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A veritable Tantulus's grapes, this budget gem sports a large sign, visible from across two bridges, along the Rio della Fava canal, in the heart of the San Marco area. Still, best of luck getting there! We can't in good Cheapo conscience recommend that you hurl yourself onto a passing gondola at €80 for 40-minute, but if that's what it takes to get there ...
Family-run for more than 50 years, the Hotel Caneva has been around since the 1400s and sports its very own, direct-access canal entrance! (Guests enter in the back, unless you splurge on a boat taxi.)
While most of the place was renovated and converted from stark and simple apartments into a hotel, elements of antiquity remain. Two original columns flank the canal entrance, wood beams line the ceiling, and floors are tiled in old Venetian style.
The rest of the hotel is pretty sparse. Rooms are carpeted, and done up in simple, industrial light wood furnishings, plain white walls, and soft blue bedding. Scour your room for traces of old Venice. The rehab job did leave select bits of ornate, gilded woodwork and a few Murano lamps. Yet with 23 rooms, your chances for charm are greater outside the hotel. Your chances for a canal view, on the other hand run high—there are 17 of them, so ask in advance.
Bathrooms are old, yet clean and functional, and the linoleum-tiled corridors and breakfast area serve their purpose without scoring any beauty points. All in all, considering you can double up for €80 in high season, the Caneva is worth hunting down.
A total of 17 rooms have canal views. | 
