# Is Santa Croce 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/santa-croce
Every Venice district: https://stayzones.com/where-to-stay-in-venice.md

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.

Facts: 27 min walk to Piazza San Marco; 25 min to the airport; 45 min to the beach; price €€; best for budget, families, quiet; lines Vap 1, Vap 2, Vap 4.1, Vap 4.2, Vap 5.1, Vap 5.2, Vap 6, Vap N, T1.

Everything motorised in Venice ends at Piazzale Roma, and Piazzale Roma is in Santa Croce. Buses from the airport, trams from Mestre, the car park, the People Mover to Tronchetto and the cruise terminal: it is the easiest place in the city to arrive with a suitcase, and the only place in Venice that looks like an ordinary town, which is not a compliment.

Walk ten minutes east and the district changes entirely. Around Campo San Giacomo dell'Orio and the Fondamenta Rio Marin it is residential, quiet, and cheap by the standards of the historic centre, with Ca' Pesaro and the Natural History Museum for the days it rains. This half is genuinely worth booking.

The verdict is mixed because the two halves are sold under the same name and the listings do not distinguish them. A room at the Piazzale Roma end is chosen for the car park, not for Venice, and you will be surrounded by people arriving and leaving. Either half is 25 to 30 minutes on foot from San Marco, and the vaporetto down the Grand Canal takes about the same once you have queued for it.

What works:
- Every bus, tram and car arrives at Piazzale Roma, so this is the easiest arrival in Venice with luggage.
- The eastern half around San Giacomo dell'Orio is residential, quiet and cheap for the historic centre.
- Every vaporetto line calls here, including the night line N, so you are never stranded.
- The People Mover reaches Tronchetto and the cruise terminal in about three minutes.

What does not:
- Piazzale Roma is the only corner of Venice with cars, coaches and a multi-storey garage, and it shows.
- A 25 to 30 minute walk to San Marco, and the boat down the Grand Canal is no quicker.
- Rooms at the western end are picked for the car park, so you sleep among people passing through.
- Beyond Ca' Pesaro and the Natural History Museum there is little reason to walk out in the evening.

Hotels in Santa Croce: https://www.stay22.com/allez/booking?aid=stayzones&link=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.booking.com%2Fsearchresults.html%3Fdest_id%3D623%26dest_type%3Ddistrict%26group_adults%3D2%26no_rooms%3D1

## Other districts in Venice

- [San Marco](https://stayzones.com/where-to-stay-in-venice/san-marco): Mixed. 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.
- [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.
- [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.