We just booked Tuscany & Umbria for 2024 & would love some Venice & Florence hotel recommendations
We just booked the Tauck Tuscany and Umbria Tour, but not till Sept. 2024 -- we did book with our friends who went on the Danube Xmas Market River Cruise with us - they LOVED both Tauck & Europe & want to go back.
The Tuscany & Umbria tour is only one week -- we've been to Italy, but our friends have not - we plan to fly into Venice for a few nights, train to Florence for a few nights -- then do the Tauck Tour - -- it ends in Rome and we plan to stay a couple days longer in Rome for our friends to see the Vatican, Pantheon, Colosseum/Forum.
I would love some of your suggestions for hotels you've stayed at in Venice and Florence - I have looked at the ones Tauck uses, but I'm curious if anyone has experiences with those or others you may recommend.
We met a couple on our Ultimate Alps & Dolomites -- Oberammergau tour in Oct that had been on this Tuscany and Umbria tour and they raved about it - so we are super excited to go.
We did Venice, Florence and Rome with a Rick Steves tour a few years ago and extended our Italy trip for a total of 3 weeks to see Sorrento and other places - we can't wait to return to Italy.
Thanks for any recommendations for Venice and Florence. We did stay in an amazing B&B in Venice we are considering rebooking as the Tauck Venice hotels are very $$$$$$$$$$
Comments
We stayed in the Hotel Metropole (in Venice) and I would not recommend it. The hotel is old and has a lot of history so if that's what you're interested in, the hotel might be right for you. But for me, it had a number of problems.
The hotel was dark - all over except in the guest rooms and inside the restaurant. And I mean DARK. The hallways were so dark that if someone left something in the middle of the hallway, you'd probably trip over it. In the lobby they had small area lights if you needed to be able to read something, such as the menu of the restaurant.
The elevator was very small, old, and slow.
The rooms were okay, but the bath was very small and had tub showers with nothing but a short glass baffle, so when you took a shower, the bathroom floor got all wet.
They used physical keys - although they may have changed that by now - and the keys were big so that you'd leave them at the front desk when you went out of the hotel. I don't like physical keys because I have to wait in line to get my key when I return, and anyone could walk up to the desk and ask for my key. Also, a woman traveling solo has to state her room number to the front desk to get her key and anyone in the area can hear her room number.
I didn't like the way the hotel was decorated - dark colors, heavy fabrics - really old and musty looking.
I'm sure you can find a better hotel. My travel agent recommended the Londra Palace but I don't know anything about it.
Mike
For less expensive hotels you can stay in Mestre and take a (crowded) bus to Venice in the morning. But it really is nice to stay on the island.
And try to find Palazzo Contarini del Bovolo in Venice. You'll probably have to ask for directions. It's hidden but very interesting. Here's a wikipedia article about it - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palazzo_Contarini_del_Bovolo
Mike
MikeHenderson- that hotel is one of the Tauck hotels and I looked it up on TripAdvisor- it has bad reviews there too. We def want to be on the main Venice island and if no one has a good recommendation for a price we can afford (some of the Tauck Venice hotels are >€1100 per night)- we will stay at the B&B we’ve stayed in before. Thank you
Hi Terri. I can recommend the Locanda Orseolo Hotel in Venice. Wonderful Hosts and so central to everything on the island. I stayed there in 2004. I know that was ages ago, but I read recent reviews on the internet and they still have great ratings. This is a 12 room guest house that includes a wonderful breakfast . The current rate is $100 euro per night for a double room with a Gondola View, which I think is very reasonable. Other rooms are even less. The only drawback is that there is not an elevator, however, they will carry your bags to the upper rooms. You can check their website and reviews on line. Make sure you select English language as I believe it shows up as Italian, when you click on their web page.
**Terri: I just noticed that Locanda Orseolo is permanently closed and confirmed it when I searched on Google Maps. It must have closed during Covid. Sorry for the oversight, it was such a fantastic hotel for the money. **
Terri: I did some additional searching and the owners of the Locanda had a "sister hotel". It is located near the Rialto Bridge and is called Al Ponte Antico. Here is the web site: https://www.alponteantico.com/. It has recent reviews on the web, all great. I looked up the price of a classic room and it appears they start at $350 euros per night. That may be out of your range, however, I wouldn't hesitate to stay at this hotel. It is still owned by the Peruch family, which is good. It looks lovely.
