City Center Walking Tour In Venice & Gondola Experience

Francesco was quite knowledgeable and informative. We left on time and he kept the tour moving. However the gondola portion was a bit of a let down. After walking for 2 hours having to wait around, watch a movie thru a headset and then walk another 20 for a gondola ride of 20 - 25 minutes grammed into the boat with 5 adults. Well it was not the most comfortable experience.

Valentina was a fantastic tour guide full of information and amazing facts and stories about Venice she took us to some special spots with some quirky points we would have never known about. We had a rude guest on our tour and she was very professional and calm. If your lucky enough to have her as your guide your going to love it! Valentina was born in Venice and you can tell she is proud of her heritage. We were lucky enough to walk back to the office and have a great chat with her! The gondola part was nice with small groups! The only downside to the tour was we wasn't advised the direction of the gondola from the new guide and missed points on the app. But overall a great tour in Venice!

Rosella was an amazing tour guide. As a native of Venice she knew all the history and the funniest facts! Would do it again just to learn more from her!

Great tour, highly recommend. Knowledgeable guide and it was very interesting. Highly recommend this experience.

I loved the gondola ride. But the walking tour was not as good. The guide was trying to make us laugh and entertain us - and he was a nice guy - but his history of Venice was a bit all over the place and he kept referring to drunk sailors and Venice merchants and kind of skipped over some more historically interesting bits and with less chronological order, so a bit confusing. His commentary had so much extra add-on elements, and not the core bits, I found it hard to go along with it - and I am an ex high school history teacher. I was not sure he was as receptive to questions and kind of misunderstood me when I wanted further info. So a bit of entertainment is ok. but not so much that I leave not really educated about the place, and less on the guide’s background and more on Venice please. (But that sometimes happens with some guides who are there to tell you about themselves equally with the history of the place - I am really only there for the history and current issues with the place we are touring - not too much on their lives.)

Good overall. Nice selection of sites and narrative. Gondola ride was fun. Again nice route through the canals.

From the VR tour about the history of Venice’s canals, to the walking tour, and the gondola ride - this experience was an excellent choice!

Such a great way to kick off our time in Venice. You get to see the major tourist sites but also hidden gems on the back streets. The gondola ride was great as well.

Nice experience and view of the city from atop various heights - Ben made it a fun experience! Highly recommend

The guide was excellent and knowledgeable. He had a great sense of honor and made the experience great. The Gondola ride was a bit short but enjoyable

This was the worst experience of my entire trip. The gondola ride was supposed to be a special moment in Venice, but it was completely ruined. Even with heavy rain, the company still made everyone go on the tour. We got completely soaked and could not enjoy the experience at all. There was no romance, no comfort, and no consideration for the customers. It felt like the company only cared about keeping the money, regardless of the weather conditions or the quality of the experience. I do not recommend this company. If you are planning a gondola ride in Venice, it is much better to book directly on the spot, for a similar price, so you can decide according to the weather conditions.

Unfortunately not as expected. Booked tour and gondola ride. Was rushed through a tour then to find out booking for gondola was another hour after tour ended. Gondola ride wasn't 30 minutes as advertised

Natalia was an excellent guide! She did a great job sharing her love of Venice. We could understand her very carefully and she was happy to answer our questions. The gondola ride was shared with 5 people total and an excellent value for our ticket price.

Great tour with lots of information about old Venice. Our tour guide was wonderful. She helped us get umbrellas and navigated through the rainy day.

Very informative tour guide. Had to retrace long walk back to gondola after walking tour over. Walking tour should have ended at gondola boarding site. Enjoyable gondola ride even though gondolier did not engage with us.

Be very careful with this tour operator. Description of the tour timeline is very misleading. If you plan to book other tours after completing this one, you should skip this experience. There is an undisclosed “break” in between the walking tour and the gondola ride. This caused conflict with our Murano boat tour. We could not complete the gondola ride which was disappointing. When we confronted the tour operator, they offered no assistance and fully acknowledged the misleading tour timeline after I showed them my confirmation emails and booking details with Viator. They claimed that it was Viator’s error and not their error. Told me to take it to Viator to request a refund for the gondola portion. This tour is available as a stand alone walking tour - the gondola was an added option that could have easily been refunded. The tour operator rejected the request. Dishonest to say the least and not a business that I would ever use again. I would be wary of any and all tours that this company operates.

Great tour guide it was just a little long. I was expecting the tour to go right into the gondola and the set up is like Second tour great value for the money beautiful gondola ride I learned a-lot about the city. I would just restructure the timing and when and how the activities are placed. Overall it was great

This was so fun to learn some of the hidden gems of Venice Our guide was very informative and helpful.

