Venice

Gondola Ride and St Mark's Basilica Tour

Venice, Italy

Likely to Sell Out

From $88.30

Select Date and Travelers

up to 24 hours before the experience starts (local time)

2 hours
Mobile ticket
Offered in: English

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Overview

Experience the two most quintessential things in Venice with a gondola ride and a tour of St. Mark's Basilica. See the sights of the canal city from the water during a 35-minute gondola cruise, followed by a guided tour of the Byzantine jewel of St. Mark's.

Travel by boat and see the sights from the water
Skip the line
Informative, friendly and professional guide
Small-group tour

What's Included

Gondola ride
Skip the line access and guided tour of St. Mark’s Basilica

Gratuities

Meeting and Pickup

Meeting point

Calle larga de l'Ascension, 30124 Venezia VE, Italy
The meeting point is ten to fifteen minutes before the start of the tour at the TURIVE kiosk, located on Calle larga de l' Ascension, near the post office, behind Correr museum.

Start time

10:45 AM

End point

This activity ends back at the meeting point.

What To Expect

Piazza San Marco (Pass By)

Basilica di San Marco

1 hour • Admission Ticket Included

Teatro La Fenice

30 minutes • Admission Ticket Free

Basilica di Santa Maria della Salute (Pass By)

Additional Info

Confirmation will be received at time of booking
Not wheelchair accessible
Near public transportation
Infant seats available
Not recommended for travelers with back problems
No heart problems or other serious medical conditions
Most travelers can participate
During the winter period (from November 1st to March 31st) the Basilica guided tour is BILINGUAL, so explanations are provided in two languages if the audience is mixed
No credit or refunds will be given in the case of a no show (if you don't show up at the meeting point at the time indicated on your voucher)
This is a collective tour, which means there might be other participants going on the tour with you

In cases of religious ceremonies, exceptionally high tides or other special occasions, access to St. Mark's Basilica may not be permitted
To visit St Mark's Basilica it is necessary to dress appropriately (no shorts, vests or tops) and backpacks are not allowed for safety reasons
The gondola ride might be suspended in case of bad weather. In such cases, you are required to go to the tour departure point in order to know whether the tour takes place or not and any alternative ways to use the service
Please note that, due to the particular morphological structure of Venice and the logistic problems resulting from it, we cannot guarantee that the whole tour is accessible to people with limited mobility. This means that people with walking difficulties and wheelchair users could not be able to access some parts of the itinerary
A gondola can host up to 5 people, thus if your reservation includes more than 5 people, your group will be divided into smaller groups, or rather you will enjoy different gondolas
This is a collective tour, so there might be other people enjoying your same gondola. In this case people belonging to your reservation can be divided into different gondolas
Please note that this tour combines two different activities. Therefore, the gondola ride may not take place immediately after the end of the guided tour of St. Mark's Basilica. At the meeting point you will be notified of the exact starting time of the gondola ride.
On certain dates, most travelers staying outside of Venice who are planning to visit for the day will be required to pay a €5 access fee. For further details (including exemptions) and to learn what days this fee is applicable, please visit: https://cda.ve.it
This tour/activity will have a maximum of 999 travelers

Cancellation Policy

You can cancel up to 24 hours in advance of the experience for a full refund.

For a full refund, you must cancel at least 24 hours before the experience’s start time.
If you cancel less than 24 hours before the experience’s start time, the amount you paid will not be refunded.

Any changes made less than 24 hours before the experience’s start time will not be accepted.
Cut-off times are based on the experience’s local time.

Traveler Photos

Featured review

Michelle S

This tour was so fun! We started with the Gondola Ride. There are about 6 to a gondola and it was so cool to see the narrow passageways and see Venice from this perspective. Then we went to St. Mark's Basilica. You can't take pictures inside, but it is really beautiful and our tour guide was EXCELLENT. She gave us so much information without it feeling like an overload and was entertaining, too. Overall, I highly recommend this tour. It's a great way to spend a few hours in Venice!

Reviews

3.5

57 reviews

Total review count and overall rating based on Viator and Tripadvisor reviews

Reviews by Viator travelers.

We perform checks on reviews

Showing 1-10 of 57 reviews

Poor tour experience

Thomas_R, Feb 2024

St. Marks tour was not good. Tour guides English was not easily understood and your earphones are very low quality which made the experience difficult. Gondola ride was acceptable.

Expensive for what we received.

Tonya_M, Oct 2023

Tour guide was good, Mark, but the meeting point and crowds were difficult to maneuver. The tour company seemed disorganized, radios had several issues and the gondola ride was less than 15 minutes around the block. Wouldn’t book again.

Meeting Place Disaster

Kevin_L, Oct 2023

My wife and I arrived in Venice around 9.30am via train. With assistance from some locals we eventually found the designated area for meeting the tour. For early October the whole area was manically busy with an excessive number of other tour groups. Prior to the meeting time we hurriedly moved around these crowds for 15 minutes looking for our guide, who was meant to be dressed in a particular coloured outfit and be holding a listed flag. We never found this guide, to our extreme disappointment & sadness at missing our much awaited tour.

Just not good.

Megan_C, Aug 2023

We got to the tour and the guide was knowledgeable but the sound was super scratchy and a lot of feedback so it was hard to understand anything. Then we were told to go back to the meeting point for the gondola ride. The kiosk was all boarded up. When I called support they called someone who said they forgot to tell us the gondola ride portion wouldn’t be for another 3 hours. Nowhere in the tour description did it say the gondola ride was that much later in the day. We weren’t able to make it for the gondola ride because of this. Waiting to see if my partial refund request was approved.

The travel guides had to...

