Tour guide for Venice ??

Hi Wendy, Venice is beautiful and you really don't need a tour guide. When I went it was 1st time in Europe and my 1st stop. Walking around the streets and getting lost in part of seeing Venice. You can hop on and off the water taxi and check out the other Islands, such as Murano. Happy Travels!

A very good tour company (in a number of major cities) is Context Travel, in this instance, Context Venice. You might want to check their website.

quote: "You can hop on and off the water taxi and check out the other Islands, such as Murano." Water taxi is very expensive, or do you mean the vaporetto which is the equivalent to a water bus.

Thanks everyone , I think we will just "wing it" . We are staying at a great B&B and the owner has offered to give us a sort of itinerary. So excited about our trip !!

Wendy, In June, we used Alessandro Schezzini for an "offbeat tour" of Venice. He is not a licensed tour guide, so he won't take you into the big venues. However, it was great! We walked around for 1.5 hours and heard from a real Venetian about the history of the city and some present day information. He is recommended in Rick's book and his website is here. He also has a great "pub" crawl that can be added on to the city tour.

Another vote for Context Travel/Venice. Their docents and small groups are just great. We particularly liked a Renaissance Venice tour and a tour of the Ghetto.

You can hop on and off the water taxi and check out the other Islands, such as Murano. If you do you had better have very deep pockets. Water taxis are very expensive already, and if you keep the meter running (there is no actual meter, they wear a watch and charge for all the extra time) while you have the taxi wait for you there will be a very very large bill at the end of the time. If you have a vaporetto pass you can indeed use as many or as few vaporettos (water buses effectively) as you wish during the period of validity. With a valid vaporetto pass you can indeed go all around the main islands of Venice, as well as the Lagoon islands such as Burano, Torcello and Murano, S. Geogio, Guidecca, the Lido, and Punta Sabbione. Vaporettos do not go to the Marco Polo Airport.

Venicescapes -- private tours, very interesting. Michael is a pleasure to work with.

We just did two tours, the bar tour and the tour of Murano and Burano, with Alessandro who is mentioned in the RS book. It was a great experience for the five of and a great value based on our research. We would do it over again on our next visit.

For a really unique tour from the perspective of a famous Venetian author or musician, check out Litera-Tours. The tours always also involve food tasting. http://www.litera-tours.com/ns/index.php?lang=it

Yes to vaporettos not water taxis and no to guided tours of Venice! Venice is only 3/4 miles across, so you can walk pretty much everywhere, except for getting to other islands like Murano (don't bother with the factory tours -- wander the streets for real art galleries) and Burano (do not miss! It is fabulous.) But do sign up for short tours, usually just outside the venues, for St. Mark's and the Hall of Doges, and you will bypass the monster lines. Climb the Campanile in St. Mark's square, and wander the island to your heart's content. Oh, and be sure to go to the opera! One of my most cherished travel memories is watching a 9 piece orchestra and 3 vocalists all dressed in Baroque costumes performing highlights of famous Italian operas, and as an added bonus, accompanied by a huge thunderstorm outside making for great lighting and sound enhancement! To top it off, it was on the 4th of July. Sigh. I would go back to Venice in a heartbeat. Have a wonderful time! Jan