Venice - Must Do's and Tips?

What a great trip you have coming up! I'm a big fan of 'wander, wander, wander', so let me start and end with that. I IVenice is the perfect place to 'wander, wander, wander'. You'll discover so much more than what the guide books and tours focus on. Try to get lost: I dare you! Getting to your hotel. I suggest asking the hotel. They might suggest taknnk the bus from the airport and then jump a vaporetto. If it's a short walk to the hotel, that would be my advise. The hotel will give you a better answer.

The Jewish Ghetto is part of the 'wander' itinerary. Salute and San Giorgio are too. Salute is a great place to just sit on the steps out front and enjoy the scenery. San Giorgio would be my choice for going up a bell tower. The view is amazing. Murano is another 'wander'. There's far more than glass works there. You don't mention Burano or Torcello, both of which are high on my 'wander' list. Check your RS guide book for sites that require tickets. May will be a very crowded time in Venice so making reservations (including dinners) asap is my best advice. Oh my! I haven't been to Venice in 7 months and I miss it so very much! Enjoy your trip!

Take the cheap and fast bus from the airport to the Piazzale Roma. From there, you can take a vaporetto to the nearest stop and walk to your hotel. Use Google Maps for directions. When in Venice, just get used to walking.

I would add to your “do not miss” list the islands of Burano and Torcello, Jewish Ghetto, Peggy Guggenheim Collection plus churches mentioned above too.

Concerts are regularly held in Chiesa deal Pieta - the church where Vivaldi composed and taught for many years.
Most programs include The Four Seasons :)

The Museo Correr (opposite the Doge's palace) has a beautiful neoclassical cafe - you don't need a museum ticket to visit the cafe.

Getting to Venice from Marco Polo Airport. [Make sure you have seats on the right/starboard side of the aircraft, for a view of Venice as you fly into Marco Polo.]

A paper map of Venice is the best three euro you will ever spend. Sure, people say that getting lost in Venice is fun. Getting lost, hauling your luggage and not being able to find your hotel is nobody’s idea of fun. Buy that map at the Tabac or bookshop at Marco Polo.

Do take a look at your hotel website – there may be info there. Otherwise,
Water taxi will get you close, maybe to, the door of your hotel. Can carry about ten people, will cost about €140 for the boat. No need to book, taxis are waiting at the Marco Polo dock.

Shared water taxi. Minimum of two people. Book in advance, wait at the desk in the terminal for the others sharing the taxi. Costs about €30 per person. Google “shared water taxi Venice”, use the venicelink dot com web site. Will get you to a vaporetto stop near your hotel.

Alilaguna ferry, as per below.

Bus to Piazale Roma, then walk to your hotel, or take vaporetto to the nearest stop. Buses leave from the outside the terminal, tickets at the machine.

Water transport in Venice.
Gondolas. Only for pleasure, not for transport. 90 euro for half an hour for the boat, more for evenings.
Traghetto – big gondolas, two oarsmen, about ten passengers, for crossing the Grand Canal. Found at Rialto, San Toma and a couple of other places. Cost 2 euro per trip, can save a heap of walking.
Water taxis, which are like a floating limo, costs to match.
Vaporettos - ACTV. Are like a floating bus, operate on a bunch of routes. Get the app Chebateo for routes and schedules. Vaps do not service the airport. Vaps are not water taxis.
Alilaguna ferries, service the airport, run from Marco Polo via a bunch of stops to the main part of Venice, Murano and Lido. They stop at some, but by no means all, vaporetto stops.

We love Venice! But on our most recent visit (2 months ago) we were overwhelmed by the crowds. Thankfully getting away from San Marco and the Rialto bought back the Venice of our past visits-much less crowded (but not crowd free). After a long flight you’ll be weary. Splurge on a water taxi from the airport. It is a memorable way to arrive in Venice and will get you as close to your hotel as you can get. You’ve listed many of the places we would recommend so I won’t add to your list. Have fun!

