One Grand Canal, a palace that ran an empire, and a lagoon full of islands.
Which gondola ride is worth the fare. Whether the Doge’s Palace needs a guide. How long the boat out to Burano really takes. Reviews of the tours you can book in Venice and the towns an hour inland.
Where most first visits begin
03from $29
04from $57Gondola, lagoon boat or kayak: the ways onto Venetian water.
Every Venetian day ends up on a canal sooner or later. What each kind of boat costs, and what it shows you that the others do not.
Gondola ridesShared or private, under the Rialto and out along the Grand Canal.
Island boatsMurano glass, Burano colour and Torcello in one half-day loop.
Canal kayaksThe back canals at water level, a local guide in the lead boat.
Every boat dayWater taxis, sunset sails and the long lagoon cruises.
All 131 boat days in Venice, compared →
★★★★★★★★★★ 4.1 · Grand Canal Gondola Ride with App Commentary · from $39
St Mark’s Square: the basilica, the palace, and how to get past both queues.
The basilica and the Doge’s Palace stand side by side and share one crowd. Book the palace for opening time and the basilica for late afternoon, and the square feels like a different place.
- 1Doge’s Palace Reserved Entry Ticketfrom $41
- 2Doge’s Palace & St. Mark’s Basilica with Terrace Access Tourfrom $123
- 3Doge’s Palace, St Mark’s Basilica, and Pala d’Orofrom $100
Four Venetian bookings that fill before you land.
Most of Venice rewards wandering without a plan. These run on small groups, timed slots or a short season, and the day you want goes first.
- 01Doge’s Palace Prisons & Secret Itineraries Guided TourThe hidden route through the Doge’s Palace, past the offices and the cells under the roof, takes small groups only. The slots are few.
from $91 - 02Skip-the-line St. Mark’s Basilica Entry & AudioguideBasilica entry runs on timed reservations, and the line without one stretches across the square by mid-morning. Shoulders and knees covered.
from $17 - 03Scrovegni Chapel Ticket and Audio GuideGiotto’s chapel in Padua lets in small groups for a short visit after a spell in a climate-controlled waiting room. Every slot is booked in advance.
from $36 - 04Arena di Verona Opera TicketThe opera festival inside Verona’s Roman arena runs only in summer, and the good seats on the stone tiers go early.
from $55
Murano blows glass, Burano paints its houses, Torcello keeps the oldest church in the lagoon.
Three islands on one ferry route, and enough for a full day. Most boat tours run the loop in four or five hours with a furnace demonstration on Murano; the slower ones leave time for lunch on Burano.
Every island boat →The Venice bookings nearly everyone makes, from the palace to the gondola.
Every Venice tour →The tours more visitors take than anything else in the city and the lagoon, and what each one is like in practice.
1
Doge’s Palace Reserved Entry Ticket
This self-guided ticket gets you into the Doge’s Palace and also covers Museo Correr, the National Archeological Museum, and the Marciana Library. Explore the palace’s Gothic rooms, gold staircase, art, armory, and former prison at your own pace. There’s no guide included, so bring time to read the displays and plan which museums you can fit in.
From · $41
Read our review →
2
Grand Canal Gondola Ride with App Commentary
from $39
3
Boat Trip: Glimpse of Murano, Torcello & Burano Islands
from $29
4
Grand Canal by Gondola with Live Commentary
from $44
5
La Fenice Opera House Entry Ticket with Audio Guide
from $14
6
Doge’s Palace & St. Mark’s Basilica with Terrace Access Tour
from $123
7
Burano, Torcello & Murano Boat Tour w/Glassblowing
from $28
8
Murano and Burano Boat Tour with Glass Factory Visit
from $34
When the tide floods St Mark’s Square, head indoors.
From October to January a high tide can push water over the lowest pavements in Venice, and the square in front of the basilica floods first. The barriers at the lagoon mouths now hold back the worst of it, but a wet grey afternoon still has an easy answer: Vivaldi in a church, a mask workshop, a pasta class or the opera house.
