Venice. Do I need to book a Trip?

I've travelled all over the World but have yet to visit Venice.Unbelievable I know but that is the situation. My question is do I need to book a trip or are the major sites easily accessed from the point at which the ship/tender docks?

I've travelled all over the World but have yet to visit Venice.Unbelievable I know but that is the situation. My question is do I need to book a trip or are the major sites easily accessed from the point at which the ship/tender docks?

You don't need to book a tour, you can get the canal boats from the cruise terminal, there is also a monorail that runs to the Piazzale Roma bus station, you can walk from here to most of the main sites in Venice

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From the ship we walked to the people carrier which was some sort of monorail/shuttle train I think (it's not widely advertised as P&O prefer you to pay to go on a boat). I think the train was about a Euro for the trip which was only a few minutes long. From there we just followed our nose and were able to see all of the sites. The thing that let us down was flooding, without wellies we were restricted where we could go. Sorry I don't have more detail as it has been a while, if I went again I would not book a trip, there is a lot of opportunity to buy boat rides/trips once you are ashore (we didn't bother).

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Venice is a brilliant place to visit and very easy to do by yourself. Some months there's a shuttle bus from the cruise port to the piazza Roma where the main station is, from there you can get the vaparetto and explore the city. It's only a small city and very walkable. If there's no shuttle bus it is still only a short walk to the main terminus. You will get lost but that's half the fun! try to see the main sites like St Mark's square at dawn or late evening if you are there overnight, it's totally different to the busy chaos of the daytime. I've been to venice a few times now and it's still my favourite place on earth, it's so unique it's hard not to fall in love with it! Enjoy!

It is worth buying an all day ticket for the Waterbus (Vaporetto). This costs €20. The Grand Canal is best seen from the water and you can travel out to the islands like Murano (for the glass making) if you want.

Brian

Get to St Mark's Square and wander round the back streets. Get lost look for signs either back to St Marks or to Rialto. It is expensive to have a coffee in St Marks but reasonably just off it.

Thanks all. Very helpful.

Agree with everything said, apart from one.

If you're going all the way to Venice, or anywhere frankly that you've wanted to go to for ages, why on earth sit in a back street. Sit and enjoy the atmosphere of St. Mark's Square, or one of the cafe's/restaurants along the edge of the Grand Canal - you may never go again! :)