Help plan a last minute trip to Venice for Family with tweens

How are you arriving, how many nights in Venice, and where are you staying?

Start here https://www.ricksteves.com/europe/italy/venice-itinerary with Rick’s itinerary advice.

Of course you can grab food many places, but it might be nice to start easily with hotel breakfast. Usually it is included in Italy. We liked Ca’Angeli and also Locanda La Corte. Both moderately priced (to me) and comfortable.

You can use google and type in three days in Venice or equivalent. You would find many results, and right now instead of waiting to see what replies here might say.

We are flying in from the UK and spending only two nights. So just one full day of touring. Thanks for the hotel tips and nice idea about that google search.

Just ride the No 1 vaporetto from Piazzale Roma to San Marco and have everyone download this Rick Steves audio tour to their devices to listen as you ride along. I recommend starting at Piazzale Roma because that is where the boat starts its run. You can wait for a new boat to arrive, and after it disgorges its load of passengers. you can be among the first on board to get the best seats.
https://podcasts.ricksteves.com/walkingtours/GrandCanal.mp3

hotel:
https://www.sancassiano.it/en/

thanks for the hotel tip! :) Any favorite restaurants? We want to splurge for dinner.

We have eaten at a few of the restaurants in this article https://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/destinations/europe/italy/veneto/venice/articles/venice-restaurants/, but we don't really "splurge" on the higher end places. One we really liked last fall was very down-to-earth with amazing seasfood, Antico Calice https://anticocalice.it/chi-siamo.html. You can make a reservation online, just click on "Prenota".

We found Venice to be quite busy last October and reservations for dinner are highly recommended as we saw many people turned away during our 4 nights there.

We booked a Murano glass blowing experience through Airbnb. We don't go until July but I have heard that is a fun experience. Could be fun with teens. It could take up some sight seeing time but just a thought.

You and your tweens might enjoy learning how to row a gondola with the company Row Venice. It’s not cheap, but all of you will fit in one gondola and it’s an unforgettable experience.

Secret Itinerary tour
https://palazzoducale.visitmuve.it/en/pianifica-la-tua-visita/special-itineraries/secret-itineraries-tour/

When you arrive, take a from Marco Polo airport to Piazle Roma, and then a No 1 vaporetto down the Grand Canal to the nearest stop for your hotel.

I would not pay for a hotel breakfast - have breakfast like a Venetian, a coffee and croissant at your nearest bar.

Get out and about very early, and you will have your “own” Venice. One morning I shared the Piazza with two sweepers and a cop. Magic. The Rialto market is fun very early, not Sundays or Mondays.

Get a copy of the bok Secret Venice by Jonglez, about ten bucks on Amazon Kindle. Full of quirky things that are fun, and never flagged in Rick’s books.

A few typo there. Bus from Maco Polo.

A big splurge for dinner would be Ai Mercanti. Bookings essential. We have dined there several times, and it is pretty special. Modern creative Italian cuisine.

If you visit just one church, make it the Frari. Titian’s Assumption is one pf the world’s great paintings. Also in that church, left hand side towards the front, there is a small bomb mounted on the wall. It fell on the Frari in 1917 and failed to explode.

Divine intervention?.

Just ordered the book and it arrives the day before we leave. Grazie!!!! I will see if we can get a table at that one restaurant, but the one down side to last minute travel is not getting into all the top restaurants. Thanks for the tip too about that one church. That should interest (hopefully) the entire family. :) If we had more time, the glass blowing sounds like fun. Enjoy the experience when you go later this year. We just saw the Feed Phil episode of Venice where he tried out the gondolier life too. Clever thing to offer tourists, but I think we will just ride one and take tons of photos. :)

Please keep posting if new people have other fun suggestions!

Ditto Sam’s suggestion about taking the vaporetta and listening to Rick’s tour. Also get out early to walk around and hit the Rialto markets. You kids will love all the squirmy seafood. Spend lunchtime doing various cicchetti places. Finally, get lost. Let Venice find you.

It is so easy, too easy, to recommend a bunch of things to do and see in a short time, and it so depends on what grabs you.
In such a short time, I think the Doges Palace and Basilica need to be off your list. ThePalace takes a couple of hours at a scamper, and the queue for the Basilica can be a killer. You can ascend the campanile in the Piazza per elevator, and again the queue can be long.
By contrast, the campanile of San Georgio, one stop vaporetto ride from San Marco, rarely has a queue, and costs about five euro. It gives a great view of Venice. Closes for lunch, and I can’t remember the times.
Of an evening, Campo Margherita in Dorsoduro sees a lot of action. It is near a couple of campuses of the university, so there are lots of young people knocking about, drinking spritzes.

Don’t be afraid to let your tweens, I guess 11 or 12 years old, do a bit of solo exploration. Venice has to be the safest city in all pf Europe, with minimal crime ( pickpockets are a bit of an exception). There is virtually no violent crime.
An English friend lives in Venice and writes crime novels set in Venice. He writes a book a year, so for my friend, once a year someone in Venice has to be killed, the protagonist Nathan Sutherland, Hon. British Consul to Venice, gets mugged and his cat, Gramsci, is threatened.
In reality, Venice sees a murder about once a decade. Your kids are totally safe, let them wander a bit.

We went kayaking with our tweens in the canals. Great adventure..kind of thrilling and an amazing way to see Venice.