Venice, timed right.
Which palace ticket walks past the real queue. What a gondola costs before anyone sings. Which island boat gives you Burano and which only shows you a furnace. Every Venice tour, reviewed and ranked.
Three buildings in Venice have a queue.
Compare every ticket →The palace, the basilica and the bell tower sit within ninety seconds of each other, and all three sell timed entry. What you buy decides whether you spend the morning inside them or outside them.
146 toursDoge’s Palace
Council chambers, the armoury, the cells and the covered bridge between them.
Cheapest way in $41
- 1Doge’s Palace Reserved Entry Ticketfrom $41
- 2Doge’s Palace and St Mark’s Basilica Walking Tourfrom $101
- 3Legendary Venice: Doge’s Palace, St Mark’s & VIP Terrace Accessfrom $76.19
141 toursSt Mark’s Basilica
Eight thousand square metres of gold mosaic. Entry is timed and the terrace is separate.
Cheapest way in $34
- 1Doge’s Palace and St Mark’s Basilica Walking Tourfrom $101
- 2St Mark’s Basilica, Doge Palace, & Bell Tower Optionfrom $100
- 3Skip-the-Line St. Mark’s Basilica Tourfrom $34
20 toursSt Mark’s Campanile
A lift, not a staircase — the only place you see the whole lagoon at once.
Cheapest way in $34
- 1St Mark’s Basilica, Doge Palace, & Bell Tower Optionfrom $100
- 2St. Mark’s Basilica with Audio and Campanile Optionsfrom $37
- 3Bell Tower & St Mark’s Square History Gallery Ticketfrom $44
The Venice everyone comes for.
The gondola, the palace, the basilica, the furnaces, the island boats and the standing-room bars. The handful of days a first trip to Venice gets built around, and the best way to book each.
What most travellers book in Venice.
Every review →The tours more people take than anything else on the lagoon — and what each one actually gets you for the money.
1
Doge’s Palace Reserved Entry Ticket
Skip the ticket line to Doge's Palace in Venice, plus entry to Correr, archaeology, and Marciana Library. Walk the Bridge of Sighs.
From · $41
Read our review →
2
Grand Canal Gondola Ride with App Commentary
from $41
3
Grand Canal Gondola Experience with Live Commentary™
from $48
4
Boat Trip: Glimpse of Murano, Torcello & Burano Islands
from $29
5
La Fenice Opera House Entry Ticket with Audio Guide
from $14
6
Murano & Burano: Boat Tour with Guide & Glass Factory Visit
from $23
7
Burano, Torcello & Murano Boat Tour w/Glassblowing
from $28
8
Murano, Burano and Torcello Half-Day Sightseeing Tour
from $25.53
Which gondola ride is which.
Every gondola tour →
The city sets the fare, not the gondolier. What changes between rides is the water they use, the hour they leave, whether the boat is shared, and whether anybody sings. These three carry the most passengers.
Thirty minutes, shared, off the main water
The standard city ride: a shared boat that leaves the Grand Canal for the back rii, where the walls almost touch and the only sound is the oar.
The Grand Canal, with someone explaining it
Palace fronts from the height they were designed to be seen from, under the Rialto and out toward the Salute, with the answer to whose house is whose.
Gold hour, out on the lagoon
The half hour before the lamps come on, when San Giorgio turns copper, the day boats have gone and the water finally flattens out.
Murano and Burano are a boat ride, not a day trip.
Forty minutes north of San Marco: a working furnace on Murano, lace and painted house-fronts on Burano, and Torcello’s near-empty basilica if the boat goes that far. Most trips take all three in one afternoon and are back for dinner.
See all 203 island boat trips →
What a day in Venice actually costs.
Every tour on the site sorted by price. Venice has a reputation for being expensive; the entry ticket to most of it is not.
Cicchetti crawls, basilica tickets, shared gondolas and walking tours — the everyday lagoon.
Island boats out to Murano and Burano, cooking classes, small-group palace tours with a guide who has the keys.
Private guides, a chartered water taxi for the day, and the after-hours visits that are worth the money once.
