Mistakes everyone makes in Venice
Five mistakes that cost time or money in Venice, and what to do instead.
- Gondola
- €90 per ride for up to five passengers
- Vaporetto ticket
- Bought before boarding, not on the boat
- Campanile of San Giorgio Maggiore
- Closed for works, no reopening date
The costliest mistakes in Venice happen when the city gets treated like any other — people look for a taxi that doesn't exist, buy a ticket on the move, or drag a suitcase over ten bridges. Each has a simple fix, once the plan adapts to a city with no streets for cars.
1. A gondola instead of the vaporetto
A gondola is a half-hour ride at the official tariff (€90, per ride for up to five passengers, not per person) — a nice photo once, not transport. Vaporetto line 1 runs the same Grand Canal, all of it, for one fare (€9.50).
2. Buying a vaporetto ticket on board
Tickets are bought at a machine on the dock or in advance, before boarding — they aren't sold on the boat itself, and travelling without a validated ticket means an on-the-spot fine. A day pass (€25) settles this for the whole day in advance.
3. Booking far from a dock with heavy luggage
Venice's streets are cobbles and stepped bridges, and wheeled luggage gets dragged over them, not rolled. Before booking a room, it's worth checking how many bridges separate the address from the nearest vaporetto dock — a difference of two to five bridges changes the first half-hour in the city.
4. Planning around the view from San Giorgio Maggiore's campanile
The campanile on the island of San Giorgio Maggiore, with the best view down onto St Mark's Square, is closed for works, with no reopening date. While it stays shut, the closest substitute for that view is the campanile on the square itself (€15).
5. Arriving and leaving the same day
Anyone arriving and leaving the same day sees the city in exactly its worst hours — between ten and five, when the density is highest. The day-visitor access fee that once limited this is no longer in force, the trial period having ended in July 2026, so the reason to stay overnight is the same as it always was — morning and evening without the day crowd, not the cost of getting in.
Before you go
Short answers to what people ask most before setting out.
Does a gondola get you to the sights faster?
No — a gondola is an experience, not transport. The vaporetto is faster and far cheaper for actually getting around.
Where do you buy a vaporetto ticket?
At a machine on the dock or in advance, before boarding. It isn't sold on the boat itself.
Does Venice still charge day visitors to enter?
No. The trial ran in 2024, 2025 and 2026, and ended in July 2026.
Ready for Venice?
Where to next
Venice in 2 days
→St Mark's before eight, Cannaregio in the afternoon and a vaporetto instead of a gondola — two days that…
Verona · 104 km
→An amphitheatre that still stages opera in summer, a courtyard tied to Shakespeare's tragedy and a fortress over the river — all inside a loop you can walk in a day, with a second day opening up Lake Garda.
How well does Venice suit you?
→Six questions: a score for this place and others like it.
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