Skip the Line Venice Doge's Palace and St. Mark's Basilica Tour

Discover the beauty of Venice on a 2-hour walking tour, visiting the iconic Doge’s Palace and St. Mark’s Basilica. Explore the highlights of St. Mark’s Square and immerse yourself in the rich history and culture of this exquisite city.

Duration: 2 hours, 30 minutes
Cancellation: 1 day learn more
Highlights
  • Piazza San Marco - The principal public square of Venice

  • Basilica di San Marco - The most famous of the city’s churches and one of the best known examples of Italo-Byzantine architecture.

  • Enter St. marks’s Basilica through the St. Peter’s Door

  • Visit the Basilica interior and hear a detailed description of the gold mosaics

  • Visit to the Museum and the Terrace

  • Doge’s Palace - The Doge’s Palace is a palace built in Venetian Gothic style, and one of the main landmarks of the city of Venice in northern Italy. The palace was the residence of the Doge of Venice, the supreme authority of the former Venetian Republic, opening as a museum in 1923. Today, it is one of the 11 museums run by the Fondazione Musei Civici di Venezia.

  • Ponte dei Sospiri - The Bridge of Sighs is a bridge in Venice, Italy. The enclosed bridge is made of white limestone, has windows with stone bars, passes over the Rio di Palazzo, and connects the New Prison to the interrogation rooms in the Doge’s Palace. It was designed by Antonio Contino, whose uncle Antonio da Ponte designed the Rialto Bridge. It was built in 1600.

  • Palazzo delle Prigioni - A corridor leads over the Bridge of Sighs, built in 1614 to link the Doge’s Palace to the structure intended to house the New Prisons. Enclosed and covered on all sides, the bridge contains two separate corridors that run next to each other. That which visitors use today linked the Prisons to the chambers of the Magistrato alle Leggi and the Quarantia Criminal; the other linked the prisons to the State Advocacy rooms and the Parlatorio. Both corridors are linked to the service staircase that leads from the ground floor cells of the Pozzi to the roof cells of the Piombi.

What's Included
  • Professional guide
  • Headsets to hear the guide clearly (for groups larger than 10 people)
  • 2.5 hours tour
  • Guaranteed to skip the long lines
What's Not Included
  • Hotel pickup and drop-off
Additional Information

The greatness of Venice has always been reflected in the richness of St. Mark’s Basilica, the perfect synthesis of Venetian art and a unique blend of Byzantine, Romanesque and Gothic elements. Five Oriental-looking domes crown the shadowy, mysterious interior gleaming with golden mosaics, coloured marbles, precious stones and pearls, and guarded by the four gilded bronze horses that stand proudly atop the central entrance. The glittering mosaics of the interior tell the story of St. Mark and episodes from the Bible.

We enter the Doge’s Palace, the highest achievement of Gothic architecture in Venice, through the Porta del Frumento (Corn Door) on the waterfront. The monumental complex was the symbol and center of the political and administrative life of the Serenissima.
At once the Doge’s residence, seat of government and court of justice and prisons, the Palace was for centuries the symbol of the wealth and power of the Venetian Republic.

  • No shorts or sleeveless tops allowed. Knees and shoulders MUST be covered for both men and women. You may risk refused entry if you fail to comply with these dress requirements
  • Because of security checks you might experience a line to get inside the Doge Palace and St. Mark’s Basilica. You will skip the line for non-reserved tickets but security check is mandatory.
  • Maximum of 25 people on each tour
  • On certain dates, most travelers staying outside of Venice who are planning to visit for the day will be required to pay a €5 access fee. For further details (including exemptions) and to learn what days this fee is applicable, please visit: https://cda.ve.it
Location
Campo S. Zaccaria, 4683g
Campo San Zaccaria
Departure Point: Campo San Zaccaria 4683/g in front of the Church of San Zaccaria
Cancellation Policy

For a full refund, cancel at least 24 hours before the scheduled departure time.

