My wife and I will be arriving in Venice on a Fri. morning (July) and departing on Mon. morning, which gives us 3 full days in Venice (except who knows how we will feel by mid afternoon on Fri. due to time change..coming from Philly). My question is: The group we are going w/ has arranged a private Island Tour to Murano, Burano and Tocello, which will leave at 9:00A and return around 3:00P on Sun. Are these islands worth seeing and giving that much time up from other sights in Venice? We do have all day Sat. and remeber the Fri. we arrive. Thanks

Hi m,

Burano is a lovely little village. Torcello is very quiet and bucolic.
Murano has the glass factories and the glass museum.

They are all accessible by vaporetto.

Given 2.5 days in Venice, I would not spend that much time at the out islands--too much else to see.

Remember that your flight from PHL will land in early morning, but it may be 10:30 or 11:00 till you get to your hotel from the airport. When you add in "jet lag", Friday will actually give you 1/2 day of active touring time.

With only 2 1/2 days in Venice, I would skip the 6 hour "planned" tour to the outer islands, especially if you are going with a "group"---which can often mean you will be directed to the tour operator's "preferred" vendors for murano glass shopping and to lace-making shops.

Look at a few of the Murano glass shops in Venice proper on Friday or Saturday---if the style of glass is not to your liking, definitely skip the tour.

There is so much to see and do in Venice proper (in my opinion), that I would not take 6 hours out of your limited visit to go on the tour.

Another consideration is that Venice is very crowded on summer weekends, even more so now that so many cruise ships leave from its port. At times, it can be almost "sardine can" conditions when trying to move about--- everything takes longer to do than you would expect.

Venice is wonderful. Use your time to enjoy all its numerous neighborhoods---they all have their own unique character and atomosphere.

If you want to go to the islands and have the time, do it by vaporetto on your own schedule.

Agree with bobthe, save the islands for next time. Some of the people will come back and tell you the islands were charming, and they are, but you will have time to see other things in Venice that they won't. (Assuming you want to.)

Here's another vote for skipping the outer islands and spending your short time solely in Venice proper. There is so much to see that we only scratched the surface with four days in Venice.

Aside from the sights, be sure to leave time for just wandering and getting lost. Venice is amazing.