Skip the Line: Venice in One Day

Venice, Italy

First time in Venice? You'll see all the highlights of this magical city on this combined walking and boat tour. Plus, you'll skip the long lines at St. Mark's Basilica - don't waste time waiting in lines when you're on vacation!

Your comprehensive introduction to Venice begins with a two-hour walking tour highlighting all the important monuments, from San Marco Square to the Rialto Bridge. You'll learn the history behind the famous landmarks, including the basilica's Byzantine heritage and the adjoining prisons of the Doge's Palace. Plus, you'll visit the famed basilica of St. Mark's without having to stand in long queues!

Leaving the crowds behind, you'll enter a labyrinth of narrow passageways, alleys, canals and delicate bridges. Highlights include Campo Santa Maria Formosa, Marco Polo's House, an old merchant's warehouse and the most beautiful well-head in Venice, before finishing the tour near the Rialto Bridge.

Enjoy free time between your Venice Walking Tour and Grand Canal Boat Tour. Exact times will vary depending on the season, however most walking tours will conclude at approximately 1:10pm (except Sunday at 4:00pm), with the boat tours starting between 4:30pm and 5:30pm. Details of the exact meeting location and time for the Grand Canal Boat Tour will be given by your guide after the walking tour.

Next, enjoy a relaxing cruise along the Grand Canal of Venice. Along the way you will learn the history of the stunning palaces and churches that line the famous canal, as well as anecdotes about the famous people who have resided on Venice's most important 'street'. You'll also enjoy a fascinating tour of the minor canals of Venice.

St. Mark's Basilica is free of charge to enter and we guarantee that you'll skip any long lines as part of this tour. Venice is subject to flash floods and occasionally the Basilica is closed to the public (without notice) because of high water or festivities.

USD $71.50

Traveler Reviews

Review by: Wendy H	April 2012
We had a wonderful time, the guides we very knowledgable, it was very interesting. Thank you

Review by: Paul K W	April 2012
A really worthwhile introduction to Venice. Helpful cheerful guides and co-ordinator. Quite a bit of walking or seemed so as the weather was warmer than anticipated for March. Recommend.

Review by: Francine G	April 2012
We saw and did everything that was promised. The guide waS very good.

Review by: Cynthia W	April 2012
This is the 2nd time I did this tour. I also did it 4 years ago when I visited Venice. When you get there and check in there is a lot of waiting around to get started. The nice thing about this tour is you do get to the skip the line at St. Mark's Basilica, which is worth looking inside. Although it is a quick walk thru of the church, so if you are looking for a more substantial tour of St. Mark’s, this isn’t the tour for you. You do get to see the two sides of Venice – the crowded tourist area of St. Mark’s and Rialto Bridge and then some of the deserted back squares. We were definitely ready for a break after the walking tour and had about 3 hours to eat lunch and explore Venice on our own before the cruise along the Grand Canal. Although there is once again a lot of waiting around for the tour to start once you check in. The grand canal cruise is definitely the highlight, although this time we did take a different route than when I did the tour before, but all go down the grand canal of course. What I really like is that they don’t cram you in the water taxi for the tour and there is plenty of room!

Review by: Dianne A	April 2012
Until you see the lines you really do not appreciate the what this service offers. When they talk about lines they are huge with waiting times up to 2 hours. We skipped them! We had had the usual run-in with Italian rail staff being as unhelpful as possible and therefore were late arriving at the meeting point by 10 minutes. The owner of enjoy that ran this tour, rang 3 different guides to find one that had not entered the Vatican. He then personally walked us to the guide that was waiting for us. The guides know their business; it is obvious the guides are speaking about things they have studied. They drew our attention to issues and history and points that no handout will ever cover. Informative and professional are not adequate. The guides speak well with a level of knowledge that only comes from intensive study of a subject that they have enjoyed. A must on your list of tours in Rome. Thankyou for an enjoyable, informative tour.

Review by: James K	April 2012
This tour was a great introduction to Venice. Because of our schedule we split the tour and did the boat overview first, then the walking part the next morning. We actually liked it better that way! Our guide, Fredericka was fabulous (and a fast walker!). We especially liked skipping the LONG line at Saint Mark's.

Review by: Life-is-good	April 2012
Very interesting combination package. Go for it.

Review by: Ross J	April 2012
Well-organised; guide was very competent and personable. Good itinerary for an introductory visit to Venice. The canal tour was also very interesting and well-routed.

