We have been very happy using tour guides for past trips to Rome and Florence and then wandering about on our own for the rest of our trips. This time we will be spending just two nights in Venice. Do you think a tour guide is necessary here? We really only have one full day and it is the last leg of our trip. I want to get the most out of this time, but also don't want to feel like a march. Would appreciate your thoughts.

Look at Rick Steves' guidebook on Venice (it's probably included in his Italy book if not separate) for walking tours around Venice. He will point out the highlights which you'll probably want for a short stay. You can cover a lot of Venice just on foot. Also, read some other guidebooks to check out what you really want to see.

On the first evening, you can wander on your own, sit on Piazza San Marco for a cocktail - albeit very expensive - and have dinner wherever. Then just hit the road the next day early and repeat Night One that evening.

The trouble with a tour is that they'll take you to shops/glass blowing that you may not want to waste your time on. I would just take a walking tour from a guidebook.

Having said this, I wandered into the Doges Palace on my own and really didn't know what I was looking at - history-wise. That's the only place where I would sign up for a tour.

Thank you Nancy. Is it possible to just "sign up" for a tour at the Doges Palace?

Venice is a beautiful city to just walk around and enjoy on your own - getting lost is half the fun! If you get a guide, you will probably be marched around without really getting chance to take it in... so, I'd arm yourself with a good map and take a wander. If you are active, start at the Accademia Bridge, and you can walk all the way to Ferravia via San Marco Square, Rialto etc while taking in the City...

Good luck!

We just returned from a 9 day Italy trip with the last 3 days in Venice.A good guide book is all you need, and at the Doge's palace the audio tour is very useful and does point out all the highlights, historical context and the masterworks, it is about 2 hours long.
Please take the watertaxi to Burano, a charming island, overshadowed by Murano but colorful, quaint and very worth visiting. Lace is their speciality. ANd a kind of hard cookie.
Venice was very crowded and the local Venetians were a bit curt with us,not at all friendly, but quaff a Bellini in Harry's Bar and you don't mind.We absolutely loved the Frari and the Scoula Grande of San Rocco.There was music everywhere, at every piazza someone would open up a violin or a cello and music would pour forth....Vivaldi was born in Venice.Try and reserve ticktes for the Doge's palace, lines are long.(www.museiciviciveneziani.it). We especially enjoyed seeing a 1459 map of the world in the adjoining library called the Bibliotca Marciana.I found Venice Directions, a slim version of The Rough Guide by Johnathan Buckley to be useful, with good pictures and just enough background information to add to our enjoyment.
Venice is wonderful....a bit surprising, because I expecetd a glittering city and found a dilapidtaed, dowager of a city, full of secrets, and much more mysterious and hard to penetrate than Rome, for instance. It has whorls,like a flower, and is full of an inward brooding passion.

Enjoy your trip...

I always enjoy taking private tours when I travel to a place like Venice. I find that the tour gives you an effiecient way to see the "must sees", leaving the rest of your time to leisurely explore the areas you liked best and to find new ones.

Here is the collected wisdom from other Fodorites that I have on file for our trip later this year. Some of links will prove challenging (don't know why) but should usally give you enough info to track it down. Try the second portion of the link first. The only one that I have personal experience with is Venicescapes with Michael Broderick. We really enjoyed our day with him and would seek him out again.

Durant Imboden's Venice for Visitors http://europeforvisitors.com/venice/

Venice Secret Gardens tour: I've been on a Secret gardens of Venice walk. You visited three gardens, two of them attached to convents. I also enjoyed the Venice Frari tour walk which had a very interesting and well-informed guide.
http://tours-italy.com/venice/secret_gardens.htm

A guide in Venice http://www.aguideinvenice.com/itinerari/itinerari.html

Venicescapes Cultural Association - reviewed http://www.epinions.com/content_135238291076

Avventure Bellissime tours ghost walk. - wasn't really a ghost walk but very entertaining walk in the company of a charming Italian man, who told us some amusing anecdotes about the city. It made a nice change for one evening - he set a cracking pace. off the beaten track through some small, quiet streets and squares which we might not otherwise have seen.
http://www.tours-italy.com/venice/ghost_walk.htm

Venice Events - really, really liked it. The guides spoke perfect English. Their boat tour was great. Then next evening, we are taking a boat tour around the place. This will be nice and refreshing after being out all day, and the tour shows you so much from the water. The boats are these adorable wooden speed boats. They even give you a cocktail. That tour starts at 5:30 pm.The first morning we are there we are going to take a walking tour of all the highlights and history of Venice. This really gives you an overview of the place. It gets you used to the geography of where everything is and shows you what you might want to go back and see in more depth. The tour is at 11:30 am. The buildings provide a lot of shade. http://www.veniceevents.com

Venicescapes: I doubt you'll find anything more intense than Michael Broderick is a genius, handsome, too. I just wish he could lighten up and have more fun. His custom-made tour books are pure works of art, the finest I've ever seen from anyone. As a collector's piece, it's worth every cent of the cost of a tour, if not more. http://www.venicescapes.org/

Walks in Venice email [email protected] for small groups, charge by the hour, most tours about 3 hours. They have set itineraries, or they will design a tour for you http://www.walksinsidevenice.com/english/introd.html

Organizes English-speaking tours around the city. Tours meet outside Thomas Cook, near the Rialto Bridge on the Grand Canal, every day except Sunday at 1000. Tours take roughly three hours. No reservations are required www.enjoyvenice.com

Thank you all for the detailed advice. I am looking into the tickets for Doges Palace. Also, think the boat tour may be perfect for the evening we arrive. You are all so great to take the time to be of such help.

I asked the same question and the answer is not necessary but the best thing you will ever do. There is no place like Venice.

joycap, it was a few years ago that I saw the Doges Palace, no lines and I didn't even think of an audio guide which would have been perfect (still a bit of a travel newbie at the time). As skylight said, definitely make a reservation but I'd stick with the audio guide so you're not in a crowd with a tour guide. At least you can stand awhile and admire something and don't move as a tour guide tries to elbow you away

It seems to me that I have read that you need a reservation to visit the Cathedral - hopefully not but maybe someone else can answer that. You'll definitely want to wandered thru it.

A boat ride the first night sounds perfect. Venice is, hands down, my favorite city in Italy. One of those cities to which I could keep going back. The glass items are gorgeous - oh, to be rich!

I really enjoyed the Secret Itineraries tour at the Doges Palace. We just bought tickets when we got there, but it was off season and they were available. They can also be purchased in advance, and in season that is probably necessary. You get to see parts of the palace that are not open to the general public, and it is quite interesting.

At the end of the tour, you are left in the area which is open to the public, which you then can visit on your own.