I will be spending a few days in Venice at the end of June - what are the "must see" things and do they need to be booked in advance?

I want to make sure that I have enough time to drink in the city by wandering and drinking coffee, wine etc so don't want too crammed a schedule.

thanks for all your help!

When we went 2 years ago I booked the following in advance.

1) St Mark's Basilica - well wort it to avoid the always-long queues.

2) The Doges' Palace Secret Itineraries Tour. You have to book for this and the ticket also gets you into the general parts of the palace which you tour independently. We arrived at opening time and there was no queue at all, so if we hadn't been going on the tour it wouldn't have been worth booking.

3) The Accademmia. Arrived at opening time & walked straight in, so not worth booking.

We are going again in a few weeks' time and I haven't bothered pre-booking anything this time. Although I did book the hotel last August

Thanks - that's great. Thankfully the accommodation is booked already

How long will you be there for ?

I arrive on Friday at lunchtime and leave on Sunday evening but will be attending a wedding on the Saturday afternoon so I really am short for time! It's a shame that there are not more hours in a day...

Right. With such a short amount of time, then, I wouldn't bother going in to any buildings, just wandering around outside and soaking up the atmosphere and views.

One idea would be to get a guidebook which has recommended walks and just do as many of those as you can fit in, starting with the one including the main sights like St Mark's. The Michelin Green Guide is good for that and I seem to remember that the Fodors guidebook I took last time had walks in too.

Another idea is to get up early one morning and just take the number 1 vaporetto from end to end of its route, or at least as much of it as you have time for. Its route includes the Grand Canal so if you don't have time for the whole route, just go up & down the Grand Canal section to see the palaces etc from the water. It gets crowded later so that's why I suggest starting early, so you can get a seat on the front.

Brilliant advice - thanks! I have the Eyewitness guide but I will check out the other ones you recommend. I like the idea of just chilling out and enjoying the city without too much hassle (I imagine getting ready for the wedding will be hassle enough!).

Attending a wedding in Venice will be lovely, lucky you.

caroline,

We will be in Venice this fall and although I have't yet gotten down to the details of touring the city, your suggestions have been very helpful. Great ideas. Thanks.

You're welcome !

we spent 3 days in Venice a week ago and buying a vaporetto pass for 3 days was one of our best investments. We rote vaporetto at different times of the day to enjoy Venice from the Grand Canal and took some of our best shots that way. A must for Venice in my opinion is a tour of the Jewish Ghetto. Don't just come there but buy a tour and visit 3 amazing synagogues, one of which was filmed in Merchant of Venice. We also saw two palaces -- Ca' Rezzonico and Ca D'Oro (the last has free entrance) to see how Venice looked from within.

Thanks Vlada, some more top tips!

Vlada,
What tour company did you use in Venice to see the Jewish Ghetto? Did you book Ca'Rezzonico in advance?

When you get to the Ghetto, go to the Jewish museum and ask about the tours. THey are offered only by the museum and, as I mentioned before, are availalbe every hour during the week.

No reservations are necessary for Ca Rezzonico.

Thank you Vlada. We leave on Saturday for Rome, Florence, Venice and London.
We are so excited. First time in Italy.

Hi Fellow fodorites, I just wanted to let you know that we will be in Venice 6/16-6/18. I tried to book the Secret Itineraries Tour of the Doges Palace about a week before we were to arrive and was only able to get two tickets instead of the four we needed. We had tried to book on line with tickitaly.com ( finding out later that it can take up to 3 business days to get info back-I recommend that you telephone instead) but were only successful with the phone number we had gotten from another posting ,011 39 041 520-9070.We were told they were booked for the rest of June!
We also had trouble arranging for the free visit to St. Mark's by computer Alata.it web site. There doesn't seem to be any other web site to use. Eventually, I was able to do it but I'm not sure how,
I would recommend getting reservations as soon as you know what you want to do instead of waiting like I did.
Best of luck!