Booking Ahead

Why booking matters here

Venice is small, and its most famous sights are packed into a few hundred yards around Piazza San Marco. On busy days, and in the peak season most days are busy, the lines for the basilica and the Campanile stretch across the square, and the Doge's Palace fills from the moment it opens. A booked entry turns an hour in a line into a walk straight in.

The rest of the city is different. Most of what makes Venice worth the journey, the Grand Canal from a water bus, the Rialto at dawn, the lanes of Cannaregio and Castello, the campi and their churches, needs no ticket at all. Book the few places that need it, and leave the rest of your days open; the best hours in Venice are rarely the ones you planned.

Around San Marco

St Mark's Basilica is a working church, and parts of it close for services. Its own site divides a visit into the church, the Pala d'Oro, the museum with the loggia of the bronze horses, and the Campanile, each with its own entry, and it is the place to buy advance entries and to check the hours for the day you go. Dress as you would for any church.

The Campanile is sold through the same site. The visit is short, a lift up, a walk round the four sides of the belfry and a lift down, but the line at the foot of the tower is not, and the lift carries only so many at a time.

The Doge's Palace sells tickets on its official site, and it belongs to the same network of civic museums as the Museo Correr across the Piazza, so check whether a ticket covering both suits you. Its two special visits, the Secret Itinerary and The Doge's Hidden Treasures, take small groups by reservation only into parts of the building the standard route does not reach. They are the tickets in Venice most worth booking well ahead.

The standard route is long enough on its own. From the great council halls it crosses the Bridge of Sighs to the New Prisons on the other side of the canal and comes back the same way, and on a busy day the narrow passages slow to a shuffle. Book an early entry if you can, allow two to three hours, and leave the Campanile or the basilica for another part of the day rather than stacking all three together.

The museums of Dorsoduro

The Peggy Guggenheim Collection sells timed tickets online, by entry slot, until they sell out, and it advises buying that way; remaining tickets are sold at the door. Large bags, backpacks and suitcases are not allowed inside, and food and drink cannot be consumed anywhere in the museum, including the garden. Guided tours in several languages can be booked by email through the museum, depending on the guides available.

The Gallerie dell'Accademia names a single authorized online reseller on its official site, and an online ticket lets you skip the queue at the office. It is rarely the crush the San Marco sights are, so booking is optional. Under-eighteens enter free, and European citizens between eighteen and twenty-five pay a reduced rate. On free admission days there is no booking at all, and entry is first come, first served. Groups book only by telephone, through the museum.

Places to just walk into

Many of the greatest things in Venice need no reservation. The Scuola Grande di San Rocco, with its cycle of Tintorettos, opens every day of the year except Christmas and New Year's Day, and its confraternity says plainly that you do not need to book. The Frari next door charges for visits outside services, and closes to visitors for services, concerts and events, so check its times but do not book. Most parish churches, the Salute and Santi Giovanni e Paolo among them, work the same way.

The lagoon islands need no booking either; the water bus takes you, and the glassworks of Murano welcome the public (see the lagoon). A gondola is hired on the day at a gondola station: agree how long the ride lasts and what it costs before you step in.

Arriving on a fee day

Since a trial in 2024, the city has charged day visitors to the historic center an access fee on its busiest days, mostly weekends and holidays in spring and early summer, and requires them to register online before they come. The fee is meant to manage the crowds on the days they are worst. Visitors who stay the night in the municipality pay a lodging tax instead, and other groups, children under fourteen among them, are exempt, though exempt visitors are generally still asked to register for a code.

The rules, the dates and the exemptions have changed from one season to the next, so check the city's official site for the dates you plan to come, and register if the fee applies to you. If you are staying overnight, your lodging can tell you what, if anything, you need to do (see getting here).

Transport and rooms

Water-bus tickets and time-based travel cards are sold at the machines and ticket offices of the main landings and online through the city's official Venezia Unica site, which also sells tickets to the civic museums. Buying ahead saves a queue when you arrive, when the offices at the station and Piazzale Roma are busiest (see getting around).

Rooms are the thing to book first. Venice has a limited number of beds in the island city itself, and they fill for Carnival, the Redentore, the Film Festival and the Regata Storica and through the Biennale season (see when to come). Book early for those dates, and make sure the address you book is in the island city, not on the mainland, if that is where you want to wake up.

This guide sells nothing and takes no bookings of its own. Buy tickets from the official sites of the places you visit, and treat any site that promises to skip every line for a large markup with caution.

Some links on this page are affiliate links. If you book through one we may earn a commission, at no extra cost to you. It does not affect what is recommended here, and no sight page on this site carries one.

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