Elena_S, Jul 2023

The travel guides had to make quick changes to this itinerary since it started to rain pretty heavy and the gondola ride was not possible. They rescheduled the ride until late afternoon and switched the tour of St. Mark's Basilica so we were able to do both. Quick thinking and coordination to make sure we didn't miss either.

horrible experience save your money

Antoinette_E, Jul 2023

They ripped us off. The tour was supposed to start at 11:45 it didn’t start till 3 and the gondola ride was literally 7 minutes and I paid for 45 minutes, so unfair along with the bad treatment

Well worth it!

amy, Jul 2023

This tour was a must see while in Venice! Beautiful canals and we really liked hearing the live music from a couple of the boats!

St Marks Basilica good. Gondola rip off.

CraigRhys_B, Jun 2023

St Mark’s tour was a fantastic experience start to finish. Very knowledgeable guide. Incredible place. No queue. Gondola was a joke. You have to share. Other couple were in comfy seat. My partner and I on awkward little stools. Ride advertised as 35 mins. Actual time: 20 mins. Gondolier made no chit chat or entertainment whatsoever. Total rip off. Extremely annoyed by experience.

Excellent gondola ride...

Lily_B, Dec 2022

Excellent gondola ride and overall experience <3 This is really a must what one should experience while in Venice <3

Awaiting refund of St Mark portion

Charlie_A, Nov 2022

At mark was not available due operator did not receive change from morning tour to afternoon tour from Viator. Operator said we would be refined. If I receive refund for St Mark portion I will be happy to share.

St Mark's great, skip the gondola.

Earl_S, Aug 2022

Tour of St Mark's was great. Silvia was a great guide. Was difficult finding the kiosk to meet at by following the printed out map I had our ticket on. The kiosk is not in the square but on a street behind it. Zoom in on the map on your phone to see exactly where to meet. The title "Gondola Ride and St Mark's Basilica Tour" is deceiving. You do not go on a gondola ride and then visit St Mark's with the same guide. You Take a tour of St Mark's with a guide (Ours at 1045 for an hour) then you go on your own somewhere for awhile and meet back at the kiosk at 3 pm. Where another person quickly walks you to the beginning of the gondola line. The description when booking states "See the sights of the canal city from the water during a 35-minute gondola cruise, followed by a guided tour of the Byzantine jewel of St. Mark's." If I had it to do over we would definitely only book St. Mark's as the gondola ride was not worth the time and if the sites the description stated were on the gondola route we took....we did not see them.

Great tour of St Marks

Laura_H, Jun 2022

The actual tour of St Mark's was great, the tour guide was amazing, very knowledgeable and made the tour extremely enjoyable and easy to follow. We did find the communication by the tour company pretty poor. We didn't realise when we booked or collected the ticket that whilst the St Mark's tour was in the morning the Gondola ride was not until later in the day. It was only when we finished the tour and went back to the ticket desk that we found it. Luckily we had not made any other plans so we were free, but this needs to be communicated a lot better.

Great value

Seena_T, Jun 2019

This combo was a great value for time and money. I only wished the gondola guide talked a little. Great to skip the lines!

AWFUL!

Lori_B, Mar 2019

This was the worst tour that we have ever taken!! It was total chaos as the guides separated us by our sticker color. There was no direction by the guides on what the plan was and where we were headed. It was 'orange stickers here, green stickers there....' Once in our sticker group, we were ushered to a gondola. Again, no communication of what we were doing. LITERALLY no words spoken. Once on the gondola, our captain spent the majority of the time on his phone. He said absolutely nothing to us - NOT ONE WORD! When we were ushered off of the gondola, some guy pointed us to go around a corner. We assumed that we would be meeting a guide to continue our tour to St. Marks. There was no one there!! And there was no one anywhere to question what we should do to get to our skip the line tour of the Basilica. Terrible experience all around!

Gondola ride was really fun. St...

Elizabeth_V, Mar 2018

Gondola ride was really fun. St. Mark's Basilica tour at 1 hour was good timing for us as we were traveling with a teenager. Church tour guide was very nice, knowledgeable and spoke perfect English however, would have preferred a bit more information on the history of the Church, e.g., construction who, when, etc., as it appeared that much of that information had been shared in an earlier tour that preceded ours. In any case, we still recommend this tour - skip the line was really helpful - and seeing the mosiac art and other beautiful works were incredible.

This tour was so fun! We started...

Michelle S, Jan 2018

Unable to do due to wife getting...

Geoffrey G, Nov 2017

Unable to do due to wife getting sick, however watching the gondolas go past our hotel on the grand canal was fantastic

The Gondola ride was nice and...

starbrid, Oct 2017

The Gondola ride was nice and relaxing. The tour of St Mark's was great, the guide was excellent and explained what we were looking at with great knowledge.

Skip ihe gondola ride. Almost total...

Frederick_S, Oct 2017

Skip ihe gondola ride. Almost total waste of time. Course was crowded narrow back channel route with no scenery whatsoever out onto the Grande Canal where gondoliers just sat side by side chatting with each other killing time to fill the 30 minute commitment. The St. Marks tour was fantastic!!!!

This tour was not coordinated well at...

Tessa B, Oct 2017

This tour was not coordinated well at all. There were 2 different meeting locations, but no one knew which one was correct. The guy wed up late to meet us. The coordinator then said meet us at the tower after the ride for the tour. The Gondola ride was nice. Then we went to the tower and had a hard time finding the group. St Marks tour was very crowded. We could barely hear the tour guide as he kept up front and there was static. He then started talking politics and Trump. The tour lasted forever and the last 30 minutes were all politics while sitting. Not effective and not worth the money.