Italy · Veneto
Plan your Venice trip
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01Your itinerary
02Where to stay
Cannaregio
Best for first-timers who want an authentic, walkable baseQuiet canals, the fewest tourists relative to residents of any central sestiere, and the best cicchetti bars in the city on your doorstep. A ten-minute walk from the station.
A canal-view guesthouse near the Jewish Ghetto
The Ghetto area is calm, historic, and puts you close to Cannaregio's bacari without the San Marco price premium.
€€A small hotel along the Strada Nova
The main pedestrian spine of Cannaregio — busy by day, but it means every essential is a short walk away.
€€Dorsoduro
Best for art lovers and a quieter, still-central baseUniversity energy, serious art museums, and the closest thing to a waterfront promenade along the Zattere. Slightly removed from the main tourist artery but an easy walk to everything.
A boutique guesthouse near the Accademia
Steps from the Accademia and Guggenheim, with easy vaporetto access across to San Marco.
€€€A converted palazzo room near the Zattere
The Zattere promenade catches the evening light beautifully and has a genuinely local café scene.
€€San Marco
Best for short stays and first-time visitors prioritising proximity over calmMaximum convenience and maximum price — every headline sight within a short walk, but also the densest crowds and the least neighbourhood feel after dark.
A grand hotel just off the Piazza
Pay for the location; the crowds thin dramatically once the day-trip boats leave in early evening.
€€€€Castello
Best for longer stays and repeat visitors wanting real neighbourhood lifeThe largest and most residential sestiere, sprawling east from San Marco into genuinely lived-in streets with laundry lines and neighbourhood bars rather than souvenir shops.
An apartment near Via Garibaldi
One of the few streets in central Venice with an actual daily market and residents outnumbering visitors.
€€Giudecca
Best for a calmer base with skyline views and lower pricesAn island apart — a short vaporetto hop from Dorsoduro, quieter again, with sweeping views back across the water to the city and some of Venice's better-value modern hotels.
A modern hotel with a Grand Canal-facing terrace
You trade a short boat commute for genuine quiet and some of the best sunset views in the city.
€€Affiliate notePostcardRoute is reader-supported. Some links to Booking.com (stays, flights, car hire, tickets and tours, airport transfers) are affiliate links, tracked through CJ Affiliate: if you book through them we may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. We only recommend places we would send a friend.
03Tickets & tours
St Mark's Basilica
A Byzantine-domed cathedral clad floor to ceiling in gold mosaic, built to declare Venice a rival to Constantinople itself — still one of the most…
Tip Book the (free) timed-entry skip-the-line reservation online — the standing queue across the Piazza can run past an hour without it.
Doge's Palace
The Gothic seat of Venetian government for six centuries, connected to the old prisons by the Bridge of Sighs — the state rooms alone justify the…
Tip The Secret Itineraries tour adds access to the interrogation rooms and Casanova's actual cell — book it a few days ahead, it runs small groups only.
Rialto Bridge & Market
The oldest of the Grand Canal's four bridges, and still the city's commercial heart — a produce and fish market has traded at its foot since medieval…
Tip Come before 8am to see the fish market in full working swing before the stalls close around noon and the tour groups arrive.
Gallerie dell'Accademia
The definitive collection of Venetian painting from Byzantine icons through the High Renaissance, housed in a former scuola and church — Bellini,…
Tip Go on a weekday morning; it's far smaller and easier to see properly than the Uffizi or the Louvre, and rarely crowded even in peak season.
Peggy Guggenheim Collection
A modern-art museum inside the American heiress's unfinished palazzo on the Grand Canal, with Pollock, Picasso, Ernst and Kandinsky in rooms she…
Tip The waterside sculpture garden and café terrace are as much a reason to visit as the collection — budget time to sit there.
Ca' d'Oro
The most delicate Gothic palazzo façade on the Grand Canal, its lacy stonework once gilded (the name means 'golden house'), now housing a compact…
Tip Climb to the loggia for one of the best free Grand Canal views in the city, at a fraction of the crowd of the Rialto.
Burano & Murano
Two lagoon islands, a vaporetto ride apart: Murano for six centuries of glassblowing tradition and furnace demonstrations, Burano for a village of…
Tip Do Murano in the morning and Burano in the afternoon — the light suits Burano's colours best later in the day, and the day-trip boats hit Murano first.
Campo Santa Margherita
Dorsoduro's big, informal square, ringed by student bars, market stalls and cicchetti counters — the closest thing Venice has to an everyday,…
Tip Come at aperitivo hour (6-8pm) when the square fills with students and locals rather than visitors, and drinks are priced accordingly.
Day trips from Venice
Padua
Half an hour by train, home to Giotto's Scrovegni Chapel frescoes — book the mandatory timed entry days ahead — and one of Europe's oldest…
Day tripVerona
An hour by train, with a genuine Roman arena still hosting opera, Juliet's balcony, and a walkable historic centre entirely worth a full day if you…
Day tripThe Brenta Canal villas
A string of Palladian and Baroque villas along the mainland canal between Venice and Padua, reachable by boat tour or car — Villa Pisani's hall of…
Day tripLido di Venezia
The lagoon's beach barrier island, a short vaporetto ride away — Art Nouveau hotels, a proper sandy beach, and the closest thing to a seaside…
Day tripEverything to do in Venice
Skip-the-line tickets, guided tours and day trips, all in one place on Booking.com.
04Getting there & around
Getting around with no cars, no bikes, no exceptions
Venice is entirely car-free by geography, not by policy choice — there simply are no roads in the historic centre, only calli (streets), campi (squares) and canals. That means two modes of transport exist: your own feet, and the water.
Flights
Compare fares into Venice and pick dates that suit the days you planned.
Airport transfers
Book a private or shared ride from the airport so the first evening starts at your door, not at a ticket queue.
Car hire from Venice
Only worth it for day trips beyond the city — in town, the plan above works on foot and public transport.
Affiliate notePostcardRoute is reader-supported. Some links to Booking.com (stays, flights, car hire, tickets and tours, airport transfers) are affiliate links, tracked through CJ Affiliate: if you book through them we may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. We only recommend places we would send a friend.