Find the Venice worth booking.
Gondolas and Grand Canal cruises, the Doge’s gilded rooms, Murano furnaces and cicchetti crawls through the backstreets. What each is really like, what it costs, and where to book.
The bookings that carry a first trip.
First visit or fifth, these are the ones worth the money: the Doge’s Palace before the tour groups, a gondola through the quiet inner canals, a boat out to the glass furnaces of Murano.
Grand Canal Gondola Experience with Live Commentary™
Shared Venice gondola ride on the Grand Canal with live guide commentary, plus Gondola Gallery and VR felze experience from $48.
From $48 per person
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★ 4.3Traveller favouriteMurano & Burano: Boat Tour with Guide & Glass Factory VisitFrom $2310,716 reviews
★ 4.7Books out fastDoge’s Palace & St. Mark’s Basilica with Terrace Access TourFrom $12310,697 reviews
★ 4.4Crowd favouriteBurano, Torcello & Murano Boat Tour w/GlassblowingFrom $2810,245 reviews
★ 3.5Worth itMurano, Burano and Torcello Half-Day Sightseeing TourFrom $257,928 reviews
★ 4.5Easy first bookingMurano & Burano Islands Guided Small-Group Tour by Private BoatFrom $367,580 reviews
★ 3.9Local pickShared Gondola Ride Across the Grand CanalFrom $466,645 reviews
Give the islands a whole day.
Catch the morning boat while the water is still glass: Murano for the furnaces, Burano for the painted houses and the lace, Torcello for the silence and the oldest mosaic in the lagoon. Back at the Fondamente Nove by aperitivo hour. It is the day trip Venice does best.
Which way onto the water?
Nobody comes to Venice to stay on dry land, but the boats are not interchangeable. Three ways to get out on the water, from a thirty-minute gondola to a whole evening on the lagoon. Whichever suits your night, the tours behind it are already sorted by price, duration and traveller verdict.
The classic
A gondola through the calli
30 to 50 minutes (approx.) · from $49 · 4,223 reviews
Thirty minutes, up to six aboard, and worth doing once: the gondolier turns off the Grand Canal into the narrow inner rii where the water goes quiet and the palazzi almost touch overhead. Book a shared ride to split the fare, or a private one for the quiet. Go late afternoon, when the light drops between the walls.
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The day out
Out to the lagoon islands
4 - 4.5 hours · from $21 · 3,083 reviews
Trade the gondola for a full day on the water: a shared boat north to Murano’s furnaces, Burano’s painted houses and lace, and Torcello’s silence, with time to wander each before the ride back. The cheapest way to see three islands, and the one that gets you off the tourist track.
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Golden hour
Out at sunset, spritz in hand
from $124 · 1,758 reviews
When the day-trippers are back on their coaches, the lagoon turns pink and empties out. A typical Venetian boat or a small catamaran, an aperitivo poured on deck, San Giorgio lit up across the water. For an evening that costs a little and stays with you for years.
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Venice belongs to the evening.
The last coach leaves around six and the city exhales. Vivaldi played by candlelight in a Baroque church, a ghost walk through calli with no one else in them, a spritz on the water as San Giorgio lights up. This is the Venice the day-trippers never see.
Eat standing up, like a Venetian.
Venice eats in bites: cicchetti on the counter, an ombra of white wine, a spritz at eleven and nobody blinks. The best food tours skip the tourist menus off San Marco and take you bacaro to bacaro through Cannaregio and the Rialto market.
Watch it made before you buy it.
Glass pulled molten from a Murano furnace, a Carnival mask built up in papier-mache and gold leaf. Go to the workshop, watch the maker work, and you will never mistake the real thing for the airport-shop copy again.
San Marco rewards a good guide.
A thousand years of gold mosaic in the Basilica, the Doge’s state rooms and the cells across the Bridge of Sighs, the Pala d’Oro most visitors walk straight past. Skip-the-line entry and someone to explain what you are looking at turns the crush of the piazza into the best hour of the trip.
Venice, corner by corner.
The city works in fragments, and each one is its own morning. San Marco for the monuments. Rialto for the market and the bridge. The Grand Canal from the water. The back calli for getting properly lost, and the islands for the day you slow right down.
Pick a kind of day.
Twelve ways into the same city: the water, the food, the workshops, the stories after dark. Follow whichever one you like the sound of; every tour under it is already priced and rated.
Three days that do Venice justice.
You cannot see all of Venice in one trip, but you can do the right three days. This is the order we’d hand a friend stepping off the train at Santa Lucia tomorrow.
Day 1
Straight to San Marco
The Doge’s Palace and the Basilica before the day-boats dock, the Grand Canal end to end from the water, then a first gondola as the light drops. The greatest hits, out of the way early.
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Day 2
Out to the islands
The morning boat to Murano’s furnaces, Burano’s painted houses and lace, Torcello’s empty silence. Back for cicchetti and an ombra as the crowds thin out.
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Day 3
Get lost on purpose
The back calli of Cannaregio and Dorsoduro with a guide who knows the shortcuts, the Rialto market at its busiest, a Vivaldi concert to close the night. This is the Venice you came for.
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