Venice in a day and half

[jkbec101]

We're flying into Venice prior to our cruise out Trieste.  

 

We'll have roughly a day and a half in Venice.  For those of you who have had a similar amount of time, did you use a tour operator to see the major sites or did you do it on your own?  

 

Looking for recommendations.

[euro cruiser]

Venice is pretty compact and the key sites are mostly all within walking distance of one another.  It is easily done DIY with a small amount of up-front research and planning (such as purchasing tickets in advance for certain visits, like the Doge's palace).

[kohanfam]

I found this website to be a pretty good itenary and plan to follow it

From EarthTrekkers website

https://www.earthtrekkers.com/2-days-in-venice-itinerary/

[princeton123211]

2 hours ago, jkbec101 said:

We'll have roughly a day and a half in Venice.  For those of you who have had a similar amount of time, did you use a tour operator to see the major sites or did you do it on your own?  

 

Looking for recommendations.

Agree with eurocruiser-- if you want to see the main sights and not dive too deep this can easily be done by yourself.

 

You'll often see recommendations here to stay in Piazzale Roma or near Santa Lucia train station-- if your budget permits you to spend a bit more, stay more central to San Marco. You'll spend less time walking back and forth (vs saving money by staying there in less expensive, less centrally located hotels) and more time in the areas you want to be touring. Doing so will be more expensive though and most likely necessitate the use of expensive water taxis to get your luggage in and out of town-- but the upside is you'll maximize your touring time in Venice proper. 

[edinburgher]

20 hours ago, jkbec101 said:

did you use a tour operator to see the major sites or did you do it on your own?  

Venice is compact and ideally suited to walking, indeed the only way you can visit the central area other than using the public vaporettos  but aside from the Grand Canal route, they are really only good for getting you from A to B.  You could also use a private water taxi to get you from A to B but at high cost and hardly worth it.Walking is actually the best way to enjoy Venice and gives you the flexibility to go at your own pace speeding up and slowing down whever it suits you.  It is also perfect for photo taking pauses and you will most likely take many.  And I think most visitors will get lost at least once in some of the narrow streets, actually part of the charm of the city, and  you would only need a very few   minutes to get back on track as you are never really far from anywhere in Venice.

 

Suggesting you go to the highly recommended VeniceforVisitors website as a starting point, especially as it appears it will be your first visit, as the site covers most of what you should find helpful to know about the city to help you with your planning.  And aside from pre-booking any entries to the busiest sights, a good guidebook is likely all you would need. In the past on our many day visits, we walked each of the "sestieri" as well as visiting Murano and Burano,and we found these self guided walking tours online.  Be aware that the most crowded area is usually around St Marks Square and the Rialto Bridge, and you will probably want to visit there, but we have always found other areas to be peaceful with few tourists.  And the vaporetto Grand Canal route will also be busy.Do expect crowds in Venice at most times of the year.  Much info online of course,Tripadvisor as an example, but also YouTube videos to watch and many many other websites to find when you search online.

 

And you will need to consider what to do about your luggage and a hotel location.  There have been many past threads which you m ight find helpful to read in addition to past threads about only Venice itself.  this very recent one has a couple of posts of possible interest

 

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2973349-ncl-used-hotels-in-venice/#comment-66441032

 

There may be some helpful ones here to get you started, but search  again by tweaking the wording to find others as Venice hotels is quite a FAQ.

:

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/search/?q=hotel in venice&quick=1&updated_after=any&sortby=relevancy&search_in=titles&search_and_or=and

 

Edited November 22, 2023 by edinburgher

[CCJack]

Agree with all.   My additional input is Venice can be extremely crowded around St. Marks between approx. noon and 5 pm.    Early morning and evening is much more pleasant.  Not sure how your 1 1/2 days fits in there but if you have a morning in Venice get up early and you will see so much more before the crowds arrive.   Maybe spend that afternoon time elsewhere in Venice besides the popular sights.

 

You don't need a tour operator. 

 

With only 1.5 days I probably would skip Murano and Burano because that can take a half a day at least.  You could take the vaporetto over to the church of San Giorgio however.  That is an easy trip which doesn't take much time,  and we enjoyed going up to the top of the tower in San Girogio.   It has great view overlooking Venice.   

 

 

 

 

[edinburgher]

15 hours ago, CCJack said:

With only 1.5 days I probably would skip Murano and Burano because that can take a half a day at least. 

Absolutely agree.  1 and 1/2 days isn't really enough time to include either or both, unless they would be your #1 priority with less time available for other areas of the city. I would exclude these and hope to include them on a longer second visit.

 

Having said that, do take the # 1 vaporetto along the Grand Canal. A totally amazing and unique sighseeing "tour ". And again, as this route can be extremely crowded, try to be as early in the day as possible, eg 0700 or so.

 

And CCJack said this

if you have a morning in Venice get up early and you will see so much more before the crowds arrive. 

 

By "early" you could think about as early as sunrise or 0600 or thereabouts. Have breakfast after that initial sightseeing rather than before.

Edited November 25, 2023 by edinburgher

[Galveston Cruiser]

We just returned from Italy.  Flew into Venice, stored un-needed luggage at airport, took Alilaguna to Rialto Bridge (plan on at least 1 -1/2 hours or more from arrival to reach Venice.).   Our apartment was a 3 minute walk with no steps or bridges to Campo Manon.  Same for return.  It was not crowded at all.