Mike - Thank you for your comments on the hotel, I'm taking the Adriatic Treasures and Venice tour in June and we are staying at that hotel thankfully it's only one night.
I actually liked the Metropole, where we stayed at the end of the Adriatic Treasures tour. Yes, it's dark, but I thought it was cozy. I liked it much better than the Danieli, where we stayed on the Lake Como, Venice, Florence and Rome tour. You needed a trail of breadcrumbs to find your way around that hotel!
Yes, I think the hotel appeals to different people. My wife liked it.
And they may have fixed the room key problem - gone to a key card system.
Mike
In Venice, we stayed in Tauck's Bauer Hotel- it was fine but also dark, just like Mike's hotel- could this be common?- to save electricity? The Bauer is right on the Grand Canal, but it is a long, narrow hotel. Our room was at the opposite end and overlooked Campo San Moisè. We could almost touch the front of the church from our balcony (The front of the hotel was unimpressive, I believe it was a Nazi HQ during WWII). The breakfast room faced the canal however. It had a gondola station adjacent to it and was only about 2 blocks from St Mark's Square. (Ooops, according to Wikipedia it was set to close in Nov and not re-open until 2025!)
In Florence we stayed at Tauck's boutique Hotel Brunelleschi. It was excellent and literally in the shadows of the Duomo (a block and a half away). It was so close, we had to look down at a steep angle from the duomo's dome to see the semi-circular roof of its tower. It was just a few short blocks and a short walk to everywhere of interest. It is only a few blocks from the train station, also (we arrived by train and walked to the hotel; porters used carts for our bags.)
For our Tauck, Venice and the Dalmatian Coast tour we stayed at the Danieli. Its appeal is its location. It is on the Grand Canal and just a few hundred yards from St. Marks Square. It has a nice lobby and bar, but is an older hotel.
terrilynn,
Even though the Brunelleschi in Florence is a Tauck hotel, it is, indeed, a lovely establishment. You can walk over to the Uffizi (a must-see if you like museums.) The hotel was showcased in one of Tauck's "webinars" quite some time ago. They still might have it archived in their files. If interested, reply herein and I'll see if I can locate it.
I can't help you on the non-Tauck hotels...too long ago to remember.
During my Classic Italy tour, in Venice we stayed at Hotel Europa on the canal, it was also dark and around the corner from St Mark's square. I don't remember for sure about the room key.
You didn't ask for other suggestions but I'll offer one. There's an opera house in Venice - La Fenice - which is historic and very nice. If you have any interest in opera, book a performance while you're there.
La Fenice burned down in 1996 and was restored - it's very nice inside. There's a book about the fire and the restoration - "The City of Falling Angels". Here's link to the book on Amazon. It's a very good read.
https://www.amazon.com/City-Falling-Angels-John-Berendt-ebook/dp/B000SEFKJY/
Mike
When we were in Florence on our own, we stayed at the Hotel Botticelli. It's a small hotel, just east of the Mercato Centrale (which is a great location for a casual meal in their upstairs food court). Definitely not a five star Tauck style hotel, but a nice quiet small hotel with a friendly and helpful staff. Very reasonable rates, given the location. The basic rooms are a bit small, but the hotel is clean and well maintained. Larger rooms are available. Wi-Fi is spotty in some rooms (like ours), but strong in the comfortable lobby. Unless you're looking for fancy, this is a great choice.
Hotels are expensive in Venice, particularly the high end ones that Tauck uses. Most hotels are old, formerly palazzo’s. We stayed at the Hotel Flora traveling independently. It has 40 rooms, is a few blocks from St. Marks. The nicest rooms face a delightful inner garden where we had breakfast (don’t know if they do that anymore) and they are quiet. The cheapest rooms are small, and I do mean small, so avoid those. This is a family run place and they pay a lot of attention to the needs of their guests.
The book mentioned by Mike, is a best seller and a good read once you get past all the name dropping. It goes into the history, politics, people, and psyche of Venice and its inhabitants, then and now. It was written by John Berendt, the award winning author of the non-fiction novel Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, Berendt's best seller about Savannah, Georgia.
I read City of Falling Angels beforehand, so we walked to the La Fenice to see it in person. Later a bunch of us ate dinner at La Ristorante Antico Martini, a wonderful restaurant adjacent to the theater on the same small piazza,
I can tell you where not to go- Harry's Bar, the birthplace of the Bellini cocktail. It has history and a long list of famous patrons, but it is a small ordinary bar, inside and out, that serves small, but very expensive ($30) Bellinis and equally expensive Bellini soft drinks for nearly $20!
