Venice Travel Guide

Dan and I flew to Venice in September 2021 with low expectations and quickly fell in love with this city. Venice is a unique and charming city located in northeastern Italy, known for its beautiful canals, historic architecture, and rich cultural heritage. The city is built on a group of 118 small islands connected by a series of canals and bridges, giving it a distinctive appearance and feel. Here are some of the notable features of Venice:

We had very little time to get ready for this spontaneous trip but here's what we've learned from our visit.

Venice, Italy

BEST TIME TO VISIT:

September until Mid-October.
Early spring.
During Venice Carnival but I would go during the week, not on weekends.

WHEN TO AVOID:

Mid-October -January because of Acqua Alta floods. Do know that November is prime time for the Acqua Alta floods. Acqua Alta floods - is the phenomenon by which Venice is flooded temporarily when the sea tide rises over 90 cm!
June & July.

GETTING AROUND:

Walking: The most common way of getting around is by walking. There are a lot of small busy alleyways and staircases so walking with luggage can be a bit of a hassle when making your way to your hotel. If you’re just looking to explore the shops or get food, walking to your destination will be the easiest.
Water Taxi: If you’re looking to go somewhere a bit further or have heavy bags that you don’t want to carry, you can take a water taxi. If you take a train into Venice, you can walk out of the train station and the first bridge that you see is the main bridge. Right underneath there are water taxis.
Water Buses: Water buses, aka Vaporetto, are another option for getting around. You can buy a bus pass that will allow you to ride for your full trip.
Gondolas: Lastly, there are the gondolas. It costs close to 80 Euros (you can lower them to 60 Euros) for 30 minutes so it’s not really worth it just for getting from place to place.

TAKING A GONDOLA RIDE ISN'T ESSENTIAL

Most people who come to Venice want to experience a Gondola ride. Before our trip, we asked our Instagram followers if they recommend doing the gondola ride since it wasn't on our bucketlist. We were surprised when most of them advised us NOT to take the Gondola ride.

It costs 80 Euro, but you can lower it to 60 Euro for a 30-minute ride.

At night the price is 100 Euro for 30 minutes.

GET A VAPORETTO TOURIST PASS

If you get lost (which happens to everyone in Venice) or you’re simply too tired of walking around you can hop on and off a Vaporetto. A Vaporetto is Venice's version of a bus.

Prices: A single ride is 7.5 Euro. I would consider getting one of the Vaporetto passes as we did. There are a few options depending on how long your stay is. 20 Euro for 24 hours per person. 30 Euro for 48 hours per person. 40 Euro for 72 hours per person. and 60 Euro for 7 days per person.

SOUVENIR STALLS

Riva degli Schiavoni is filled with souvenir stalls. It is a huge tourist trap and I recommend that you go deeper into Venice and buy authentic souvenirs. For example, you can buy glass directly from Murano or lace in Burano. I always bring home from Italy.

If you do choose to get the souvenirs from the stalls, I would get all of them from one spot and bargain for a good price.

WATER FOUNTAINS

While visiting Rome we discovered from the locals that there are water fountains all around that you can drink from. In Venice, they have these same fountains with fresh cold water. Bring a water bottle and fill up your bottle when need be. It saves money since Venice is expensive and it reduces plastic waste.

DON'T FEED PIGEONS

It's kind of the same advice I gave with the monkeys in Asia. Once you give them little a little bit of your food, more will come and they won't leave you alone.

BE CAREFUL WHERE YOU SIT

Since the best way of getting around is walking, you're going to want to sit at some point, but you'll find there the options are very slim. There aren't many benches. The local council has a number of rules for visitors in order to maintain its beauty, reduce litter, and preserve a modicum of peace/sanity for residents and if broken, you could get a 200 Euro fine therefore you can not sit just anywhere you want, even if it's a step.

BATHROOMS

If you thought that finding somewhere to sit was hard, bathrooms are even harder. Public toilets are few and far between in Venice, they have limited opening hours and cost 1.5 Euro to enter. You'll see signs around the city that points towards the bathrooms but you'll find yourself walking for quite a while without finding them in the end since they are tucked away.

What we found to be the best solution is to go to a cafe, order an espresso or a soft drink, use their bathroom, finish your drink, and then leave. This is acceptable just try not to make it too obvious.

BEAT THE CROWDS

WAKE UP EARLY! This is the best advice we could give you.

Venice is one of the most beautiful cities we've been to, but in the afternoon it quickly losses from its beauty with the number of people walking around and trying to capture photos in the popular spots in the city.

6 AM is a great hour to start your day before everyone arrives. You'll start feeling the crowds already at 11 AM.

SIM CARDS:

We found it pretty hard to find a sim card in Venice. Try to come with a SIM card already on you or before you arrive in Venice. The only spot we ended up finding was in Vodafone near Rialto Bridge.

SITTING FEES IN RESTAURANTS:

Do take into consideration that in restaurants they charge sitting fee which is usually 2 Euro per person.

Important:

In order to reduce visitors Venice has decided that Beginning of summer 2022, visitors will have to make a reservation in advance and pay a fee in order to visit Venice. If you're planning a trip to Venice in 2022 I would be on the lookout for this!

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