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Venice In a Day: Explore Basilica San Marco, Doges Palace & Unforgettable Gondola Ride
4.8
2,420 Ratings
Venezia
Experience the best of Venice in just one day! Explore the iconic Basilica San Marco, visit the majestic Doges Palace, and take a romantic gondola ride along the Grand Canal. Limited to 20 people for a personalized experience.
Duration:
6 hours, 30 minutes
Cancellation:
1 day
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Highlights
- Ponte di Rialto - Your tour starts at ground level with a guided walking tour of the city’s most famous and most interesting sights. See the Rialto Bridge and learn about Venice’s food culture at the Rialto Fish Market. Along the way hear tales of famous Venetians like Marco Polo as well as how Venice came to be—and how it survived against the odds.
- Canal Grande - As your walking tour ends, take a gondola ride and cruise along the Grand Canal and into the quieter back canals of the city with a maximum of 5 people per vessel.
- Venice - Pause for a break. While it’s not included in the tour, your guide will share plenty of great recommendations on where to grab a coffee and a snack.
- Basilica di San Marco - After a short break for a snack on your own, reconvene at St. Mark’s Square. With pre-reserved skip-the-line tickets, you’ll enter St. Mark’s Basilica to explore its stunning history, architecture, and art with your guide. Get up close to the beautiful gold mosaics with special first-floor access.
- Doge’s Palace - Then it’s on to Venice’s other top sight—the Doge’s Palace. Skip the line with pre-reserved tickets and enjoy the benefit of having an expert local guide as you navigate council rooms, audience halls, and masterpieces by Veronese and Tintoretto.
What's Included
- Gondola Ride
- Skip-the-line ticket for St. Mark’s Basilica
- Local English-speaking guide
- Pre-reserved ticket to the Doge’s Palace
- Expertly guided walking tour
- Headset
What's Not Included
- Gratuities
- Hotel Pick-Up/Drop-Off
- Lunch
Additional Information
First time in Venice? Maximize your time in the city with a full-day itinerary that ticks off all the most memorable attractions. Stroll across the Rialto Bridge and browse the lively Rialto fish market, then hop aboard a traditional gondola for a romantic cruise along the Grand Canal. Next, access St. Mark’s Basilica and gaze in awe at the stunning gold mosaics. Finally, enjoy skip-the-line entrance to the grandiose Doge’s Palace. This small-group tour is limited to 20 people ensuring a personalized experience.
- Sites visited on this tour occasionally close due to holy days, high tides, and/or flooding. If time permits, we will notify you prior to your tour. For last-minute closures, modifications may be communicated at the tour start time. If a site closes, you will tour the exterior of the site.
- Please note that lunch is not included on this tour. We have allowed time for you to eat lunch between the AM and PM tours. Your guide will give you recommendations and tell you where to meet after lunch but please be aware that it is your responsibility to arrive at the meeting point in time for your PM tour.
- During times of high tides, flooding, or heavy rain, the gondola ride may be substituted for another experience.
- Walks / Devour complies with all local government regulations. Please refer to local government guidelines for the most up-to-date information.
- Unfortunately, due to the nature of this tour, it is not wheelchair/stroller accessible.
- This tour allows time to eat lunch on your own with recommendations from your guide. Before lunch, your guide will share a meeting time and location and you will need to arrive at this location on your own.
Location
Campo S. Giacomo di Rialto, 255
Campo San Giacomo di Rialto
At the central fountain of Campo San Giacomo di Rialto (Campo San Giacometto). Your guide will be holding a Walks sign.
Cancellation Policy
For a full refund, cancel at least 24 hours before the scheduled departure time.
Customer Ratings
4.8
(2420 Ratings)
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Suzanne_l
Aug 4, 2024
Great experience - Elena was an amazing tour guide. She was personable, knowledgeable, and efficient. She really made the tour come alive.
Review provided by Viator
Davida_s
Aug 2, 2024
Very interesting history,humor,and tips - Mr G was an awesome guide! He kept it interesting and fun. Even shared about him growing up in Venice. Would certainly recommend this tour!
Review provided by Viator
Michael_w
Aug 2, 2024
Great day in Venice - Just had a great family day in Venice. Our guide Martina was friendly, knowledgeable and showed us the best bits of Venice. The tour included plenty of opportunities to stop and get water/gelato which we and our two children greatly appreciated especially given the heat. Highly recommend!
Review provided by Viator
Jack_w
Aug 2, 2024
A very hot day! - We loved the gondola ride. It was a very long day with limited opportunities to sit and rest from the oppressive heat. The Doges palace was very impressive, The Basilica was grand. Would have been perfect on a cooler day. Might want to add some more break times!
Review provided by Viator
Courtney_t
Aug 2, 2024
Very informative! - Great tour! Marcella was very knowledgeable and we saw all the highlights of Venice. We were well informed ahead of time about what to expect (I.e. dress code, food choices, etc.)
Review provided by Viator
Lisa_q
Aug 1, 2024
An amazing day getting to know Venice - Our tour guide, Roberta (Robbie), was wonderful and my family and I thoroughly enjoyed our day in Venice with her. She was so personable and funny and she shared equally her extensive knowledge of the history of Venice with her passion and love of this beautiful city. The day of our tour was very hot and I really appreciated Roberta's concern for everyone in our group, making sure we took breaks, stayed in the shade as much as possible and stayed hydrated as we navigated the streets and museums. From the small, quiet streets to the markets used by locals to the magnificence of the Basilica and Doges Palace, our tour gave us an amazing feel for the Venice of today and yesterday. I would highly recommend this tour to friends and family.
Review provided by Viator
John_v
Aug 1, 2024
Excellent tour. Highly recommended. - Excellent access to various areas within the city. Good order of events, and allowed some time on your own. Guide was hard to hear at times.
Review provided by Viator
Brenda_c
Aug 1, 2024
Memorable - We enjoyed all that we saw. We went back to Saint Marc Square and dinned and listened to the music. The many many outdoor eateries were wonderful. The tour guide was very knowledgeable and personable.
Thank you.
Review provided by Viator
Josephine_p
Aug 3, 2024
Find Another Tour - The tour was too long. It lasted 6.5 hours but could have been wrapped up in 4.5 hours. You could visibly see that all of the other tour guests were feeling the same way I was. We were all becoming bored and ready to be done with the tour.
On top of that, our tour guide, Sabrina, was rude and at times, down right nasty. She would lead our group through the sites and at times, due to the crowds and to the fact that we wanted to take pictures, we would either go a bit ahead of her or fall a little behind and she was not happy about that. She was making rude and snarky comments about it the entire time. Everyone was becoming irritated by her. News flash Sabrina, this is our tour! We all paid a lot of money for this tour and we’ll spend the tour however we want.
Additionally, they gave us radios to wear so that we could hear our guide speak, but there was a lot of static. If a guest asked Sabrina a question, she would rudely say, I just spoke about this or I already talked about this. Another news flash for you Sabrina, the static sometimes didn’t allow us to hear everything you were saying. No need to be rude. Just answer the question, that’s what you’re paid for. My advice, find another tour
Review provided by Viator
Sherry_h
Aug 1, 2024
Meh - This was not a memorable tour, especially for the price paid. Our guide was Chiara, she was pleasant enough but only provided an average experience. I think we would have been better off visiting St Mark Basilica and Doge Palace on our own. We had 5 people in the gondola ride; unless you got to sit in the 2 prime back seats, you will have to sit in one of the small side chairs resulting in a subpar experience.
Review provided by Viator
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