20 Great Things to do in Venice 1/20 - Gondola

Experience Venice: The Timeless Gondola Ride

A gondola gliding silently through the canals of Venice is one of the most enduring and iconic images of the city. For centuries, these elegant black boats have carried locals and visitors alike, offering a unique way to experience the charm, rhythm, and hidden beauty of La Serenissima.

Photo By: Marco Secchi

Why Take a Gondola Ride?

In a city built on water, there are many ways to move around—but none are as intimate or evocative as the gondola. More than transportation, a gondola ride is a slow, immersive journey through Venice’s living history.

From the plush, carved seats of your gondola, you'll float past ancient palazzos, under quiet stone bridges, and into narrow canals where few tourists wander. Along the way, you might catch a glimpse of a hidden garden, a passing gondolier humming softly, or the flicker of candlelight behind lace-curtained windows. It's a perspective that reveals Venice at its most poetic.

How to Plan Your Gondola Ride

The Istituzione per la Conservazione della Gondola e Tutela del Gondoliere—known simply as the Gondola Board—preserves the tradition and standards of gondola service in Venice. On their official site (www.gondolavenezia.it), you’ll find helpful information, including suggested routes and historical details that can enrich your experience.

🎟️ Official Gondola Ride Rates (2025)

• Daytime (9:00 AM – 7:00 PM): €90 for a 30-minute ride

• Evening (7:00 PM – 3:00 AM): €110 for a 35-minute ride

• Additional Time:

  • Daytime: €40 for each extra 20 minutes

  • Evening: €50 for each extra 20 minutes

These rates are per gondola, accommodating up to 5 passengers. The reduction from 6 to 5 passengers is due to recent safety regulations.

💡 Tips for an Authentic Experience

• Payment: Gondoliers typically accept cash only.

• Tipping: While not obligatory, a tip of €5–10 is appreciated for exceptional service.

• Route Planning: Discuss your preferred route with the gondolier beforehand to ensure a personalized experience.

• Best Times: Early mornings or late evenings offer a more tranquil and romantic ambiance.

These rates are per gondola—not per person—and each gondola can accommodate up to six passengers. It's a flat fee, whether you're riding solo or sharing with friends or family.

What to Expect

Gondolas generally depart from fixed stations around the city, and while the route is often at the gondolier’s discretion, many are open to small detours or custom routes—especially if you speak with them in advance. Most rides explore the smaller, quieter canals, but some may also include sections of the Grand Canal.

Final Thoughts

A gondola ride is not just a photo opportunity; it's an experience that captures the soul of Venice. Whether you’re celebrating something special or simply want to slow down and absorb the city’s atmosphere in the most Venetian way possible, this timeless journey is worth every moment.

Loved the idea of a Gondola ride?
Get to know Venice like a local, through the lens of a photographer.
My Rexby guide includes personal tips, photo locations, and real stories from years of exploring the city.

20 Things to do in Venice - 14/20 Getting Lost in Venice

There is nothing, I repeat nothing, that is as important when you’re visiting Venice than just wandering aimlessly through its streets and alleys. If you only had 3-4 hours in the city, I’d recommend that you do this before you set foot inside a single museum or attraction – it’s that critical to enjoying your visit. By wandering (especially if you point yourself in the exact opposite of the direction where the herd is going) you can find Venice’s many charming and often-empty squares and streets, which goes a long way toward helping you appreciate the city. I’d almost say you could ignore basically everything else on this list and just stroll around without a map… But although I might not go that far (again, unless you’ve only got 4 hours or less), I do consider the sentence “get lost in Venice” an order, not a suggestion.

But really, the point of Venice – for me, anyway – is to wander its maze-like alleyways and bridges, getting thoroughly lost and then finding your way back to something familiar. It’s about accidentally finding a gondola workshop where the men are working their lathes into the groove of the boats outside in the sun. It’s about seeing a market boat (rather than a brick-and-mortar store) selling Venice’s few residents their vegetables and fish. And it’s quite a challenge to do any of that in a day-trip, or by staying close to the Piazza San Marco.