Venice eats standing up: bacari, cicchetti and a glass before dinner.
The local way is a crawl: small plates on the counter at one bacaro, an ombra of wine at the next. Book a guide for the first night, a pasta class for the wet day, and the Prosecco hills for the morning after.
Verona, Padua and the Dolomites are all a day trip from Venice.
The train reaches Padua in half an hour and Verona in a little over an hour; the mountains and the Prosecco hills take a minivan. The best day out in each.
What a day in and around Venice costs.
Every tour on the site, sorted by price. Plenty of the best Venetian days come in under the price of a private gondola.
Palace and basilica tickets, shared gondolas, the island boats and most walking tours.
Bacaro crawls, pasta classes, guided palace tours and the kayak trips.
Dolomites and Prosecco days out, private boats and private guides.
Three things Venice still makes by hand.
The boat, the glass and the mask. Each one has a workshop you can watch, and each one is the reason a whole Venetian trade still exists.
The Gondola
Every gondola is built lopsided, longer on one side, so a single oarsman standing at the stern can row it in a straight line. The gondoliers sit a licensing exam and the fares are set by the city. A shared ride across the Grand Canal costs a fraction of a private one and covers the same water.
- 1Grand Canal Gondola Ride with App Commentary★★★★★★★★★★ 4.1 · 18,908 reviews
- 2Grand Canal by Gondola with Live Commentary★★★★★★★★★★ 4.1 · 13,681 reviews
- 3Shared Gondola Ride Across the Grand Canal★★★★★★★★★★ 3.9 · 6,645 reviews
Murano Glass
In 1291 the Republic moved its glassmakers out to Murano, partly to keep fire away from a city built of wood and partly to keep the craft on one island. The furnaces still burn. A demonstration takes about twenty minutes: a gather of molten glass on a pipe, a few turns, and a horse or a vase by the end.
- 1Burano, Torcello & Murano Boat Tour w/Glassblowing★★★★★★★★★★ 4.4 · 10,245 reviews
- 2Murano and Burano Boat Tour with Glass Factory Visit★★★★★★★★★★ 4.2 · 9,527 reviews
- 3Murano & Burano Panoramic Boat Tour w/ Glassblowing★★★★★★★★★★ 4.4 · 6,212 reviews
Carnival Masks
A Venetian mask is cartapesta: layers of wet paper pressed into a plaster mould, left to dry, then gessoed, painted and gilded by hand. Carnival fills the city in the weeks before Lent, but the workshops run all year, and in a couple of hours you leave with one you painted yourself.
- 1Carnival Mask Workshop★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 1,925 reviews
- 2Venetian Carnival Mask Making Class in Venice, Italy★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 525 reviews
- 3Venetian Masks Workshop★★★★★★★★★★ 4.9 · 411 reviews
Venice, the islands, Padua, Verona: the week most first visits follow.
Venice
Murano & Burano
Padua
Verona
Prosecco hills
The DolomitesBy place, from the lagoon to the mountains
By kind of day: boat, palace, table or trail
Fresh from the lagoon: the newest Venice reviews.
All the newest reviews →
Classic Venice: Doge’s Palace, St. Mark’s Basilica & Terrace
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Venice Dinner Food Tour around Jewish Ghetto & Cannaregio Quarter
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Rialto Market Food Tour: Wine Tasting & Sightseeing in Venice
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Tasty Street Food Tour of Venice City Center with Cicchetti & Local Specialties
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Saint Mark’s VIP Night Tour: Exclusive Access Small Group Tour
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Skip the Line St Mark’s Basilica and Doge’s Palace Exclusive Tour
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Sparkling Wine & Italian Prosecco Tasting in Venice
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St Mark’s Basilica & Doge’s Palace Skip the Line – Semi-Private
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