Venice Walking Tour and Gondola Ride

Venice, Italy

Take a guided walking tour of Venice and admire its hidden treasures nestled amid its squares, bridges and narrow streets. Prepare to be enchanted by the world's most romantic city as you wander through its picturesque cobblestone alleyways and enjoy a gondola ride through the Grand Canal.

After meeting your expert guide near the Piazza San Marco, you'll take a leisurely stroll through the streets of Venice. Have your camera ready for unforgettable pictures of  intriguing, yet lesser-known Venice sights that will chart your route as you walk. The exact itinerary on your Venice Walking Tour will be determined by your guide on the day.

You half-day tour will continue with a 35-minute gondola ride along Venice's famous Grand Canal - undoubtedly a highlight of your trip.

This is the perfect way to get to know Venice as a must-do introductory city tour for new visitors, as well as anyone interested in the city's colorful history. The tour does not include interior visits.

USD $56.18

Traveler Reviews

Review by: Elizabeth R	April 2012
fantastic tour!! Our gondalier pointed out a few good bits but the tour was one of the best ones ever our guide was so enthusiastic and took us to a part of Venice I had not been to at all in the 4 days I was there so very interested and passionate about everything really well worth doing

Review by: Miguel	April 2012
The walking tour was a very interesting learning experience.

Review by: Janessa P	April 2012
The gondola ride was awesome. We traveled many of the canals in the city which were very pretty. However, the man giving us our gondola ride left his cell phone on and it rang continually. The tour was very interesting. We saw some major points, learnt some Italian words, as well as heard funny stories about the history of people living in Venice. The tour did however feel a little bit long because everything was spoken in English, and then repeated in Spanish.

Review by: PhoebeGlamour	March 2012
I took this tour alone in March 2012._br/_ Main points: _br/_ -tour meeting point was hard for me to find only because there wasn't clear signing for where the museum was. And it was my only day in Venice (hadn't got used to the area)_br/_ -We were rushed onto the gondola without much introduction. _br/_ -the gondola ride itself was beautiful, yet for me, was uncomfortable as the tour guide put me (alone, female) with 5 foreign men. I felt awkward the whole ride...

Review by: Daniel P	March 2012
We went during Carnivale and did not realize all of Venice would be filled with people. We actually missed the rendevouz with the guide and had to sprint to the gondola tour to catch up. After the gondola ride, we were forgotten by the guide and left at the dock. In effect, never finished the tour. Company offered to let us take the tour the next day, but we were leaving so we could not take advantage.

Review by: spob	March 2012
We arrived at the meeting place, five minutes after the tour started and the tour group had already left, after contacting a representative, we met up with the tour group at the gondolas. The gondola ride was wonderful, very relaxing and enjoyable. The walking tour was okay, the guide spoke very softly so it was hard to hear her as it was a large group!

Review by: stephen g	March 2012
We went on the gondola ride first. The boat almost tipped over as a couple of people were moving about in the boat. No instructions were given before or during the ride. Rather than a relaxing ride, one hoped to just get back to the dock before taking a plunge in the water. No information about the area was given during the ride. The walking portion was not difficult, but also not very informative. We had a small group and you still could not hear the tour guide most of the time unless you were standing right next to her. Ear pieces like they had at the Vatican tour would have been a big help or having someone with a loud voice. I didn't learn much more than what I had already read in a tour book. I would not recommend this tour for the price versus the value. The meeting place was difficult to find for newbies to Venice.

Review by: Susan E	March 2012
A fun trip. Gondola trip lovely though I never felt entirely secure on the middle seat. Interesting walking tour though the back streets. Lots of interesting, different information, though I felt we never saw quite as much as we might.

Review by: Fred	March 2012
Initially I was impressed. Due to a travel problem we did not arrive in time for the tour. I phoned as soon as possible, the person said no problem, just come tomorrow._br/_ The next day we arrived at the office, again the staff was polite but not real helpful. The tour began with no explanation of what was happening, just follow me. We were rushed onto the gondola, off we went, we rode through some back water canals and offloaded where we began. A guide who had a heavy accent and was hard to hear because of a bit of static in the radio took us on the walking tour. She had to say her stuff twice, we had 4 members of the group that spoke another language. We were rushed through as a result and had little time for questions._br/_ If I had it to do over again I would take my chances on a gondola ride from a gondola boatsman on the grand canal who would have been a bit nicer, the ride would ;have been more scenic, and missed the post ride walking tour.

