Family trip in Venice

If you’ve been following my stories on Instagram, you’ll know that our family visit to Venice was completely improvised, as we were looking for some sunshine for this Ascension Bridge. We decided to visit the gondolas, the canals, the palaces of the Grand Canal and the famous Piazza San Marco, at lunchtime, to leave the next morning at 5am! We arrived at around 1pm and ate at the campsite before setting off on our discovery of Venice with our only child (aged 11), as our older daughter was on holiday with her friends!
The programme for our 4-day weekend in Venice with the family included a lot of walking, almost 7 to 8 hours a day! Lots of great visits and discoveries around every street corner and along the canals to admire the palaces. In short, a family trip to Venice that I’d been putting off for so long, but which delighted us!

1- The island of Burano ❤️❤️❤️

Visite Venice with your family Day 1

Our favourite part of the trip was this 1st stage of our family trip to Venice! The vaporetto took us to the island in around 20 minutes from Punta Sabioni.
The island is magnificent, with all its colourful houses! If the ferry terminal is really busy, I’d recommend wandering off into the small streets and canals around the island for a quiet stroll. We didn’t visit anything on the island, but we did come across a few points of interest:

The large piazza Baldassarre Galuppi, with its lace museum (Museo del Merletto). In fact, the island was a major lace-making centre known throughout Europe; nowadays, only a few grannies still have this knowledge. As we’re not enthusiasts, we didn’t visit any of the shops or the museum!

The campanile of San Martino Church: 45 m high, you can’t miss this tower, leaning like the one in Pisa!

There’s a children’s playground on the south-west side of the island.

How to get to the island of Burano from Venice: Vaporetto line 12 in around 45 minutes (included in the ACTV pass – see information below).

After exploring the length and breadth of this first island, we cross the bridge to the neighbouring island!

2 – The island of Marzorbo ❤️❤️

Day1 Visit Venice

Although it has much less charm than its neighbour, it’s all the more pleasant for its peace and quiet! Immediately after the bridge, we loved the walled garden on the island, where the vegetables from the kitchen garden and the vines were beginning to grow. It’s perfect for a snack break! At the far end of the garden is a hotel-bar and a Michelin-starred restaurant, Venissa.
We then continued on our way, attempting a tour of the island, which we didn’t find! But we did see our first empty gondola on the canal! We also passed the cemetery, dotted with huge yew trees, only accessible by boat!

3 – Murano Island ❤️❤️

What to do in Venice with kids

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Tout pour préparer votre voyage 

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We took the vaporetto to the island of Murano in around 30 minutes! We arrived around 4.30pm and there was disappointment: all the glassblowers’ workshops were closed! It was an activity we wanted to show Mini Voyageur, even though I’d had some rather disappointing feedback! But we’ll see about that on a future trip – Glassblowing workshop in Murano here.

Then, as we passed the Glass Museum, we discovered that it was closing in 15 minutes. What a shame! To find out the opening times of the Musée du Verre and to make a reservation, click here.

We were a little disappointed by the first few streets of Murano, but it was great to see all the Venetians out on the streets again after the holidaymakers had left. The houses are as they were, unlike in Burano, where they have to paint them every 2 years! It’s quite authentic, but a little less photogenic. In short, we stayed there for 2 hours from 5pm to 7pm, and really enjoyed the place. We took the opportunity to do some shopping in the paniceria and other supermarkets.

4 – Castello district ❤️❤️

What to see in Venice – day 2

This sestiere (district) is the largest in Venice. We started our walking tour of the city from the Vaporetto dock at the San Marco stop, losing ourselves in the narrow streets. So here’s a photo summary and a few short texts of what we discovered in this authentic, less-frequented district!

5 – The Arsenal ❤️

We wanted to see this shipyard dating back to the 1100s, where the boats of the Venetian fleets were built. In fact, the Arsenal is a military zone; it’s impossible to get in! Only the land entrance is visible, and the ramparts are quite impressive! You’ll see the 2 large towers that delimit the entrance and the monument right next to it!

Just next door is the maritime museum. It could be a fun museum with ship fans!

6 – Alta Acqua bookshop – Unusual Venice ❤️❤️

In the Castello district, this bookshop is an unusual place. It stores thousands of books in gondolas and bathtubs, so that the rising autumn waters don’t spoil them. They had the amusing idea of putting the piles of damaged books against a wall, so that you could climb up and admire the canal from the other side of the wall. What’s more, there’s a gondola on one side of the bookshop for a photo opportunity.
This rather unusual spot attracts many people who come just for the photos. But access is free. Why not buy a little book to thank them for letting us in! The children’s book section on Venice is well-stocked!

