Venice Doge's Palace & St. Mark's Semi-Private Tour, Max 6 People

Name: Venice Doge's Palace & St. Mark's Semi-Private Tour, Max 6 People
Brand: LivTours
SKU: 6718P43
Price: 174.40 USD
Rating: 5.0 (90 reviews)

Venice, Italy

Venice Semi Private Tour of Doges Palace and Saint Marks

2 hours
Mobile ticket
Offered in: English

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Overview

Venice’s blockbuster attractions on St. Mark’s Square are among the most visited in Italy. With this semi-private tour, you can skip the long lines to enter Saint Mark's Basilica and the Doge's Palace and enjoy a more intimate visit with a small group and guide. Avoid the worst of the crowds and take a deep dive into the impressive art and fascinating history of these religious and civic landmarks.

Skip-the-line entry to Saint Mark's Basilica and the Doge's Palace
A small group of six for a more personal experience of Venice’s highlights
Learn about the art and history of the church and palace with a guide
Unforgettable views from the basilica terrace and Bridge of Sighs

What's Included

Local Expert Professional Guide
Semi Private Group of only 6 people max
Skip the line into St. Mark's Basilica
Skip the Line into Doge's Palace, apartments and prisons
Bridge of Sighs

Food and drinks
Hotel pickup and drop-off
Gratuities

Meeting and Pickup

Meeting point

P.za San Marco, 1, 30124 Venezia VE, Italy
The meeting point is under the winged lion's column in Saint Mark's Square, closest side to the Grand Canal. Your guide will be holding a LivTours sign.

Start time

02:30 PM

End point

This activity ends back at the meeting point.

What To Expect

Piazza San Marco

20 minutes • Admission Ticket Free

Basilica di San Marco

50 minutes • Admission Ticket Included

Doge's Palace

50 minutes • Admission Ticket Included

Additional Info

Confirmation will be received at time of booking
Not wheelchair accessible
Near public transportation
Most travelers can participate

A dress code is required to enter places of worship and selected museums. No shorts or sleeveless tops allowed. Knees and shoulders must be covered for both men and women. You may risk potential refused entry if you fail to comply with these dress requirements.
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 6 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

Reviews

5.0

90 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 90 reviews

Best tour

Beatrice_L, Apr 2024

Your tour guide was amazing. So knowledgeable and patient with us. Would definitely suggest this tour but especially our guide Sebring.

Not so private

Anna_B, Mar 2024

The tour was good, the guide had lots of information but the tour was on the pricy side for what it was. There were many other people touring around us, so the experience wasn’t as private as I would like. We still had to use headsets to hear, which sometimes had interference. Would choose a cheaper alternative next time, the semi-private part was not worth the cost to me.

Outstanding tour!

Denise_S, Mar 2024

Nico gave an amazing tour! He is passionate about Venice and her history! He was so informative about the mosaics in St. Mark’s and the influence of the Doge before Italy became a country! You must request him! It was a superb tour!

Really Enjoyed It

SUSAN_C, Oct 2023

This was a great tour under adverse conditions. Rain and flooding at the palace and cathedral. Our tour guide was adept at navigating the associated challenges, accomodating, knowledgable, interesting and easy to understand. Our 2 other tour companions were a couple from the same city as us which made the tour even more fun. I am very glad we chose the semi-provate tour, which turned out to be fortuitous considering the conditions.

History and Exquisite Art Brought to Life

thesamples, Oct 2023

Hearing the history of Doges, seeing the weapons and walking the path of the prisoners over the Bridge of Sighs. Seeing the beauty of all the paintings and the history behind the clocks in St. Marks.

Delightful tour!

Victor_R, Oct 2023

Tulips guide was terrific-gave us a lot of information about the history of St Marks and the Doges palace. Eased us through the entries very fast. A delight!

Awesome Tour

Cory_T, Oct 2023

Thank you Tuilla for an amazing time at St. Mark's and Doge's Palace. We appreciated your knowledge and enthusiasm. The history, art, and architecture was stunning. Thank you for a wonderful tour.