Things that only happen in Venice.
Canals exist elsewhere. A furnace that has run since the thirteenth century, a mask made of paper and gesso, and a standing bar at six in the evening do not travel.
The Furnace
Glassmaking was pushed out to Murano in 1291 because the furnaces kept setting Venice on fire, and the island has never given the craft back. A demonstration takes about ten minutes — gather, blow, shape, done — and the piece is still orange when it goes into the annealer. The visits worth booking put you in front of a working maestro rather than a showroom with a till.
- 1Murano & Burano: Boat Tour with Guide & Glass Factory Visit★★★★★★★★★★ 4.3 · 10,716 reviews
- 2Burano, Torcello & Murano Boat Tour w/Glassblowing★★★★★★★★★★ 4.4 · 10,245 reviews
- 3Murano & Burano Panoramic Boat Tour w/ Glassblowing★★★★★★★★★★ 4.4 · 6,212 reviews
The Mask Atelier
A Venetian mask starts as a clay mould and a sheet of papier-mâché; the gilding and the feathers come last, and badly if you rush. Workshops run two to three hours and you leave wearing what you painted. The bauta, the moretta and the long-nosed medico della peste each had a job to do, and a good atelier explains which is which before you pick one.
- 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
The Bacaro Crawl
A bacaro is a standing bar, a cicchetto is one bite on bread, and an ombra is the small glass of wine that goes with it. The routine is one of each and then move on — sitting down is what restaurants are for. Crawls start around six, when the counters are loaded and the bread has not yet gone hard.
- 1San Marco to Rialto Walk & Spritz Like a Local★★★★★★★★★★ 4.2 · 3,651 reviews
- 2Street Food Tour with a Local Guide and Tastings★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 · 2,613 reviews
- 3Venice Like a Local: Food, Wine & Spritz Tour with Traghetto Ride★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 1,858 reviews
Venice empties at six. That is when to be out in it.
The last coaches leave Piazzale Roma and the calli belong to whoever stayed the night. Ghost routes through Cannaregio, Vivaldi under a painted ceiling, and a piazza with enough room to cross it.
Book these before you fly to Venice.
Most of Venice can wait until you are standing in it. These cannot — they run on timed entry, rooms that hold six people, and a concert calendar that does not care when your train gets in.
- 01Doge’s Palace & Saint Mark’s After Hours Small Group Max 6 PeopleRuns after closing with a hard cap of six people, so a day has perhaps two slots in it.
- 02Vivaldi’s Four Seasons Live Classical Music ConcertThe concert churches seat a few hundred, not a few thousand, and the good nights go weeks out.
- 03Carnival Mask WorkshopThe atelier tables seat a handful at a time and the papier-mâché has to dry before you paint it.
- 04Romantic Venice: 30 Minute Gondola Ride with SerenadeA singer and an accordionist have to be booked to the boat — it is not something you arrange at the jetty.
When the tide comes up through the drains, go indoors.
High water is a winter thing, it peaks for a couple of hours around the tide and the city puts raised walkways out for it. Plain rain is far more common. Either way the answers are all under a roof: a furnace, a mask table, a kitchen, a concert.
Arriving in Venice: airport, port and Santa Lucia
Water Taxi Transfers20 tours
Airport Transfers70 tours
Cruise Port Transfers49 tours- Private Drivers122 tours
Private Guides331 tours- Every tour on the lagoon →
What kind of Venice day is it?
The mainland days worth leaving Venice for.
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Wine CountryThe newest Venice reviews.
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Rialto Street Food & Stories Tour: A Taste of Venice
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Fom Treporti: Murano, Burano, and Venice Motorboat Trip
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Private Cruise: Venice Viewed by the Water with 3-Course Dinner
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Guided tour of the Doge’s Palace and Casanova Prison
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Secrets of Venice Carnival and the life and times of Giacomo Casanova
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Venice Ghost Tour: Explore Haunted Legends & Ancient Ruin
Read our review →
Guided tour of Venice wonders including Correr Museum & Empress Sisi Apartments
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