Buy a vaporetto pass at the airport for the days you will be there prior to the start of the tour. Both times I have been to Venice I have taken the Alilaguna to the stop closest to where I’m staying then just walked (buy the ticket at the same place you buy the vaporetto pass, there are two routes so ask which one stops near your hotel). Getting on a crowded vaporetto with your luggage may not be fun when you don’t know where you’re going. With your vaporetto pass it’s fun, and easy, to wander and get lost. Just get on the first vaporetto that shows up, and get off at a stop that looks interesting and wander the streets to the next stop and then repeat. Catch the vaporetto to Murano at the Fondamento Nova stop on the top of the ‘fish’. From there it’s is only two stops. I have spent half a day wandering the glass shops and museum, but not everyone will. It’s also worth it to get off at the cemetery island for a bit of a peaceful break from the crowds. I’m assuming the tour goes to Burano. The bell tower at San Giorgio is cheaper, and I never encountered a line. It’s just one vaporetto stop from St Marks (you can see it across the water). I love the Doge’s Palace and all the opulence contrasted with the prison beneath where you can look out of the bridge of sighs like prisoners of the past must have. I bought a museum pass that included entrance to many churches and museums, but it may not be eonomical for you given you only have a couple days. If you are going to wander a lot, the church pass may work. Then you will be able to go into many churches as you walk as most of them charge a few euros for entry. You will have to decide if it’s good value for you. I used the map that came with the pass to plot my daily walking route, but I had a week, and managed to cover a lot of ground.

At twilight hop on a vaporetto on one end of the lagoon (i.e., the train station) to the other end (i.e., San Marco square or beyond). This way you won’t see the decay on the exterior of the palaces that line the Grand Canal but will see spacious foyers fully illuminated by giant crystal chandeliers. The experience will take you back in time as you day dream of what life was like for the wealthy back in the 17th century.

Do I book (through the hotel) private transportation to get me to the hotel from the airport the afternoon I arrive? It's about $160 US.

No.

There is a much less expensive and easy way to get from the airport to the hotel. It's easy-peasy and lots of folks on the forum have done it -- even first timers.

First, go by land from the airport to Piazzale Roma and take a vaporette from there. You can do that by taking a regular land taxi, or a local land bus. At the airport you can get one way pass for the land bus and a multiday pass for the vaporetta system which is basically a city water bus.

If you thinki you'd like to do that, I can give you lots of specific info. Just let me know.

Our BnB gave us step by step instructions from the train station where we picked up the Vaporetto. He had us get off the vaporetto at a specific spot so as to avoid stairs. I purchased a vaporetto pass in advance from the website for a savings.

We purchased Doge's Palace and San Marco tickets in advance. We got up and out by 7am to do the RS walking tours and to wander around and take pictures. We choose our restaurants in advance and made reservations. When things got crazy during the afternoon, we went back to the BnB or went for apertivo.

We were in Venice the last few days of April, 2024. My advice which of course you are free to ignore LOL

1. Is this your first visit to Venice? If so, spend the extra $$ to arrive by water taxi. It is worth every penny! You can always economize by having a picnic lunch or skipping the souvenir hunk of glass. LOL

2. Spend as little time as possible near the Rialto Bridge or San Marco Square. Visit those two areas early or late, after the day-trippers leave. That's where the huge crowds are - the rest of the neighborhoods are no more crowded than any other cityscape.

3. If you are up for an expensive dinner, we had a lovely meal at Gio's, overlooking the Grand Canal.

4. Venice is REALLY buggy - those side canals are quite shallow, therefore excellent breeding ground for the little bloodsuckers. Take a container of really good bug repellent.

5. Read a couple of Donna Leon's mysteries set in Venice. Those books provide you with a chance to visualize Venice through the eyes of a resident. I liked some of the later books better than the earlier ones.

Thank you all for the fast responses. I have been reading and googling all afternoon! All the recommendations, advise and insight is very helpful!

Cynthia above recommended books by Donna Leon, and they really demonstrate what Venice is like. Another authou you might like is Philip Gwyn Jones, he has half a dozen novels set in Venice. Phil is English, Welsh actually, gave up his hated job in IT and moved to Venice with Caroline, his wife, to teach English.
His first book is The Venetian Game.
[Disclaimer, Phil is a close friend.]

almost all Venice hotels have a website with directions from the nearest vaporetto stop. The Hotel Serenissima, if it is the one at Calle Goldoni, is no exception. Theirs is at https://www.hotelserenissima.it/location/

On there it says,

From the Rialto stop

Line 2 dock: once you disembark from the
vaporetto, turn right and cross the bridge, Ponte Manin. You’ll find
yourselves at the line 1 dock. Turn left onto Calle Bembo (it’s right
in front of you if you get off at the line 1 stop). Continue beyond
the intersection, where Calle Bembo becomes Calle dei Fabbri. Turn
right onto Calle del Magazen, then left onto Calle Goldoni where you
will find Hotel Serenissima.