Best tour of our trip

FrancisJ_C, Oct 2023

Best tour by far in our trip due to the excellent tour guide. She was knowledgeable and well informed and very clear in her presentation. She provided in depth information in each stop during the tour and responded to all our questions. In addition, she was very pleasant and friendly at all times.

Great time!

Robert_H, Jun 2023

What an unbelievable experience! While somewhat pricey, it was completely worth it. Our tour guide was personable and very knowledgeable.

Outstanding!

Philip_R, Apr 2023

The tour guide with LivTours did an excellent job with the tour. She communicated very well and was knowledgeable with the history and details of St Marks and the Doge’s Palace. Would definitely like to have a guide again like her and would use LivTours again if at all possible.

Highly enjoyable!

Amy_G, Mar 2023

Marie was a great guide. We learned all about the history of St Mark’s the Doge. She has a great sense of humor. Highly recommended.

Good tour. More stories, fewer raw facts would make it a 5

David_M, Nov 2022

Nicoletta led a semi private tour for my party of 3 and another couple. We had a bit of a close call finding the right meeting point but we got there just in time. Our host, Nicoletta, was a wealth of knowledge. She spent a lot of time giving us good information, and really loved talking about the Doges and the artwork in the Doges Palace complex. We all found that Nicoletta's tour style was not 100% aligned with our own style, but that could happen with anybody and should not reflect poorly on her. We tend to appreciate the stories that go behind what we are seeing, and found that the tour was much more fact-heavy and things we could easily find on Wikipedia. 2 hours may have been just a bit too long for what we saw. We all indicated our excitement for the Prison portion of the tour and felt like it was a 5-minute rush job. We did several semi-private and private tours with LivTours/Viator during our two week trip, and this was the only one we gave less than 5 stars. It is very good, but not excellent.

Not worth it

Mohamed_R, Oct 2022

Tour was ok. I would have rather toured the dodges palace on my own time without the tour. Tour guide was knowledgeable but it was extremely boring.

Excellent service

Muhammed_L, Aug 2022

I cannot complain everything was very good. Except for the place is dirty and dusty. Which had nothing to do with the tour

A wonderful tour

Alexa_E, Jul 2022

The st mark's basilica was beautiful and the tour guide was engaging and informative. Overall a wonderful experience that gave a great view into the Venice of the past.

Doge

James_P, May 2022

Our guide was wonderful and provided plenty of information about the Doge and Basilica. Makes us provide more word is an issue.

Fantastic tour and guide!

John_C, Apr 2022

Fantastic! It’s hard to imagine a better way to see San Marco Basilica and Doge’s Palazzo. If you’re considering this then just stop now and do it.

Highly recommended!

Amanda_M, Apr 2022

I highly recommend this tour! Our guide was amazing and pointed out so many interesting detail that we would have never seen without a guide. She was very patient with our children and they enjoyed the entire tour.

Wonderful Tour! Great guide!

Rosalynn_C, Nov 2021

My husband and I were reluctant to travel because of the pandemic which made a small group max 6 persons very attractive to us. We turned out to be the only ones in the tour but LivTours didn't cancel which I thought was great! Marie-therese was absolutely wonderful. Her breadth of knowledge was amazing and her pleasant demeanor made the time fly by. We got to see everything that we wanted to without rushing or stress. Highly recommend this company and of course our guide.

Best Tour on our Entire Italy Trip

Arjun B, Dec 2019

We both had an amazing time with our tour guide Martina :). She took extra time to answer all of our questions, tell us interesting stories about every room we entered and did her best to get us through everything to see- even taking a little extra time to make sure we received the full experience of St. Mark’s Square. We were very lucky to have gone at a time of year where Venice was very quiet (November) and would highly recommend this tour to anyone interested to learning about the history of Venice, especially if it is with Martina!

Response from Host, Mar 2020

Many thanks for your lovely review and high rating of the Doge's Palace and Saint Mark's tour you took with Martina in Venice. It's heart warming to read that you felt this tour the best experience on your entire trip to Italy. We couldn't be more honored! Thank you Angelo and Kristin