el13207

My husband and I are heading to Venice in early May as part of a 3 week trip to Italy, and I am trying to figure out if Venice has something similar to Rome's Roma Pass (which sounds like a great deal and which we plan to buy when we're in Rome). I've found a site called Venice Connected which offers various transportation and museum passes, etc. online - but the site and its options seem very confusing, and I'm wondering if anyone has any experience with this. We will have part of a Sunday, plus all of Monday and Tuesday in Venice.

We definitely want to visit the Doge's Palace and other San Marco sites, the Accademia, Peggy Guggenheim Collection, and possibly the Ca' Rezzonico. Should we just wing it when we get to Venice and buy tickets on-site? Similarly, should we worry about buying a multi-day transportation pass, or just pay as we go? Since we've never been to Venice before I can't get a handle on how much we'll be able to cover on foot, and how many times we'll want or need to take a vaporetto (other than taking the #1 for a Grand Canal tour, and getting from the train station into town, and then back to the airport in the early morning).

Thanks for any help you can give.

PRLCH

We bought the transport card and toilet pass on the Venice Connected site - easy to do. Paid online, got a printout and picked up passes at the airport upon arrival. We were there in winter so found it fantastic to hop on and off the vaporetto at will, although we also walked a lot. Sorry I cannot comment on the museums - we did not visit a lot of these as it was at the end of 5 weeks in Italy and we had pretty much seen as many of those as we felt we could enjoy. Also, being winter, there were not many queues

PRLCH

I meant to say, single journey vaporetto tickets are quite costly!

kappa1

Museums, I would pay on the spot at those I want to visit.

Public toilets, there are not that many. Using toilets at numerous bar/coffee shops (you pay a cup of coffee or a glass of wine at the bar that's cheap 1 - 1,5 euro or you might be lucky to use the toilet without buying anything) would be more practical.

Vaporetto pass : On Venice Connected, you can buy at discounted prices. Discounts depends on the dates where you want it (see the calendar) and how far in advance you buy. I was hesitant to do that because I was used to buy 3-day pass when I got there just at the time I want to start it. Last Decemeber finally I bought one on V.C. in advance because those passes have been getting more and more expensive and I wanted a bit of reduction. It was not a huge reduction, about 4€ less but it was fine and it matched my itinerary. Some say they stayed a few days in Venice and never used vaporetto, only walked all over. I walk a LOT day and night in Venice too but occasionally I hop on a vaporetto to get to a bit farther places quickly or just to get to the other side of the Grand Canal, for which having a pass is great. And of course to get to other islands, Giudecca, Lido, Murano and Burano, you would need to take vaporettos and as said above a single ticket is even more costly than a pass.

kappa1

Disadvantage with Venice Connected is if you buy a pass through it in advance, the dates are already fixed and I don't think any change is possible. That's the main reason I was hesitant to use it. What if you arrive a day later by accident ? So for me it's either you run a slight risk (you are sure about your dates) and buy in advance a little lower and exchange the voucher with the pass at limited number of places OR buy when you get there at full price (you are not committed in advance so any change is possible, even not to buy at all. Also vaporetto passes are available at any manned stops).

MulberryRoxy

This post just reminds me how unlucky I was last year. I bought two transporation tickets in advance and my trip got cancelled because of the mid-Dec snow storm. The tickets are not refundable.