Review by: modym02	March 2012
A little disorganized and the walking tour was not enthusiastic.

Review by: kev	March 2012
This trip was a birthday present for my wife and the service we received was fantastic, Venice was a lovely place to visit and and transport from airport was great, just got number 5 bus straight to city, 20 minutes and only 18 euros return for 2 people, would recommend a visit to anyone

Review by: P R M	February 2012
My husband and I really enjoyed the tour and Gondola Ride however it would have been nicer if we had been on our own for the ride!

Review by: Peter D O	February 2012
The Gondola ride was lovely but we were squeezed in, I would have preferred a private ride. Our walking tour guide was wonderful. She took us around the 'back streets' and showed us many areas you would otherwise not see. She was extremely helpful and knowledgeable.

Review by: Ann BW	February 2012
Very good but not helped by the cold weather.

Review by: Susan P	January 2012
Very hard to find! We went round and round and were told several different wrong places before we finally found where to meet. The gondola ride was awesome! Our gondolier was great! The walking tour was not so good. Our guide did a great job, having to switch between English and French but we signed up to do this when we first arrived in Venice so we would know what to spend time seeing. We were taken through the edge of town and given some great historical information on the one little area but we didn't go to San Marcos Plaza or the more prominent city sights so depending on what you want to know, it could be good or bad. We went in January when things are very slow so we probably could have gotten a longer gondola ride for the same price.

Review by: Robert W	January 2012
Gondola ride was fine. Our tour guide, although obviously knowkegeable, we didn't feel we learnt an awful lot.

Review by: Douglas S	January 2012
Deeply disappointing. Previous experience with Viator had been quite good. Odd confusion here about who our guide was (depending on language). Our English-speaking guide was haughty and hurried. Did not leave us where we started, provided no history, only elementary directions for getting about town that anyone who could read did not need.

Review by: merlinrnr	January 2012
Gondola ride was nice, except the seats were individual and all over the place, not side-by-side. Walking tour was awful. Doesn't go through any of the typical Venetian sites but rather through back alleys and useless areas. Don't recommend.

Review by: Missy	January 2012
Didn't care for this tour at all. Didn't spend enough time in San Marco's square, took some back street route of sime kind, didn't see anything memorable at all, didn't go inside a single church. Would've done better on our own.

Review by: Nicholas G	January 2012
The gondola was well worth it and priced very reasonable, but the walking tour was short and the equipment was not useful for those walking with the tour guide unfortunately.

Review by: Joanna P	January 2012
Great for city orientation!

Review by: Mary F	January 2012
I would recommend it to anyone looking for good intro to the city. our woman guide was very nice and informative. I think the Gondola ride should have covered more of the Grand Canal.

Review by: Miguel Pagan	January 2012
It was great and romantic.

Review by: Herman	January 2012
This is a good way of getting to know Venice, not the best though. Our tour guide had to translate in two languages which did take some time and made me lose interest after a while. If I knew it was not an english only tour, I would not have booked. Venice is not like other cities, you can discover it by yourself if you catch up on some research before your holiday. The Gondola ride was not that personal. There were no songs sung as advertised. Also, expect to pay 8.50 euros for a caffe latte in St. Marks Square. Other than that,Venice is one of the most beautiful cities I have been to. Herman S.A

Review by: MS shepherd	January 2012
The gondola ride was nice, the guide was more interested in the time, than giving us information about Venice. It was admittedly cold in Jan. but I was somewhat disappointed in the amount of information given.

Review by: Thomas L	December 2011
Gondola ride was great, however, the walking tour was not as good since they did not use the wireless microphone receiver for individual so the guide can explain the landmark as we strolled down the alley. There weren't much explanation of the history of the landmark as we passing through them. We stopped occasionally in a circle as he explained the geological of the Venice (and he focused much more on those aspect along the tour more than anything else, thus missing talking about the significant of the landmark as we passed through them, in my opinion).

Review by: William E Whitaker	December 2011
Disappointed.

