We’ve been to Italy several times and been to most of the major cities, but until now, we hadn’t been to Venice. After a Spring Break trip to Egypt fell through, we made the most of the ruined plans and decided to spend a few days in Venice – a city we’ve long had on our travel list. I did a lot of research for Venice, and honestly, it still felt like there were a lot of surprises during our trip. Here I share everything you need to know about traveling to Venice and all the things that will help you on your Italian adventure!
Have Cash ready for a Water Taxi
When you arrive into the Venice airport, you’ll have to go by water to get to Venice itself. I had emailed our hotel prior to our trip to see what the options were and they told me that basically you can do a private water taxi or a taxi bus that stops at different places through Venice. Obviously the taxi bus is much cheaper, but we were arriving after dark and having never been to Venice before, we opted for the private water taxi. You’ll need 140 euros for this, each way, so not cheap, but it was fairy easy and takes you directly to your hotel dock. The only thing with this that wasn’t super easy was that when you get to the water taxi area, there weren’t a lot of signs to show you which boats are the taxis and which are private boats. Also on the way back, even though all the signs and our hotel told us it was the 140 euro price, our driver tried to tell us that it was 150 euros that day due to the weather… we basically gave him 145 euros and said good luck – so they might try to up the price on you last minute.
Do all the touristy things in the early mornings
More than any other European city I’ve been to, Venice was almost overrun by tour groups during our few days there and we were there in March. I can’t even imagine what the Summer is like. Any touristy areas or things you plan to do, do them first thing in the morning. We went to San Marco, the Doge’s Palace, the Rialto Bridge, all the famous places around 8:30 in the morning and they were already crowded, but nothing near what they were when we walked through that area again around Noon. Anything you want to do, see it early in the day!
The Food isn’t Great – even with Research
In previous trips to Italy, I’ve always felt like even just picking a spot on the side of the road, usually you’re going to get pretty decent food. Venice wasn’t the same – there weren’t a ton of restaurants spilling out into plazas (some, but not as many as I thought there would be compared to places like Rome and Milan) and it’s not as easy to find the good spots. Even the ones I found in my research that were highly recommended, they just weren’t up to the standard I’ve had in other places in Italy. So just be aware of this on your trip – I’ve heard this from a lot of people and we definitely experienced it also.
Eat Breakfast at your Hotel
We stayed at the Sina Centurion Palace (and I loved and didn’t loved things about it) but one of the things that was great was that breakfast was included in our stay. It was lovely eating breakfast by the canals every morning and as there weren’t a ton of places for breakfast that weren’t just serving all pastries (which is hard for me being dairy-free), so it was great having a spot to eat every morning before exploring.
You’ll Walk Everywhere
I knew there were no cars in Venice but it wasn’t until I was actually there that it really dawned on me – there are literally no cars in Venice. You walk everywhere, unless you take water transport, that is fairly expensive and kind of hard to use. You’ll be going up and down bridges on foot all day everyday so wear comfortable shoes and be prepared to walk a lot. Venice is fairly small so you’ll never be going further than 30 minutes or so from your starting point but it is still a lot of walking!
You Don’t Need that Much Time to See Venice
Ok, so I say this point with a preface: Nick and I are not museum people and we don’t like tours, so with that in mind, we explored and saw most of Venice pretty much in one day. It’s a small island so you can see a lot of the sights and wander around and see it all really quickly. Now if you want to do tours and see the museums or the other surrounding islands, that would take longer but you don’t need all that much time to really see and experience Venice so plan your trip with that in mind.
Overall thoughts on visiting Venice
I’m really glad we saw and experienced Venice, the city alone is an architectural feat that is totally unique and honestly, it might not always be here. With flooding more frequent, it’s a place that won’t always look and feel the same so I’m really glad we visited and saw it. Overall though, I was glad our visit was short. It felt like tourism has just gone too far in Venice and you could tell that from the locals too. Other cities in Italy are so much more welcoming to visitors and you could tell that the locals in Venice were kind of just over it and I can see why. Was it my favorite place in Italy – no. Was it beautiful and totally unique and worth seeing – yes. If you’re planning to visit, I would highly suggest a short trip and then experience other places in Italy too like some of my favorites Rome, Umbria, and Tuscany!
For more info on my other travels to Italy, take a look here!