My Escapes Italy Venice Floating Worlds - Venice, Murano, Burano, Torcello Hotel Universo e Nord, Venice - Review

Hotel Universo e Nord, Venice - Review

Hotels in Venice are expensive for mid-range and budget travelers. Many visitors stay in Mestre on the mainland and only arrive in for the day trip. Another popular place to stay is Venice's Lido area - which is a separate island.

Others arrive in by ship and sail away towards the end of the day.

I like being in the middle of things, so I wanted to stay in Venice (although it was more expensive)!

It's easier to walk around and I also spare the time and money that others spend on getting in and out!

Venice is a labyrinth. It's quite hard getting around.

So picking the hotel at the right location is essential. I studied the map of Venice for a while and have decided to pick a hotel near the railway station and the Piazzale Roma.

Hotel looks a bit worn-down, they could make some improvements.

Too bad they had no internet connection at all. As I understood, they had a temporary problem, but they couldn't sort it out during my 3 day stay. Too bad, but at least I spent more time exploring!

Fantastic location, couldn't find anything missing in this aspect. Close to the Piazzale Roma and the Venice railway station - which are the main gateways out of Venice.
Just a 10 minute walk away (maybe less) from the bus station. Really convenient. Otherwise, even finding your hotel in the labyrinth of Venice will be frustrating and time- and effort-consuming.

I also picked the Hotel Universo E Nord, because it is near the ship/water taxi station (can't call it a port, it's just a bus station-like floating dock), right on the left bank of the Canal Grande.
Getting out to the attractions was fairly easy! I still think it was the best strategical location I could possibly get.

I gave it 7, although it would need refurbishing, only because I like the old street and the old building it was located in.

Very clean room, but the main hall in front of the reception desk looked worn-down and dusty, dirty.

Very clean, very comfy. Bathroom was good, but some of the equipment weren't functioning properly - like the lights would flicker and wouldn't turn on after a while.

Taking a shower was like attending a foam-disco party.

Wicked noises by neighbours kept me up at least 2 nights and felt tired the next day.

The window was an interior (no real views towards the outside World!). Through it, disgusting canal-smells were emanating. And it was rather dark during daytime, so I had to keep the lights on all the time.

Good modern TV, though. But who watches TV in Venice? I arrived exhausted in the middle of the night and didn't turn it on.

The Universo E Nord Hotel is quite good, but they have no elevator (of course, it's an old Venetian building, so no hard feelings). Carrying my bag across several worn-down stairs was tiring. It was quite a long adventure getting all the way up to my room across multiple staircases that interconnect with each other.

No WiFi in the entire hotel, although they said there would be in the room as well!

Receptionists just "resolved me" with a shoulder shrug as if I shouldn't bother, "who cares"-type reaction. But I did care! In fact I was unable to use my Google Earth map due to lack of internet.

Kind, friendly, but not very helpful staff.
They had me waiting from my room (which wasn't ready) and I had to stay over an hour in the lobby. This is indeed frustrating!

Breakfast was OK, it was just above the "basic" necessities. I was served too early in the morning, so I had to rush down with one eye open and one closed.
It was an "all you can eat" type of breakfast - no limits. Which was great!
There was plenty of food, but no fresh fruits. Basically, there were some small cakes, coffee, cereals and basically nothing green!

Quite expensive for what they offered (roughly 100 EUR per night). For the location, I can understand the price, but for this kind of service I would normally pay 40 EUR max.
Of course, this was Venice... and just about any other hotel was way above this price. 200, 300 EUR, but many were way above these figures!

Final overall score: 7,37

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