Your Private Venice Gondola: Grand Canal Unforgettable Ride

The ride wasn’t what I expected. I booked a grand canal ride for my sister and I and your pick up and drop off point is the only place on the grand canal that you see. We spent most of our 30min ride stuck in traffic jams in the small canals and waterways of Venice. Spending more time waiting in a que to get going again. Definitely not worth the £125 that we paid for the experience. We had booked before we got to Venice but could have got it cheaper if we had waited till we got here. The gondolas are EVERYWHERE!! Was still nice to say we’ve done it though.

We never have a bad word to say in any review but we were disappointed. We arrived 15 mins early, as requested, to meet our guide - the guide wasn't there (although she did arrive at the end of our tour to say hi). We had read the reviews and were really looking forward to the gondola ride. A lot of time spent turning the gondola round as opposed to actually going anywhere - appreciate there is other traffic - the tour was very short and we didn't really see much at all. We felt this was extremely expensive at £276. I was proposing to my partner and so not only did this experience not make the trip special, it actually detracted from it. Sorry!

We booked for a private tour, we reached late due to delayed flight and hence on the way we called the local tousist office for possibility to reschedule, she said it is possible onsite to reschedule but when we went there. The onsite guy told me it is not possible to reschedule for a private tour. Our money will not be refunded or reused for a new ride. Still, we booked with another tourism group, but after going through the ride, we felt like waste of money and time. If you have already been to water-based rides, then this experience is not worth it. They take you out of smaller cannel route and then return you back in no time.

What was supposed to be the highlight of our Venice visit was the most disappointing! I guess the most memorable experience was when the guide was the first one off the gondola and left! No goodbye, no thank you - obviously no tip! The second most memorable experience was when she made no attempt to find us upon arrival as she stood eating a candy bar. Thirdly, our impression was that we were going on a PRIVATE tour and the gondolier would be giving any tour needed, not a total stranger with absolutely no personality who invaded our privacy and talked about various people who died in a house and how Venice was built when she wasn’t speaking Italian with the gondolier who we had no interaction with at all. Don’t waste your money on this tour - opt for a $90 30-minute experience and call it a day. Ours was a colossal waste of money!

If you want a romantic trip as a couple, this is not the way. If you want a gondola ride with a knowledgeable guide to teach you about the history of the city and gondola rides. This is the way.

This is a Venice essential, and taking the trip with a guide is sooooo much better than alone with the gondolier or with musicians. Our guide was excellent. The trip was both fun and interesting.

The gondolier was talking on his cell phone the entire time, and our tour guide had a cold personality, was impersonal, and all about business. When our ride was over, the guide got off first and fled with only saying goodbye to one person in our party due to the rest of them being still in the boat.Our gondola ride was also cut short by 15 minutes without explanation, even when we paid for an hour. Definitely not worth the price, I travel often and I’m not shy about paying good money for a quality private tour. This tour was barely enjoyable.

Fantastic experience on Valentines Day ! Our guide and gondolier were so friendly and was an amazing time...even the weather was great ! Thank you so much x

Sylvia is very knowledgeable and informative about the city as she is a native born Venetian. Highly recommend fir your gondola ride.

The actual gondola ride around the canals was a nice experience but the tour guide did not really contribute to the experience and obstructed it. She sat very close to one of our family members to the point that she had to be asked to move because the person could not face forward due to the tour guide's close proximity. She also blocked our view forward in the gondola. The information she provided was very limited and of poor quality, she did not provide meaningful information about Venice or the canals. By the time we had this tour, we had participated of several other tours in Rome and Florence with tour guides that were very knowledgeable about the history and architecture of the sites they were showing us and we were expecting our guide in Venice to also provide knowledgeable and insightful information about Venice, however, she only gave us a few bullet points, which she repeated throughout the ride.