The classicTraditional Shared Gondola RideThirty minutes, shared bench.
Under the archGondola Tour under the Bridge of Sighs & Audio GuideThe Bridge of Sighs pass.
The whole boatPrivate Crafted Gondola Ride Along Grand CanalYour party, the quiet canals.
With singingRomantic Venice: 30 Minute Gondola Ride with SerenadeA tenor and an accordion.
The full dayVenice In a Day: St Mark’s, Doges Palace Gondola Ride & City TourBasilica, palace, then ride.
Half an hour in a gondola. Spend it in the right canals.
Which rides duck under the Bridge of Sighs and which stay out on the Grand Canal. What a serenade actually adds. Whether the whole boat is worth triple a shared seat. Reviews of the gondola rides you can book in Venice and in the cities that copied her.
In Venice the choice is not which canal. It is who else is in the boat.
The city sets one fare for the gondola, not for each passenger, so the real decision is whether you buy a seat or the whole hull. Four ways to ride, and what each costs to board.
The gondola rides more travellers take than any other.
Every gondola ride reviewed →Same city, same oar, wildly different half hours. These are the ones people keep booking, and what earns each of them the slot.
1
Grand Canal Gondola Ride with App Commentary
Review of Venice’s $41 shared gondola ride, with Grand Canal views, quiet canals, VR history, app commentary, and practical booking tips.
From · $41
Read our review →
2
Grand Canal Gondola Experience with Live Commentary™
from $48
3
Shared Gondola Ride Across the Grand Canal
from $46
4
Grand Canal Gondola Experience with Live Commentary™
from $49
5
Venice Walking Tour and Gondola Ride
from $72
6
Private Gondola Cruise for up to 5 Passengers
7
Venice’s Best: Basilica, Doge’s Palace, Gondola & History Gallery
from $129
8
Las Vegas Super Saver: Madame Tussauds with Gondola Boat Ride
from $54
The four Venice landmarks worth building a gondola ride around.
Some rides are sold by the water they cross, some by the building at the end of it. These four are the ones with a queue: the basilica, the palace, the big canal and the covered bridge nobody can photograph from inside.
- 01Charming Gondola Ride on the Grand Canal & Gondola Gallery™★★★★★★★★★★ 4.0 · from $47
- 02Crafted Gondola Under Breathtaking Bridge of Sighs™★★★★★★★★★★ 4.1 · from $41
- 03Best Of Venice: Saint Mark’s Basilica, Doges Palace with Guide and Gondola Ride★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · from $125
What a gondola actually costs, once the boat is split.
Every priced ride on the site, grouped by what one passenger pays. The bottom band is mostly canals that are not in Italy.
A shared bench in Venice, and almost every ride in Krakow, Durban and Siem Reap.
Most of the private Venetian hulls, the serenades, the evening sailings and the Las Vegas hotel canal.
- 1Entry to Madame Tussauds with a Gondola Cruisefrom $54
- 2Private Gondola Ridefrom $85
- 3Off the Beaten Path Private Gondola Ridefrom $94
A whole day with the palace and the basilica attached, a photographer in the boat, or dinner for two afterwards.
Four things about gondolas that catch people out.
A gondola is a short booking with a lot of fine print behind it. This is the part that decides whether your half hour is the one you pictured.
- 01Shared Gondola Ride Across the Grand CanalThe fare is charged for the boat, not the head. Venice sets one rate for up to five passengers, so a couple pays what a party of five would. A shared ride sells you a single seat instead.
- 02Romantic Venice: 30 Minute Gondola Ride with SerenadeThe singing is a separate hire. A tenor and an accordionist climb in with you, which is why only some rides carry them. If you want music, book a ride that says so in the title.
- 03Winter Walking Tour & Romantic Gondola Ride UpgradeHigh water and a rough lagoon stop the boats. Winter is the cheapest season to ride and the likeliest to be called off, so keep a spare afternoon in the plan.
- 04Classic 30-Minute Gondola Ride in VeniceThirty minutes is the standard ride and it goes fast. The Bridge of Sighs and back is most of it. Longer routes are the ones that leave the Grand Canal for the quiet water behind it.
Three things a gondola gives you that a vaporetto never will.
Any boat can cross the Grand Canal. Singing that bounces off wet stone, the underside of a covered bridge and an empty canal after nine o’clock are the gondola’s alone.
The Serenade
A serenade is two more people in a boat built for six: a tenor and a man with an accordion, hired by the hour like the gondolier. They work the wider canals, where the sound comes back off the walls, and go quiet under the low bridges because it does not. Book the ride that names the singer. Asking for one on the jetty gets you a shrug and a much bigger number.
- 130-Minute Gondola Ride on Grand Canal with Serenade★★★★★★★★★★ 3.6 · from $59
- 2Shared Gondola Ride and Serenade★★★★★★★★★★ 3.7 · from $57
- 3Romantic Shared Gondola Serenade on the Grand Canal★★★★★★★★★★ 3.8 · from $55
The Bridge of Sighs
The white limestone bridge over the Rio di Palazzo joins the Doge’s Palace to the old prison, and its windows are stone lattice, which is the whole point: the last view out was deliberately almost nothing. From the bridge you see nothing much. From a gondola underneath it you see the thing itself, and the gondolas queue nose to tail for the pass.
- 1Crafted Gondola Under Breathtaking Bridge of Sighs™★★★★★★★★★★ 4.1 · from $41
- 2Crafted Gondola Ride under Breathtaking Bridge of Sighs™★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · from $49
- 3Gondola Ride under the Bridge of Sighs with Audio Guide App★★★★★★★★★★ 4.0 · from $41
The Night Canals
The day boats leave, the lagoon goes flat, and the side canals turn into a corridor of lit windows and cooking noise. Gondolas carry a lantern after dark and the fare rises with the light going, which is the one price increase on this site worth paying. Rides after seven need booking further ahead than anything else in Venice.
- 1Sunset or Evening Gondola Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 3.2 · from $71
- 2Sunrise Gondola Boat Ride with Breakfast★★★★★★★★★★ 4.7
- 3Vistula Night Cruise by Gondola w/ Audio Commentary★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · from $19
Venice exported the gondola. Five places still row one.
A hotel canal in Nevada, the Vistula under Wawel hill, mangrove channels outside Siem Reap, a cut through the Durban waterfront and warm water off Krabi. None of them are Venice. Several are a third of the price.
By place, Venice first
Newest on the water: Venice, Krakow, Durban.
Everything else added lately →
Private Tour with Doge’s Palace, St. Mark’s, Gondola
Read our review →