Venice travel guide
Where to stay, the best time to visit, what a day costs, and the traps to skip.
Things to do in Venice, planned over three days
Best time to visit Venice
• a note or something on ✦ an occasion worth the trip
Best months: warm walking weather, long light, everything open and lagoon trips at their best.
Best months: September brings Film Festival and Regata buzz, October is cooler, golden and prime.
Spring begins, artichoke season on Sant'Erasmo, weather improves and crowds build from April.
Heat and crowd season: 28 to 34C, humid, midday San Marco unpleasant, prices peak, many restaurants close around 15 August.
Quiet winter outside Carnival: cold, damp and foggy, empty museums, lower prices, acqua alta peaks and January restaurant breaks.
What's on
- Carnevale di Venezia February, to Shrove Tuesday
Masks, balls and packed calli at peak prices. Extraordinary once, the worst fortnight for a quiet first visit.
- Venice Biennale Arte / Architettura May/June to November
The world's biggest contemporary art exhibition in the Giardini, Arsenale and venues across the city.
- Festa della Sensa May/June, Ascension
The Marriage of the Sea ceremony and rowing regattas, the most Venetian of the big feasts.
- Festa del Redentore third weekend of July
A temporary bridge across the Giudecca Canal, festooned boats and huge fireworks. Book a Giudecca table months ahead.
- Venice International Film Festival late August to early September, about eleven days
Premieres and red carpets on the Lido, late August to early September, with hotel prices spiking city wide.
- Regata Storica first Sunday of September
Historic boat procession then gondola racing on the Grand Canal. Arrive early for a fondamenta spot.
- Venice Glass Week September
Glass events across Murano and the city in autumn.
- Festa della Salute 21 Nov
Venetians' own feast, with a candlelit temporary bridge to the Salute church.
Worth the trip for
Best things to do in Venice
St Mark's Basilica
Venice's gold mosaic basilica, best seen at the earliest entry before the Piazza crowds peak.
Doge's Palace
The Republic's state rooms, prisons and Bridge of Sighs, best paired with the Basilica early.
Scuola Grande di San Rocco
Tintoretto's greatest painting cycle, still in the confraternity hall he painted it for.
Basilica di Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari
Titian's Assumption and a Bellini Madonna in a vast church five minutes from San Rocco.
Peggy Guggenheim Collection
Pollock, Picasso and Dali in Guggenheim's own Grand Canal palazzo, doable in 90 minutes.
Grand Canal
Line 1 vaporetto from Piazzale Roma to San Marco passes every great palazzo facade on the water.
Gallerie dell'Accademia
The great Venetian painting collection, from Bellini and Giorgione to Titian and Tintoretto.
Jewish Ghetto
The world's first ghetto, with tall tenements, still active synagogues and the Jewish Museum.
Where to stay in Venice
Dorsoduro
first trip, all-round base
Museum sestiere with the Guggenheim and Accademia, lively without being a theme park, best value in the centre.
Cannaregio
local life and value
Venice's most residential sestiere, with the Ghetto, evening bacari and prices a step below the centre.
San Marco
first, short, splurge trip
Sleep inside the postcard minutes from the Basilica, at the highest rates and with the densest crowds.
San Polo / Santa Croce
food, markets and easy arrival
Rialto Market and the best bacari cluster at your feet, with easy arrival from the station and Piazzale Roma.
Castello
quiet, Biennale and repeat visitors
Real neighbourhoods east of San Marco, with Via Garibaldi, the Giardini and the Arsenale.
Giudecca
views, pools and breathing room
A residential island facing Dorsoduro, with the best skyline view and a 5 minute vaporetto to the centre.
Think twice about
- Immediate San Marco and Rialto tourist funnel
Not unsafe, but poor value and exhausting: the densest day tripper crowds, the worst restaurant traps and premium prices.
- Mestre
Mainland base sold as Venice. Cheaper, but you lose Venice after dark and in the early morning and commute from the station.
- Lido and far lagoon islands as a first-trip base
Lovely for a summer beach trip, wrong for sightseeing: every day starts and ends with a 15 to 40 minute boat ride.
- Hotels far from a vaporetto stop
With heavy luggage, 400 plus bridges with steps and few porters make the stop to door walk a genuine stay shaper.
Best restaurants in Venice
Osteria alle Testiere
Tiny market driven seafood restaurant built on the day's Rialto catch, with two sittings.
Antiche Carampane
Old school Venetian seafood hidden by the Rialto, loved for moeche and spider crab in season.
Al Covo
Slow Food rooted, family run lagoon seafood near the Arsenale, a special dinner since 1987.
Cantine del Vino già Schiavi
Wine shop bacaro facing the San Trovaso boatyard, with dozens of cicchetti at tiny prices.
