Marco Polo Lounge. Venice.

Generally airport-run lounges aren’t very good.  However I was very impressed with the Marco Polo lounge in Venice.

But let me rewind a little and explain the reason for me being in Venice to start with.  Back in the summer, the Lufthansa Group of airlines (Lufthansa, Austrian, Swiss and Brussels Airways) had some pretty competitive fares from anywhere in Italy down to Australia.  I’d never done Sydney for New Years, so decided to book a trip down.  I usually spend Christmas with relatives in Austria, and so the closest airport was actually Venice, a few hours train ride away.

So I arrived at Venice Mestre railway station and jumped on the bus to the airport which even on Christmas Day were running every fifteen minutes.  After dumping my bags at check-in and using the very efficient fast-track security, I headed up the escalators to the airport run Marco Polo lounge where I was warmly welcomed by the lounge attendant.

The airlines that use the Marco Polo lounge at Venice

It was huge.  Immediately to the left were a few private booths where you could sit and work and to the right, a small room with a few seats and a Christmas Tree.

The main section of the lounge was ahead. There was a bunch of seating including lots of single chairs looking out onto the apron.

The lounge was huge. At the far end there was a conservatory style area, with some more seats.

There was even an open air viewing terrace where you could watch the comings and goings of the aircraft, or in my case, the fog, plus time for a quick selfie!

There was yet more seating in the lounge, including some bar style seating, and even a media room.

There was also a decent selection of food and drinks available, including a staffed espresso machine, plus a variety of drinks including Prosecco (albeit served by a member of staff).

Overall, this was a pretty decent place to wait an hour or so for a short-haul flight. I can imagine that at certain times of the day, it’ll get pretty busy, but for something that’s run by the airport, that pretty much every airline (except for the SkyTeam carriers use), it’s really not bad.

Leave a Reply
