Venice Gondola Ride and Serenade with Dinner

This was an awesome evening, the Gondola ride was very nice, the restaurant was tricky to find but once we arrived we were welcomed with smiles and were treated very very well, unlike some of the other reviews they were nice and service was superb. It was a night to remember. Highly recommend this tour.

The actual ride is about 15 minutes or less. Unless you are lucky enough to have teh serenade in your gondola you will NOT hear him. Place were the meal was set up when you present the voucher very limited menu. SAVE your money do not do this. Alot of money for what you get.

I gave this 3 stars only because Viator would not allow you to submit with anything less. I would not recommend this tour. They packed 7 gondolas with 6 people in each one and in only one they had a person serenading. The rest followed and we listened. Also our gondoliers were talking in Italian amongst each other consistently. The dinner later was ok. But the portions were very small and no dessert. Very disappointing for the amount charged. I would have paid less if I did a private gondola ride.

I will start by saying that the people in charge of the gondola ride were very nice and helpful in telling us where to go for supper and the supper was fabulous! The gondola ride itself was not what I expected. We were packed in with six of us sharing the ride. The serenade was one of the six or eight boats and we couldn’t hear it for most of the ride. It also lasted shorter than what was stated.

It was the best way to see Venice. We had the good luck of having the accordion player and singer in our gondola, it was so much fun. They had amazing personalities and really entertained us. We then had a very romantic dinner and the dinner was delicious. It was delicious and was not a limited menu which was also nice. Our only complaint was that we got lost finding the restaurant. In the future, a map provided to the patrons would be nice so people don't get lost finding the restaurant.

Not at all what was promised. We arrived at the meeting point and found a line to the Gondolas, looked for our tour contact and was eventually told we could ride the gondola with our printed voucher, so we stood in line, about 20 minutes and were put on a gondola, we were in dress clothes and they filled the gondola to the point we had to sit on the steps. Thankfully we rode the gondola earlier in the day on another Viator tour and thoroughly enjoyed it, because this would have soured us on Venice. We were the lead gondola and somewhere about 6 gondolas back there was music, but we could only hear it when we were on the Grand Canal in a straight line because we were so far ahead of the music we would loose it. This was about a 20 minute gondola ride, exactly what you get for 40 Euros for a family of 4 if you walk up, stand in line and pay the Gondola. After the Gondola ride we asked about dinner and no one seemed to know where to go or anything about it. I called the company on the voucher and the number was disconnected. We never found the restaurant and ended up eating at another wonderful restaurant. Don't waste your money on this tour.

The Venice Gondola Ride and Serenade was the highlight of our Venice vacation! The 5 stars are for the Gondola ride with Serenade ONLY...NOT the dinner. When we arrived at the restaurant after the gondola ride, we presented our Viator voucher receipt to the manager/waiter. He was rude, very skeptical and accused us of giving him a Fake receipt. He wanted the voucher which the gondola ride operator had already taken PRIOR the gondola ride. He was extremely unpleasant, making us feel as though we were there for a free meal even though we paid for it several months prior when we booked this event. The waiter claimed I never received an Email from Viator about you/this reservation. After bickering with him, he finally decided to seat us. The food was fair, nothing that we would ever return to with all of the many wonderful restaurants in Venice. While eating, another couple entered the restaurant, and we witnessed the same cold reception and accusation of a Fake receipt, when they also presented their post gondola ride receipt voucher. He gave them such a difficult time, the young girl was almost reduced to tears. We intervened on their behalf and the waiter finally relented and decided to seat them as well. Viator should NOT USE the current restaurant, HOSTARIA AI CORISTI, for dinner with this tour. STOP using a restaurant that appears to be failing based on the lack of patrons inside and outside when most of the other restaurants were filled to capacity, low quality of food, and waiter/manager rude, ungrateful, and almost ruined our wonderful experience. The serenade gondola ride was great, the professional singer and musician we had was wonderful...book the other tour WITHOUT the dinner!! It is less expensive and you will not regret it.

This tour was certainly not worth the price. We were one of 7 gondolas in the group, a group of strangers. There was a serenade in the second gondola which we almost entirely could not see or hear. The ride was brief 20 mins and our boat was swamped with water in the main canal.

After the gondola ride we spent over an hour trying to find the restaurant for the meal that came with this package. The restaurant was tucked away in a remote corner. It would have been nice to be guided at the end of the tour to the restaurant. The food and service at the restaurant was nice.

You can rent a gondola for 80 euros which is a far cry from the cost of this inadequate tour. Strongly would not recommend.

The only reason it go 2 stars was because the dinner was awesome. The Gondola ride itself was HORRIBLE, 8 Gondola's following the singer who was in his own boat. If you were in a back boat you could barely hear the singer and to make it worse all the Gondoliers were talking and that made it worse. Have taken a lot of tours via Viator over the years, but this by far the worse I have ever been on

It was indeed an amazing ride. The only comment I have is that the advertisement might be a little misleading thinking the dinner is close or at port, it's actually a little ways apart. But food was amazing at restaurant.