80 reviews of Venice Gondola Ride and Serenade with Dinner

We really enjoyed it. The Gondolier was very jolly. I had read other reviews and made sure that I printed out two of the vouchers. That was a must! We needed it for the restaurant, and although we had confirmed with Viator the day before that, the reservation had been confirmed by the restaurant and there was a quick little period of worry when they told us we had only booked for two instead of the four I had paid for. They left us standing around, but then seated us and we enjoyed the meal and the rest of the evening. Read the small print; there is only one serenader, and he is on the first Gondola. If you are not in the first one there is only one opportunity for all the Gondolas to stop on the canal and listen to his fantastic voice. It's no exaggeration that we had a great time on the canals of Venice and we would recommend it.

Loved the Gondola Serenade! It was like a dream! A must do if you are in Venice. Unfortunately the restaurant left a lot to be desired, stated 4 course dinner on receipt, restaurant agreed but when we ordered we were told no only 2 courses and then dessert and we were embarrassed in front of everyone! Not a nice ending to a beautiful trip!

The gondola ride and dinner were both excellent. My only complaint would be the glitch in the smooth transition between the tour and dinner. After the tour, obtaining the voucher needed for dinner from the gondola operator was a less than seamless process. I wish I had printed two vouchers to have one for each activity. The tour itself was breathtakingly beautiful and the restaurant wonderful.

We really loved the gondola serenade, but I think we lucked out because people were randomly getting into the gondolas and we just happened to board the one that had the accordion player and singer. All the other gondolas followed alongside us.

This was money well spent. The 7:30pm ride afforded us a beautiful sunset while still being able to see the homes and canals. Don't expect your own gondolier to serenade. They usually have one singer/musician that is shared among several boats. The canals are narrow and the singer's voice carries fine. The dinner at Ristoraunte Giglio was very good. Not the usual tour fare. Our gondolier was rude but we chose to ignore him and focus on the beautiful city and canals.

We had a very bad experience. We got lost and took a different vaporetto, so we arrived 10 minutes late. The man that attended us was very rude, so we lost the gondola, BUT he was willing to take us on the ride if we paid him again. The restaurant was very good, and the food and the attendance were excellent. It was a little hard getting to the restaurant. Viator should give a map on how to get there, we had to call on our cell phones and get explanations.

The group gondola ride was really fun. Most of the people got onto the group boat, but there were then 6 of us crammed into a smaller boat. We were lucky because we got the comfy seats, but the other 4 people on our boat weren't so pleased with their seating. We also signed up for the dinner and had a terrible time finding the restaurant, like all restaurants in Venice. We found it, and we were the only people that had signed up for the dinner, so it was just the 2 of us! Well, it turned out to be really fun anyway, and the food was very good. Even though it turned out good, I think that I should have been informed that there were no other people signed up for the group dinner and then we wouldn't have bothered either.