The Student Backpacker

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This was the question I asked myself while planning a trip through Europe, and I think a bit of context is needed before I get into the nitty gritty.

In October, I was planning a challenge: Can I eat breakfast, lunch and dinner in 3 different countries, within 24 hours and for less than £50? It was supposed to be a bit of travel-adrenaline and just a good laugh overall, plus a great blog hook, so I went planning. I made spreadsheets, scoured SkyScanner, and ended up finding a flight from Zagreb to Basel leaving at 5:40AM. It was perfect for the challenge. I didn’t start in the UK (which felt like a cop-out), the ticket was a measly £13 or so, Zagreb itself wouldn’t count, and the timings were just perfect, especially with a dirt-cheap 9:30 Basel train connection.

So my mind was set, and I shortlisted a few dates that would work. When looking for one-way flights to Zagreb to make the flight, I expected no more than £20… The cheapest was nearly £50. So, to me, that was more of an opportunity, I could fly to somewhere nearby, take transport over, and tick off another place seen, 2 birds, 1 stone. Problem is I didn’t fancy Milan, it’s higher up so in mid/late October can be a bit chilly, and my friend went in March, and said it was expensive and not worth it despite the fligfhst being some of the cheapest around, so I looked further and found flights to Venice, AND planned a coach-based road trip around the Adriatic/Balkans, quickly becoming a 3 birds, 1 stone deal.

At this point, the route was set. I’ve managed to make a good few blogs from it, too. The full itinerary/blog list is as follows: Venice, the £20 road trip around the Upper Adriatic Corridor, Zagreb, the ‘3 countries, 3 meals, 1 day’ challenge, and Palma. The issue is I chose to detour to Venice as it was ‘cheaper’ in theory, but if I ended up spending a silly amount of money, then it just wouldn’t be worth it, and Venice is notoriously opulent and expensive. So, can you travel to Venice for cheap?

getting there & into the deep end

Keeping to the strict budget, I got the flight from Manchester to Venice direct for £15. They’re consistently that cheap, and other UK airports have as cheap or cheaper flights. Return flights are often £32 too if you want to just see Venice alone. The flight was also very well timed for my standards; 12:35 takeoff and landing at 15:55, with hours of sunlight left but no stupid O’clock wake-up. Compared to a lot of other places I’ve been to and flights I’ve looked into, honestly, Venice seems to have some of the best flights.

Now, something about everything just kind of shook me. The airport isn’t even too close – it’s around a 30-minute coach from the island’s transport station. I think it was a perfect mix of a brisk airport escape, one of the first midday flights I’ve done in a while, relatively short travel distances and the coach station itself; you walk a few minutes north, and you hit with a very Venetian bridge over the Grand Canal, Gondolas swarming the waterways, and classic Italian architecture, which is exactly where I started. Speaking of brisk airport escapes, I took the bus. There are water taxis, but the bus is cheaper. You can pre-book either option on Trip.com, or just do it at the airport, like I did.

As I walked over bridges, through winding streets and tree-lined parks, I ended up at the Grand Canal. It kind of instantly hits you, like all of Venice, concentrated in one place right next to a train station and transport hub. I just started walking down next to the canal, wandering along, getting distracted with the very loose goal of following the canal and heading east. I find exploring this way is a lot more rewarding. There are sites different people want to see, so instead of bee-lining to St Mark’s Square, for example, just set aside a few hours, vaguely travel that direction, maybe pinpoint one or two things en route, and explore. Even if you’re limited on time (like me), I find it’s more rewarding and just a better experience than cramming in a bunch of saved places in one afternoon.

the cheap side of venice

Walking down the Canal, I came across the Ponte Degli Scalzi, it’s the first main bridge you come across when walking this way. It’s a pretty example of the classical Venetian-style bridge stereotype. Over the bridge, quick photo stop, soak in the atmosphere, and straight down through Rio Tera Lista Di Spagna (A road with multiple names, including ‘Rio Tera’, which then becomes Strada Nova), which follows the canal just set back until around the famous Rialto Bridge.

