Venice Doge’s Palace - Priority Entrance & Premium Guided Tour

What a treat it was to have Ana as our private tour guide! She was so warm, kind, knowledgeable, and very thorough! She was such a joy to walk through with as she told all The stories of the history of the Doge! I highly recommend her abd we are thankful for our private tour with her!

Tour was very rushed and pretty mundane commentary. Headphones did not stay on ear for over half of our group making the experience extremely frustrating…rushing through rooms, maneuvering around the hordes of people holding the headphone to the ear trying to grasp what guide was talking about. Way overpriced tour. When I tried to provide feed back I was told well it was worse yesterday! Come on folks this is your business…there are plenty of headsets that work well.

Tour guide was very good. Meeting place was changed 1 day before without a complete address which was confusing and started late.

Finding the tour start point was well described, so easy to find and the tour started on time. Our guide Eola spoke very clearly and took us on a very efficient tour of the palace so we could get all the highlights in one hour, since we had to leave. We got to see all the rooms in the palace and the prison. Loved the tour and wish we had more time.

Interesting history. Very beautiful inside with beautiful ceilings and paintings. Sara, our tour guide, was awesome. Made the tour a fun experience!

We were added to the tour midway through and it started 25 minutes late due the guide running behind. We were just told to jump in the line. We never even knew the guides name. It was hard to hear him at times. Overall just not the best experience.

The audio guide didn’t work. While the guide was knowledgeable, he left the group 2/3 of the way through the tour and we had to finish on our own

It was short & sweet. Very nice to have a guide to provide the information & it made getting in very easy!

Not happy. Booked Doge Palace Tour with Secret Itineraries option but was given standard tour instead. I took my complaint to the tour office but was brushed off.

We had an excellent guide. She was informative as well as entertaining. We would definitely recommend thus tour.

Tour advertised the Secret Itineraries but this was just the normal tour. Did not contain any exclusive content. Tour was ok, just not what we paid for.

Do not book with this company. This is a bait and switch scam. They falsly advertise for the secret itinerary tour and you purchase tickets for the "mystery and secrets tour" to go see what they advertise on the site of Casanova's staircase, chamber of secrecy, entire prison and we received the normal guided tour which is not what we paid for. I asked 2 people, the guide and the person at the meeting point if this was correct tour they both assured me it was and then put us in the normal tour. We saw nothing that we paid to see. And had no customer support to fix the situation.

Valentina provided us with a very entertaining and interesting tour of the Doges Palace. We thoroughly enjoyed our time with her! She was both knowledgeable and passionate with her stories.

This tour was fantastic. We booked the English speaking guided tour and thoroughly enjoyed it. As it turned out, we saw a large chunk of the palace (regular path) under our own steam prior to the tour and then this “secret” passages tour really enhanced the wider experience. Totally recommend

This was a horrible experience and City Tours Co was awful to deal with! They put us on the wrong tour and would not help at all to correct the issue with many attempts (along with 2 others as well). It caused alot of time to be wasted in our 1 day in Venice , missed a significant tour that we were looking forward to and could not rebook. If you want a good tour in Venice please do not book Venice Tours-City Tours Co.

Booked this tour because it looked like additional tickets were needed to access the prison and bridge off sighs. Turned out the normal entrance ticket would have been enough. There were no “mysteries” or “secrets” on the tour. It was a general history of Venice with some references to the paintings in each room. In fact, when we looked around on our own there was more information on the in room displays than was provided by the guide.

Good and concise tour as I had only limited time. Meeting point was a bit difficult to find initially but found it at the end - I was early, not an issue on the description - just Venice has a lot of small streets, to visitors to navigate around

We were informed this trip would last 50 minutes and one and a half hours into the tour we were only halfway and had to leave. The tour guide was very slow but informative. It took 30 minutes just to reach the palace from the starting point. The tour is labeled mysteries and prisons, and we were told we would get exclusive access to the prison but never got to see the prisons as this tour took us through the majority of the courtrooms. We were told we would cross the bridge of sighs but had to find it on our own after we left the tour guide. The tour guide spoke very slowly, quietly, and did not engage the group. It was a large group, and we were not given opportunities to ask questions. I would not recommend this tour and feel like we were misled on the contents of the trip.

Guide was very soft spoken. We didn’t get to the palace until 10:20 for a 10 am tour that we had to arrive at 9;45 for. Tour guide was so soft spoken, even outside, very difficult to hear or understand much of anything..

The woman have a huge accent did not understand a word, would really want my money back. She talk too fast which was worst

Great tour. Our guide was informative and witty. Easy to understand and hear with headset. Highly recommend!

Our tour guide was a great storyteller. This was my second time to the Doge's place and it was great to hear information I had not heard before. The mysteries and secrets were very interesting and unexpected. Additionally, we were able to go down and see the prisons which was interesting as well.

Viator offers visits to Doge palace with small groups (6-8). In reality groups consist of some 35 people. Bad value for the money.

Canceled with no notice or message. Luckily I got on TA a few days before my tour or I would not have had enough time to find another tour. Very unprofessional.

Not the best. While i realize that there is so much tourism that there must be sick of us I still think they should be more courteous. The staff was disorganized and less than clear on their instructions. The guide was rushed and unenthusiastic hard to listen to didn't wait for us

Finding the office was a nightmare. Directions were not very clear at all nor the picture of the location. Hence why I gave it a four star review. However the guide, Valentina was most definitely five star for her narration and knowledge . She was welcoming and made lots of eye contact with everyone.