Customer Ratings
4.0
(239 Ratings)
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Carmen_c
Aug 2, 2024
Doge’s Palace, Basílica San Marco - Again a wonderful experience! Amazing sites accompanied by the interesting narration of our knowledgeable tour guide -Rebecca- which put all we were seeing into historical context. Fabulous!!
Review provided by Viator
Amanda_c
Jul 30, 2024
Must do! - Meeting Point easy to find. Our guide Donata was exceptional! She was able to answer many detailed questions about the palace and Basilica and was very attentive to our group's needs
Review provided by Viator
Ramona_b
Jul 11, 2024
Exquisite and historic - Great tour guide! We enjoyed seeing the beautiful architecture and the details of all these historical places in Italy. We were in awe of the beauty.
Review provided by Viator
Fareed_a
Jul 3, 2024
Very Helpful when there are big lineups - Guide was very informative and tailored it to our time allowance. Covered all the major highlights and the right amount of details.
Review provided by Viator
Andrew_l
Jul 2, 2024
Great tour! Loved learning about everything - She was so sweet and provided a lot of information that I wouldn’t have found elsewhere without her. She also provided insight into how to spend the rest of our day in Venice and gave recommendations on how to stay dry when it rained but still see Venice!
Review provided by Viator
Patricia_s
Jul 28, 2024
Wonderful experience - The experience was wonderful although we actually missed our tour as we had difficulty locating the "Tour Store". The representatives encouraged us to see the palace and St. Mark's on our own which allowed us plenty of time to explore the two sites. There are many people and tour groups in the square so finding locations and navigating the water ways is a challenge until one does it once or twice. Being at Doge's in the evening is wonderful with the muted colors and few people present. Would recommend as there is so much to see that one can have sensory overload which a guide would help to minimize. It is important to know you have to leave the square to sign in at a Tour Store that is off the square.
Review provided by Viator
Merin_d
Jul 31, 2024
The best part was we got to skip the lines - We had mixed reviews on this tour. I need to preface by saying it was incredibly hot and I loved the passion of the guide. However, it was very difficult to understand her as her accent, though beautiful, was very strong. A bunch of people on the tour left because they couldn’t understand the guide and didn’t like all of the detailed information. We stuck it out but it was difficult because we both felt like we missed a lot of info. Going with a guide was very helpful though because it allowed us to skip the lines. This tour was very long and I would recommend breaking it up. Unfortunately we did race through the rooms in Doges palace (one of my favorite palaces in the world as this was my second time there) which made me feel like I wanted to go back again with a different guide.
Review provided by Viator
Cynthia_m
Jul 7, 2024
TMI - Good, but a bit too much information. Things began to be repetitious and lost interest. Nice guide though.
Review provided by Viator
Jacob_k
Jul 29, 2024
Sorry to write this review but have to warn future client not to use this company Very Viva Venice - I have never written a review although I have used many private tour experiences in multiple cities and countries. In Italy alone I have had multiple. This review is about a private family tour for Doge Palace and St Marks Basilica. I also want to mention I tried to deal with both Viator and the Vendor, Very Venice Tours but neither were willing to speak with me. I had this tour with my family and was beyond disappointed. The guide was very nice but had a great deal of difficulty with speaking English, especially with a younger audience. Frequently whispering when no one was around in large building made the visits both wasteful but also disappointing. The content provided was weak and not suitable for a family. Multiple family guides were around us at times and we found ourselves wishing over and over we were with them instead of our guide. Once the tour ended we redid both locations ourselves and were able through the internet and YouTube piece the information together. Sadly we wasted an exorbitant amount of money and time beforehand. Repeated attempts to speak to the tour operator VERY VIVA VENICE TOURS ignored sadly.
Review provided by Viator
Vaibhavic
Jul 25, 2024
Walkineurope Tour agency misbehave and mislead tourist. No customer support in local all managed from US office - First of all the untrained customer service people from this “Walkineurope tour’ trip agency misbehave and abuse over phone. ( we have booked via Viator ) After calling Viator for the tour agency contact details when we tried to speak with the tour agency Walkineurope tour they started to say that regarding how to meet local tour guide from Italy they can't help. Be careful if you are taking this tour then you have to be stationed in Venice and ask locals for the direction meeting location. We requested a landmark for meeting point and which will be better option from Venice Santa Lucia station to reach meeting point. The Walkineurope customer care executives misbehaved over their customer care number +13322422284, and said “ we are not from Italy to let you know. You have to learn it by your own how to reach from google. We are not to help you” . Well if they can't help with basic information then what reason they are speaking as customer support executives. Over the phone they shouted and hang up the phone without listening to our request. All of the guests from today's trip said they have faced same challenges from the customer support number of Walkineurope tour agency. Before booking through Viator or get your guide please ensure it should not be from walkineurope tour agency. Fee people missed their trip as you will not be able to get any local tour guide/agency numbers in the city /place where you are going to take the trip. This agency hackle you at most after taking money from you. In all Europe location they did the same.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
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up to 15 guests
1 Adult
September 2024
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