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Venice's romantic waterways

IT had all seemed simple enough. Find a cheap flight to a major European city, and then match it with budget accommodation to create a low-cost break.

No problem.

We booked flights to Venice for £70 each, and then came up with what my wife and I thought would be a novel way of combining a beach holiday and a city break at a reasonable price - a fully equipped mobile home on a four-star site, next to a beautiful beach, and only 40 minutes by boat to St Mark's Square.

And a week's stay including flights, worked out at just over £200 each for the two of us.

The flight by Jet2.com was a mere two-hour hop into Marco Polo Airport, Venice's main entry point, although some other cheap flight operators such as Ryanair use Treviso airport, which is around an hour away.

The delight of landing into Marco Polo is that you can then take the water bus into the heart of Venice, a stunning way to make your entrance into one of the world's most famous cities.

Our accommodation was at the Marina Vicenza, and during high season that can also be reached by boat from the airport.

These run every hour but by the time we had queued up and bought tickets, we had just missed the noon sailing.

The Marina Venezia

Tickets are bought inside the airport and can sometimes involve long queues.

One tip is if there are two or more of you, then send someone to buy the tickets while one waits to collect the luggage.

Anyway, the booking clerk said that rather than wait for another hour to sail, there was a bus leaving within five minutes that would take us to the same destination - eventually.

Three buses later we arrived at our destination, Punta Sabbioni, just as the 1pm sailing from the airport arrived. Okay, we had seen some of the hidden "delights" of the Venetian lagoon, the marshland, the back streets of Lido de Jesolo and two deserted bus stations, but nearly two hours on a bus in 80-plus temperatures was in stark contrast to a one-hour cruise past the memorable sights of Venice.

From Punta Sabbioni, Marina Venezia is another short bus ride away, and once there we were quickly taken to our home for the next week.

Now Italian mobile homes, are not quite the same as those you might find in Devon, Cornwall or anywhere else in the British Isles. Forget that plush lounge area usually found in our caravans. On the Continent, any seating seems to be around the dining table in the kitchen area.

True, there is a double bedroom, three bunk beds for the kids, a bathroom with sink and shower, and a separate toilet, but that's it.

Everything else is outside. And in the heat of summer that is the best place to be.

You can cook outside, eat, drink and play outside, basically the mobile home is like a hotel bedroom - you just sleep there.

Not that you will miss anything. Marina Venezia has restaurants, bars, shops, nightly entertainment, beautiful well-kept gardens and grounds, an Olympic-sized swimming pool and a large children's pool.

It is a base not only for mobile homes, but chalets and tents, all used by a number of companies. Our booking was through Vacansoleil, a Dutch-based organisation now long-established in Britain, that offers holidays throughout Europe .

The other crucial amenity is the beach - a stunning seven-mile stretch of soft sand leading into the blue waters of the Adriatic, from where you can watch the cruise ships edging their way into the lagoon and on to Venice while you eat or drink at one of the many beachside bars.

It was hard to leave the sun-lounger to pursue the other reason for the trip, but Venice just has to be seen.

We hadn't been there for 25 years, always promised to return, but any romantic thoughts that went with it were quickly forgotten as after missing the boat on our first day, we almost missed it again, because someone (me) had misread the bus timetable to the port.

Fortunately, a taxi ride solved that problem and at last we were on the waterbus and able to savour that unforgettable sail into the city.

From that point on, your senses are invaded by the sights and the sounds of this truly unique city. Some tourists complain that your sense of smell is the one most tested, but on a day of high temperatures sparked by a sizzling sun, we never once encountered that.

Instead, we marvelled at St Mark's Square, the Doge's Palace, the Basilica, the labyrinth of narrow alleyways leading from one hidden piazza to another.

We lunched by the side of the Grand Canal in the shadow of the Rialto bridge as musicians wandered from table to table to provide a soundtrack to what was a memorable experience.

The cost of that was the same as dining in any big city, yet if you want to complete the dream, a gondola ride comes a little more expensive.

The going rate was 100 euros, about £65, for 40 minutes, but if you have never done it, then try and include it in your holiday budget, because if you leave Venice without that experience, you will never be able to repeat it anywhere else in the world.

Be warned, some services can be brought to an abrupt end by mid-September.

Although the Marina Venezia is open until Sept 30, the shuttle bus to the port stopped on September 12, so getting around after that was dependent on taxis.

And we were almost left high and dry when we went to catch the boat back to the airport, only to find that we could not get a taxi, while a wildcat strike also wiped out many of the crossings.

Fortunately, one way or another we managed to get a boat, but as the sun of the previous days was blacked out by thunderstorms and incessant rains, the usually placid lagoon was whipped up into a frenzy of white water that left us thinking that perhaps the two-hour bus journey would probably have not been a bad option.

Telephone 08700 778 779 or on-line www.vacansoleil.co.uk Vacansoleil also have camps just outside Rome and Paris.

12:38pm Sunday 6th April 2008

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