Venice Photo Tour On the Steps of Canaletto

Giovanni Antonio Canal, alias Canaletto, was a painter and engraver who lived in Venice in the 18th century; he is world-famous for his wonderful views of Venice.

Topography, architecture, nature, atmosphere and lights are all mingled in his masterpieces creating realistic scenarios and authentic testimonials of the life and architecture of his time.

This itinerary propose the same places that Canaletto depicted in his works taking the participant to look at each location from the same angulation as if he/she were looking through Canaletto’s own eyes, searching for the differences between the 18th century Venetian landscape and today’s landscape as well as for what has remained unvaried since Canaletto’s time.

Le grand guide de Venise - sur les pas de Guardi et Canaletto 

Guardi, Canaletto et autres artistes du XVIIIe siècle se sont attachés à peindre toutes les facettes de leur ville. Près de trois siècles plus tard, Alain Vircondelet, un des plus grands historiens de Venise,  avec photographe Marco Secchi  s'adonne à une comparaison passionnante entre les photos de la ville d'aujourd'hui et les tableaux de celle d'hier. Douze circuits sont ainsi proposés au lecteur et commentés par l'auteur.

Un guide de Venise passionnant en pleine actualité de l'exposition dédiée à Canaletto au Musée Maillol.

The book is for sale with Amazon

Swimming in Venice

I found this post on a Forum...and made me laugh...quite few times...But kids use to swim in Venice an no there were no sharks!

I keep seeing these movies and programs on TV about Venice Italy, and I see the people's houses that are like directly on the water, and can't help but think that it would be really cool to swim from place to place. Sure you would be dripping wet, but the water there looks really cool in the movies. (Although it's probably kinda nasty from all of the boats concentrated in that one area.) But I'm asking more of, would there be...sharks and stuff in Venice. If you look on Google Earth, the water eventually does reach the ocean. So I thought that maybe all sorts of evil animals and junk might be waiting to eat you as soon as you tried it. Anyway, those are my thoughts. I'd like to hear yours.

Rush hours in Venice

Imagine a world without cars. Or pickups, vans, sport utility vehicles or semi-trailer trucks.

It is quite amazing how much space you have left in such a world for other things, when you take the motor vehicle out of the equation.

There is no rush hour, because in Venice there is no rush!

Happy New Year! 2012 that is.

VENICE, ITALY - DECEMBER 31:  Fireworks display are seen in St. Mark's Square during New Year's Eve street party on December 31, 2011 in Venice, Italy.  Official figures say that around seventy thousand people gathered in St. Mark Square for this year's street celebrations.

Tribute to Lorenzo Lotto - The Hermitage Paintings At The Accademia Gallery

Switching alliances. After having been so passionate about Jacopo Robusti (Tintoretto) at the point that one of the reasons I choose my present house in Venice was due to being close to the Tintoretto's house and workshop I find myself deeply in love with Lorenzo Lotto. Traitor!

The Hermitage Paintings at Accademia Gallery on November 23, 2011 in Venice, Italy. The exhibition, which includes two very rare and previously unseen paintings, opens from the November 24 2011 to February 26, 2012 in Venice

Fog shrouds Venice

Venice woke up this morning under a heavy blanket of fog adding to the atmoshere of the city.

Vaporino

When you walk in the winter fog, there seems to be no division between water and embankment, life and death, love and hate. You feel that you can walk through walls, through sky, through time.

My Venice is the Venice of winter, the Venice of Cannaregio, the Venice of fog. Walking down the Fte Nove  in la nebbia, wearing rubber boots against the high water, it is hard to tell where terra firma leaves off and sky and water begin. The city seems to hang in the air like a mirage. Sounds bounce off the waters and deceive you with their closeness or farness. Figures appear and disappear around corners. The past beckons. It is quite possible to believe that it can take you and never give you back.

Related articles

• The peaceful pleasures of Venice in winter (seattletimes.nwsource.com)