This street is flanked with businesses, shops, restaurants, markets, outdoor seating, cafes; the lot. It’s fresh and atmospheric, but it’s also incredibly busy, especially on a 20-degree sunny day. That being said, despite the levels of foot traffic, prices here seem pretty varied, and even quite cheap for certain things. I saw €1 magnets, €3 Gelato, €2 espresso’s, and the best find, a €2.50 Aperol Spritz. The food didn’t seem the cheapest, and sure, Gelato’s and Espresso’s for that money are only impressive in relation to Venice’s reputation, but it did seem a lot cheaper down one of the many tight, winding side alleys I explored heading towards the Grand Canal and ‘inland’ towards the more narrow canal systems.

This is where I got a bit arry. I walked down to a point, but I was so deadset on ‘experiencing the Gondolas’ and being on the water that priorities and general exploration suffered. The first instance of this was at San Geremia Cathedral, a Roman neoclassical church literally 10 minutes from the central transport hub, with free entry on a donation-based system, up until 5PM. I had the time to go in, but I was just paranoid and rushed. If I were wandering about like I should’ve been doing, I would have gone in and taken photos of the seemingly magnificent interior space. The next instance will come up soon.

Either way, I meandered down the road, ducking down alleys, getting a pretty stunning view of the Grand Canal from an alley beside the San Geremia cathedral, grabbing a cheap enough Gelato, doing some souvenir shopping, and soaking up the Venetian atmosphere whilst resisting the urge to stop here and eat, fully well knowing I had priorities.

gondola’s, vaporetto’s & canals

Continuing down, I had my eyes set on one thing. Down the many alleys that lead to the Grand Canal, there are oftentimes larger Gondolas offering cheap trips across the canal. These are as equal parts functioning transportation as they are a genuinely affordable (and pretty relaxing) way of getting the classical Gondola tourist experience everybody deep down wants. I looked for a bit, found one, waited in queue for what felt like an eternity, got up to the boat, and got turned away… because I decided to not bring cash. Yeah I don’t know what I was thinking either, but these are a purely cash-only experience. I had to go to an ATM, withdraw money, go to the shop and get some quite needed water and snacks (an absolute fortune for what it was but I didn’t have time to find a Spar), and took my loose change back to the stand.

All in all the hassle was 100% worth it. It’s only a short ride, taking a few minutes at most, but you do get the full experience. You’re low on the water, the Gondolier dressed in the classic attire with the paddle, you embark and disembark from the classical, rickety dock with wooden pillars drilled into the lagoon to tie boats up to, exactly how you’d imagine. The only difference is that instead of costing hundreds for a private tour, this one was €1.50. That being said, this brings me to my next mistake.

The next instance was foolishly getting a gondola across the river prematurely. This, plus a Vaporetto, saw me miss crossing the world-famous Rialto Bridge by a few minutes’ walk. The more I look into this, the more pure regret I have. I was standing by a closing market at this point called Campo Erberia, it’s very pretty, and I’m sure brilliant in the daytime. One minute along the market and around the corner is Chiesa di San Giacomo di Rialto, another donation-based free entry church, and the oldest in Venice, being first established in 421AD during the Roman era, and was rebuilt in 1071, while being one of the few buildings that survived the 1503 fire. I would have loved to see this, especially because it’s the first thing you see when you cross the Rialto Bridge, yep, I really was that close. Oh well, you live and you learn, just make sure you at least have your must-see locations clearly marked out if you want to freely explore!

Moving on, the next activity to do on my checklist was the Vaporetto. Now, at this point, it had gone 6PM, and as it was mid-October, the sun wasn’t far from setting. I was blissfully unaware that I had missed being able to enter St Mark’s Basilica (as it too closes at 5), but I was also unaware it was free entry in the first place, so no harm, no foul. I just wanted to see the sights from the Canal, and I wanted to see it all in the daytime/sunset. So I decided to ditch my wandering plan, and wait for a Vaporetto.