Review by: Teleri J	April 2012
My husband and I went on this tour on our first ever visit to Venice and it was a fabulous way to gain an insight into the history of the city. My husband has a low concentration plan but he too loved the walking tour and the guide was friendly. I would encourage everyone to do this tour on your first day in Venice as it really helps you gain an understanding of the city and its history. As mentioned by other reviewers there was no 'skip the queue' aspect to enter St Mark's. The guide claimed that this was not possible on our particular day- I seriously doubt this and feel that it would be better for Viator not to advertise the trip in this way as it is annoying to pay for something which isn' t actually true. Luckily the queue wasn't that long and the tour itself is worth going on anyway. We then went on the boat tour in the evening with another 2 couples. Our guide for this was also excellent and very entertaining. My tip would be to try to sit at the front or at the end of the boat as I was in the middle inside and it was difficult to see the buildings that were referred to from the windows of the boat in full. It would also be better if the boat owners actually gave the windows a good clean so you could see properly! Otherwise an excellent tour and highly recommended if not a little pricey.

Review by: Maureen J	April 2012
What a wonderful tour. All organised from Australia. Very informative, saw heaps but not rushed. Just what we wanted.

Review by: beryl p	April 2012
As we hadn't been to Venice before the tour gave us a very good grounding for finding our way around and for things to see and do. Excellent guides. thank you

Review by: Janice D	April 2012
Enjoyed this tour - only problem was really the communications used by the tour guide. If you weren't within about 10 feet of her, you could not hear anything she was saying. A mike directly in front of her mouth would work better than one clipped on her jacket lapel.

Review by: Oscarito	April 2012
Excellent walking tour, but a 4 hours wait for the water tour. Not a good idea. Needs a better scheduling

Review by: Cliff H	April 2012
Not really a skip the line experience but provided a good insight to historical aspects of the city

Review by: Leslie	April 2012
The tour guide was wonderful. Unfortunately since the boat tour was scheduled quite a few hours following the walking tour we could not go as other plans had been made.

Review by: krae808	April 2012
I think I could've enjoyed this tour a lot more if I did better planning ahead of time. I did not realize that the meeting location was so far away from the Santa Lucia train station. I also did not realize it was also extremely difficult to navigate the narrow, winding, twisting roads of Venice on my own, which is why I got horribly lost and missed the first half of the tour. However, the customer support on the phone was so helpful. The second half of the tour was grab though.

Review by: Mary H	April 2012
weather was terrible but tour was brilliant. Tour guide was excellent on both the walking tour and the boat trip. well worth booking. Venice is amazing!

Review by: Hamish T	April 2012
We thoroughly enjoyed our trip with Viator. In the morning, our guide was brilliant. From start to finish she was just a wealth of knowledge and information. She was also very intersting to listen to. The tour itself passed by in a flash. Great time of year to visit as the crowds were not as bad as in the summer. In the afternoon boat trip, we felt that the trip itself was excellent but it was a little difficult to take in what was being said by the guide due to the noise of the wind and the engine. However, we certainly enjoyed the trip and felt that the cost was well worth it.

Review by: Stephen V	March 2012
This was very informative!

Review by: Jennie C	March 2012
We only had 1 day in Venice and coincidentally it was during Carnavale. We decided to book this tour to get a full day coverage of Venice. This tour turned out perfect to cover everything and we also had time to explore on our own in the middle of the tour during "lunch" and also after. Our guide for the walking tour is a Venice-native. He was very informative and charismatic to capture our attention to understand the beauty and historical aspect of Venice. If you have only 1 day like us or a couple, but wanted a crash course of Venice, I highly recommend this tour. The only reason why we took away 1 star is we thought we had more time in between the walking tour and boat tour according to the description on the website, so we booked another short event, but timing didn't work out. I don't recommend booking another tour when booking this one. It's not completely Viator's fault, since we shouldn't have tried to pack so much in a day, but we really thought we would have been able to do it according to the description. HIGHLY RECOMMEND THIS!

Review by: Molly	March 2012
This was a great tour. The guides were very knowledgable and set an easy pace. We did a walking tour in the morning, ate a leisurely lunch and met up again for a boat tour of the grand canal. I recommend this for anyone who only has a few days to spend in Venice.

Review by: Esther M	March 2012
This is not only a good day out, it is also excellent and informative. Guides were very knowledgeable and everything happened as advertised

Review by: Gail M	March 2012
Very nice. Loved our guide who was very knowledgeable and managed our group perfectly. St. Marks was beautiful. The boat ride was super and again the guide was knowledgeable and brought us to wonderful canals, talked of art, museums and past history of Venice. Loved it. I would do it again in a moment.

Review by: Ann L	March 2012
Great trip except for afternoon boat trip which I missed by about 5 minutes.

