Best of Venice Tour with St Mark’s Basilica,Doge’s Palace & Grand Canal

5 h

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About this activity

This Super Saver gives you two options for the length of your tour day. Both options include a Doge's Palace tour that starts at 9am, and then you can choose to have free time to enjoy the city or to go straight to your next tour to finish your day of touring an hour earlier

See the 'View additional info' link below for a map of the start point for your first tour.

Skip the Line: Doge's Palace Tour (2 hours):

Meet your guide at the entrance to the Royal Gardens in Venice and stroll to Doge's Palace, the magnificent Venetian-Gothic building from where the leaders of the former Venetian Republic ruled until the late-18th century. Head inside and explore the grandiose public chambers that the doges lavished with fine art and ornamentation. Masterpieces by Renaissance champions Tintoretto and Veronese adorn the walls and ceilings, framing the palace’s grand staircases and arcade statues.

Learn about the doges as you walk around, and hear of the power and treachery that characterized their reign. Ruling the republic with iron fists, the doges established a network of prisons at the palace so they could keep a close eye on their foes. Wander across the Bridge of Sighs, built to connect the palace to the prisons, and pose for photos against the backdrop of the palace. Your walking tour then finishes outside the palace.

Skip the Line: Venice Walking Tour with St Mark’s Basilica (2 hours):

Leave St Mark’s Square and set off on your walking tour to discover Venice’s highlights and its top attractions. Soak up the hustle and bustle of St Mark’s Square, and head inside St Mark’s Basilica to admire its interiors. Marvel at the marble floors and ogle the gilded mosaics that blanket the walls and ceilings. The canopy over the high altar dazzles with gold and gems, and the treasury room holds an array of Crusader spoils plundered from the ancient city of Constantinople.

Head out of the basilica and discover the canal walkways and pretty bridges that typify the city. Learn of legendary Venetians such as Marco Polo with his globe-trotting adventures and other famous landmarks. After two hours, your tour finishes near Rialto Bridge.

Venice Grand Canal Boat Tour (1 hour):

Hop aboard your small motorboat at the water’s edge near St Mark’s Square, and then cruise around Venice’s impressive Grand Canal. The busiest stretch of water is also the city’s most photogenic, and the Baroque churches and gondola stations that line the water provide elegant photo opportunities.

As you cruise through the Grand Canal, learn about the city, its beautiful architecture and buildings from your guide. Pass Gothic palaces and churches, hear stories about Rialto Bridge and medieval merchants warehouses, and explore the lesser-visited canals that comprise Venice’s atmospheric backstreets. After an hour on the water, cruise back to the start point.

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Included

Professional guide
Guaranteed to skip the long lines
Headset to hear the guide clearly
Cruise
Entry/Admission - Ponte dei Sospiri
Entry/Admission - Basilica di San Marco
Entry/Admission - Doge's Palace
Entry/Admission - Scala dei Giganti di Palazzo Ducale
Entry/Admission - Piombi - le Prigioni
Entry/Admission - Porta Della Carta
Guaranteed to skip the lines

Not included

Gratuities
Hotel pickup and drop-off
Food and drinks

Additional

Confirmation will be received at time of booking
Not wheelchair accessible
A dress code is required to enter places of worship and selected museums. No shorts or sleeveless tops allowed. Knees and shoulders MUST be covered for both men and women. You may risk refused entry if you fail to comply with these dress requirements
Large bags and rucksacks are not allowed inside St Mark's Basilica
At certain times it may not be possible to enter any of the visited churches due to religious functions taking place. These closures are beyond our control so no refunds or discounts will be issued
Please note: due to Lent religious observance St. Mark’s Basilica will remain closed and no visiting will be permitted on all Saturdays and Sundays from February 2016 until Easter 2016 included. All tours including the Basilica will operate as scheduled but guides will provide a detailed explanation of Basilica’s history, architecture and its treasures from the outside and wherever possible will bring visual aids (either books or pictures or Ipad) to allow the customers to view the interior of the church
In condition of high water, St Mark’s Basilica Skip the line entrance will remain closed
Skip the line tickets to St Mark’s basilica are valid from 1st April until 31st October – From 1st November to 31st March due to less affluence to St Mark’s Basilica, this service is not provided by the church to all operators and individual travellers

Features

Tourism

95%

Cultural

90%

Original

20%

Reviews

4.5

741

Betty G

5 | 2019-09-23

This was an excellent tour broken into 3 sectors with free time between each sector and would highly recommend

bmalward

5 | 2019-09-17

The tour was split with three different times and three different tour guides. Groups we small enough to manage and not have to wait for all the gather during the tours. Guides were all very friendly, knowledgeable and spoke English very well.

