venice - need private value gondola ride

godsakes

Hi all

Me & the wife have booked a holiday in venice (probably be the last one we have in a while as we're expecting our first child in July).

We're renting an apartment and plan on cooking quite a few of the meals to cut down on eating out (as the food is famously expensive and not supposed to be all that great).

I thing i didn't want to cut out was a private gondola ride, sure we can get a shared one with a group but it doesn't seem right (even a tight northerner like myself will splash out on the right thing). Anyone know where i can book a cheap private gondola ride in advance?

PS any other money saving tips for venice will be most welcomed

diable

Cheap Gondola Ride Venice = Non Existent ;p

kavics17

Agree with that. Went to Venice in November, it was rather expensive. The only thing though,don't use water taxis or any other transport, everything is withing walking distance. We stayed next to the train station and walked everywhere, the most was 30 min. Buying tickets for water taxi is waste of time. Also ask straight away where is the closest supermarket, they are all hidden and hard to find, ask them to make a mark on your map. They also do ready meals in the supermarket,they are cheap and yummy (Like hot chicken, pizzas,etc). And be careful about service charge,table charge,etc, it can cost you more than your food when eating out.

davidlizard

Gondolas can be chartered from various points around the city, and (by all accounts - I cannot vouch for this, only heard it from others as I too can be a collosal tightwad) they become cheaper - or rather, less expensive - the further you get away from St Marks Square - as does just about everything else.

You can get a Tragetto (?) across the grand canal for around a euro which is a gondola for ferrying people from one side to the other.

Whilst I would sort of agree with kavics that everything is in walking distance and leaving the canals is highly recommended, there are a few things (e.g. Murano island) where you will need to get a boat. Also, its worth getting the 3 day pass - they are not expensive - as you can see a lot simply sat on the bow of the vaporetto boat and get out to the other islands.

Also they move all the buildings around at night. You spot a decent, cheap restaurant the day before, however can you find it the next day - no chance!

Theres a bus that you can get from the airport (either Marco Polo or the more distant one that I cannot think of its name at the moment but they have a rugby team!!) that is cheap as chips.

Ivrytwr3

Also they move all the buildings around at night. You spot a decent, cheap restaurant the day before, however can you find it the next day - no chance!

They move the buildings?!

Mr_Lahey

A private Gondola cost about 70EUR a few years back for 30 mins.

They are an absolute scandal and i would urge anyone to give them the recognition these rip off merchants deserve, that is boycott them.

SCAMPIDOODLE

Ivrytwr3 wrote: »

They move the buildings?!

think poster was joking :rotfl:

sunshinetours

As others have said move away from the main gondola stations near St Marks and find someone on the back street canals. I personally wouldn't want to be on the Grand Canal with all the vaparettos and other larger boats in a tiny gondola! We crossee it once on one of teh trips and it was pretty scary rather than enjoyable!
Don't be frightened to haggle and walk away - they will come back with a better offer so anything saved is good. Just make sure you agree how long it will last as well

Also get a nice bottle of Prosecco and some glasses to take on the gondola for a truly romantic half hour with the missus -she'll love it!!

To see the grand Canal and St Marks Basin area jump on one of the vaporetto "buses" (no 1 I think goes right down the length of the canal)

Info here http://www.actv.it/english/home.php and as you can see on the ticket info you can buy 12/24/48 etc etc hour passes

Also recommend the trips out to Murano and Burano islands as they are very much worth a look. Burano is stunning with all the coloured houses

Whole area is very very touristy (obviously) so be prepared!

If you are flying into Marco polo there is a waterbus service that is cheapest way to quickly get to Venice centre.
If Treviso then a bus service runs into the main bus station which is at the entrance to the Venice area and easily walkable to most central parts of venice from there

Eat away from St Marks and such areas to save money but do treat yourselves to a coffee sitting in St Marks square at one of the famous cafe's in the evening listening to the little quartets playing. It is a lovely place even though you pay for it

Check out tripadvisor forums for plenty of great info and money saving tips to minimise your chance of being ripped off

Most of all enjoy -its a great unique place

wwwd

I've just booked a private Gondola ride for my girlfriend from this company:

http://www.gondolieri.it/en/index.php

I did a lot of research on Trip Advisor and basically you can't get a "cheap" private Gondola ride. All the cheap Gondolas will be on ones that have space for 6/8 people, so you will be sharing with others.

I ended up going with a romantic private Gondola ride, with a 4 course meal afterwards. For the both of us it cost 225 Euros, which wasn't bad, considering the cheapest private Gondola ride is around 95 Euros anyway. The people on Trip Advisor did say though that if you're not planning a surprise (like I am) and you don't mind walking around Venice for a while and just picking one, then you'll be able to get it cheaper as you can barter. Especially in May, outside of tourist season.

Mrs.O_3

DH and I honeymooned in Venice. We didn't book a private gondola ride because it was way too expensive. Instead we waited until about 7pm when everyone seemed to be out eating, or getting ready to, and the canal was deserted, then we hopped in a gondola and had a lovely private journey.

The other bonuses were that we had the canals pretty much to ourselves (we only saw two others) and the heat of the day had gone making it a much more pleasant trip.

sunshinetours

The OP hasn't been back to update or thank anyone so assume they are sorted