This is quite an important bit as this confused me at first. You pay for a one-way ticket, or you can pay for a day ticket/3 days/week. You can either get it in person or online at Trip.com. As long as you’re sticking to the Grand Canal, don’t worry about route numbers too much. They only matter as they match the direction of travel. On that note, I initially assumed that one side of the river would travel one way, and the other side the other way, like a road, but I was wrong. I missed the first Vaporetto that arrived, trying to figure this out, but just pay attention to the screens at the docks, and note the direction the Vaporetto travels from. In this instance, I was on the Southern side of the Canal, wanting to travel East towards St Mark’s Square, so the first boat travelling from West to East is the one I boarded.

These boats are very informal. Docking is rushed, people spew off and rush back on, tickets aren’t checked when I used it, and I am convinced I was the only paying customer. Oh well, it’s all part of the experience, and I’ll say that despite missing walking over the Rigalto Bridge, the views going underneath it, surrounded by Gondolas, at sunset on a clear day, were equally as impressive. Being gently taken along the Canal is satisfying, you can see so much from there, and if you want to explore somewhere more, you can just… get off. If I had a full day here, it’s probably what I’d do with my time on the Vaporetto. That being said, the views of the Basilica Della Salute (another free entry place) were definitely worthwhile, and I emerged besides St Mark’s Square around sunset.

As a side note, that last photo is the Abbazia di San Giorgio Maggiore church. It too is free to enter, but you have to take a private tour/Gondola or a specific Vaporetto route to get there. It looks very impressive, has some cool history, and you can get tickets to a lift that takes you up the bell tower for panoramic Venice views, for just 8. Either get them in person, or online at GetYourGuide, where you can also get guided tours if you’re a history buff.

Doge’s Palace & St Mark’s Square

This whole area is very condensed, and apart from the Rialto Bridge (a 20-minute walk North from here), is by far the most ‘iconic’ area of Venice, and is a must-see. There’s a few points of interest here; the aforementioned ‘St Mark’s Basilica’, a grand church, which, while it is free entry, queues are seemingly pretty long, and queue jump tickets can be found again on GetYourGuide, there’s also the St Mark’s Square itsself, which is just ridiculously lavish looking, Doge’s Palace, which feels like a gothic extension to the Basilica, entry is not free, but is far cheaper for Students at £13 here too, the ‘Campanile di San Marco’, a bell tower, which you can go up via a lift for £8, tickets can be found here or in person, and it’s something I’d definitely do when I go back, and, finally, the ‘Bridge of Sighs’, an iconic covered bridge over one of the canals, behind Doge’s Palace. This one particularly irks me, as I’ve seen a replica of it in Oxford, and promised myself I’d see the real deal, I even had it on the maps and was about to walk there, but I got caught up in the alure of St Mark’s Square, and ended up narrowly missing it, and never saw it in the end. Mark my words, I’ll go back just to see this bridge one day, hopefully soon.

Don’t get too wrapped up here though, if you want a bite to eat, and the countless restaurants dotted around the Square are enticing you with their very stereotypical Italian ‘romance’ music, then stay strong. If you’re on any level of budget, do NOT eat here. As pretty as it is, as great of an atmosphere it is, the prices are jaw-dropping. €30 for an Aperol Spritz marks a literal 12x price hike from earlier! You may look around and do some mental maths, ‘I can get a bottle of wine for €50, pasta for €40, a dessert would be €20, I always thought a meal in Venice would be over £100 each anyway!’. And yeah, sure, if it’s in budget and your personal dream, go for it. But walking just a couple of minutes from the square, especially North East, where there’s less tourist traffic from the other attractions, prices drop to 1/4 the prices in the Square, or more, and the quality of the food is (seemingly) identical.

