Skip The Line Venice Doge's Palace And St. Mark's Basilica Tour

A lot of walking but worth it, awesome tour guide, easy to meet up and start tour. Tour guide very knowledgeable and very friendly.

Our guide was very knowledgeable and personable. We learned soo much from him. He was very attentive to our interests.

It was a It was an educational and interesting tour of two beautiful monuments. We highly recommend doing this. Joining a skip the line tour is really great option and we were highly recommend you do that. Our guide was very knowledgeable with lots of interesting and fun facts and information. She was very energetic!

Average experience. It allows you to skip the line which is helpful. Be sure and note the dress code required to enter church ahead of time or you will need to buy scarf to ensure shoulders/knees covered. Guide was disinterested in engaging much but distantly polite. Provided some interesting insights. We’ve certainly had better guides in other cities that seemed more interested in their job. Meet up location is not at the church/Doge site and requires map to get to ticket counter to start.

Denise was our guide, what an excellent guide she is too. Made our tour fun and entertaining with information and anecdote on the Doge's. The meeting point is easy to find as they have their own shop/booth. Well worth the money.

The tour was amazing. The guide was very knowledgeable about both St. Peter's Basilica and Doge's Palace. Lots of great history along with the incredible buildings themselves. Skip the line option was definitely worth the cost.

Our guide was excellent tour and history provided interesting- some narrow stairs and climbings. Prison part was cool- must do in Venice.

Tour operator ignored my communication over several days and failed to allow me to join tour on day scheduled.

Amazing and knowledgeable tour guide Denise provided much history of both the basilica and palace. Highly recommend

Our guide Max, was very knowledgeable! The Basilica was amazing, as well as the Doge. Great to connect our knowledge and history with someone who was really was educated in facts

Our guide held a sign at shoulder level, very difficult to keep track of her. She also started telling us of the item she was explaining before we could even locate it. She walked quickly and it was hard to keep the group together. She didn’t indicate very well which direction she was going to help us keep together.

Our tour guide was fantastic and extremely knowledgeable. She was very pleasant and courteous. I would book again with her for any tour!

A good overall experience. The guide was good and the info was interesting. A lot of walking and climbing stairs. Good audio

This was a great tour of the Basilica & palace, our guide Denise had such a knowledge of Venice & its history that we totally enjoyed our time with her.

The checkin process had a line that was unexpected and as a result we missed our tour. One checkin operator printing tickets - feel was h like other Viator tours, more commercial and as we expected to meet the guide in the square we actually had to get in line at the square, and in the meantime we missed the tour because the line took us 10+ minutes. If you do this tour make sure you arrive early or they will leave without you due to the line. The tour desk worked to arrange us to meet the guide for the second part but the first was missed and no refund.

The guide never showed up, so we were unable to see the Basilica and it is sold out for weeks so we will never be able to see it.

The tour operator cancelled the tour without notifying us. The directions for the meeting point were not specific. They said to meet in front of the Church of San Zaccaria, but not exactly where. They failed to mention that we were to check in at the ticket office, which was in the square. At that point, it was too late to book another tour.

Rude and unaccommodating. Everyone else in Italy has been so nice but not this business. Maybe the crowds have warped their graciousness.

Must see for Venice! Great insight into the history, art and culture. Unmissable, and I would recommend it. Tour guide was very knowledgeable

We were waiting in line to check in and spoke to a couple tour guides that were gathering their tour groups. They told us to check in. Then a tour associate pulled us to the front of the line when it was time to depart. We shared our online reservation details at the check in counter but they had a problem and after more than 5 minutes he gave us 4 tickets. Then a tour associate rushed us on a 5 minute walk to try and catch our group. When we got to St Marks our tour group had already entered the Basilica. Then we were denied access to St Marks because they check in counter gave us 12:30 entry tickets instead of our prepaid 11:00 tickets. We had to wait 30 minutes to enter and missed the first half of the tour. This was a very stressful and frustrating event. The tour guide was good once we caught up but the sound receivers had a lot of static which caused us to miss much of the details.

Arrived 2 minutes late and was told guide had left 5 minutes earlier and might be able to catch up. Never saw the group and did the tour on our own. This is the 4th Viator trip we had booked and the others we had to always wait for late arrivers sometimes up to 30 minutes.

Elisa was outstanding in her knowledge, enthusiasm and connecting with my daughters in their 20s. ….

