Best of · MORNING
The good morning gondola rides fill up first, especially in the last hour of light. Below: the 6 to book early, what each includes and how they differ.
Meet near the Correr Museum for a guided visit to St. Mark’s Square and Basilica at 10:45 AM, then return at 3:00 PM for a 30-minute shared gondola ride. You’ll hear live commentary in four languages, skip the ticket line, and need covered shoulders and knees inside the church.
Start at 9:00 am for a guided walk through Venice’s lanes, squares, and landmarks, then share a 30-minute gondola ride. Guides such as Monica and Antonella have led especially strong walks, but gondola commentary is not included and group sizes can vary.
“This below paragraph is what I wrote to the company (Viator) twice and it’s been 3 days and no reply back from them. “Hi I paid $101.13 for this tour: Morning Walk Tour of Venice plus Gondola Ride. I got the morning walk on Friday, February 16 at 9am, but did not get the gondola ride? Please advise? “ Viator should either reimburse me fully or at the bare minimum pay back some percentage of the cost that I paid since I never got the gondola ride.”
Set out from Ko Lanta Yai at about 5 AM with guides such as Gunn, Nas, or Wi. Glide silently through Tung Yee Peng’s mangroves, watch the sun rise over Lanta Bay, spot monkeys and birds, then enjoy local coffee and a Thai breakfast on the gondola.
“An absolutely beautiful way to see the sunrise and explore the mangroves. Gun, who collected us from our hotel at 5am was funny and informative and it seems the whole family are involved. Sticky rice and dried fish breakfast ( made by his mum in law) on the Gondola, watching the monkeys come out from monkey island, hear the morning bird song as the sun rises, seeing hawks, hearing the singing fisherman… so many things that will start with me forever! Highly recommended. It’s very romantic and peaceful”
Leave your Koh Lanta hotel around 5 AM for Tung Yee Peng, where guide Gunn and a local captain take you by paddle-powered gondola toward Lanta Bay. Watch sunrise, spot macaques and birds, and eat fish with sticky rice, coffee, or hot chocolate on this private four-person tour.
“We had a wonderful morning watching the sunrise amongst the mangroves on our private gondola! Definitely one of the highlights of our entire trip - it was so peaceful and serene and we really enjoyed the local information provided by our guide along with the thai breakfast and coffee. We would highly recommend this experience - the early wake up was completely worth it!”
You’ll tour St. Mark’s Basilica with a multilingual guide, see its mosaics, museum, horses, and terrace, then ride a shared gondola through Venice. The published schedule places the basilica at 10:45 am and the gondola at 3 pm, so allow several hours between activities.
“Not so good. First, the organization of the tour was poor. They didn't communicate very well with us where to go, gondola driver spent the whole trip on the phone and texting and was completely disinterested and the tour guide of st marks was incomprehensible. The city is amazing, as is the church”
Start near St. Mark’s Square for a guided walk through Castello, Campo Santa Maria Formosa, La Fenice, and Rialto. Your guide uses headphones for commentary, then you share a gondola with up to four other people along the Grand Canal and smaller canals.
“The city is beautiful and it was overall informative. But Compared to the other tours we have taken this tour was just ok. Meeting spot was hard to find, communication when we got there was not great and our tour guide wandered off without the group a few times not realizing no one was behind her.”
By the kind of ride, not the postcard.