This general direction is where I went next, wandering around the narrow streets and over bridges. The price drops on everything from food & drink to souvenirs is stark; 5 minutes from the Square and prices are what I’d consider fairly solid. This is where I found a Venetian blown glass shop (something the city is famous for), picked up a few souvenirs for around €10 each, not too bad for handmade bottle stops and bird sculptures, I thought, and I started looking out for food.

dinner

Looking around these streets, a lot of them had seating spilling out into quaint streets, full of life but not heaving. Honestly, personally, I think I prefer this type of atmosphere to dine in than massive squares, which feel like more of a spot to have a coffee or drink, but I doubt everyone will agree with me there. I looked around for a bit, but naturally, my eyes settled onto a Pizzeria, because well, you know, when in Rome. Realistically, it was either this, spaghetti (which I would rather save for Bologna), or an actual Venetian seafood dish, which I really wasn’t in the mood for.

I got seated in a cosy corner with a view of the pizza ovens, ordered a starter, main, dessert and a drink. I accidentally ordered something unexpected for my starter. Looking at the translated description, it seemed like it would be some sort of Focaccia or Tapas-y bread with tomato and garlic to rub on it, or maybe my mind was already set on Spain. What it ended up being was a flatbread pizza base type of bread, stonebaked, with a small amount of tomato paste or sauce on top, hints of garlic and herbs. I mean it was nice, but I really didn’t need that much dough considering I had a pizza on the way.

The Aperol Spritz, from memory, was €6, so while 5x cheaper than just a few minutes down the road, still over double the price of what I saw earlier, which only got my brain working, thinking of how cheap the food could be even further from the tourist spots. It was nice, it’s not my favourite cocktail, but it tasted pretty fresh, considering both the Prosecco and Aperol used are local to the Po Valley and are produced exclusively in towns no more than 50km of Venice.

The main event was a crispy base, stonebaked pizza, with incredibly rich, tangy but sweet tomato sauce, peppered with an actually very generous amount of pepperoni, the thick type that curls up when it’s cooked (that’s how you know it’s good), and topped with herbs, no cheese, a classic Pizzan Marinara with spicy salami. And it tasted incredible. Especially drizzled with some probably quite fancy olive oil from the look of the bottle. I wolfed it down happily and waited for my pudding.

Not long after and I was given my Tiramisu. It only felt right, and it came in a nice little, almost sundae-type glass. It looked deceivingly small, because I was genuinely stuffed halfway through, which really is rare for me. That being said, I still wolfed it down, and it was hands-down the best Tiramisu I’ve had. All in all, the food was amazing, and the prices for all of it worked out to be around £25, or nearly €30. Really not bad for a full 3-course meal, with a drink, so close to St Mark’s Square, and I just know if you try searching for the cheaper places with intent, or eat on the other side of the island, then prices will be even lower.

getting back to mestre & lodgings

Sufficiently fulfilled after my banquet, and with time ticking on a bit (and me blissfully unaware that I still hadn’t seen the Bridge of Sighs), I decided to loosely walk back east, mostly sticking to the Canal, but also heading inland a bit more when needed. As nice as this was, and as cool as it was to see some genuine pockets of activity and bustle, despite it being gone 9PM on a weekday, I still didn’t have all the time in the world, as I had an early Coach to catch the next day. And instead of just heading north 20 meters to cut out much of the canal and finally see the Rialto Bridge, I headed East for 30 minutes and saw.. not much. Hindsight is a brilliant thing, and having a more structured plan would have helped here, but hey ho.

I took the Vaporetto here, again, this time back to the transportation hub. As serene as the Canal is at this time of night, I can’t help but think about what I missed out on. If I kept going north and went over the Rialto Bridge, I would have been with a fairly large crowd (but of course a lot less overcrowded as it is during the daytime), and I could have just walked back the way I came loosely, again sticking with the crowd for safety. I honestly think that would have been quicker than waiting for the boat, too, and if you’re comfortable walking that way, I’d highly recommend it. It’s not that far, and it’s a lot more enjoyable, or just take the Vaporetto the whole way back if you walked to the Square before. Either way, don’t do a weird mix of the two like I did!