We had a great time, lot to see, lot of history , our guide was very nice & informative We had a hard time finding the place & getting information for the meeting liocating, overall we enjoyed it

Great experience! We had a wonderful guide. Very knowledgeable and brought the tour to life with facts, funny stories and tidbits. The gondola ride at the end was perfect❣️

Honestly, I didn’t get chance to enjoy this tour and quite disappointed with your service. We were severe sick unexpectedly the night before the tour morning. It was less 24 hours to notify. But how do we control our medical condition? Otherwise nothing is called “Emergency”. I had several conversations with support team, got no refund even partial refund. So disappointed.

Great tour of the more unusual bits of Venice. Saw some lovely areas which were off the main tourist routes. Our guide was lovely, very clear commentary and very knowledgeable. I learnt a lot about the history of Venice and some fun facts too. The gondola ride happens later, about an hour is between the two. It was very well organised, there was a short talk about the gondolas and the gondoliers and then a lovely quiet ride through the smaller canals. You can download an audio commentary for the gondola ride but we did not take the path of the tour and the peace was welcome after the crowds and bustle of San Marco square. Definitely one for adults, we covered a lot of ground.

The most memorable part of this tour was unfortunately that we couldnt find the meeting place due to the directions provided in the tour description. The tour stated by the Venice Tours Office near San Marcos Square. We couldn't find San Marcos Square after hours of searching. There needs to be directions to San Marcos Square, not just from San Marcos Square. By the time we reached the agency office the tour was over. We did however manage to take the Gondola ride, which was very nice. The Venice Tours representative advised that we should pursue a refund from Viator because of the poor directions, which we will do. She indicated that upon being contacted by Viator she will authorize the refund. Venice is very complicated and difficult to navigate due to the many canals, lack of street signs and need for water taxis. It was a very taxing, tiring and frustrating experience.

Excellent! Very fun facts and nice walking pace I would recommend this tour to see the more quiet and where Venetian people live

While our guide was very knowledgeable and spoke excellent English, we booked a “guide in English” and our group was dual language. So literally 50% of the tour was spoken in Italian. Also, we had to return to the original meeting site, where we waited to switch guides (Teo was much more dynamic then the original guide, so he gets 5 ⭐️!) and radio equipment to walk to the gondola dock. However, returning to their office and dual languages limited the sites we visited. Dual languages required us to wait at each point of interest for the information to be repeated in Italian. The gondola ride was fun but our gondolier turned around and repeated the same canal route on the return rather than others in our group who went “around the block” and saw additional canals. About 2/3 of our ride was by the Carabinieri offices - so not much to see. Plus our gondolier got very angry after the high water splashed and soaked my husband’s foot and he inadvertently tracked the wetness into the gondola. We would not repeat this tour.

Hidden fairness covered a lot of territory. A two hour walking tour a break and then a half hour gondola ride. It was a really good.

Very interesting bits of history on this small group walking tour. We were grouped up with other walking tours for the gondola ride, and had a long wait in line for the gondola. Our gondolier did not speak with us at all, so that part was quite disappointing, but overall a great tour if you are willing to hurry up and wait for large parts of it.

We enjoyed our guide and learned a lot on our tour. We had difficulty at time understanding her English. We enjoyed the gondola ride, but this guide didn't provide any additional information.

Started out great, good directions to get the little plaza. After that, it was horrible. The walking tour still happened, and there was a gondola ride, outside of that we did not find much in the way of "hidden" features of Venice. The gondola ride was extremely rushed and it felt like a race to see who could drop off the tourists the fastest. The walking tour felt like we walked back down all the main tourist streets we took to get there from the train station. The guides' microphone kept getting blocked out by people walking past and talking. Disorganization was the main problem with this trip. Nothing was stated until after the trip started that the gondola ride was almost 2 hours after the walking tour completed. We had to miss a tour we scheduled after the walking tour was supposed to end to be able to go on the gondola ride.

The tour itself was very nice, walked through areas that we would not have known to walk or its history. The reason why I gave a 4 star instead of a 5 is that the guide had to repeat herself twice to give tour in both Spanish and English and this wasted twice the time for us that we could have spent seeing more sights. Tours should just be in the language chosen; otherwise is not fair to paying customers.

Elena was wonderful! So fun and informative. We enjoyed it and learned a lot! She is a native to Venice and had some wonderful stories of growing up here. Highly recommended

Valentina was fantastic! She was so knowledgeable and never got us lost. We felt free to ask questions. 10/10

Valentina was great! We went to places we wouldn’t have normally gone and learned a lot about the Venice behind the tourist spots. This tour also helped us recognize our surroundings as we explored later and noticed landmarks Velentine had taken us to. This was a great way to kick off our Benice experience. Highly recommend! Thank you!!