Review by: Elizabeth T	December 2011
The gondola ride was crowded and not comfortable..six adults and one child is not a relaxing ride... The so called tour, is really for someone who knows nothing about Italy..He pointed out an Opera house and explained what opera means and then a gelatto spot and what gelatto is...How to read a street sign and so on..Very disappointing to someone who has been to Italy before and has a general knowlege of Italy or Europe. Was hoping to learn about history of specific sites..This was not the case at all.

Review by: DR AINOL	December 2011
I couldnt make it for this.

Review by: Andy	December 2011
Guide was not the best of breed...quite uninteresting and didnt really engage the crowd!

Review by: Pik Kum K	December 2011
The gondola ride was nice and long. The hour was wonderful. It was nice that the gondola ride and tour only kept to 4 people. The walking tour was decent with the exception that the tour guide didn't really take us to the main touristy spots of Venice. She took us through back alleys and smaller areas that maybe more local Venice tourists would appreciate. We pretty much missed everything in St. Mark's Square. The tour guide didn't really ask us where we wanted to go or see.

Review by: Suzanne	December 2011
I thought the trip was well organised and enjoyable. Very good value for money and I would definitley recommend it to others.

Review by: Marjorie M	December 2011
This was nice but the Venice walking tour with St Mark's was better for the walking section. Liked the gondola ride.

Review by: Clara H. V	December 2011
Excellent service. On time and very well explained

Review by: Alison G	November 2011
The gondola ride was fantastic, and made the trip worth doing, great value for ££ HOWEVER the walking tour was terrible- I knew more myself than the guide, whose English was poor and had no idea of how to manage a group...we could not hear through the audio equipment given , but when we could, we realised that it wasn't really worth listening to on the whole! many people gave up and americans in particular were not well pleased the guide was oblivious to this discontent feel she needs proper training. would still recommend tho as the gondola was worth it alone.....maybe we were unlucky with the guide

Review by: Carol E	November 2011
The gondola trip was great but the guide was not. She didn't keep her mikrophon close to her mouth so the sound was on and off and also, she kept translating into Spanish and spoke much longer with the two couples in Spanish although the majority of tourists were speaking English. I would not want to have her as a guide again.

Review by: NIna N	November 2011
It was good to have the gondola ride before the walk tour due to early sunset in November. The overall tour was enjoyable.

Review by: Anonymous	November 2011
We had part of one da and this sereved us very well indeed.

Review by: Sandra V, United States of America	July 2010
It was short and sweet. The guide was very knowledgeable and the gondola ride was awesome.

Review by: Marsha D, United States of America	July 2010
very enjoyable walking tour..just the right amount of information on tour, and no line for gondola ride or expensive costs!!!

Review by: Anonymous, Canada	June 2010
Our guide was very good and our gondola ride ride was good also.

Review by: Laurel H, Canada	June 2010
Very informative and lots of fun. Our guide had a great sense of humour and was very knoledgeable. The gondola ride at the end was great. Awesome views of Venice!

Review by: Anonymous, United Kingdom	June 2010
This excursion was excellent value for money and saved us having to haggle with a Gondolier! The walking tour was very intersting and took us to places that we probably wouldnt have found on our own. The gondola ride was excellent and is definately a must when in Venice!

Review by: Alan C, Australia	June 2010
This tour was great, giving an overview of the history of Venice and many interesting details we would otherwise have missed. Our guide spoke good English and was very accommodating for our questions and also the wet weather we had on the day! The gondola ride was very enjoyable too - a great way to see the canals and a great finish to this tour. Thanks very much!

Review by: Danielle H, Australia	May 2010
Really enjoyed the history of Venice

Review by: Anonymous, Australia	May 2010
Fantastic gondola ride and the walk through the hidden streets showed the true beauty of Venice

Review by: Linda T, United States of America	April 2010
The gondola ride was fabulous, and the walking tour was exceptional. The guide spoke English and Spanish, and we saw things we ordinarily wouldn't have seen in Venice.

Review by: Anonymous, Serbia and Montenegro	April 2010
Very interesting walking tour, with history of Venice revealed. Not too long. Just the right length. And the gondola ride for the end. Can't beat the feeling.

Review by: Anonymous, United Kingdom	April 2010
The walking tour was fantastic. The Ventian guide gave a wonderful insight into life in Venice & it was a great way to spend the afternoon.

Review by: Curtis B, United States of America	March 2010
Great gondola ride about 30 minutes. Walking tour was good also.