San Marco and Rialto areas of Venice are often better explored during early morning or late evening, which will not be possible for those staying in Mestre.