Venice Travel Forum

Hello! We are going to Venice for the first time this early May and will be spending 3 days there.

Based on the typical must-see sights in Venice (i've not done full research on places to see yet but heard about Doges Palace and Basilica San Marco and really interested to go there), what type of transport cards/venice cards do you suggest? Is it wise to purchase a venice orange card?
What about unlimited waterbus tickets say for 72 hrs? Will it really take a lot of waterbus rides to visit most of the interesting sights in Venice?

Thanks a lot!

Hello,

Unless you are going to one of the islands around venice you won't need the transportation card. Most of the major sites are in the same area. Venice is very small and you must walk everywhere except when you cross the grand canal or go to the islands. There are bridges that cross the grand canal so unless you want to take a boat across you can just cross at the Accademia bridge or the rialto bridge. These are the two (out of 3) main bridges that cross the grand canal. If you plan on visiting Murano, Burano or the other islands check on the point to point tickets versus the transportation ticket.

Donna

Entirely agree. You won't actually need to use the waterbuses at all.

Vaporetti are very expensive imo, and unless you intend to visit the islands you will do much better walking everywhere. Venice is not a huge place (you could walk right across it in an hour or so), and walking allows you to see so much more. There's no traffic, and once you are away from the very touristy bits there are few crowds. Cannareggio and Dorsoduro are particularly lovely for exploring on foot.

Get a decent map, plan which districts you want to visit on which days and just enjoy wandering the calles, sottportegos and fondamenta. By far the best way to see the city!

And if you are desperate to go in a gondola, just get yourself across the Canal Grande in a traghetto (gondola ferry). It'll be a quick trip, and you should really stand up (I did), but it only costs 50 cents!

Agree with the above, but would add that a trip up (or down) the Grand Canal on the vaporetti is a lovely way to spend a couple of hours. I really enjoyed going the entire length (Piazza Roma to Lido) , just relaxing and soaking up the views from the water, especially if you can nab one of the seats at the back of the boat (outside). The light keeps changing and the reflections and colours of the buildings, bridges, cafes and various forms of water transport make it a fascinating journey. I did buy a 24 hour ticket and used it to get back to the train station the next day for our departure, so it was good value.