Venice

Venice Guided Tour of St. Mark's Basilica

Venice, Italy

From $33.90

Select Date and Travelers

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

  • 1 hour
  • Mobile ticket
  • Offered in: English

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Overview

Discover the golden mosaics, soaring domes, and iconic architecture of St. Mark’s Basilica on a guided tour of the cathedral, with skip-the-line admission included. Learn about the history and culture of Venice through the treasures inside the Byzantine landmark, and then get access to either the Terrace and Museum of St. Mark’s Basilica, or the Pala d’Oro, depending on your chosen package.
  • Guided tour of an iconic location in Venice—St. Mark’s Basilica
  • Skip the long lines and have more time to spend inside
  • Learn fascinating historical insights from your guide
  • Hear the guide clearly: Headsets are provided

What's Included

  • Professional guide
  • Personal headsets
  • Terrace and Museum of St. Mark's Basilica (if option selected)
  • Basilica Skip the line ticket
  • Pala d'Oro ticket (if option selected)
  • Hotel pickup and drop-off

Meeting and Pickup

Meeting point

  • Campo S. Zaccaria, 4683g, 30122 Venezia VE, Italy

    Meet our staff at Campo San Zaccaria, in front of the shop opposite to the Church.

End point

  • St. Mark's Square
    Piazza San Marco, 30124 Venezia VE, Italy

What To Expect

Basilica di San Marco

1 hour • Admission Ticket Included

Additional Info

  • Confirmation will be received at time of booking
  • Not wheelchair accessible
  • Stroller accessible
  • Service animals allowed
  • Near public transportation
  • Most travelers can participate
  • Please arrive at your designated meeting point at least 15 minutes prior to the tour
  • No refunds are given for no show or late arrivals. Tours take place rain or shine, though may be cancelled if tides are exceptionally high. In this case we provide full refunds
  • Please dress appropriately to enter the Basilica (no bare legs or shoulders)
  • 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 25 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

