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Understanding museum pass options, Venice

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I'm trying to figure out which museum pass to get for our upcoming 3 day trip to Venice (arrive early afternoon 22 Mar, depart noon 25 March).
I definitely want to buy the visitor's 3 day transport pass, ACTV 3 day transport, 40Euro if purchased 30 days in advance (save 5euro). I'm trying to decide if I should also buy one of the museum passes. It looks like if I buy the full museum pass (40Euro) I get access to 12 museums, including Doge's Palace, but entry to Doge's Palace is only between noon and 5pm. All museums can be entered starting on whatever date is listed at time of purchase (i.e. you don't have to to Doge's Palace first). Here's the link for pass purchase (pull down lower left Offer details+ for full description)
https://www.veneziaunica.it/en/e-commerce/services?macrofamily=1&family=7

If I go direct to the museums of Venice website and select to purchase the full museum pass (11 museums) the cost for the pass is 41 Euro (only 1E more?) and there doesn't seem to be any time restrictions.
https://muve.vivaticket.it/index.php?nvpg[sell]&cmd=prices&pcode=9786409&tcode=tl011374

Does anyone have any experience with purchasing the museum pass using either of these methods? I will definitely use the venezia unica site to buy my transport pass, but is it better to use the direct museum site for the pass?

Also, buying the museum pass direct from the museum site doesn't seem to specify a date or time of entry, Do I need to separately reserve an entry time?

Any information would be much appreciated, thank you.

Posted by
285 posts

Just to add - I went through the museum listings for the Venezia Unica Pass, it looks like that includes 2 museums that the MUVE pass doesn't include, Monumental Rooms of the Biblioteca Marciana and the Archaeological Museum (both listed as part of St. Marks square museums). But the MUVE pass includes the Clock tower which is not part of Venezia Unica pass.

I'm leaning toward the MUVE pass but still wonder about having to make a reservation for timed entry for Doge's Palace, how to do that with the pass?

Posted by
2920 posts

I spent an inordinate amount of time doing what you are doing and in the end, did not buy any pass. We were there for four nights and it was not reasonable to see as much as would be required for a pass to make sense financially.

Perhaps others have had different experiences.

Posted by
285 posts

Beth, what time of year did you go? Did you end up going to Doge's Palace? If so, did you do timed entry reservation or just walk up? I do understand what you're saying, being realistic we may only go to a couple of museums, I'm really hoping to do more wandering and people watching in Venice, but if it turns out it's just a few bucks more for the pass.... Yes, maybe I'm overplanning

Posted by
2920 posts

We were there August 2121 when international travel had not yet resumed at typical levels. There were a lot of Italian day trippers.

We went on the Secret Itineraries tour which we really enjoyed. You have to buy the tickets about five weeks ahead of time online. You go to a separate line which is very short. After the tour, you are let in through a door to the rest of the building.

We went also to Academia and the Murano glass museum and a few churches that were on the various passes.

Posted by
285 posts

Thanks Beth. I did see the secret itineraries tour, but read somewhere that it included being in a lot of small spaces, I'm not claustrophobic but my husband can get a little uncomfortable. What did you think? You're probably right about crowd sizes, in 2021 they may have been less than current. But maybe in March, we'd still be ok to buy the tickets at the time rather than in advance? Or at least, if I don't worry about the Venezia unica card (needs to be purchased 30 days in advance), I can wait til closer to the date.

Posted by
2920 posts

My husband is somewhat claustrophobic but had no issues at all. That said, we had a smaller tour group because of covid so maybe it is the people not the spaces that some object to.

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