gondola routes in Venice
 

I will be in Venice in October, and have decided to take a gondola ride with my wife and son and daughter-in-law. Where is the best place to start the trip,and what is the best route to take? I would prefer a back canal trip, which seems more interesting to me than a grand canal trip. If anyone has any recommendations I would appreciate them.

Track down Mario near the Al Vagon restaurant (Ponte S.S. Apostoli) and tell him what you'd like to do. He'll guide you honestly and honorably, especially if you tell him the tall blonde photographer from NYC sent you.

Thanks Foodsnob for your recommendation. Is this Mario you refer to a gondola operator? Thanks again.

Hi. We went to San Marco Square where there are a lot of gondoliers on the Grand Canal. (We didn't like the fellow lounging near our hotel as he looked bored and lazy!!) At San Marco we walked around and chose a group of 4 gondoliers standing together as they seemed the most energetic. We approached them and the tallest one engaged us in conversation. We asked for a 45 minute ride to include the smaller canals and also part of the Grand canal. We agreed on the price.

It was a nice ride but I regretted asking for any time on the Grand Canal, because I realized too late that we had seem enough of the Grand Canal from the vaporettos! Next time I would ask for the whole 45 minutes on the smaller canals if possible. Also next time I would go just before sunset when the colors are pretty...we went in the dark and with the whole family along romance isn't the main attraction and we would have preferred to see more colors.

also it wouldn't hurt to ask your gondolier if he sings. ours began to sing spontaneously when I started to sing but then he stopped suddenly. Afterwards my teenage daughters told me they thought he would have continued singing if I had asked him to, and he did have a good voice! Oh, well.

Mario is a gondoliere and I think he's one of the best. Not only is he drop-dead gorgeous, he's smart, charming, and rows like an Olympian. (He should have been a movie star.) It took me years to find him and, now that I have, I can't let go. If he's not at the location I mentioned, simply ask about him when you get there. He's well known and someone is bound to know how to reach him.

Jimmyt48ga: There are several options which your hotel can refer you to. The two basic choices are solo gondolas, just for your family, or a 'gondola armada', consisting of 10 or so gondolas. One gondola will contain musicians and a singer. The 'armada' approach is a little cheaper than the solo.

In addition to your gondola ride, be sure to save time to take the number 1 vapperto (spelling?) public water boat. The number 1 goes the entire length of the Grand Canal. For a Euro or two, you can't beat the view. Note - when I was last there, you had to get off at one end, and re-queue to get back going the other direction.

A one-way trip on the vaporetto that goes along the Grand Canal is now 5 Euros.

There is always much confusion regarding vaporetto tickets and prices and too many Fodorites add to the confusion with their incorrect or not-entirely-true facts. I believe the Italians like the confusion because tourists end up spending more than necessary.

Here is a copy-and-paste from actv's website regarding the "Grand Canal Ticket":

<i>&quot;&quot;Grand Canal Ticket&quot; &euro; 5.00. This ticket is valid only for the Grand Canal route. It is valid for 90 minutes and more than a trip is allowed in this period.&quot;</i>

Therefore, you can take as many trips as you want, one-way or otherwise, on the Grand Canal in a 90 minute time frame for &euro; 5.00. It helps to read the fare schedule at ACTV.it thoroughly before you go.

I stand -- or, as it happens, sit -- corrected.

But I would suggest that 90 minutes is not really long enough to do too much of anything. If you have been on it for 10 minutes to get to your destination, you have at most 75 minutes to see or do something before you have to hop back onto it. I'm not sure that anything I might want to do could be done in 75 minutes...

You could, I suppose, take one vaporetto from the railway station to San Zaccaria and then another back to the railway station, letting you view different sides of the Grand Canal coming and going. And back once again to wherever you want to go -- railway to San Marco taking about 20 to 25 minutes, as I recall.

And I should add that there is a special fare -- I don't recall the exact rules, but www.actv.it will have them -- if you take the Grand Canal vaporetto for only one or two stops.

We were in Venice for 3 days and so bought the 72-hour vaporetto passes for 22 euros per person. this gave us unlimited on and off privileges for 72 hours, and included the nearby islands. This gives you the freedom to be spontaneous without worrying about how much the vaporetto trips are adding up to.

For example my husband and I really enjoyed taking the vaporetto over to the very close island which you can see from San marco, the one that has a bell tower with an elevator and there's no line! We went over therre on the vaporetto, included in our 72-hour pass, and enjoyed the bell tower (no stairs, elevator goes all the way up.) Also if you ride the vaporetto enough times you eventually can find a couple of seats free in the front, and then you can have a great and relaxed sight-seeing ride, again for no additional cost. I enjoyed riding the vaporetto with our passes as much as I enjoyed doing anything else in Venice!

Also if you have a vaporetto pass, you can enjoy wandering around in venice and getting lost on the land, knowing that if you're really hopelessly lost you can just head for the nearest vaporetto stop on the grand canal and get off at a familiar stop, without paying anything extra!

I just returned from Venice this weekend and I feel like the Gondola ride is so worth the money. I did want to leave one tip though - we took our ride at night (9pm) and it was very enjoyable. We ate dinner at a terrific restuaraunt on the Rialto Bridge, then bought a bottle of wine (the rets. gave us plastic glasses) and caught a Gondola right there (45 min. ride) He did sing in Italian (quietly) but not the whole time, he would also point out buildings of interest. If you go during the evening the traffic is not nearly as bad, and you do not have tourists gawking and taking pictures of you from bridges. Half of thr trip we had canals all to ourselves and it was very enjoyable. Plus the weather was nicer in the evening. Have fun!

So, Casey7775, how much did you pay(for the 2 of you?) for your 45 minute gondola ride from the Rialto Bridge? Remember your gondolier's name?