Grand Canal
- Address:Venice
- Hours:Open 24 hours every day
- Admission:Free
Grand Canal Reviews
We've found 254 Grand Canal reviews from Viator.com travelers and members: what they loved, what they liked and what they think could be improved. It's all here to help you make the most of your next trip.
Wasn't too great, when it mentions Serenade, should of mentioned it wasn't on your boat but with about 20 other boats - the Grand Canal part was only 5 mins then back. Wastn't the best trip I have booked.
I think it was good but from the description and title, I think I expected more. We only went into one place, so the "skip the line" somewhat overstates it. But it was a nice two hour walking tour and a nice one hour Grand Canal tour. Both guides were excellent and well informed.
Brilliant, just a wee short trip on the Grand Canal but it's the quieter side street type canals that are stunningly awesome. The Grand Canal's like a busy highway whereas the side ones are like a peaceful country road. The serenade was top notch too.
Great overview of Venice! I would have preferred a godola ride over the water taxi part the tour down the grand canal.
Sorry to say but not a great experience especially when compared to the outstanding tour we had with Viator at the Vatican. It did pour with rain throughout which did nothing to enhance the experience however in addition to this I would comment as follolws:-
1. Joining instructions were very poor - I have been to venice a number of times and the location instructions were simply innaccurate and open to different interpretations. We only just made it in time after asking in a local shop, so not good to start.
Issued with a headset - no instructions on chennel number etc so missed the introduction and first part of commentry.
2. No one in our party of four could hear the guide properly - may be rubbish equipment or just not set up properly - al we knew was it did not work at all clearly meaning you had to strain to gather any info.
3. The guides strong italian accent made her very difficult to understand with lots of words prononunced wrongly - in fact guessing the word became the highlight of the tour!
4. Information we did hear was no more than we could have got from a decent guide book at a quarter of the cost of this tour - information consisted of a history lesson on venice history, size etc with repetitions of dialogue on Wells, Wells and more Wells!!!
5. The tour ended with the gondola ride which was very rough and unenjoyable whilst in the Grand Canal but was better once we entered some smaller canals - however there were 6 to a gondola, we were sat down by the gondolier in no particular order and he never uttered one syllable to us other than to lean to one side to straighten up the gondola.
The gondola ride was a lot of fun, especially with the music. We went on the grand canal and then down the side canals for about 45 minutes total. It was very organized and easy to do.
This was an extremely enjoyable trip and our guide offered excellent insights into buildings along the Grand Canal. He also provided comprehensive information about the history of Venice. The tour took an hour and was a very relaxing experience. I would recommend it to others when visiting Venice.
This is the 2nd time I did this tour. I also did it 4 years ago when I visited Venice. When you get there and check in there is a lot of waiting around to get started. The nice thing about this tour is you do get to the skip the line at St. Mark's Basilica, which is worth looking inside. Although it is a quick walk thru of the church, so if you are looking for a more substantial tour of St. Mark’s, this isn’t the tour for you. You do get to see the two sides of Venice – the crowded tourist area of St. Mark’s and Rialto Bridge and then some of the deserted back squares. We were definitely ready for a break after the walking tour and had about 3 hours to eat lunch and explore Venice on our own before the cruise along the Grand Canal. Although there is once again a lot of waiting around for the tour to start once you check in. The grand canal cruise is definitely the highlight, although this time we did take a different route than when I did the tour before, but all go down the grand canal of course. What I really like is that they don’t cram you in the water taxi for the tour and there is plenty of room!
Our guide was wonderful. Very enjoyable ride through the Grand Canal.
Initially I was impressed. Due to a travel problem we did not arrive in time for the tour. I phoned as soon as possible, the person said no problem, just come tomorrow.
The next day we arrived at the office, again the staff was polite but not real helpful. The tour began with no explanation of what was happening, just follow me. We were rushed onto the gondola, off we went, we rode through some back water canals and offloaded where we began. A guide who had a heavy accent and was hard to hear because of a bit of static in the radio took us on the walking tour. She had to say her stuff twice, we had 4 members of the group that spoke another language. We were rushed through as a result and had little time for questions.
If I had it to do over again I would take my chances on a gondola ride from a gondola boatsman on the grand canal who would have been a bit nicer, the ride would ;have been more scenic, and missed the post ride walking tour.
This was a great tour. The guides were very knowledgable and set an easy pace. We did a walking tour in the morning, ate a leisurely lunch and met up again for a boat tour of the grand canal. I recommend this for anyone who only has a few days to spend in Venice.
I would recommend it to anyone looking for good intro to the city. our woman guide was very nice and informative. I think the Gondola ride should have covered more of the Grand Canal.
We were a family of 5 - 3 teens - doing this tour at the end of the day. There was a huge group of people waiting and we found that the tour operators did not have their own boats - they used the local taxi service which meant we got whatever driver the taxi had. We were not impressed as the tour itself basically followed the route of the daily ferries that ply the waters of the Grand Canal. Information given by the tour guide was interesting but not worth the extra money paid. The speaker system was loud and often times the operator's voice was distorted. Would not recommend this tour unless you are staying in Venice and don't use the daily ferry system.
We expected the gondola ride to be more personal. Three gondolas full and we sat in the grand canal and listened to a gentleman sing in one while the other two gentlemen manning the oars talked back and forth like they were bored. After a couple of songs we went through a couple of water ways and that part was nice.
This was a well run tour. It was easy to find the meeting place and the tour coordinator which was good considering the number of people that walk around the grand canal area. The tour gave us a much better understanding of historical Venice and took us through areas we would never have found on our own. Its not that this tour takes you anywhere you couldn't find by your self, but it saves you so much time by "skipping lines" and also being fed information that would take forever to discover if you walked on your own. When the tour concluded and we all gave our tour guide a genuine round of applause for her efforts and sharing her knowledge, we went back to a little restaurant that we passed on the tour. It looked great, it was one of the most memorable meals of our holiday, and we never would have even known it existed if we weren't taken through the back alleys of Venice on this tour. Loved it!