Garry H

4 | 2019-08-30

Definitely worth paying for a skip the line tour as both places had massive queues. The guide was very good and informative. Both tours covered the sites very well and we saw a lot.

Brent B

5 | 2019-08-27

Our guide, Laura, was incredible! If you only do one tour in Venice, this is it! Great way to see/learn Venice!

halide a

5 | 2019-08-19

we loved aliana our tour guide. She had a great sense of humor and deep knowledge of history. She had a knack for shepherding us through the crowds and her english is really great.

Sheryl Fernando

5 | 2019-08-12

Both tour guides - both named Christina - were fantastic! Great info, pace and provided other good tips.

Kerri H

5 | 2019-07-03

This full day tour was a great way to see and learn about Venice. Would totally recommend as you check off a tour of Doge's palace, St. Mark's Basilica, a walking tour of Venice neighborhoods and a Grand Canal tour via water taxi all in one day! Time in between each tour to grab food, a drink and unwind was great too. Loved all of our tour guides, especially Georgia!!

Muhammad Ashraf N

5 | 2019-07-03

Very informative and fun tour! The tour guide is very knowledgeable on the things that they shared and they are very friendly and thoughtful.

carne.jennifer

5 | 2019-04-23

We thoroughly enjoyed this full day tour of Venice. As a matter of fact, the Doge's palace was our favorite attraction of the whole trip. Stephanya was very knowledgeable and humorous during our Doge's palace tour. We loved seeing the beautiful art and walking across the bridge of Sighs. Lauda was great on the Basilica and walking tour portion. We enjoyed the motor boat tour of the grand canal with Christina. Highly recommend this tour. It is three separate tours, FYI. We also loved having headsets on the Doge's palace tour and the Basilica/walking tour.

Patrick M

5 | 2019-04-15

This was a fun fact filled tour of the Doges Palace and gave us a good idea of what Venice was about.

krnarans

4 | 2018-10-08

Our guide was hard to understand, it was SO HOT and crowded inside the Palace-it was nic, but too long and too much information in such a short time period.

Yasmin G

4 | 2018-08-07

Louisel, our guide for the Doge was very friendly and knew so muc! In the afternoon we had Federica for the walking tour and shr was pretty good but she did talk about some things we didnt need to know a lot about her kids...which is fine but it was a lot of talk about them. Then in the afternoon we had the boat ride with Max who was so funny and knowledgeable, this was the best part of the day! The only stressful part was the lady that checked us in as as she didnt give us the stickers she was meant to for us yo wear so they knew we were in the group, then she neglected to tell us what time to meet for the boat trip.

Joseph C

5 | 2018-08-05

Excellent experienced. Would do again

Bruce C

5 | 2018-07-18

Really good tours. Excellent tour of the Doge's palace. Then St Mark's Basilica. The skip the line was really important here followed by a nice walking tour of the quieter parts of Venice with lots of good background/historic information provided. Excellent local guide with good English. In the afternoon the tour/s included a water taxi ride that lasted about an hour. Great to see Venice from the water and the trip through some of the closer islands and the Grand canal. Once again an excellent guide. Great value for money.

Bryce S

1 | 2018-07-11

Planned on starting early and being done by 1-2pm... Wrong! Did the Palace tour at 9am excellent. Because it was Sunday Basilica tour did not start until after 12n. Basilica okay felt rushed. Walking tour was good. We were told the canel tour did not start until 5:30pm [we were booked after those that just booked the canel tour is what we were told] We left [my husband had a knee replacement 5months ago too much waiting around] The couple we were with stayed but didn't take the tour. They said the boat was way too crowded to see anything. We were very disappointed with the whole thing!

aguildroy

4 | 2018-06-04

Our tour guide was good, and made sure we knew the tickets for the Doge's Palace were also good for the other museums in San Marco Square we visited them the next day. The walking tour took us a little further afield than I might have ventured on my own, and made me feel more comfortable exploring. The boat tour was also lovely.

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