Review by: bsauro	March 2012
Fabulous tour! History, art, culture very well presented. Great way to see Florence.

Review by: JIMMY V	March 2012
We Don't even skipping any line. I dont know why the name is "Skip the Line". The price is expensive.

Review by: Steve C	March 2012
This tour was brilliant I can thoroughly recommend it. The tour guide was very informative and funny and we learnt a lot about the history of Venice and some of the buildings in a very short time. Went down some very small alleyways which we would never have found on our own. The boat trip was also very good.

Review by: davidblue	March 2012
the basic of the tour was good, however i would recommend to use better headphones especially on the boat we heard only something and also to visit some interesting places we went by would be good .

Review by: Jeff S	March 2012
Too much time in between the walking tour and boat ride tour.

Review by: Richard A	March 2012
5 hour gap between the walking tour and the boat tour made it impossible for us to do the latter. The walking tour was ok, but the guide didn't really add much. In March the "skip the line" feature was of no value since there were no lines.

Review by: Tasha	March 2012
This tour was great! Our tour guide was knowledgeable and had a good sense of humor. He gave us interesting info about the city of Venice while walking through alleys and different districts. I loved it!

Review by: JOHN P	March 2012
Excellent tour very informative. Would recommend Viator to anyone!

Review by: Jayne B	March 2012
The tour was great. I liked the idea of the land tour being early in the day and then after a break to have the boat tour.

Review by: wyrme	February 2012
The pedant in me was disappointed that the tour advertises 'skipping the line' despite this not bring available, but the wait was brief and that wasn't why I booked the tour, so no real harm done. The walk and boat tours were great, the with humorous and interesting commentary throughout the walking tour. There was unfortunately insufficient to get back for the boat to allow a civilised lunch, and could be stressful for less able walkers and we couldn't hear the guide on the boat, she needs a wireless headphone set up also. but great value overall and I would recommend it.

Review by: Lisa C	February 2012
The tour was a bit crowded but we were there on Carnavale so everything was quite crowded. The headsets were very helpful. On crowded tours it may be nice to assign 2 guides in the future. The boat ride was wonderful. Just a few people at a time. The guide was wonderful and the ride was very fun.

Review by: Ahmad Q	January 2012
Average tour.

Review by: A L W	December 2011
My husband and I were on a trip to Venice to celebrate a 40th Birthday, neither of us had been to Venice before and we were both very excited to tour this lovely City, our Guide was brilliant! She was very knowledgeable of the history of Venice and we both enjoyed our tour very much! We would highly recommend this tour to anyone.

Review by: RASNA B	December 2011
overall a good tour. The guide was good and a knowledgeable person. They covered some of the major attractions in Venice. The boat trip was also good.

Review by: Jeffrey W	December 2011
Great tour - great guide - thanks Viator!

Review by: Noraha	December 2011
The morning was great with Rita as our guide. She was knowledgeable and very interesting. The boat trip in the afternoon was fair.

Review by: Nicky	December 2011
Walking tour was good but maybe a little to much information, Boat tour was absolutely fantastic courtesy of a very knowledgeable and expert guide.

Review by: tricia	November 2011
an excellent tour guide with so much knowledge

Review by: cruicka	November 2011
Having only a limited time in Venice we booked our trip in advance, which not only saved money, but meant we were well prepared in advance.

Review by: Agnes	November 2011
It was great the tour guide was knowledgeable

Review by: James C	November 2011
Excellant even though St. Marks square was flooded.

Review by: Carmen G	November 2011
The Tour was fine, unfortunately it rained and it made it difficulty to enjoy it. It also finished 30 min. early. The good thing about it was that we skip the line to enter the church.

Review by: DN	November 2011
It was great.

Review by: Wendy G	November 2011
The tour guide spoke as if we were children_br/_ in Play School

Review by: LEEANNE K	November 2011
Missed it due to weather....

Review by: Andrea Ruth O	November 2011
This was a well run tour. It was easy to find the meeting place and the tour coordinator which was good considering the number of people that walk around the grand canal area. The tour gave us a much better understanding of historical Venice and took us through areas we would never have found on our own. Its not that this tour takes you anywhere you couldn't find by your self, but it saves you so much time by "skipping lines" and also being fed information that would take forever to discover if you walked on your own. When the tour concluded and we all gave our tour guide a genuine round of applause for her efforts and sharing her knowledge, we went back to a little restaurant that we passed on the tour. It looked great, it was one of the most memorable meals of our holiday, and we never would have even known it existed if we weren't taken through the back alleys of Venice on this tour. Loved it!