7 – Ponte dei Conzalfezi ❤️

A pretty bridge that allows you to admire a house surrounded by water at a crow’s foot of canals!

8- Canareggio district

This district is perfect for getting lost in! You’ll meet some of the quieter Venetians. We’ve chosen to look for the more unusual corners of Venice to make the walk even better!

9 – Climb to the roofs of Venice at the Tesdeschi Foundation

This pretty building is well worth a visit, not only for its galleries on several levels, but above all for the free panoramic view from its roof! Unfortunately, you’ll need to book several days in advance if you don’t want to miss out like us! But the architecture inside the mall is really cool!

10 – Ponto Chiode

We’ve seen all kinds of bridges in Venice! But if you look closely, this one has a special feature! It doesn’t have a railing, as all bridges did in the beginning! Then, as safety became more and more important in our lives, they were gradually all protected to prevent impromptu dives into the canals!

11 – Discover a former supermarket theatre – Venice unusual ❤️❤️

A little Spar supermarket, too cute to admire the frescoes and sets of an old theatre. It’s very original and it was great to combine the useful side of buying a picnic with the sightseeing!

12 – Polo district – Venice with your family day 2

Rialto Bridge

This is one of the 4 bridges that cross the Grand Canal and the most famous! Its architecture is truly grandiose, as it rests on thousands of underwater pillars! The bridge is divided into 3 sections: 3 pedestrian walkways and 2 rows of shops. As you’d expect.

Although the architecture of this bridge is majestic, it was not our favourite discovery. Far too many people on this site. We just crossed it, took a photo from the top of the bridge with difficulty, and then went to admire it from other vantage points. For this photo, we still had to queue, waiting for an instragrameuse to take 10,000 photogenic breaks!

Rialto Market ❤️❤️

A special place to see the food stalls early in the morning. You’ll find fruit, vegetables, fish, meat, etc. and the Italians with their loud voices.

13 – Sailing on a gondola ❤️❤️

This is the biggest activity in Venice, and one that your children are sure to ask you about! And the most expensive too! 80 for 30 minutes, if you decide to go directly along the canals. But if you book online, you’ll find cheaper gondola rides!
On the other hand, choose your itinerary carefully: either stick to the must-see sights of Venice and you’ll be lined up with gondolas in the middle of the day, or head for the lesser-known canals for a more intimate experience!
To try a gondola for much less, take the traghetto: a public gondola driven by 2 gondoliers and carrying 6 to 10 people. They are used to cross the Grand Canal. The crossing costs €2 per person.

14 – Leonardo da Vinci Museum – Unusual Venice ❤️❤️❤️

What better way to motivate Mini Voyageur at the end of the day than with an interactive museum! And Leonardo’s inventions are just the thing! In the first part, on the ground floor, you can find out more about his most famous paintings: the Mona Lisa, which is analysed in 10 succinct points, perfect for children, and the Last Supper! We also discover his writings, and discover that he wrote from right to left: a mirror was used to read him!
Upstairs, the children’s favourite part of the exhibition: the machines recreated in almost original format! Every time, the children are delighted to handle the machines!

• Address: see our downloadable interactive map
• Duration: 40 minutes with audioguide, including a special one for children
• Price: €12 / person or €25 family price
• Book your tickets online for the Da Vinci Museum
• Book your ticket here for Da Vinci Museum

15 – The Grand Canal from a vaporetto ❤️❤️❤️

The Grand Canal is a veritable motorway for boats. A long time ago, it was sailing boats that came to the wealthy Venetian merchants to trade! Buildings, each more resplendent than the last, appeared as a showcase for the merchants.
Nowadays, you can still catch a glimpse of these building façades by taking the Vaporetto (usually the 2nd) up and down the Grand Canal. Try to take the boat at the beginning of the line so that you can sit at the front and enjoy the view.

16 – San Marco and San Polo: the busiest areas ❤️
What to see in Venice with your family Day 3

This is the busiest district in Venice after San Marco. You’ll find mostly shopping streets in this district!

17 – Family visit to the Fenice Palace ❤️❤️

This was an unplanned visit, which we decided to make early in the morning, when the streets of the San Polo district and its countless shops were bustling with life. As it wasn’t the shopping that we were looking for in Venice, we headed for La Fenice (the Phoenix, if like me you haven’t made the connection!) a superb theatre that was originally private but which, following 2 fires (the name is perfect: the one that rises from its ashes), became public and was transformed into an opera house!
It’s a great visit, with an audioguide, in a superb setting, rebuilt exactly as it was 20 years ago after the 2nd fire!