Terrible guide, took too long to find meeting place and then guide had nervous laugh, breathing problems and rushed off basically telling us we were to finish our tour on our own

St Mark’s is STUNNING!! Our guide was very knowledgeable but her English was difficult to understand, especially when she was walking. On the way to the cathedral she never looked back to see if she had the group. It was hard for my 84 year husband to keep up with her. The Doges Palace was impressive too. However the two tour were far longer than advertised.

Did not go on the tour, the local ticket agent did not give me all the required tickets, so we blocked from the tour. The local agent said it was not his problem, the tour guide did nothing to resolve the error. I the contacted Viator and was informed no money back, not their problem. I missed the tour Viator keeps the money. Will vent my concerns on line.

Was still very busy in late September so good to have Skip the Line tickets and a tour guide. He was very informative. Both the Basilica and Doge Palace were incredible.

Why didn't the joining instructions say "Go to the Tour Shop kiosk (with very inconspicuous Viator logo amongst others) in S Zaccaria Square to register, pick up the headset and be allotted to your tour party."? So simple to say but not explained on the ticket. The guide had huge knowledge but spoke fast in a strong accent. The headsets were problematic and the signal broke up a lot - especially in the prison!! However, the enormous heavily-decorated rooms in the Palace are extraordinary. St Mark's is also richly decorated and beautiful with so much history. The terrace and museum display of the four horses are a must-see.

Brilliant tour of St Marks and Doges Palace. Rebecca was amazing, great local knowledge and knew all the best places to take photos and brought to life the history in such an interesting way. Whole trip was 2.5 hrs and we were gripped the whole way.

St. Mark's basilica was beautiful and the four horses were amazing. The Doges Palace was over the top in beauty and grandeur!

Again a wonderful experience! Amazing sites accompanied by the interesting narration of our knowledgeable tour guide -Rebecca- which put all we were seeing into historical context. Fabulous!!

We had mixed reviews on this tour. I need to preface by saying it was incredibly hot and I loved the passion of the guide. However, it was very difficult to understand her as her accent, though beautiful, was very strong. A bunch of people on the tour left because they couldn’t understand the guide and didn’t like all of the detailed information. We stuck it out but it was difficult because we both felt like we missed a lot of info. Going with a guide was very helpful though because it allowed us to skip the lines. This tour was very long and I would recommend breaking it up. Unfortunately we did race through the rooms in Doges palace (one of my favorite palaces in the world as this was my second time there) which made me feel like I wanted to go back again with a different guide.

Meeting Point easy to find. Our guide Donata was exceptional! She was able to answer many detailed questions about the palace and Basilica and was very attentive to our group's needs

I have never written a review although I have used many private tour experiences in multiple cities and countries. In Italy alone I have had multiple. This review is about a private family tour for Doge Palace and St Marks Basilica. I also want to mention I tried to deal with both Viator and the Vendor, Very Venice Tours but neither were willing to speak with me. I had this tour with my family and was beyond disappointed. The guide was very nice but had a great deal of difficulty with speaking English, especially with a younger audience. Frequently whispering when no one was around in large building made the visits both wasteful but also disappointing. The content provided was weak and not suitable for a family. Multiple family guides were around us at times and we found ourselves wishing over and over we were with them instead of our guide. Once the tour ended we redid both locations ourselves and were able through the internet and YouTube piece the information together. Sadly we wasted an exorbitant amount of money and time beforehand. Repeated attempts to speak to the tour operator VERY VIVA VENICE TOURS ignored sadly.

The experience was wonderful although we actually missed our tour as we had difficulty locating the "Tour Store". The representatives encouraged us to see the palace and St. Mark's on our own which allowed us plenty of time to explore the two sites. There are many people and tour groups in the square so finding locations and navigating the water ways is a challenge until one does it once or twice. Being at Doge's in the evening is wonderful with the muted colors and few people present. Would recommend as there is so much to see that one can have sensory overload which a guide would help to minimize. It is important to know you have to leave the square to sign in at a Tour Store that is off the square.

