Venice in the afternoon

Looking for an excursion for Venice for an afternoon tour. We get in to Venice at 1:00 pm on a Friday

Most tours are a.m. starts

Would like skip the line for St. Mark's and Doge's and a walking tour?

What is the best way to do this?

thanks!

Best way?

Pre-reserve your timed for San Marco online in advance.

Purchase your Doge's Palace ticket at the less crowded Correr Museum (on Piazza San Marco) and you will skip the ticket line at the Palace. (Or you can reserve one of the tours in advance, such as the Secret Itinerary tour -- not my choice but a lot of people like it.)

Get a good guidebook like Rick Steves and follow one of his suggested walks across Venice.

(Rick Steves will also give you the specifics on pre-reserving your tickets.)

A lot of the fun of Venice is in just wandering....tours aren't really a necessity here.

I absolutely agree with this - you don’t need a tour. You can also buy your Doge’s palace ticket beforehand too. We did the Secret Itineraries tour and enjoyed it. You learn so much about how Venice operated as a City State, but it is quite a long tour.

We bought a Pop-out Pocket Map of Venice and found that very helpful.

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When do you leave Venice? The next day (Saturday) or that Friday night? If you are there overnight, I would also suggest walking through Venice when you arrive. I would avoid St. Mark's area until 6 pm or so - it is much more pleasant after the crowds leave. There is plenty more of Venice to explore on foot for several hours - and other areas won't be nearly as crowded as St Marks during the mid afternoon hours. Same suggestion for Saturday morning - get up early and explore before crowds arrive.

Agreen with how easy it is to do Venice on your own, so long as you’ve got a decent map in your hand and idea of what you’re interested in seeing. I have used the pop out maps & loved them, even used to buy them in bulk for my home city (NYC) and give them as gifts to all my out of town visitors as 1) survival tools for them 2) survival tools for me - I always worried about losing them when they weren’t with me! I switched to the Streetwise series of laminated maps because they’re durable and, depending upon the city, if there’s room available on the map, has other helpful info on it. On the bigger cities there’s less room available!

Definitely agree with reservating any/all online tickets for must see places, ESPECIALLY in Italy but kind of everywhere these days. Otherwise, your entire visit to anywhere will be spent online.

I almost always agree with Cruisemom 100% of the time so on this rare occasion let’s say I just have a much stronger preference for something other than Rick Steves guides although I do get the appeal of his stuff. But I’ve encountered lots of travelers (even in Italy) who weren’t keen on his recommendations (or maybe the editors of the guides?) so make of this what you choose. Als, guides get updated often so you never know, and there are many different guide books because there are different types of travelers so I just offer up other options to consider that have been totally dependable and reliable every time.

I use a few guides, mostly Lonely Planet and Frommers but for France and Italy I also have DK’s Eyewitness guides which are beautiful but so not for bringing along on the trip, more for pre-trip planning/immersion. So for example if you dove into their section on Venice, from there you could decide was most important to see and then, as most of us tend to suggest when it comes to being in Venice, just head away from the crowds of the Grand Canal and San Marco’s and let yourself wander away into the smaller canals and cross over little foot bridges into the areas where the locals live. One of my favorite photos from Venice is of a *really* sleepy big dog layimg at the window of his canal side upper level apartment with one paw dangling just through the scrolled iron Juliet balcony. Tough life he had! Many little different small boats were tied alongside, others pass by and an occasional gondola appeared and this was the great spectacle: trying to see exactly HOW the gondolier was going to manage to turn in an unimaginably tight spot. I thought, no way. But...way. You need to see this. Also, the most SPECTACULAR Venetian masks I saw were in some unsuspecting shop far from the busiest shops off the main canal; I still regret not buying the one that dazzled me, but I wasn’t sure I could get it home safe it was so elaborate. But seeing them all was a treat as they were works of art unlike most of the rest of the typical souvenir masks for sale, I bought I tiny painted one that I don’t have anymore and my Venice magnet also didn’t hold up but...that’s ok. I was there!

Don’t overthink it, just do it. You’ll be fine...it’s not big, and in the “letting yourself get lost” you really can’t get lost. You’ll easily make your way back to where you need to be. And Venice is gorgeous and calmer as the sun goes down..don’t miss it if you’re able.

Buona Fortuna ;)

....also, if you can find it & haven’t already seen it, watch the movie Summertime with Katharine Hepburn & Rossano Brazzi. Its filmed all in Venice, is mostly a lot of fun and there’s this kid who’s really something else. Plus, Miss Hepburn actually went into the canal for a scene!

It’ll get you thinking about your visit :)

It's really easy to get lost in Venice. In addition to having a good paper map, I find it useful to use the GPS enabled Google map on my iPad (or any mobile device) to keep track of where I am in the archipelago.

If you don't have Internet access when you're travelling, you can simply download the Google maps (for a city) to your device prior to your trip. The maps stay on your device for 30 days.

https://veniceitaly.ca

Yes, I too agree.. no need for a tour. This is a place where you can save some money and just walk around on your own. Take the People Mover from the ship. Use the water busses- go to Burano- Gorgeous- some of my best photos. Just buy the water bus ticket. Easy on your own.

Thanks for all of the great tips! Are St. Mark's and Doge's open after 4pm?

Thanks for all of the great tips! Are St. Mark's and Doge's open after 4pm?

Doge’s Palace is open until 7:30pm until 31 October and until 5:30 from 1 November.

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Thanks for all of the great tips! Are St. Mark's and Doge's open after 4pm?

St. Mark's Basilica is open only until 5:00 pm with a last entrance at 4:45 pm on most days; on Sundays it closes at 4:30 pm.

That said, if you are there at 4pm you should have enough time for an interior visit -- and the lines tend to be less at the end of the day.

I didn’t see anyone mention a gondola ride. Go for a private one through the back canals. Magical. No reservations needed.

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Looking for an excursion for Venice for an afternoon tour. We get in to Venice at 1:00 pm on a Friday

Most tours are a.m. starts

Would like skip the line for St. Mark's and Doge's and a walking tour?

 

What is the best way to do this?

 

thanks!

Contact Marina and Marco Busetto Maribu (brother and sister) www.maribu.it. They are expert private guides licensed for Venice and they live on the island. They offer customized tours to fit any needs or desires. Contact Marina at marina@maribu.it. Marco’s wife was our guide on a tour of Sicily and Southern Italy with Collette.

Ciao,

Ron

Epic Venice Sail-a-way!

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