# Is San Marco a Good Area to Stay in Venice? Map & Verdict Verdict: Mixed. Fine for some travellers, wrong for others. Interactive map: https://stayzones.com/where-to-stay-in-venice/san-marco Every Venice district: https://stayzones.com/where-to-stay-in-venice.md The sights are here and so is everybody else. You pay the top rate in Venice to be five minutes from the Basilica, and you share every street with the day-trip crowd from 10:00 to 18:00. Facts: 3 min walk to Piazza San Marco; 50 min to the airport; 20 min to the beach; price €€€€; best for first-timers, sights, couples; lines Vap 1, Vap 2, Vap 5.1, Vap 5.2, Vap N. San Marco is the smallest sestiere by area and holds most of what people come to Venice for: the Basilica, the Doge's Palace, the Campanile, La Fenice, and the shopping streets between them. Nothing you want is more than a ten-minute walk, and vaporetto lines 1 and 2 stop at San Marco and San Zaccaria, so you can reach any other part of the city without changing boats. The cost of that is the crowd and the price. Between mid-morning and early evening the route from the Rialto bridge to the Piazza moves at a shuffle, and the restaurants along it are the worst value in the city. Room rates are the highest in Venice and rise the closer you get to the water. The compensation is the evening. The day boats leave around 18:00 and the district empties in about an hour, which is the strongest argument for sleeping here rather than visiting. If you book San Marco, take a room in the lanes north of the Piazza towards Campo Santo Stefano rather than on the waterfront, and check the floor: the Piazza is the lowest ground in Venice and the first place under water when the tide comes up. What works: - The Basilica, the Doge's Palace, the Campanile and La Fenice are all inside a ten-minute walk. - Lines 1 and 2 both stop here, so anywhere in the lagoon is one boat away with no change. - It empties after 18:00. Once the day boats have gone you get the arcades more or less to yourself. - The right call if you have two nights and a fixed list of sights and no interest in commuting. What does not: - The highest room rates in Venice, and the gap widens the closer you get to the Piazza. - From 10:00 to 18:00 the streets between Rialto and the Piazza move at a shuffle. - Restaurant value is the worst in the city, and a sit-down coffee on the Piazza reaches double figures once the music charge is added. - It floods first: the Piazza is the lowest ground in Venice and goes under while the rest of the city is dry. Hotels in San Marco: https://www.stay22.com/allez/booking?aid=stayzones&link=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.booking.com%2Fsearchresults.html%3Fdest_id%3D620%26dest_type%3Ddistrict%26group_adults%3D2%26no_rooms%3D1 ## Other districts in Venice - [Cannaregio](https://stayzones.com/where-to-stay-in-venice/cannaregio): Recommended. The best value inside Venice. Residents, the oldest Jewish ghetto in Europe, and a canal-side strip of bars that is still busy at midnight, with the station five minutes away when you leave. - [Dorsoduro](https://stayzones.com/where-to-stay-in-venice/dorsoduro): Recommended. Art at one end, students at the other. The Accademia and the Guggenheim, the sunny Zattere promenade, and the only square in Venice that is still loud at 01:00. - [Castello](https://stayzones.com/where-to-stay-in-venice/castello): Recommended. The largest sestiere and the only one where you can watch Venetians buy their groceries. The western edge is minutes from San Marco; the eastern end is where the rent is cheap and the Biennale happens. - [San Polo](https://stayzones.com/where-to-stay-in-venice/san-polo): Recommended. The smallest sestiere and the one Venetians still shop in. The Rialto market at one end, the densest run of bacari in the city in the middle, and twelve minutes on foot to San Marco. - [Santa Croce](https://stayzones.com/where-to-stay-in-venice/santa-croce): Mixed. Two districts wearing one name. The Piazzale Roma end is a bus station and a multi-storey car park; the eastern half around San Giacomo dell'Orio is one of the quietest corners of the old city. - [Giudecca](https://stayzones.com/where-to-stay-in-venice/giudecca): Mixed. A separate island four minutes across the water from the Zattere. Bigger rooms for less money and the best view of Venice there is, in exchange for a vaporetto timetable that runs your evenings. - [Mestre](https://stayzones.com/where-to-stay-in-venice/mestre): Mixed. The mainland city where most Venetians actually live. Rooms cost a fraction of the island's and the train takes 11 minutes, but you will never see Venice at 07:00 or at midnight.