Our tour guide was brilliant, informative & warm. Helped us enjoy the Doge’s palace but also gave us tips about other things to visit in Venice.

We arrived at the meeting place and were immediately greeted personally by a coordinator, then walked to a meeting place on St. Mark’s Square to our guide, Valentina who had just finished another tour and didn’t have anyone but us for this tour. Valentina was wonderful, very helpful and made our tour great, even though it was accidentally just the two of us, she was patient, kind and funny. Beautiful rooms, interesting to know the stories of a place with intriguing history. We enjoyed this tour as it seemed very well run and we felt very taken care of. We would recommend.

Finding the office for the tour was a nightmare as the email confirmation and digital ticket wasn’t clear or prescription on meeting points. Once we got over that - and we’re then 15 minutes late, the staff in the office were excellent to help put things right and take us to our guide. The guide was friendly and knowledgeable. The experience was ok…. Some magnificent paintings but not really a lot of time to admire everything as the tour moved on. It was nice to walk across the bridge of sighs from the inside.

It was not good …bad Italian organisation very expensive…complete rip off Don’t book with them just go straight to the museum & attractions

Thanks Valentina for the amazing job, we had a wonderful time in Palazzo Ducale! Thank you again Valentina for this marvellous experience

State of the art exhibition, superb location and beautifully restored also in the inside. Great program both for adults and children. I plan to go back. Friendly staff. My compliments, me and my family had a great time at Procuratie. Thank you very much. I will definitely recommend it.

‘A World of Potential’ is a lovely exhibition to explore in Venice. Located in the Procuratie with access from St Mark’s Square the exhibition used state of the art, interactive experiences to allow you to explore a little about yourself and get a glimpse of the work that The Human Safety Net does. It’s great to wonder through, with some really excellent interactive experiences - fun to do for couples and families with older children too. Well worth exploring! The Procuratie itself has been beautifully restored and while the exhibition is not about the building, the views through windows and from the terrace are lovely. A good cafe too with well priced food and coffee.

Given that the key marketing statement was that this building was being opened to the public for the first time in 500 years, we expected the experience to be very much rooted in the history of the building. Instead, what we encountered was an interactive exhibition about human personality and mental development. Very much a surprise and, consequently, a real disappointment. It should have stated much more clearly on the website the nature of the exhibition.

amazing experience, touching and interactive. Unique I'd say. Everyone needs to go once in a lifetime

Very interesting exhibition in a beautiful palace near San Marco; the experience was very nice and the staff was kind.

Magic experience, the building itself is something stunning and the experience is so touching and interactive...It is a must in Venice

What a great cooking class. Gabriele is a great chef and speak english perfectly. Now I now how to make the famous Carbonara!

I am not a professional chef, but I really like spending time in the kitchen and learning how to make traditional dishes in a proper way. In this sense, Gabriele, the chef you can see in the picture above, really helped me in preparing the best carbonara in the proper way! Professional, communicative and with a perfect English he prefectly taught me the secrects behind the perfect way to make this typical Italian dish!

Really interesting cooking class. Everything was clear and Gabriele helps me to prepare a good carbonara.The chef speaks english very well.

Super cooking class with a super chef. Gabriele is very kind and he knows how to teach to an audience. Cooking carbonara with him was really fun, it was such a refreshing experience! The carbonara that i made, thanks to chef Gabriele, was definetly the best I’ve ever tasted! Super experience for couples (i did it with my boy-friend), people who want to learn and families with kids! WOW!

The guide is very good. Tour somewhat at the pace and very general ... ok for those who just want a nice overview. I thought it would be more detailed anyway... too bad!

There were 25 people visiting the secret passages, which is way too many in my opinion. The guide was so far ahead that the second part of the group could not hear even with the radios because the sound cut off. In addition, the activity started 30 minutes late and the guide passed super fast ...

A place steeped in unmissable history. We were lucky to have a passionate and fascinating guide, we learned a lot about the history of Venice. We have our eyes and ears full of it. It's frustrating not to be able to access certain parts, but if you have time get tickets for these accesses because it must be great. Lots of stairs (like everywhere else) so be careful if you have knee problems.

Personnel agréable, la guide était juste extraordinaire. QPleins de petits anecdotes sur les lieux. Sa sympathie nous a fait rester jusqu'au bout. Mais pour la visite je ne mets pas plus que deux étoiles, car le titre nous a induit a l'erreur. Nous sommes déçus car nous pensions visiter les passages secrets du palais des doges.

We booked the Doge's Palace Secrets Tour for €94/2 people But we only got a simple tour for €50/2 people. We were disappointed 😞 I hope Tripadvisor will only deduct the €50 from my account! Unfortunately I don't get a reply to my emails! What a pity!

Very interesting interactive and multimedia exhibition about potential and strengths. It is located inside the restored space of the Procuratie Vecchie, very welcoming also thanks to the cafeteria space (Illy) and one dedicated to consulting books about Venice.

The interactive nature of the exhibition, the experiential path that forces you to take. I recommend it to all age groups: to children as a discovery and to adults to become aware of their abilities. Magical location for tourists but also for Venetians.

Pas d'indications sur l entrée où exactement le titre vieilles procuraties n est pas indiqué. confusion , trop cher...