We did not go on the tour. Too far of a walk to your office (especially in 90 deg heat or spend another £30 for a water taxi.

The hidden Venice walking tour was the highlight. Our guide Valentina had so much knowledge and love for the history of Venice it was so lovely to listen to. We started at 11.30 and finished around 1pm. We then came back at 2.20pm for the gondola ride. We were waiting an entire hour before we actually got into a gondola. It lasted 25mins and didn’t go down the grande canal.

Hidden Venice tour was amazing 10/10. It started at 11.30 lasted until around 1pm. We were told to come back at 2.20 for the gondola ride. We didn’t get into a gondola until 3.20 exactly. Waiting for an hour in the sun. Gondola trip lasted 25mins and didn’t go down the grande canal at all.

We had booked the English language tour. The guide was very hard to understand. She spoke a lot of Italian to a couple who joined us who did not understand English and for quite a bit of the time so there was no time to talk to her about anything.

Walking tour was OK but disappointing that we were not able to complete the full tour because despite the ticket stating the below after the walking tour there was a 2 hour break before we could do the Gondola ride. We didn't have enough time to wait and so couldn't have the gondola ride. Despite being advised there was no need to cancel the gondola ride by the Venice Tours office but that we should email their office for a refund. Two emails to Venice Tours remain unanswered to date. Sunday 26 May 2024 11:30 - 14:30 Duration: 3 hours Definitely would not recommend this company or use them again.

Very poor organization and communication.. Guide was very good and knowledgable. Gondola part was awful. They sell this as one tour, but they tag you to another later tour . Had to wait an hour and a half for the gondola. And that is with us having to remind them twice that we waiting for the tour.

A decent enough walking tour but hardly of “hidden Venice” unless you consider anything that’s not St Mark’s square hidden, I mean it ended at the Rialto bridge.

I didn’t get to do the gondola tour because my time was changed from 2:00 to 4:00. I did not want to miss my scheduled train back to Florence. I was assured the time would work and it didn’t. I deserve a refund because I followed the advise of the representative.

Our Guide Valentina was very informative and explained many things we would’ve just walked by. If not for a local explaining what were hidden gems in the city plus the VR history booth was cool too..

Valentina gave us a great tour and then we got to ride a gondola as well! With a guided tour and gondola it was a lot less expensive compared to other bookings! This made the choice even easier for my friend and I.

This company is so helpful and well organised. We were late for 11.30 walk so they happily moved us to later, and changed the gondola ride. The tour starts with a VR presentation which was amazing and a surprise. Valentina, our guide was incredible-guided the tour in English and Spanish and seemed to have a fathomless knowledge of Venice. Our gondolier was lovely

Our tour guide, Valentina, shared lots of interesting facts about Venice and Venetian life. At the beginning of the walking tour, we experienced a VR look back in history, which was very informative and a nice surprise to the tour. It was raining the day of our tour and Venice Tours worked with us to reschedule our gondola ride. Had a fantastic time!

Thoroughly enjoyable. Tour commenced with a virtual reality display in the Library next to the meeting point & office. By wearing digital goggles we had an amazing visual and audio presentation of the history of Venice through the centuries. Our guide Valentina then took us through the narrow streets while telling us interesting stories and information about the area, palaces, houses etc. Stopping to point out and explain notable examples. She spoke slowly with excellent English. The hearing devices worked well, even with my husband’s hearing aids. During our tour it rained quite heavily so umbrellas did interfere at times with our view and comfort however that cannot be helped. The walking tour starts at the allocated time. There is a break between finishing the tour and the Gondola ride. because it is booked for a set time but also starts from the same meeting point. Be prepared to wait for your Gondola, it is a great experience - there is an App you can download for descriptions of points of interest. The staff are very friendly and obliging. Allow time to find your way to the meeting point as it is easy to get lost.

The Hidden Venice tour was very good. Valentina was great and showed us some spots we wouldn't have seen on our own, plus she gave us some unique insights about the history of Venice. Our gondola ride went great. Very well organized and a fun ride through some of the canals. We recommend this tour when your in Venice.

Always fun to learn about new areas. Not as much factual information about Venice as we would have liked and the sound quality of the listening device was the greatest.

Great walking tour of less known places in Venice filled with lots of interesting history… and our guide Valentina was wonderful and knowledgeable. And the gondola ride was very fun for my kids!