Torcello, Murano and Burano without guided tour

You take vaporettos, public water buses, to ,between and from the islands. There is no need for a tour of any kind. Burano and Torcello are the nicer of the three islands. Torcello is very near Burano.

We have done Murano/Burano/Torcello at least 4 times. We follow the info in Rick Steves' Venice Guidebook. Some of that info is here in Rick's articles but the guidebook is far more complete with recommended self-guided walking tours. It is a nice day out on the lagoon!

Yes! San Michele island (Cemetery Island) can also be incorporated into a visit to the other three lagoon islands (on the same day) and I thought it very interesting; Stravinsky, Diaghilev and Ezra Pound are buried there, among other luminaries. There is/was (?) a suggested self guided "tour" of the 4 islands in the Rick Steves Venice guidebook which included specifics for public transportation. We thoroughly enjoyed our whole day excursion. FWIW, Murano was my least favorite island but nevertheless interesting. A good guide book can give you ideas for "must sees". For me, there are so many I hardly know where to start but we enjoyed the many churches with glorious art in situ, strolling along the sidewalks next to the canals, the Correr Museum, Doge's Palace, the Peggy Guggenheim Collection and of course St. Mark's Basilica and square. People watching here was one of my favorite things to do. One of our other favorite things to do was a cicchetti tour with Alessandro Schezzini (alessandro@schezzini.it). We have enjoyed more than one of his tours and they were so much fun-good food, good drink and a charming host. He comes highly recommended.