Oh, and if you can find my old Classic Italy posts, you can read about everything we did in Florence which included all Tauck activities and a lot more. We took a Segway tour all around the old town where we saw many of the places we wouldn't have time to see walking. With tickets purchased a few months prior we toured all the Opera dei Duomo buildings- the baptistry, Duomo, Duomo Museum, and even climbed all 463 steps to the top of Brunelleschi's Dome with must-have, skip-the-line tickets (we did not climb Giotto's bell tower). We also hired a driver for an afternoon trip to Pisa where we saw the Piazza dei Miracoli, the Duomo, and climbed the Leaning Tower. And, yes, took the typical tourist photo!
In case anyone is interested in the interior of La Fenice, here are a couple of pictures. First, the stage area:
And then, a view of the other side of the house. We were in a box.
The theatre is not that large but it's highly decorated.
My wife is a professional musician and really wanted to see the interior of La Fenice.
After the performance, the conductor came on stage to take a bow. We both noticed that the orchestra members (in the pit) took off immediately, once the performance was over. By the time the conductor took his bow, the orchestra pit was empty.
Mike
We stay at the Brunelleschi last September prior to meeting up with out tour in Naples. Great location. Make sure you get the breakfast. If you are spry you can walk from the train station with luggage in tow. Ristorante La Giostra is great and just a short walk. You will need reservations. We did the evening Fat Tire bike tour and it was a lot of fun.
Hi @terrilynn –
Regarding Venice hotel:
As @travel maven mentioned…
I, too, loved Locanda Orseolo, we stayed there on 2 different trips to Venice. I was so sad when I discovered a couple of years ago that they closed. It was actually before the pandemic; I was told they lost their lease.
While we were staying at Locanda Orseolo, the proprietor, Bruno, encouraged us to visit their sister hotel, Al Ponte Antico. We went to look at it and enjoyed drinks at their bar. It was beautiful, excellent location, and the owners were very friendly and welcoming. Although I have not actually stayed there, I would still recommend it. It gets rave reviews on Trip Advisor.
Florence:
It’s been a while, and owners can change, but you may want to check these out. It looks like both still get excellent reviews on Trip Advisor.
In 2015, we stayed at Il Guelfo Bianco in Florence. It’s a boutique-style hotel. Huge room, central location, very good breakfast. Very moderately priced.
In 2010, we stayed at Residenza Il Villino in Florence. It’s another very affordable small hotel, very good breakfast and helpful innkeepers.
Hotel Danieli -stayed there years ago. Older but beautiful, clean. Great service.
We've stayed at Pensione Accademia - very well located; great breakfast. We've not been there in a few years - so some homework would be useful. But for a reasonable price, it's (historically) been great. https://www.pensioneaccademia.it/en/
Terrilynn, One year we stayed at Hotel l'Orolgio in Florence with Tauck. While not over the top fabulous like Tauck's stay in the Gritti Palace Hotel (loved it) this hotel was convenient to the sights and to the train station. While there consider taking a day tour to Siena and San Gimignano (sp?), both great places.
Even though we were in Umbria recently we are thinking of taking this tour to augment a river boat tour. We may see you in September 2024. Here is a link to our recent trip. ). Click on
https://youtu.be/xM30RMZHgnM. You and your friends might enjoy the Cortona area and getting a driver to take you around. .
Gladys, you didn't say Adriatic adventures '23 or '24. I assume it is 2024. We did that last year and loved it. Be prepared for hot weather in June and definitely plan to walk the wall in Dubrovnik early in the morning. There are wonderful sites you should do on your own, Message me if you want more info. Sherry
Hi Terrilynn, we stayed in these hotels in 2006 with our 7 year old daughter way before we traveled with Tauck. They were nice sized rooms and included breakfast. I just looked at their websites and I think you could get them for 350 euro or less per night. Hotel Giorgione in Venice and Hotel Loggiato dei Servi in Florence ( it’s a former monastery) . The hotel in Florence is behind the Doumo and from our room we could see the back of the Accademia Gallery
The original post was in January 2023. They've probably decided on a hotel by now.
Sherry - It was in 2023, I just came back in early June, was in Dubrovnik in May and the weather was ok, coming from Florida the heat doesn't bother me much unless is extreme. Thank you for your offer.