Who sells tickets, tours and transport in Venice: the operator catalogue

In Venice the same entry ticket or the same boat ride can be bought from many sellers: the body that runs the museum, a city portal, an international platform, a local agency, a motorboat consortium. This catalogue lines up who sells tickets, tours and transport in the city, in six groups.

For each operator you get what it sells, its published prices, the languages where stated, the cancellation rules and the website. Prices were read on the operators’ own sites on the date this page was updated and can change. Where a figure is missing or official pages contradict each other, we say so. We don’t give ratings.

How we earn money. We earn a commission on bookings made through our links to Tiqets and GetYourGuide; the price you pay is the same. We have no commercial relationship with any other operator listed. This site is not official and sells no tickets: more in about us.

Official channels: museums, churches, events and transport

These are the bodies that run the site or the service: their price is the benchmark for every comparison.

The Doge’s Palace ticket is called “St Mark’s Square Museums” and also covers the Museo Correr, the National Archaeological Museum and the Monumental Rooms of the Biblioteca Marciana. Any St Mark’s Basilica ticket gives entry, within six months, to dozens of other churches and sites in the Procuratoria’s circuit, including the basilica on Torcello and the Salute sacristy: before buying a church pass, check whether you already have one. Finally, ACTV passes do not cover lines 16 and 19, the Casinò line or any Alilaguna service. To choose between single tickets and passes, see the ACTV vaporetto guide; for combined passes, see the passes page.

Booking platforms

Platforms don’t run museums or boats: they resell the products of those who do, sometimes adding a service (a guide, a host, an audioguide, free cancellation). On the same platform cancellation changes from one product to the next, so what counts is the individual product page, not the site’s general promise.

When a platform costs more than the official channel, it sometimes sells something the official body does not, such as hosted entry to the Basilica or a shared transfer.

Tour companies and guides

All group visits are subject to the cap of 25 participants plus the guide, introduced recently in the historic centre and on Murano, Burano and Torcello, according to Confcommercio’s FAQ. Guided visits in the city require a licensed guide.

Gondola: the official tariff and who sells rides

The City doesn’t sell gondola rides: it sets the tariff, and you book at a gondola stand (stazio) or through an agency. The old “official” gondola site, gondolavenezia.it, no longer works.

On Tiqets the shared Grand Canal ride costs €41 and the listing names Bucintoro Viaggi, City Tours Co Uk and Park Viaggi as operators: read the cancellation terms on the product page. The ”+€40 per extra 20 minutes” rates repeated online do not appear on the City’s page. To choose between shared and private, starting point and length, see our gondola page; if you just want to book a ride, gondolatour.venice.it lists the stands and routes.

Water taxis and transfers

There are 250 water-taxi licences, issued by the City; the municipal fares are published station by station. Hire-with-driver boats carry green bands and a green bow flag, Gran Turismo boats red bands. The prices below are those shown by the operators’ booking engines in September.

Alilaguna, Venicelink and Bucintoro Viaggi belong to the same group: between them they sell the scheduled boat, shared and private taxis, shared gondolas and island tours. For routes, prices and times from the airport, the station and Piazzale Roma, see the guide at taxi.venice.it; below are the two airport transfers bookable on Tiqets.

Boats, islands and glass

Island hours and museums: Murano and Burano.

How to choose the right seller

For museums and the Basilica, start with the official channel. The Doge’s Palace costs €35 on both muve.vivaticket.it and Tiqets, but on the Civic Museums site it drops to €30 if you buy at least 30 days ahead. The Basilica starts at €10 on the Procuratoria’s site. The Gallerie dell’Accademia sell online only through TicketOne, and the Scuola Grande di San Rocco only at the door.

Use a platform when you need something extra: a guide, hosted entry, a Doge’s Palace plus Basilica bundle, the option to cancel. Read the terms on the individual product page.

For guided visits, group size matters. A Cooperativa guide costs €175 for 2 hours for up to 25 people: split five ways that is €35 each. Tip-based tours are free to book and paid with a tip at the end.

For gondolas and taxis, the price is per boat. The official gondola ride costs €90 for 30 minutes for up to 5 people; a shared ride costs about €39–€43 per person. A private water taxi from the airport costs €140–€160 for the whole group, a shared transfer from €39 per person, the Alilaguna boat €18.

How to spot unofficial sellers

• Basilica tickets outside accredited channels. The Procuratoria’s terms say tickets bought from non-accredited operators are void and cancelled without refund, and they ban reselling the bare ticket without added services. Tickets are in your name, and at the door you may be asked for ID and the card used to pay.
• Access fee sold by third parties. It is paid only on cda.ve.it: no commercial platform sells it.
• Oversized groups or loudspeakers. A tour with more than 25 people, or a guide using a loudspeaker, breaks the City rules reported by Confcommercio; groups over 10 need headsets.
• Different brands, same company. gondola-venice.com and venicecitytours.it are both Venice Tours Srl; Venicelink and Bucintoro Viaggi belong to the Alilaguna group. Three offers can be the same product.
• Gondola surcharges outside the tariff. The City tariff has only two bands, day and evening, with other durations pro rata. Agree the price before you board.
• “Murano” glass without the mark. The Vetro Artistico® Murano mark belongs to the Regione Veneto, which publishes the list of firms authorised to use it.

If in doubt, look for the company name and VAT number at the foot of the seller’s website; on Tiqets the supplier is named on every product page.