So, bus to Piazzale Roma, vaporetto 1 (slower) or 2 (faster), to Rialto, follow the directions for about 5 minutes to the hotel.

Have fun!!!

Another vote for arriving in Venice in a water taxi, it is simply spectacular and you will never forget it.

We loved climbing the tower of San Giorgio Maggiore, no crowds, and sensational views back over the city.

Our favourite activity, although expensive, was coffee and liqueurs at the end of the day in St. Marks listening to the orchestras play. The crowds are gone then and it is magical.

If you enjoy modern art, I recommend the Guggenheim. It's popular, so it will most likely be somewhat crowded. That was the situation on my two recent visits, in Sep 2022 and Sep 2024. It would be smart to buy tickets online a few days ahead, I think. You might run into a bit of a ticket line if you show up empty-handed. I've never heard that the place sells out, though, and I think you'd be able to buy a ticket onsite if you aren't in a position to commit to a specific time in order to buy a ticket in advance.

I'm a glass nut and have been making two trips out to Murano on each visit to Venice. However, I don't think Murano is an especially beautiful place (unlike Burano and the main part of Venice). If you don't care much about glass, you needn't feel bad about spending your time elsewhere. You will see quite a bit of glass in shop windows as you walk around the city. Some of it is dreadful (and not made in Venice); some of it is wonderful. Those serious about glass do need to get out to Murano.

Be sure to validate your vaporetto pass before boarding the boat. You must do that for each trip.

We stored our luggage at a place next to the train station, then took the vaporetto to the Rialto stop and walked to our convent accomodation. I’m glad we did it that way because Venice is not easy to navigate, even with a good map. It took a couple of false starts and luckily my wife speaks Italian. After finding our way, it was easy to find our way back and get our luggage.

Next trip I think we will take the water taxi ( 4 of us ) , partly because my DIL has minor walking difficulty.

Does the tour go to Guidecca? If not, then the view from the bell tower of San Giorgio Maggiore Church was a nice highlight. It’s a quick and easy vaporetto from San Marco, and makes a nice break from the crowds there. The views towards San Marco are great, especially when it’s crowded over there with boats going to and fro. Guidecca also has some decent spots for lunch, a much more relaxed “dining on the canal “scene than elsewhere.

Check https://europeforvisitors.com/venice/directions/serenissima.htm for info on your hotel and how to get there. Check the rest of the site for general information on Venice.

Adding to the answers before, I’d simply take the Alilaguna Linea Arancio from the airport. It costs €15 and takes about an hour to reach the Rialto stop directly (from where you’ll have clear instructions to the hotel). There’s nothing extra in a $160 private ride, except perhaps the speed— but are you in a rush, or would you prefer to slowly make your grand entrance to the Serenissima?

When it comes to things to do and experience in Venice, I’d recommend checking out this great mobile travel guide of Venice.

It features over 70 top spots, each with a brief description highlighting the key attractions and reasons to visit, so you can quickly decide if a place interests you. Wandering is great, but having an idea of some landmarks you'd like to see makes it even better. You can also browse by thematic categories, making it easy to find art venues or places with free admission, for example.

Whoever can, get up early one day and go to the Rialto fish market for a coffee. Thats when you can feel like you're in a real living city. It turns into a tourist trap later in the day.

True, Venice is magical early in the morning (or late at night). I love watching the city wake up under the sunrise from Punta della Dogana. In winter, it’s much easier to catch the since the sun rises at a more reasonable hour :) - though I would say it’s still doable in May.

a recent NY times article - 36 Hours - Venice

Just to build on Suki's suggestion of Burano - maybe consider taking the very final vaporetto from there back to Venice? Nocturnal lighting can enhance the atmospheric journey. Likewise a great choice to take a gondola ride: at nighttime preferably as late as possible.
Tante belle cose.
I am done. The end.