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Reviews

4.0
68 reviews
Total review count and overall rating based on Viator and Tripadvisor reviews
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Showing 1-10 of 68 reviews
Good info from a trusted source
Nicole_M, Apr 2024
I enjoyed hearing information about the Basilica, artwork, artifacts, and town history. It was much more than I would’ve been able to learn walking around on my own. I was grateful to hear it from someone who is from Venice.
Great tour
Deniz_B, Apr 2024
Great tour guide. Despite skip-the-line tix we had to wait in line to get in and then another line to go to the exterior terrace/balcony. These lines for the stl tix is because there were soooo many tourists. I’d get the tix again!
Not so good.
Declan_S, Apr 2024
The trip guide - she was truly excellent. The guy in the office checking us in for the tour - extremely rude. Won't repeat. He ruined the experience for us.
A must do in Venice
Eleanor_J, Apr 2024
What a wonderful experience- a must if you visit Venice. Avoiding the normal queue, but you will queue inside (especially on peak dates) to go up to the museum and balcony, but its worth the wait for the astonishing views across the square.
Not worth the money
Ann_W, Apr 2024
Head sets for 2 of 4 in my group did not work well. It also wasn’t much of a tour. No access to cathedral floor. The climb to the top did not require a tour guide.
Failed tour
Jake_M, Mar 2024
Finding the tour guide at the meeting point was extremely exasperating. Given that we were early it made no difference. The address supplied did not indicate whether this was indoor or outdoor so we did not find the tiny shop associated with the tour. Why not name the shop as the meeting place?? We waited, spotted another tour operator who were well organised and easy to find, but not our guide. It didn't help that Google maps suggests the site is 100 yards away. We called the operator who provided the printed tickets, as the emailed ticket is not actually recognised by St Marks, however the operator failed to supply the additional ticket to Pala D'Or which we had also paid for. Very disappointed given that the meeting place could have been far clearer on the email to avoid all the unnecessary problems. A previous tour with another operator worked like clockwork and their emailed tickets were genuine.
Beautiful Bascilica
Sally_G, Nov 2023
Most beautiful Bascilica. Lovely lady took guided tour and was very knowledgeable. Lit candle for lost loved ones.
A joke-but a way to skip the line
Susan_N, Oct 2023
It is impossible to hear the guide clearly. The tour was therefore not informative. Skipping the line was very helpful. We left the tour before the stairs because there were too many people crammed into the basilica. It did not feel safe. Sadly the basilica does not feel like a sacred place due to the masses of voyeurs.
Great guide!
Christi_C, Oct 2023
Very knowledgeable and pleasant guide. The Basilica was packed, so we were very thankful to be part of a group.
Don’t miss the terrace access and bronze horses !!
Rhonda_S, Sep 2023
Skipping the ticket line was a bonus but having the terrace access overlooking St Marks Square and seeing the authentic bronze and gold horses was the highlight for us. Truly an incredible experience !!!
Stunning
Zoe_E, Aug 2023
Brilliant tour. the Basilica is breathtaking with stunning architecture. Our tour guide was very good and informative throughout telling us the history of it. Make sure you cover your shoulders as they won’t let you in and definitely book skip the line as the queue is very long.
Decent tour - if you find where where it starts when booking online
Pierre_G, Jul 2023
Main point to note is that counterintuitively you do not meet at the Basilica. Instead you need to go to a little shop in a nearby square (Campo San Zacaria). Only here will you get tickets to join the tour and get into the basilica. All other online tickets such as fast passes are just on line tickets at the attraction, hence our confusion here. The actual tour was fine, the guide was knowledgeable, although for my tastes, spent too long on minor painting details, and raced past the most impressive parts (possibly running out of time). Didn't do Doge's Palace straight after and glad of that chat as quite tired after 100 minutes of this tour. Would recommend doing Doge's Palace separately on another day or it will be too exhausting for most people.
This is a scam
Emilio_M, Jul 2023
This is a complete scam, you can buy tickets for 6 euro with a day or two planning to enter the basilica. The tour guide barely spoke English and it was impossible to hear her with the dingy ear phones they give you. Absolute waste of time and money.
Response from Host, Jul 2023
Dear Emilio, the price for the Basilica entrance is € 6 but you also visited the museum during our tour. Therefore only the entrance ticket is € 15. You have to add the cost of the guided visit and of our staff. We are sorry if you felt this was a scam but our prices are in line with the offer in Venice and our guides are highly qualified. Kind regards
Didn’t happen.
Rhonda_S, Jul 2023
We couldn’t find the meeting place, as it was far away from St Marks, so we were late. The guy didn’t offer the next tour or any option other than next day. Which doesn’t work when your a tourist. We spent 47.00€ for three people for absolutely nothing. That’s bad business. I’ve requested my money back.
Response from Host, Jul 2023
Dear Rhonda, the meeting point is a 3 minute walk from St. Mark's Square. You were at the wrong meeting point and when you finally managed to talk with our staff the tour had already started. We could not offer you another option for the same day because we did not have any other departure available. We kindly offer you to reschedule for the following day, as a favour. Kind regards
Venice Splendors in 60 minutes
Vinh_N, Jul 2023
The tour is smooth with stories well told by the tour manager. We were guided to explore the inside Nave, listen to all details of mosaic decos, the relics myth and the magnificient bronze statues of the 4 horses of Constantinople. Finally, the tour ends with an amazing view of Venice lagoon and San Marco plaza from bird view. Simply wrapped up our Venice experience.
No reply when asked for partial refund
EeWen_T, Jul 2023
Booked the tour and was excited for it but got a message from them saying due to some ticketing issues the tour is to be rescheduled to about 2 hours later. Unfortunately we already have another off island tour booked so we could not make the rescheduled time. They said they’d give us the tickets to go inside the Basilica an hour and a half later than the initial booked time. In the WhatsApp conversation I asked at least twice if we could get a partial refund since we paid about $30 per person (4 of us) and they never directly replied to those questions. They just said they could give us tickets to go to the Basilica. We have no choice because we don’t have other times to go to the Basilica. However they won’t reply to our message about partial refunds and we did not get what we initially paid for which are professional guide, entrance tickets, access to Terrace and museum, and headset. All we got were entrance tickets to the Basilica. No terrace and museum (we found out we had to pay extra for those if we did go). In the end we feel like we paid over 100 euros just to get 4 tickets of 6 euros each and they won’t directly reply to our messages about getting at least some kind of refund seeing this isn’t our fault and they were the ones who had to rescheduled!!
Response from Host, Jul 2023
Hello, we have already reconfirmed your partial refund. Kind regards
So so tour
Dana_B, Apr 2023
We did the meet up before our tour. Very confusing. They put us with one guide, and he realized he had too many people. They put us with the correct group but my radio was tuned to the wrong guide. Fixed that problem. Our guide was so so. She was hard to understand- even though she was speaking English. She never allowed us to ask questions and gave us toomany details about the marble and stone. It was a boring tour and we were disappointed. Save your money and tour the Basilica without a guide or maybe a better one!
Disappointing
Ericka_H, Mar 2023
We were disappointed with the tour because we had difficulty understanding our guide. Moreover, the headset audio had a lot of static. It is a shame because it was such a beautiful area.
Worth the Money - St. Mark’s
Joseph_M, Feb 2023
Tour guide was very knowledgeable and we were able to quickly gain entrance to the Basilica and get quick education of how it evolved. Thank you.
excellent
Mariana_I, Sep 2022
excellent tour! the guide is very knowledgeable and gave great historical context. The line to enter without a guide was very long so this tour saved a lot of time!
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