First of all the untrained customer service people from this “Walkineurope tour’ trip agency misbehave and abuse over phone. ( we have booked via Viator ) After calling Viator for the tour agency contact details when we tried to speak with the tour agency Walkineurope tour they started to say that regarding how to meet local tour guide from Italy they can't help. Be careful if you are taking this tour then you have to be stationed in Venice and ask locals for the direction meeting location. We requested a landmark for meeting point and which will be better option from Venice Santa Lucia station to reach meeting point. The Walkineurope customer care executives misbehaved over their customer care number +13322422284, and said “ we are not from Italy to let you know. You have to learn it by your own how to reach from google. We are not to help you” . Well if they can't help with basic information then what reason they are speaking as customer support executives. Over the phone they shouted and hang up the phone without listening to our request. All of the guests from today's trip said they have faced same challenges from the customer support number of Walkineurope tour agency. Before booking through Viator or get your guide please ensure it should not be from walkineurope tour agency. Fee people missed their trip as you will not be able to get any local tour guide/agency numbers in the city /place where you are going to take the trip. This agency hackle you at most after taking money from you. In all Europe location they did the same.

Great tour guide! We enjoyed seeing the beautiful architecture and the details of all these historical places in Italy. We were in awe of the beauty.

Good, but a bit too much information. Things began to be repetitious and lost interest. Nice guide though.

Guide was very informative and tailored it to our time allowance. Covered all the major highlights and the right amount of details.

She was so sweet and provided a lot of information that I wouldn’t have found elsewhere without her. She also provided insight into how to spend the rest of our day in Venice and gave recommendations on how to stay dry when it rained but still see Venice!

great places to see -- a must-do if in Venice. Our guide, was ok -- she moved very quickly, not sure if she knew how many people were in her group -- she also could have talked along the walk to the Basilica, providing info of what we were seeing or simply checking in that everyone was following.

The guide was nice but when we left St. Mark's Basilica he went so fast and we had slow people in front of us down the stairs so coming out into the square we lost him. He never held up his # sign and with 100's of people we didn't know which way he went. We had to do Doge's palace on our own. If I wanted to do a self tour, I could have paid less $

Seeing the inside of the basilica and the palace was the best part of the tour. However we felt we were intruding on a private tour as the guide directed all her comments to one family who asked numerous questions and she would then go on about other topics. The tour was gradually being delayed and we left before tour was over.

Tour guide was great. She was very informative and helpful. Issue was the confusion regarding the transition from one tour to the next. Total tour time was much longer than planned.

Very interesting places to see. Our biggest problem was the English. A very nice guide who had a lot of knowledge, but his accent was very thick so we couldn't really understand anything he said. Not his fault he tried hard even tried to slow his talking down. It was a lot of money spent without getting any info.. apart from that what we saw was amazing just didn't get any info on it

We have been In Venice several times but never had a chance to visit the Basilica of St. Marco inside. Lines to get in are more than a “mile” long. This visit we booked a guided tour to the Basilica and Doge’s Palace. We loved it!!! Skip the line helped to get into place with ease. Our guide, Katerina, was very knowledgeable, attentive, and helpful. We had people in our group that had problems with their radios. She called main office, run to connect with person who brought new radios and we( the rest of the group) didn’t even notice the time it took her because we were taking pictures and admiring surroundings. Basilica is stunning inside- golden mosaic everywhere, original 4 golden horses of St. Marco well preserved. Doge’s Palace taught us about republic of Venice. Beautiful rooms with amazing pictures. We walked over the Bridge of Sighs inside. Breathtaking! We learned so much new things about Venice from Katherine. Highly recommend. Thank you.

The guide was late, complained of a sore throat and talked so soft and fast she was hard to understand, didn't even catch her name. And I have a Nonna straight from Sicily so accents don't matter. Walked quickly thru crowed streets, didn't wait for her small group (only 8 of us) to catch up before talking about something she was pointing out. Thank god there was a tall guy in the group we could keep our eye on to follow!! In St Mark's Basilica, a soaring grand cathedral with beautiful mosaics, art, architecture- she talked about the tile floor rooster, griffin, and eagle...OMG! We made it over to the Doge Palace, ditched her and had a wonderful tour on our own with an audio we rented there....DEFINITELY NOT WORTH IT!!

It was unfortunate but the tour guide was in a car accident and no tour occurred. We were provided with tickets 20 minutes after the tour was to start and told where to enter the building. Waiting for a refund

It was good to skip the line, but unfortunately the visit was quite short and not too organised. I would have liked to get more information and insights on history of the sites from the guide. Now the tour was quite light.

Another great private tour booked with Viator. St Marks is beautiful and our guide did a great job explaining what made St Marks unique among the major basilicas of Italy. She tools some great pictures of us along the way which was nice. The tour of the Doge’s palace was also well done and very interesting. I’m terrible with names so can’t remember her name but she was excellent and we were very pleased with our private tour.