Marco Polo Reviews

Choose Hotel from Thomson brochure but booked direct as wanted to combine with 4 days in Venice.

Flew in to Marco Polo Airport (Water bus into Venice )
Transfer from Venice easy and cheap
(Water bus to bus station and then ATVO bus to Lido)

Hotel and Lido di Jesolo were perfect after three full days in Venice.

Hotel is 10 minutes walk from the bus station

Hotel is very good, staff friendly, rooms clean and well maintained.

Beach area cleaned every day and never full, 5 minutes stroll from the hotel

Numerous restaurants and ice cream parlors adajacent to the Hotel

Would recommend the hotel if you are looking for a nice relaxing holiday

Went on a trip to Lake Garda and Verona from the hotel which was first class

To start with the picture of the hotel in the Thomson brochure is misleading. The hotel like all hotels in Lido Di Jesolo are on one very long strip side by side ( 530 hotels and counting ). The picture gives the impression there is nothing either side and of it, there is.

This 'unusual view' of the hotel aside it does live up to the Thomason reps view as classy looking. It's obviously been recently updated and has plenty of classy Italian character. The rooms are not big but nicely done with a fridge, safe and balcony. A clever little feature is when you close the balcony door the air-con comes on automatically ( that's if you set it to be on ).

The hotel itself is above a restaurant and on the main road but the road closes to traffic at 8pm and the balcony doors are double glazed so no noise problems to worry about. Actually we slept with the door open every evening and the road isn't actually that busy most of the time anyway.

The Hotel has a few bikes to use for free which is handy to get out and about. Lido Di Jesolo and surrounding area is completely flat so a day out of the resort on the bikes is a must.

The maid service is everyday and like the other staff they were very helpful and friendly.

The hotel location as mentioned above is on the main strip, which has too many restaurants, shops and tacky tourist shops to mention. The hotel is about 5 mins walk maximum to the beach where there is allocated free sun lounges and free umbrellas. The beach is very well maintained but is cluttered with mile upon mile of lounges and umbrellas. I'm sure it's great for sun worshipers but is otherwise as interesting as tarmac.

The whole resort of Lido Di Jesolo could be mistaken as a resort in Spain, Greece or any other tourist trap in Europe. Apart from the obvious lack of spoken English and the definite tilt towards the German tourist market it is an uninspiring place.

On the upside it is only 10 - 15miles from Venice which you can get to by purchasing a bus/water taxi ticket from the local tobacconist. It's really cheap way of getting to Venice ( either 10 or 15 euros depending on which ticket you want ) and well worth the trip. A useful tip is to buy your ticket the day before you want to go and make sure you get on a bus pre 8am or after 10am. The buses are just so packed and it's an hour journey to the water taxi. You really don't want to be starting your trip off hot, sticky and very bothered so avoid those 'peek' times.

Venice itself is great if you can get away from the crowds but don't feel welcome by the locals. The positively hate the tourists and are only after your money. They do make this quite plain but at least you know where you stand.

There are a number of Thomson excursions you can take, of which we went on the Florence visit. Wow!! Florence is just so much better than Venice. More to see, less tourists and friendly locals. It does take at least 4 hours there and back by coach but it is really worth it. One thing you should be aware of if that our tour did not take us up to or point out Pizza Michelangelo. We did though find our own way up and you get the most famous and best view of Florence.

To sum up: - Hotel Marco Polo is very good,
Lido Di Jesolo is nothing special
Venice is good.
Florence is superb.

Recently returned from fantastic holiday in Lido di Jesolo...

We were looking for a relaxing beach holiday but with places to visit, plenty of bars and restaurants but not 18-30... This looked ideal - beach and city holiday combined.

Found the resort and hotel via Thomson brochure, but actually ended up booking our 1 week stay direct with the hotel itself via email (which was very easy thanks to Stefano) and flights via Ryanair. The total cost for our holiday ended up half the brochure price and included hotel shuttle transfer. We only booked 2 weeks in advance and couldn't get any late deals from Thomson who were sticking to the list price.

Flew into Treviso Airport rather than the main Venice one, Marco Polo, but transfer time was still only about 30 mins to resort.

Hotel was excellent, can't fault it in any way. Got a good rating in brochure and lived up to it. Very clean and tidy, Stefano and his team were excellent hosts, very helpful and friendly. The hotel comes with it's own stretch of beach which is just a short 2min walk from the rear - even in the height of summer there was still plenty of loungers available. The hotel was in a super location on the main street, central to everything, however it was never noisy at night. Breakfast was an enjoyable, eat as much as you can, continental buffet served til late. Room came with air-con which is a must in summer.

The resort itself had plenty to offer. Stretch of beach as far as the eye could see, sea that you could swim in (albeit abit on the cold side considering the summer heat). Shops stayed open til late, lots of restaurants and bars. It was very family orientated, seemed like it is where the Italians go to stay. Hardly heard an english accent, although we were understood it was appreciated if you made effort to speak the language. There were enough bars to keep us merry.

Venice was a bit further away than what we thought, brochures made out it was fairly close by but actually took just over an hr. However, it was an enjoyable bus and ferry ride. Very frequent, cost about £7.50 return and the last one was returning at midnight so you could enjoy a night out in Venice.

Wasn't sure about Venice beforehand, had heard you should avoid going in August due to the amount of tourists, the heat and the smell from the canals. There were a lot of tourists, but once you get away from the promenade and San Marco square it quietens down. The San Marco tower is a must - great views across the whole of Venice. The heat wasn't a big problem and the smell was only really noticed on a couple of occassions and not that bad.

One week wasn't enough, there was still more we would have liked to have done. Croatia is close by and you could have a day trip, plus there is Lake Garda and also smaller islands around Venice.

Only gripe we had was departing from Treviso - very small airport, arrived 2 hrs prior to flight but it took that long queuing to check in - very slow and very cramped. Looks like they are building a new terminal next door, so hopefully things will improve shortly.

In summary, we would definately recomend the Hotel Marco Polo and Lido di Jesolo resort. We're glad we did things this way rather than staying in the hustle and bustle of Venice which wouldn't have been as relaxing. We'd also recommend booking direct with the hotel cutting out the middle man. A very nice holiday!