• Address: see our downloadable interactive map
• Duration: 40 minutes with audioguide, including a special one for children
• Price: €12 / person or €25 family price
• Book your ticket La Fenice here

18 – Visit the Doge’s Palace ❤️❤️❤️

The Doge’s Palace is the place where all the representatives of the Republic of Venice met to govern the city. It’s not quite a palace where you live, but a collection of meeting rooms… The decoration of these rooms is incredible, with many paintings by Tintroetto among others! Part of the palace was built before the year 1000, and has evolved over the centuries.

An unmissable visit, but perhaps not entirely interesting for children, unless you manage to book the guided tour in French: Les Secrets des Doges. But after this visit, will your children want to see all the rooms in the Doge’s Palace?

• Address: see our downloadable interactive map
• Duration: 40 minutes with audioguide, including a special one for children
• Price: €12 / person or €25 family price
• Book your ticket Doge’s Palace here

19 – Saint Mark’s Square ❤️❤️

This is the most emblematic spot in Venice. With children, this square is a great place to let them run around if the square is deserted. Several buildings adorn the square:

• The clock tower: a pretty building that will captivate your children! Especially at All Saints’ Day and Ascension Day, when the puppets – three wise men and an angel with a trumpet – come out and turn every hour. What’s more, this tower also gives the zodiacal period, the seasons and the phases of the moon – important information for sailors! You can visit the Mechanism here.
• Campanile San Marco: you can climb up to admire the 360° view over the city. It costs around €15 and it’s best to book to avoid the queues.
• Saint Mark’s Basilica: an architectural masterpiece to be visited free of charge, with a long queue. But if you book a visit, you can avoid the queues and climb onto the terrace surrounding one of the cupolas as an optional extra.
• The Procuraties: these long buildings housed the offices of Venice’s civil servants.

For our part, we didn’t visit any of these buildings, contenting ourselves with admiring them from the outside (the budget quickly explodes, you have to choose!). We enjoyed the sights, strolling under the luxurious arcades and admiring the decor of the oldest bars in Venice: the Caffe Florian (where coffee costs €7).

The pigeons have disappeared! With the ban on feeding them, they’ve left, making it harder for the children to chase them away!

Dorsudoro District

What to see in Venice with your family d3

Leaving in the south-east of Venice, we arrive in the Dorsudoro district. Here too, the streets are one after the other, with a few less small canals here, but a number of transversal canals leading to the Grand Canal from the Lagoon!

20 – Gondola repair workshop

We stumbled across the Squero de San Trovaso gondola repair workshop at a crossroads of canals. We poked our heads through the door, but the repairmen weren’t working! We observed a gondola that had just been repainted, and then continuing along the path, we found ourselves facing the quay of the Workshop. This building looks quite old.
Apparently there are other workshops, but you can only visit them on a guided tour.

Venice with your family day 4

21 – Punta Sabioni beach

We often talk about the beaches on the Lido island, but there are others on the peninsula to the south-east of Venice. We spent a little time there on our last day before taking the vaporetto back to Venice. It stretches as far as the eye can see, and on this Sunday morning, the kite surfers were arriving in droves!

22 – Parc Giardini

If the children are tired, head to the Parc Giardini for a picnic and games break. There are several parks next to each other, and as you pass a final island, there are plenty of play areas within easy reach!

Practical information for visiting Venice with your family

Take an ACTV pass

This could be a good idea if you’re planning a lot of vaporetto trips (1 trip costs €7.5 for children over 6). We booked the 72-hour ACTV pass at €55 per person, which paid for itself in 7 journeys! In total, we made more than twice as many trips, because among other things, we were staying on the other side of Venice and we took the boats morning and evening to and from the campsite!

Try out the Gondola in Venice

As I said earlier, we didn’t take a gondola ride in Venice: €80 for 1/2 hour was far too expensive for us (but I found cheaper gondola rides here)! What’s more, on most of the sectors, the gondolas follow each other like in a circuit! I find that rather unromantic?
If you still want to try out the gondola, look for a quieter part of Venice. Even if the buildings are less well-known than on the Grand Canal, the canals are still really charming to wander around!

Where to sleep in Venice with your family

Camping in Venice

Travelling as usual with our 4×4 and roof tent, we decided to go to the Agricampeggio Mose campsite on Punta Sabbioni, that long peninsula to the south of Venice. It takes 1 hour to get there from Venice by road.
The campsite is well looked after by a friendly family. The sanitary blocks are very clean, with huge bathrooms for families, including shower, WC and washbasin. There is a small restaurant at the entrance, where you can eat well.

