Venice (1 Viewer)

Feb 22, 2011
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Hi folks,
We have had a lovely day today in Verona looking at the sights but the Mrs says her legs won't walk any further ! But we got Venice to do this week as well. Probably a restday tomorrow, but has anyone got any tips for seeing the main must see sights without walking 10 miles. I guess a water taxi is a good option ? Do they do the equivalent of a open top tour bus ?
Any other tips gratefully accepted.
Thanks Chris
 

hilldweller

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Venice is tiny. I think the best part is the middle where the real people live. Quiet and a bit run down.

If your want a good tour of Venice watch Francesco de Mosto's brilliant DVD. Awesome.
 
Jan 8, 2013
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Water taxi would be the best option. It will take you all the way to St Mark's square and you can hop off at the Rialto Bridge.
It's pretty easy walking but you can get lost.
Best tip I can give you is to take everything you need to eat and drink for the day with you - you really won't want to pay their prices.
Enjoy

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Sep 10, 2012
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Water taxi will cost an arm and leg.
Get a day or 2day ticket for the vaperetto (water bus) system. Hop on where ever nip over to Merano or lido. Great way to get about.
Don't forget to validate ticket 1st time you use it.
 
Jan 22, 2017
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I found water taxi was best and ate in the back streets. It was much cheaper, had a coffee in St marks square Caffe Florian..and although there was a surchage to cover the cost of the orchestra I didn't think it was too bad (considering the cost of a live performance in the UK) and of course it is a lasting memory..It was about ten years ago though..
 
Mar 11, 2014
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I did a quick trip to Venice last Sun evening to Tues afternoon cos other half was doing half a days work there so we made a mini break of it.

Here's the link to the public water bus / taxi system website

https://www.venicelink.com

Obviously we flew in and so got a return public water bus ticket which took us from the airport to St Mark's Square (we stayed near here).

We did the 4 hour boat tour which leaves St Mark's and takes in Murano (glass blowing demo was good), Burano (famous for lace making), and Torcello. You get about 45 to 50 mins on each island. It cost 20 euros each and was reasonable value considering our short time there. We would have liked a bit longer on Murano. The tour is multi lingual. You don't have to pre book, we just bought the ticket and got straight on the tour.

You can also buy various timed passes for the public water bus, eg 1 day, 72 hours etc. Good for if you do want to do excursions on your own.

Eating out can be expensive, Sunday evening meal was reasonably priced in a more 'local' place and Monday evening meal we decided to splurge a bit, and then bimbled to St Mark's square to soak up the atmosphere of the competing mini orchestras. One was a clear winner in the popularity stakes - purely because they were playing more contemopary stuff.

If you want to see stuff in Venice itself and are short on time I would recommend getting a 'skip the line' ticket for some of the main attractions, which while more expensive does mean you head straight to the front of the queue. I think some of the tours on the website that I've linked to include this - lots of info on them on trip advisor.

I did a lot of walking the morning that Mr Stroppy was working and took in quite a few of the sights on my own and then had to go around them again with him. Picking up a street plan from one of the tourist info places will be helpful.

If you must have a gondola ride it is 80 euros for up to 30 mins - you won't get this long if they are busy.

You will get the odd bloke trying to palm a rose onto your Mrs and then come running after you for money. I don't know how much they were trying to get but if you don't want one you have to be very insistent with them and I ended up bordering on being rude as they were not for taking no for an answer.

Overall, although it's not a place that I would have picked to go I enjoyed my couple of days there.

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Jan 19, 2014
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If you hang about reading the prices at the water bus station somebody will give you their (finished with) day ticket :sneaky: a very kind American lady gave us hers :cool: GO USA! :love:
 

Glandwr

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Definitely a 2/5/7 day ticket on all water public transport. Will enable you to visit outline islands like Merino and the Lido as well. Been to Venice a number of times, the last time I met a German woman in the reception of the campsite trying to sell the 2 remaining days of a double 5 day pass. It really opened up the city. The are expensive (full price) but well worth it.

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Minxy

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The main part that tourists go to isn't that big but to get there can take quite a while - we used the 'on Venice' car park, arriving in the early afternoon after we'd had lunch en-route then got our bikes out and went for a ride taking some sweets and drinks with us. We decided to look at the 'half' of Venice nearer to the car park but made the mistake of going the same way that all the walking tourists do so ended up carrying the bikes over lots and lots of bridges (not fun carrying electric bikes!) before we locked them up (fortunately we remembered where we'd left them!). We spent a long time wandering around and taking in the sites but by around 7.00 pm or so it threatened rain and came over very quickly so we got totally drenched on the way back to the camper and looked like 2 drowned rats ... everything was soaked through!

