First, thank you Fodorites for all of your help. My husband and I will be in Venice for three days. We want to take a side trip to Burano and Torcello. Do you recommend this trip? Would it take a full day or half day?
I have received responses from you recommending another day in Venice but we don't think we want to do that. We are thinking of adding another day to Rome and Sorrento. We are also considering taking the train from Florence to Sorrento to Rome. (Thank you for that tip). Back to Venice, will be taking away too much sightseeing in Venice if we do the islands? The first day is when we arrive in Venice from the States.Please help
Thank you,
Jo

You can do both in 1/2 day. There are two ways take the tour which runs around 14-20e depending on who you get it from go to each island and Murano for about an hour then back to Venice. Tours are about 41/2 hours. If you have the venice pass, which includes vap usage you can take the boat from the P. Roma direct to either one. The problem with Torcello is the boats don't run that often. You can see what there is to see in around an hour max unless you want to lunch there.
Its basically and old church, and some ruins as well as a couple old houses that's it. Burano on the other hand has lots of lace shops, and a nice museum of lace, Murano as you know is glass glass glass. Since you are arriving that day it might be tricky getting it all in and still feeling up to it all after a long flight. Consider instead booking reservations (free) Book late afternoon as they turn on the inside lights then and the gold and mosaics really show up. then as you finish with that as you exit you can take the 3e tour up to the top and get a great birds eye view of Venice the real horses, etc. An with the free tickets no standing in line etc you simply walk to the front of the line show your tickets and in you go.
You can reserve your visiting slot online: http://www.alata.it/eng/booking/sanmarco.asp The reservation is free.

hi jojuice,

IMHO a trip to the islands is an essential part of any visit to Venice that lasts more than 24 hours of so. an easy way to get there is to get the boat from the Fondamente Nove straight to Burano, then the little ferry to torcello. tour the cathedral [last renovated about 1000 years ago], have lunch [we liked the trattoria attila, as in "the Hun"] then get the boat back to burano, wander raound, and have tea. if you have a vaporetto pass, doing this trip will make the pass more or less pay for itself.

if you feel you have time, get the boat back to Murano, alighting at the "Faro" stop, then having toured Murano, get the boat from the middle of the island back to Venice. otherwise go straight back to Venice. we got off at the giardino stop and wandered back through Castello which let us see the part of Venice where the few Venetians still to live there do their shopping etc.

you could go to the Rialto market first thing [best scheduled early one morning as it packs up at about 12 noon], and still be back in Venice proper by mid afternoon.

Joanne's idea to book a slot for san marco is a good one, [remember to check any big bags at the door to the left before you try to go in] and you should also consider the Secret Itinieraries tour of the doge's palace too - it lasts about an hour and afterwards, you can spend as much time as you want in the rest of the palace.

so far as the Accademia is concerned, you can book that in advance too, but we found that if you turned up about a hour before closing time, you could walk straight in and it was almost deserted.

have a great trip,

regards, ann

PS - if you are interested, you could click on my name and find my trip report from a week's stay in Venice last easter.

For me, if I only had 3 short days to see Venice, I'd stay in Venice!

Since Burano and Torcello are part of Venice and accessible by vaporetto, it will be easy for you to decide how you feel about going there once you are actually in Venice. No need to really overthink it now. Personally, I would only make this trip to the out islands in nice weather. The colorful homes of Burano would not look as good on a rainy day. Also you will be on a boat crossing the lagoon for more than 30 minutes.

As Ellenem said, wait until you are there to decide. Also, agree with her about going only in lovely weather. Don't feel bad if you don't make it there. Venice proper has so much, your time will fly by. Everything you see will be beautiful

Unless you have some particular reason to visit Burano and Murano, I wouldn't go. With only 3 days in Venice, you'll be hard-pressed to see the musts in the main parts of the city.