Hotel Cris - Mestre, Italy 

A recommander. Propre, accueil chaleureux, service impeccable, dans une rue tranquille. L'hôtel se situe à 200 m de la gare, c'est un point de départ idéal pour visiter la région. Toutes les 10 mn vous avez un train pour vous rendre à Venise, c'est le top !!!! C'était un agréable séjour. Laurence et Giovanni de Luxembourg

Mestre isn't the nicest place we've stayed at, and driving to the hotel Cris we did wonder what we were going too. However, as we turned into the narrow street where the hotel is we heaved a sigh of relief. We chose to stay in Mestre for our couple of days in Venice because the hotels we tried in the city itself are exhorbantly expensive. Hotel Cris is actually quite handy, just a short walk from the hotel you'll find a bus stop, where you can catch a sweaty overcrowded single decker that will take you to "The Piazza di Roma" in Venice via the long pontoon bridge in about 15 minutes. Don't even think of taking your car there! The Hotel Cris is spotlessly clean, and the owners / staff are friendly and efficient although the receptionist didn't speak any English, but she was very nice. The room was excellent, as was the breakfast. A bar is advertised in the hotel blurb but it hasn't really got one as such, you can sit either on the small outside patio or in the breakfast room and they will bring you a beer or whatever, but the bar isn't manned and getting a re-fill is dependent upon whether anybody is about or not We wondered why the car park was so secure, as there were cameras fitted and there was also an enormous metal gate operated by a security key, and the front door and rear doors of the hotel were kept locked. There's no restaurant at Hotel Cris, so after unpacking we went off looking for somewhere to eat. The first thing we encountered on joining the main road was some sort of fight going on on the opposite pavement. We walked a good way before we came to a pizza parlour, so went in there and ate as there didn't appear to be anywhere else further along the road apart from one or two bars. Leaving the pizza parlour we had planned to go find a bar, but everywhere there were gangs of Asian youths hanging about, they were on corners and in most shop doorways - the atmosphere was quite intimidating - so we went back to the hotel instead. There's absolutely nothing to do around this area, you certainly wouldn't want to be walking around after dark! We now know the reason for the heavy security at the hotel. To sum up, it's a good 2 star hotel but spoiled by the area it's in. If I ever went back to Venice I'd stay at a hotel in Chioggia and get the boat back up to Venice itself. Chioggia is a much nicer place than Mestre to stay.