To get to Venice from this campsite, it’s a 20-minute walk to the vaporetto at Punta Sabioni! Alternatively, a shuttle bus leaves the campsite at 9.40am or 10.4am and picks you up in the evening at 5 or 6pm on request! We were leaving too early and returning too late to take advantage of this service! Vaporetto crossing to San Marco: 30 min.
Price for a pitch in May for 3 people (2 adults, one 11-year-old) and a vehicle: 52€ / night with water and electricity

Another recommendation from the forum: Camping Ca Savio, swimming pool and direct access to the sea

Bivouac info: near the Punta Sabioni beach, there is a 24-hour pay car park where many vans and camper vans spend the night in May! See if this is possible all year round.

Hotel accommodation in Venice for families

Like all big cities, accommodation is a big blow to a family’s budget! Expect to pay around €300 a night for a hotel in the city!

• Hotels recommended by our travelling families:
  • Hotel Locanda San Barbara
  • Hôtel Locanda Gaffaro
  • Hotel A Portico Guesthouse, recommended on the Voyages et Enfants forum
  • Santa Maria Formosa recommended by Florence
  • Hotel Mezzo Posso recommended by Blandine

Charter of good conduct: picnics, scooters and wheeled suitcases #respectvenise

Be careful, we realised afterwards that picnicking on the ground is forbidden in Venice! Admittedly, we suspected that it was forbidden in the most touristy areas, where #respectvenise brigades were on the move. For our part, we chose a spot away from it all, in a small square, where we wouldn’t be in anyone’s way! One Venetian complained, but we didn’t know that! So it’s up to you to find benches, which are very rare in the city’s campos (squares) or gardens!

Similarly, scooters are forbidden, even though they’re a great way to show children around the city! But it’s easy to see why, as soon as you come across Venetian deliverymen pulling or pushing their carts with difficulty through the narrow streets.

New taxes in Venice

If you are only coming for one day and are not staying on site, a new tax will apply from April 2024: €5 per person! This will rise to €10 over 54 days in 2025 if you do not book 4 days in advance.

How do you get around Venice with children?

• The ACTV card: Although there are buses, we only took one when we found out that our last vaporetto connection didn’t exist! We ended up taking the bus. Fortunately, the ACTV card is valid for 24 to 72 hours, or even 7 days, and costs around €55 per person for 3 days! Tickets here. If you plan your trip at least one month in advance, book it on the website and you’ll get a 10% discount. Children over 6 (free under 6) pay the same as adults. Why is the card interesting? Because a vaporetto ticket costs €7.5 and is valid for 75 minutes. We took more than 15 vaporetto trips, because knowing that we had the card, we took them non-stop on the last days of the trip.
• Traghetto: These public gondolas allow you to cross the Grand Canal between the 3 bridges that span it, which are a long way apart. The fare is €2 per person. Don’t give your change to the gondoliers, they won’t take it! There are 2 gondoliers, one at the front and one at the back! In general, there’s not much of a wait except near the Rialto market!
• By taxi boat: A solution to go where you want, but that we did not test. They are much more expensive; you can also visit the city with them!

How do you get to Venice as a family?

By car: For those who live on the Italian border, like us, or who have the time, the easiest way for families to get to Venice is by car. From Briançon, it’s a 6.5-hour drive, with a toll of around €100 for the return journey.

By train: a night train should be back in 2024, otherwise a 10-hour train journey from Paris. I’d advise you to leave for 1 week and combine this with a 2-day family visit to Milan to cut out the long journey – Train tickets here

By plane: for most of you, it will be by plane! So to minimise your impact, come and visit Venice and the region by staying longer! Tickets here

How long should I stay and when?

I think you need at least 4 days, and up to 1 week, to enjoy Venice with your family! In 4 days, you’ll see all the must-sees, 3 or 4 districts (out of 7) and 2 islands. In 1 week, you’ll have the impression of living the city, you can go to the beach and plan special activities for the children.

As for the period, avoid summer, when it will be very hot and crowded. Prefer spring to autumn, as it’s the Acqua Alta season and Venice is often at the water’s edge! But it can be more of an experience than a visit in boots!

Visiting Venice with a baby: all our info

If you’re coming to Venice with a baby or toddler, it’s possible, but as mentioned above, these are intense days of walking.

What baby equipment do you need to go to Venice with a toddler?

• Stroller: I wouldn’t recommend a pushchair at all; the streets are cobbled, so it’s quite bumpy. And above all, the bridges all have stairs! Although the main tourist bridges have slides for pushchairs and wheelchairs, all the others don’t. So you’ll have to carry your pushchair.
• Baby carrier: I recommend a physiological baby carrier and a nomadic fabric seat for sitting baby in restaurants, for example.

Italian restaurants often have baby seats.

Infant milk, baby food and nappies

You’ll find everything you need in the small supermarkets in the centre of Venice (often Spars). On the other hand, as is often the case, salted baby food is rare and not very varied compared with France.

I hope this article has given you some ideas for visiting Venice with your family!

Des idées de circuits famille en Italie