Camping Miramare

Campeggio Miramare, Punta Sabbioni, Venezia

A quiet, cozy little campground across from the beach and a vaporetto ride away from downtown Venice

Camping Miramare, Punta Sabbioni, Venezia

Yes, you can camp in Venice! Or at least, you can camp on Punta Sabbioni, one of the long barrier islands between the open Adriatic Sea and the Venetian lagoon (like the famous Lido—in fact, it's the next one up from the Lido in the chain of islands).

It's actually quite a nice little seaside campground. You can sit out on the beach across the road and watch the sunsets, and there's a decent pizzeria-bar and an Internet point.

There are also free bikes for guest use, a free shuttle to the beach, and a free ferry shuttle to the Piazzale on Punta Sabbioni (or a ten-minute walk) from whence you can catch a vaporetto ferry to downtown Venice in about 40 minutes, or out to Burano and the other outlying islands.

The campground offers both tent and campervan sites (from €21.50 to €36 for two) and bungalows (€32 to €78 for up to four or five people, with a 3-4 night minimum stay, depending on season).

It stays open from early April (or the weekend before Easter) through the first Sunday in November.

» More cheap lodgings in Venice, Italy at Venere.com...

Details, tips, & links

Details

Camping Village Miramare
Lungomare Dante Alighieri 29, Loc. Punta Sabbioni, Cavallino-Treporti, Venezia (just north of the Venice Lido island)
Vaporetto: Punta Sabbioni
tel. +39-041-966-150
www.camping-miramare.it
€

Lodging links

Lodging tips

If you're looking for a hotel near a particular sight, just go to that sight's page and, in the sidebar on the right, you'll see a list of all the nearby hotels (with "Reid Recommends" choices preceded by a little RR icon: ).
The Venice hotel tax: As of 2011, Venice began charging a Visitor Tax. This is the city's doing, and it is not a scam (just annoying). All charges are per person, per night, for all guests over the age of 10, and the tax is charged for stays of up to 10 days. (There are discounts: Dec-Jan, 30%; Kids aged 10-16, 50%; Stays on the Lido or other outer islands, 20%; Stays in Mestre or elsewhere on the mainland, 20%.)

The cost breakdown is insanely complicated (varies with official clasification and rating cateogry), but general as of 2014:
- Hotels: €1 pppn (per person per night) per star rating. (So a couple [2 people] staying three nights [2 x 3 = 6] in a four-star hotel [6 x €4 = €24] would pay an extra €24.
- B&Bs: €3 pppn flat
- Apartments, residences, rental rooms: €1.50–€2.50 pppn
- Hostels/religious housing and agriturismi: €2 pppn
- Camping: €0.10–€0.40 pppn
Some hotels have folded the fee into their quoted rates; most properties tack it on as an extra when you check out. Just be prepared.
Book ahead in summer and during Carnevale: Venice is way more popular than the number of beds it has, so while in the dead of winter you can often show up and find a good place to crash easily, the best rooms (and the best-value hotels) are booked well in advance for the summer months and the two weeks prior to Ash Wednesday (when Venice breaks out the fancy dress and masks for its famed Carnevale celebrations).

Same goes (though less so, and more at the chic and high end hotels) during the Venice Biennale art festival and the Venice Film Festival.
Pay extra for A/C in summer: No matter what kind of lodging you pick, if it's summer (a) try to get a room with air-conditioning and (b) even if you can't (or you can but have a hankering for some fresh air) resist the urge to open the windows to your room.

Venice is, I believe, the primary breeding ground for the mosquito population of Southern Europe, and precious few Italian hoteliers have discovered that newfangled invention called window screens. Keep the windows shut, or prepare to be bitten.

(Also, carry some bug spray for those romantic canalside dinners outside. Trust me.)
Avoid Mestre: Any hotels with an address in "Venezia-Mestre" is actually in the dull, modern, industrial suburb at the mainland end of the bridge over to the real, ancient Venice you came all this way to see. Do not stay in Mestre! You'll spend more time and money commuting each day in an out of Venice proper than you will save.