Venice: Breathtaking Murano & Burano Private Boat Tour

Murano and Burano Islands are beautiful. The craftsmanship is amazing and Burano is a great place to spend a day.

This is my second trip to These two islands. I point I would like to comment is that every guild I got was speaking two fast. Please speak slower.

The best way to think of this “tour” is as a cheap way to travel to Murano and Burano. The boat was 20 minutes late to start and we still finished in 4.5 hours. The guide was fine. The most informative time was on the boat when she had a microphone. City Wonders tours has an agreement with New Murano Gallery. The glass making demonstration is wonderful. Leave after that. The tour guide gives you an hour, but does not tell you that you can leave the property to explore Murano. Thankfully, a friend told me about another gallery. I am so happy that I was able to see more of Murano. In Burano, there was a short lace presentation and then we were given one hour to explore. City Wonders also has an agreement with Galuppi Restaurante. The food was fine and not too expensive. Just know that the recommendation is not because they think it is great, but because they have a partnership. The house Prosecco is trash.

The Murano factory has items one will not see in any of the stores. They are unique works of art that many may not be able to afford, but they are worth seeing. Burano is quaint and beautiful. It’s a lovely place to eat in an outdoor cafe. Eva is knowledgeable and easy to talk to. She made the tour interesting and pleasant. The tour is a great value for what one gets out of it!

It was a great tour led by Elly. She was really informative and friendly throughout. We enjoyed the glass blowing workshop and lace making demonstration - it was great to spend more time on Burano than Murano - simply because the island was so beautiful and lovely to spend time relaxing there. The tour was perfectly timed - long enough to feel we got a lot out of it all, but not so long that we were keen for it to finish. Overall, a lovely way to spend our time in Venice.

We had a great tour by Antonella. The morning we arrived at the designated pickup point, right next to the Monument to Victor Emmanuel II. It was a rainy morning but we were able to spot the tour guide. We are about a group of 12 (I do not recollect exact number). On a speed boat captained well, even in rainy conditions, first we were taken to the Murano Islands. Along the way we were spotted with different islands and their significance and how Venice arrived at being the city it is now- Fish as it is shaped. On arrival, we were taken to a glass making factory, where the men were in action. After a few minutes, we were taken into their display gallery, which had some amazing pieces of art to display- expensive for sure - but they felt really classy and neat. I was told they ship out too. Then we were allowed some time to explore the island. If you like walking, this is one very impressive island with some nice homes, calm and serene. Please do step out, Once we are through we are taken to Burano Island. This has lot more geological significance, explained well by Antonella and even more beautiful colored homes. By the time we arrived it rained cats and dogs. If it was a warmer day, it would have been even wonderful. There are lots of small squares and one mains square where if you are a Insta person, it's a delight. Post out visit, we were taken back to the main islands. All along the journey, Antonella gave brief about different time periods in Venice history and how that has impacted how these islands interacted. On the way back, there was some calm time and you can really observe around you the significance of how this all came together. Our tour ended at the same spot as our pickup point. Antonella is a very knowledgeable guide and at the same time has strong opinions on how the country has evolved both politically and geographically. So, if you have delicate political ideas, you might feel some moments of discomfort. I would like definitely say a word about the captain who was just wonderful.

The glass making demonstration on Murano was fun and informative. Burano is a delight and we wish we had had more time. Frederica, our guide was lovely, fun, and knowledgable.

First our guide, Silvie, was excellent. She was very knowledgeable, personable and professional. She is the primary reason this rating isn’t lower. We had looked forward to seeing Murano with its glassmaking and Burano lace making. Very disappointed! The glassmaking demonstration was barely five minutes. Having seen other glass making factories where they are truly showing you each step of the process and demonstrating their skill, this demonstration was very disappointing as it didn’t truly demonstrate the special qualities of Murano glassmaking. The primary purpose was to have us roam their glass shop- which had a wealth of beautiful glass and amazing glass in hope visitors will make purchases. We took time to stroll this small village. While we understood that on Monday, the Lace Making museum was closed, we were given a special viewing in the Lacemaking shop. Again it took less time to explain the process than for our group to climb the steps to watch it. We did learn that lacemaking by hand is becoming a lost art so new method are being done to replace it. Burano is a cute village and we did enjoy our stroll through it. Sadly, if we had it to do over we would have taken in other sights in Venice for the time this tour took.

Very professional. Puntual. Great experience. Manuela was great. Explain everything with details. And the glass fabric artisan master. It is a pleasure to see his creation and glass master

Beautiful sights, beautiful skills and great trip out of the city but timing is everything. Murano - I loved seeing the glass demo but if I were to redo it, probably just go to Burano. We have glass blowing where I live so it wasn’t as impressive for us since we go locally and see. Also, if you’re in Venice and pass on all the Murano Glass jewelry stores for some at the island, unless your planning on spending more, we couldn’t find anything we were willing to pay for on the island. Again, the museum/art for sale the associates were pushy to the point my husband and I just gave up as he wouldn’t even give us a moment to speak about it. The purchase would have been an investment for us so we wanted to just discuss but sales person would not leave us alone. Burano - worth a trip for the lace art, the scenery and the food. We booked a later tour and wish we would have done a little earlier as things were closing and we still have 30-40 min left on our free time. It did seem that shops stayed open for the later tours, but you could just tell they were waiting for us, not rude very gracious. Our guide was fantastic and extremely passionate about what she was doing. Very friendly, personable and inviting for conversation. It was a great tour. But I would have been fine just doing Burano. Just a personal note, I would recommend if going while in Venice to do it where you’d have time to go back to shop in Venice; there were a few things we saw that were from Murano glass but we wanted to see what they had on island; which again we thought was overpriced but we left early the next morning so we never got back to shopping.