As we'd purposely only done a section of Venice during the afternoon the following morning we set-off again with pack-up for lunch and rode our bikes round past the docks straight to St Marks Square, a much easier route and a lot quicker than walking, and from there did the other half we still wanted to see. After we'd had our lunch we partook of some ice-cream, not from the very expensive sellers but from one of the small supermarkets by buying a large tub of yummie hazelnut ice-cream ... mmmmmmm ... so take some small spoons with you if you want to do the same. We had a last potter round then back to the camper on the bikes and JUST made it out of the car park before it charged us for another 24 hours ... with about 2 mins to spare!

You really DO need a map of the place as you will get lost without one (and with one too probably!) and ideally a highlighter pen so you can mark your route otherwise you'll end up doing a lot of unnecessary walking.
 
Jan 8, 2013
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Couple of reasons, mi dad was Scottish so I have twice the rite.

Plus we was once in a market in Turkey and after we told the local trader we was from Yorkshire He bellowed 'How F*cking much' I can only assume he has met some Yorkshiremen previously??
 

suavecarve

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I have just escaped from Venice.
For an alternative view keep reading...
What a complete and utter waste of a day in my life that I will never get back. Boiling hot day with shed loads of tourists following an idiot with a flag. The streets are 4 abreast and everybody and their designer dog posing for selfie on admittedly relatively nice narrow bridges causing further distress and when you have eventually paid 35 euros for 2 pizzas and a couple of spritzer and the old git with the harmonica fleeces you for another euro and you try to find your way out against hordes of more traffic and your GPS won't pick you up because the buildings are too tall. We only had an hour from St marks bleeding square and when we eventually found the bus station it was 8 euros each to get to the bloody airport. It was only 6 euros for an 80 minute train ride.
Anyway I am currently sat outside gate 26 waiting to board my sleazy jet flight to UK with my 2 euro 60 bottle of water.
No I will NEVER come back here EVER AGAIN.

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Geo

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Don't bother it's Flooded:doh:

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Sep 10, 2012
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Yes it was when we went - walking about on tressals and boards with a foot of water in st. marks Square.
 
Feb 16, 2013
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the easiest way to do venice and have a wonderful sea holiday at the same time is go to lido de jesolo in your motorhome, park on one of the many sea side camps, not as dear as you may think, get a all in day ticket from any tabac for the number 5 bus which takes you to the boat to go accros to st marks square and anywhere else you want to go on the boat for a day for about 25 euros..
we did it in the van last year and have done it on package tours in hotels many times.
 
Feb 16, 2013
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Hi folks,
We have had a lovely day today in Verona looking at the sights but the Mrs says her legs won't walk any further ! But we got Venice to do this week as well. Probably a restday tomorrow, but has anyone got any tips for seeing the main must see sights without walking 10 miles. I guess a water taxi is a good option ? Do they do the equivalent of a open top tour bus ?
Any other tips gratefully accepted.
Thanks Chris
the best tip we had was on our first visit to venice, must be 15 years ago now and we were on a pachage tour and the guide said just follow the crowds, and it is true for a first visit ,you will see all the regular sights and then you can venture out a bit, we have found the best places to eat without going into back waters, is the ones down from the rialto bridge on the other side from marks square, not cheap by any means but you can get meal of the day and you can say you have dined in venice(y).
we also did the one in marks square with the violins and had tea out of silver teapot , the lot, and although i am a tight arse and it cost 25 euros each for a cup of tea i would still do it again if i hadnt done it just for the ambiance and to say we have done it;)(y):)

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OP
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Figaro
Feb 22, 2011
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Well we did Venice on Thursday and thoroughly enjoyed it, got there early when it was cooler, from Venezia Village, 3 euro return on the bus and spend the day wandering around the magnificent sights.
Yes it got too busy by afternoon so we got the water bus from st marks square to piazzale Roma, very enjoyable trip up grand canal, not to be forgotten.
Glad we did it on a cooler day !
BTW Venezia Village is an excellent site for visiting Venice, thanks to whoever recommend it, sorry I've forgotten.
 

Portland

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We went a few years back the Queue for St Marks was up the square back again a3/4 up again 4/5 people deep. The bridge of sighs was closed happy days!
We might try again in a few days after San Marino. Staying at the moment on a good sosta at Porto del Giorgio, called Perla del Adratico, good electrics and not much train noise. The railway runs all along this East coast and its busy!!!
 

Mr B

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the easiest way to do venice and have a wonderful sea holiday at the same time is go to lido de jesolo in your motorhome, park on one of the many sea side camps, not as dear as you may think, get a all in day ticket from any tabac for the number 5 bus which takes you to the boat to go accros to st marks square and anywhere else you want to go on the boat for a day for about 25 euros..
we did it in the van last year and have done it on package tours in hotels many times.
Ditto. We did the same thing last September.
Had a great day, and it flooded :)

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