My first Air B&B trip was a bit of a nightmare resulting in a full refund of the monies paid plus a £150 gesture of goodwill voucher code to use should we endeavour to use the service again.  Knowing full well that Air B&B weren’t to blame at all for our experience, we fully intended to put the good will gesture towards our next break away in my beloved Venice.  After staying in luxury hotels, bed and breakfasts and local apartments in Venice previously, I was interested to see what Air B&B had to offer considering their thing is to offer unique accommodation to help you experience a place like you live there.

As we’d left booking till late, we were limited in the number of properties available after all, Venice in early spring is a tourists haven.  On my nine millionth trawl through the properties which ranged from elegant palaces on the Grand Canal to a bed in the loft area of a “cosy” (read: poky) apartment for the bargain price of £20 a night, I stumbled across a newly refurbished modern apartment in venice which slept 4 people (up to 6 if you included the sofa bed!) which appeared to be too good to be true.

Fast forward a couple of easily exchanged messages with the owners via the Air B&B app, we agreed to meet our friendly host Giada by the San Stae vaporetto stop shortly after we arrived in the city.  Luckily we knew our way through the winding back streets and had the help of Apple maps, so we avoided hopping on a vaporetto and chose instead to familiarise ourselves with the area we’d be staying and walked with our pull along trolleys from Piazelle Roma coach drop.   Giada showed us to the apartment which was a couple of bridges over from San Stae, a central location just a short walk from the Rialto Bridge and Rialto Market and close to Campo San Giacomo dell’Orio.  The apartment itself was tucked away in a small courtyard surrounded by residential properties and was located on the second floor of the building which meant there wasn’t too many steps to lug my over packed suitcase up.

Granted, the decor and style of the apartment was stripped entirely of any Venetian decor but it’s mod cons in the sleek fitted kitchen, glass topped dining table and floor to ceiling wardrobes felt made it feel like you could be in a sleek apartment in any city and the only indication you were in Venice was the views of the courtyard and hustle and bustle of the locals outside in the street below. There’s three things that make for a good place to rest my head of a city break and that is that the apartment is clean, comfortable and ideally located & our little home for 4 nights certainly ticked all three boxes.

The location itself was perfect and I felt like we were far enough away from the usual busy hotel filled areas where you practically trip over tourists clutching their maps when you leave the hotel (yes yes, I know I’m a tourist but I like to think I have my bearings now) but not far enough out that we’d have a long way to walk after drinking Spritz at the bars which line Campo San Luca. In the mornings we passed locals going about their day to day business as we ventured to the local coffee shop for a morning espresso and cannoli (still warm!) and in the evenings we watched football at a small local bar just around the corner from the apartment as well as in the nearby Campo San Giacomo dell’Orio where there’s a Coop convenience store as well as wine bars, restaurants and an outdoor “milonga” (where tango is danced) on a Tuesday in the square.

After signing our paperwork, paying our city tax for the duration of our stay and receiving our keys, we dumped our suitcases, changed into comfortable walking shoes bid Giadi “ciao!” and were set to explore the city.

You can book the apartment we stayed at via Air B&B (you’ll get £20 off your first booking via that link!) or direct on Best Venice Apartments which offers a number of modern luxury apartments within Venice.