Venice Advice

Hi.

Arriving at 1 pm day 1 on a cruise, overnight, day 2 in a hotel near San Marco, then leaving on a train Day 3 around 5 pm.

My proposal to my group.

Day 1 Murano - can catch vaporetto direct from Piazza Roma.

Day 2 - get off the ship, drop off luggage at hotel, walk around and museums, St Mark's around noon, Burano late afternoon and dinner.

Day 3 - Museums, walk around in the morning. Doge Secret Itinerary at 1135 then the rest of the museum before picking up our luggage before the train.

Ideally we would do Murano and Burano together. Guess we could St Mark's on day 3 first thing before Doge's at 1135? Can we do Murano and Burano starting right after lunch on day 2?

We wanted to have dinner on our ship on the last night so thought Murano was something we could do as the vaporetto is close by as opposed to 30 mins to San Marco and back.

Thoughts?

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Just one thought. Do not underestimate the time it takes to get out to Burano. It can easily take over 1 hour (each way) depending on Vaporetto connections. It is our favorite island in the Lagoon and a great place to escape the hustle and bustle of Venice.

Hank

Murano and Burano are often done together. This way you optimize the anyway long travel time on the vaporetti.

Yet to sqeeze all sights around St Marks square into just a few hours would not allow to really see and experience them.

Is this your first time in Venice? If so, I would not waste all the time to go to the remote islands at all, but enjoy Venice proper. There is more than enough to see and do for weeks!

There isn't a vaparetto that I know of that goes directly from P. Roma to Murano/ Burano. We just did this and took a vaparetto from P. Roma to Fte. Nova and then caught the #12 out to Murano/ Burano. There's a transfer involved. Overall it took about 45-60 minutes with the transfer wait

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To clear up some misconceptions or confusions in this thread:

Murano is much closer to Venice than Burano. It's true people often do the two islands together, but it is Burano that takes the long ride to get to. Murano is actually pretty close to Venice proper. Burano and Torcello (the third island that is often visited) are very close to each other; about a 5 minute vaporetto ride apart.

(And yes, there is a vaporetto that goes from Piazzale Roma to Murano. As well as those from Fondamente Nova....)

What are your reasons for wanting to see Murano and Burano? Unless you are interested in a glassblowing demonstration (usually accompanied by high pressure to purchase), I'd skip Murano altogether. Burano is a little more interesting (nice photo ops and very different from Venice proper whereas Murano isn't so different, just smaller.) I still thought Burano was full of very touristy tat though. No need for a lengthy visit there. It does have a couple of good restaurants.

I actually find Torcello the most interesting of the three islands. It was quite a prosperous city in the Middle Ages, but later its population founded and moved to Venice and Torcello slowly became a backwater.

All this to say that I agree for your first visit to Venice, you should just stay in Venice. Plenty to see and do there without the lengthy amount of transportation time needed for doing the outlying islands.

To clear up some misconceptions or confusions in this thread:

 

What are your reasons for wanting to see Murano and Burano? Unless you are interested in a glassblowing demonstration (usually accompanied by high pressure to purchase), I'd skip Murano altogether. Burano is a little more interesting (nice photo ops and very different from Venice proper whereas Murano isn't so different, just smaller.) I still thought Burano was full of very touristy tat though. No need for a lengthy visit there. It does have a couple of good restaurants.

 

I actually find Torcello the most interesting of the three islands. It was quite a prosperous city in the Middle Ages, but later its population founded and moved to Venice and Torcello slowly became a backwater.

 

All this to say that I agree for your first visit to Venice, you should just stay in Venice. Plenty to see and do there without the lengthy amount of transportation time needed for doing the outlying islands.

Travelling with 2 boys, aged 12 and 10 and they are interested in seeing the glass blowing. Burano is more for us, photo ops (as you've mentioned) and something different from regular Venice.

As with the 2 boys, we don't plan on spending too much time in museums or churches. Will do St. Mark's/Bell Tower, Doge's Palace/Secret Itineraries, the other St. Mark's Museums and maybe that's it. Would consider doing the glass and lace museums on Murano and Burano.

For all the things in St. Mark's (museums and walking around (Rialto also), we'd have day 2 off the ship until early afternoon and day 3 up until our train leaves. That might be enough for our kids for museums and walking around.

Thanks for everyone's thoughts.

I definitely think the boys will enjoy the glass blowing demonstration, and we didn’t find too much pressure to buy - you just have to exit through the shop.

The secret itineraries tour of the Doges Palace is good too - you see the cell where Casanova was held.

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The best part of Venice for me was being there in the evening. No way I'd spend an evening on the ship if I didn't have to. You will probably disembark early on day 2? That might be the perfect time to go to St. Mark's since they open at 9:30am most days. Buy a ticket online for the St. Mark's Museum before you go so you can skip the line.

Some hotels offer a free water taxi to Murano with a vaporetto back. It’s only expensive if you buy a chandelier :')

The secret itineraries tour of the Doges Palace is good too - you see the cell where Casanova was held.

Took my boys on the secret tour of the Doges Palace when they were about 12 and they loved it.

I seem to remember that there is a glass blowing demonstration right by Piazza San Marco so there is no need to go out to Murano to see one. Venice is very uniquely charming and atmospheric, especially at night and in the early morning hours. Leave plenty of time for just wandering and be sure to take a vaporetto ride at night. Venice is it's own best "sight". It's not really about "doing museums" although you should definitely tour the Doge's Palace and the church of St. Mark.