Despite the slight hiccups, I made it back to the hub around 10PM, and caught a tram back to Mestre for just €1.50, and after a 15-minute ride, and a 10-minute walk, I was at my hostel (the first one I ever stayed in, mind you). I stayed in Anda Venice Hostel, one I would definitely recommend, especially to solo/group travellers who want a bit of adventure or are open to meeting people. I booked it a matter of days before for €19 a night, the same price it is now. It’s not the cheapest in Mestre, there’s some for €12 a night, but they are on smaller islands in Venice, which take honestly as long to get to the main islands as Mestre does, and at a higher cost thanks to the cheapness of the trams/trains/buses compared to the Vaporetto.

And a quick side note, the cheapest place to find hostels, like most places, is Hostelworld. You can book in-app for rewards, or on the hostel’s website, where it may be the same price or a tad cheaper, but either way, it gives you the best prices in Mestre. However, if you wanted to look at staying on the mainland, either Hostels or B&Bs/hotels, then check Trivago, which has lodgings from £30/night in the dead centre of Venice, 5 minutes from Rialto Bridge.

There are also ‘relatively’ cheap hostels on the island itself for €20-30, but the reviews are ‘good’, which, from my limited experience, especially at such a price in the dead centre, really means the hostel is crap, but the location is excellent. As for Anda, instead of open bunks, each bed was built-in with privacy walls, as all good hostels should have. It also has a built-in club, which was bustling when I got there. The temptation to get loose that night was high, but I had an objective, and I kept it to 2 drinks that night. Either way, the atmosphere was great, the range of people you meet in such places is just incredible, the beats were different to any ones I’ve heard in UK clubs, and the drinks were reasonable, with the first one being free. Highly recommend.

reflective thoughts & tips

In hindsight, I think I did a lot right and a lot wrong. I don’t really have FOMO from anything I’ve seen online, I’m just frustrated from my own silly mistakes and missing out on obvious things I had planned, but still didn’t see. Since coming back, I’ve seen videos of bookshops, specific restaurants and towers, amongst other hidden gems. They look cool, I might make a point to visit some next time, but I don’t have some deep regret for not having known of the spots prior. Truthfully, I didn’t have much time, and I stuck with a few of the things I really wanted to see, and explored more naturally in between. If you have the time and really want to see 10+ places, as long as you take your time, then by all means go for it, but my biggest takeaway is to explore at your own pace, don’t rush things, don’t overload your scedule (especially if you don’t have much time), and allow yourself to organically find your own hidden gems. That way is a lot more rewarding to me.

Another important thing to keep in mind, if you’re staying for a bit longer and have a checklist of places to enter, a lot of attractions that aren’t churches have significant entry fees, for example, Doge’s Palace or the bell towers. They also oftentimes offer reduced tickets to students up to 26 years old. I’d definitely check GetYourGuide or TripAdvisor, as they list every major attraction, and often have options for student tickets (Doge’s Palace is £13 for students, £30 for regular adults). Also, carry a Student ID with you, as they may check alongside your ticket, and you can use it to book in person and still get the discount if you prefer. Discounts on drinks and food for students are also more prevalent in mainland Europe as a whole compared to the UK.

To summarise, the quick takeaways are:

• Walk wherever you can, especially meandering with loose purpose. It makes for a cheaper, more immersive experience, far better than being glued to a phone map.
• Drink & dine away from St Mark’s Square, it’ll save you a fortune!
• Nearly every impressive Basilica/Cathedral is free entry, exploit it, and donate if you have loose change.
• Staying on the mainland isn’t as glamorous, but it is a LOT more affordable.
• Save money aside for things you want to do. For example, a €1.50 Gondola, or a few €1.50 Gondola’s might be all you need, and you can use the saved money to go up the bell tower, or inside St Mark’s Basilica, or both.

And if you liked this post, you can check out some similar posts here. Of course, as I mentioned at the beginning, this is a part of a series, where I’m doing similar 1-night trips to Zagreb and Palma, but I’ve also done one to Marrakech, and a Barcelona blog is on the way!