Bar All'Arco
Father and son bacaro by Rialto Market with market fresh cicchetti, gone by early afternoon.
La Zucca
Venice's beloved mostly vegetarian osteria, known for pumpkin lasagne and seasonal vegetables.
Local
Starred modern Venetian tasting menus reworking cicchetti and island produce.
Estro Vino e Cucina
Natural wine bar restaurant with a 700 bottle wall and modern takes on Venetian classics.
Outdoor things to do in Venice
Row Venice
Learn to row standing up, gondolier style, through quiet Cannaregio canals with local instructors.
Murano
Lagoon island for a real glass furnace demonstration, reached independently by vaporetto.
Burano
Coloured fishermen's houses and lace on a bright lagoon island, paired with Murano and Torcello.
Torcello
Near empty fields and Venice's oldest cathedral, with Byzantine mosaics and deep quiet.
Lido di Venezia
Cycle past Liberty villas and old Malamocco to a swim at Alberoni at the island's far end.
Circolo Golf Venezia
Venice's only golf course, 18 holes around an old fortress in pine woods at Alberoni.
Sant'Erasmo
Venice's vegetable garden island, cycled past artichoke fields, farms, vines and honey.
Venice by Water
Guided kayaking through quieter Cannaregio canals and out toward lagoon islands.
Best hotels in Venice
Hotel Moresco
Small luxury hotel on a quiet Dorsoduro canal, the area's top end pick.
Palazzo Veneziano
Palazzo hotel toward the Zattere, for a luxury Dorsoduro base by the water.
Ca' Pisani
Accademia side boutique stay in Dorsoduro's museum quarter.
Hotel American Dinesen
Accademia side boutique hotel in Dorsoduro, near the Guggenheim and Accademia.
Hotel Tiziano
Small hotel in a 15th century building near San Basilio in Dorsoduro.
Ca' Bonfadini
Palazzo hotel on the Cannaregio Canal, for a luxury base in Venice's most residential sestiere.
Hotel Antiche Figure
Grand Canal hotel at the Santa Croce edge, handy for the station and Piazzale Roma.
Hotel Villa Viridia
Family friendly, good value Cannaregio stay in the most local feeling sestiere.
Is Venice expensive? What a day costs
| Budget | €130 a person |
|---|---|
| Classic | €270 a person |
| Splurge | €550 a person |
A day of food, drink, sights and getting around, before the room
What to book ahead
- St Mark's Basilica: weeks ahead
- Doge's Palace: weeks ahead
- Peggy Guggenheim Collection: weeks ahead
- Gallerie dell'Accademia: weeks ahead
- Teatro La Fenice: weeks ahead
- Musica a Palazzo: weeks ahead
- Circolo Golf Venezia: a few days ahead
- Book St Mark's Basilica, Doge's Palace, Accademia and Scrovegni in Padua timed tickets days to weeks ahead in season.
- Book Testiere, Al Covo, Antiche Carampane, Local, CoVino and La Zucca 2 to 4 weeks ahead for dinner in season.
- Day visitors on peak days must book the Venice Access Fee ahead and pay 5 to 10 euros; overnight guests register for an exemption.
Is Venice safe?
- Pickpockets work packed vaporetti and the San Marco crush. Keep a front crossbody bag and phone away on crowded boats.
- Agree every boat price before boarding and check restaurant bills; coperto is legal and listed.
- Emergency number 112. Watch for slippery surfaces during acqua alta.
- Check your government's current travel advice before you go.
Venice travel tips: tourist traps to skip
- Restaurants on Piazza San Marco and the Riva with photo menus, touts and tourist menus: the worst food at the highest prices.
- Murano free tour glass factories deliver you to a showroom hard sell. Go independently and look for the Vetro Artistico trademark.
- A gondola at midday on the Grand Canal is an overpriced traffic jam. Confirm the official tariff before boarding, or take a traghetto.
Getting around Venice: public transport and more
- Walk: most cross city walks are 25 to 40 minutes and walking is how Venice reveals itself.
- Buy a vaporetto pass instead of singles: 24h 25 euros, 72h 45 euros, 7 day 65 euros.
- Take the 2 euro traghetto gondola ferry across the Grand Canal at fixed crossings such as San Toma.
- From the airport, the bus to Piazzale Roma plus vaporetto is faster and cheaper than the Alilaguna water bus.
Who Venice suits
| Solo travellers | Good |
|---|---|
| Groups of friends | Great |
| Couples | Great |
| Bachelor parties | Good |
| Families | Good |
| Bachelorette parties | Good |
Make Venice your trip
Swearby drafts the days from places people swear by. Swap any stop, then invite the crew by text, even friends without the app. Vote on dates, track costs as you go, and everyone gets one number at the end.
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