Venice, St. Mark's Basilica, skip the line

https://basilicasanmarco.skiperformance.com/en/store#/en/buy?skugroup_id=2524

Scroll down a bit, and you will see the ticket options. We did the basilca and museum. You can add the Pala d'oro day of, at the entrance of the Pala d'oro. I'm not sure where you found venetoinside in RS's guide. It appears to be an information website that also sells tours. If you look under sights in the RS guide, each sight gives the correct website for ticket purchase.

For Doge's Palace (Palazzo Ducale) under the sight description, the guide gives the website

http://palazzoducale.visitmuve.it

Hello wallace.zr.yang, and welcome to the forum!

You can book a reservation time from the official site. You will still need to line up at your appointed time and follow the line procedures to enter the Basilica. You can add the extra sites when you buy your ticket or at the turn style entrances for each area. The museum is very much worth it but whether the Pala d'Oro is worth it is up to you.

The reality of modern sight seeing is security checks are a reality for everyone so "skip the line" tickets allow you to "skip" the ticket buying line you will still need to line up ahead of time and go through security. There is no "breeze into museums" pass you can buy that allows you to skip the realities of time management and security.

Have a great trip,
=Tod

Jules_m has given you the official “legitimate” website. I know the name looks weird, but it is the contractor (Norwegian, I believe) that San Marco has chosen to manage their website reservations. You can choose the type of ticket you seek there. Note that they do sell out, so book as soon as your dates are firm.

Thanks to both who have replied.

I have seen the https://basilicasanmarco.skiperformance.com/en/store#/en/buy?skugroup_id=2524 site. I'm glad that jules m has confirmed its legitmacy.

I'm glad you both told me that I can buy tickets to the Pala d'Oro and the museum tickets, can be purchased once inside. I'm curious why they would offer skip-the-line prices for those extra sites for an additional 14 euro when it costs less (12 euros) to buy them at the entrances inside, presumably there's no line once the visitor gets inside. This was the part that made me suspicious.

Any thoughts? Thanks.
Wallace

Thank you Lola. It's starting to make sense now.

I cannot explain why the package of all 3 costs 2€ more, but it is probably worth doing. They limit the numbers of people into the Pala d”Oro, and maybe the museum as well, so it you plan to buy those inside you may be out of luck.

I was unable to get any kind of skip the line for our visit in Sepbember 2023, even booking 2 months in advance. I did find skip-the-line tix for just the basilica entry at the first opening, 9 am, on a 3d party site. And we were able to pay to enter the museum once we were inside, but we were the first ones into the basilica and the first into the museum. The entry area for the Pala d”Oro already looked crowded at that time but that wan’t on our wish list anyway.

We did enjoy being the first into the basilica, when it was very uncrowded. I had planned to book a time during the illumination of the mosaics, as we have done before, but this was even better.

General Entrance to the Basilica is 3e but you pay and additional 3e to get a timed ticket. You get to skip the ticket buyers line and line up for your pre-assigned time slot instead.

Once inside each of the special areas - Pala d'Oro and Museum and Loggia dei Cavalli - have ticket booth areas with a turn style where you scan your ticket and are allowed entry if you paid in advance. If you bought the general ticket and want to see those areas your then need to buy a ticket and pay at the internal ticket booth to be allowed in. Apparently you pay a small premium to buy them ahead of time. I can't imagine it allows you to skip much of a line - maybe a couple of people - but it does allow you to not have to stop and buy an additional ticket multiple times once inside.

I can't see worrying about a couple of extra euros for St Marks in the face of the cost of everything else involved in visiting Venice, but I think the timed entry tickets are easily worth the extra time saved standing in the ticket buyers line. Whether the extra couple of euros are worth waiting until you are inside to buy additional tickets is up to you.

Venice is amazing, enjoy,
=Tod

What everyone here says, makes sense. Thanks to all. Safe travels.

We were in Venice mid September and had the first timed tickets for St. Mark's. There was no line inside to buy the Pala d'Oro ticket. There was a line for the museum (horses and terrace), but it looked like it was no more than 20 minutes. (Our ticket package included the museum/horses/terrace) I can't speak to what happens as the day goes on.

There didn't seem to be big interest in the Pala d'Oro, and there wasn't much I couldn't see from the vantage point with the regular ticket and from up above with the museum ticket. That said, the extra access ticket was cheap.

Jules's report confirms my impression that Venice was quite a bit more crowded in 2024 than it was in 2022. I visited the city around the middle of September both years. I went to the basilica only in 2022. I arrived around 10 AM and waited in the outdoor ticket-purchase line for about 30 minutes. I bought the basic entry ticket initially (I think that's all that was being offered) and then paid for the Pala d'Oro and the museum at their entry points. I don't remember any delay at the entry point for the museum, and there were just a few people ahead of me at the Pala d'Oro. It's obvious the museum was considerably busier this year. Changes like this show why it's so hard for us to advise future travelers on how to handle ticket-purchase situations.

I did think Venice was quite busy when we were there. People were waiting in line half a day for St. Mark's campanile. But, this is where planning makes a huge difference. I would say Venice was completely manageable, except a few times on the Vaporetto. There is so much a savvy traveler (with help from forum folks) can do to ensure a wonderful trip to Venice and other highly visited cities.