venice

what about?

Sorry, the rest of my message did not go. I will be there for 2 days with my husband and 2 teenage daughters. June 17-19. Should I schedule tours/ what's the best use of our time to explore Venice/ happy to be staying at hotel pensione Guerrato. Thanks for your thoughts.

If this is your first time in Venice I'd recommend Walks Inside Venice. Their tour guide was wonderful and able to give us a feeling of the city beyond the usual tourist stops in just the few hours we spent with him. And in my opinion, Venice is all about getting beyond the usual tourist areas. What we learned on that first tour has served us well during other trips back. http://www.walksinsidevenice.com/

A tour would be helpful, but not necessary. If you can find a local tour in your price range and one that gave you plenty of time to explore Venice on your own after the tour, then I probably would take it. Don't schedule the tour for your last day in Venice. You will want to go back to some of the sites that you briefly visited on the tour. You will love Venice, it is an amazing city.

I enjoyed the back lanes tour and the chichetti tour with Allesanndro from Rick's book and shows. http://www.schezzini.it/

He isn't a tour guide so he doesn't take you into the sights, which you can do that own your own real easily.

Your question "what's the best use of our time to explore Venice" is the classic example of why you need a good guidebook, or two. The Rick Steves Venice book lays out several different suggested itineraries that you can pick and choose from to match your interests and abilities. That will be much more helpful to you than random suggestions from people who happen to stumble on your posting.

Good luck.

good suggestions. I am using Rick Steve's books for this whole trip and he's amazing. I feel like I am chalking up a lot of "tour charges" and questioning myself. I'll go back through Rick's suggestions again too. Thanks a lot