Private gondolas
A private gondola ride Venice listings sell starts at $178 for a ride through hidden canals, listed at 30 minutes to 2 hours, with 1,183 reviews at 4.3. A fixed private half hour costs $223, and a private hour under the Bridge of Sighs and past Rialto, with champagne, costs $246. Longer listings pair the boat with a private walk, a private tour of the Doge’s Palace or a gala dinner. Here are all six, their prices and their honest review counts.
Quick answer
The short answer. For the deepest review record, the $178 hidden-canals ride: 1,183 reviews at 4.3. For exactly half an hour, $223. For an occasion, the $246 champagne hour, rated 4.6 on 34 reviews. Private gondola ride Venice tickets on this page all show Free cancellation.
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Three gondola rides on their own, then three longer listings that add a walk, a palace visit or a dinner.
★ 4.6 · 34 reviews
★ 4.8 · 4 reviews
★ 4.8 · 9 reviews
★ 4.7 · 17 reviews
How they differ
What each private gondola ride Venice listing says it includes, in its own words.
The $178 ride is the most reviewed of the six: 1,183 reviews at 4.3. Its listing describes picturesque canals, hidden corners and iconic landmarks, and shows a length of 30 minutes to 2 hours, so the time you get depends on the option you pick when you book.
The $223 ride is a fixed 30 minutes through quiet waterways and secret corners. It costs $45 more than the cheaper listing and has 10 reviews, rated 4.5. The $246 ride is a full hour: under the Bridge of Sighs, along the Grand Canal, past Rialto and through smaller canals, with what the listing calls Italian Champagne. 34 reviews, rated 4.6.
The three longer listings add something on land. The $303 tour takes in St Mark’s Square and its monuments, then the lanes and small squares beyond, and ends with a 30-minute gondola ride; it has 4 reviews. The $1,007 private tour covers St Mark’s Basilica, the Doge’s Palace and the canals by gondola in 4.5 hours, with 9 reviews. The $1,680 listing is a gondola ride along the Grand Canal and a gala dinner in a Venetian palazzo, 2.5 hours, 17 reviews; its description does not say whether the boat is yours alone, so check that on the listing.
Every trip, current fare
Cheapest first. Cost per hour appears where the listing gives a fixed length.
| Tour | Length | Price | What you get | Cost per hour | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Venice Private Gondola Ride: Tour Hidden Canals and Sights | 30 min - 2 h | $178 | Private gondola through hidden canals | — | 4.3 · 1,183 |
| Venice: Hidden Canals Gondola Ride | 30 min | $223 | Private gondola, thirty minutes | $446.00 | 4.5 · 10 |
| Venice: 1-Hour VIP Private Champagne Gondola Ride | 60 min | $246 | One-hour private gondola with champagne | $246.00 | 4.6 · 34 |
| Private Venice Walking Tour and Gondola Ride | 2.5 h | $303 | Private walk ending with a gondola | $121.20 | 4.8 · 4 |
| Venice: Private Tour with Doge's Palace, St. Mark's, Gondola | 4.5 h | $1,007 | Private day: palace, basilica, gondola | $223.78 | 4.8 · 9 |
| Venice: Gondola Ride and a Gala Dinner in a Venetian Palace | 2.5 h | $1,680 | Gondola ride, then dinner in a palace | $672.00 | 4.7 · 17 |
Which one to book
For a Venice gondola ride for 2 with nobody else aboard, these are the choices, matched to the occasion.
$178: 1,183 reviews at 4.3, the deepest record of any private gondola here.
$223, a fixed 30 minutes through quiet waterways. 10 reviews at 4.5.
$246 for one hour with champagne, under the Bridge of Sighs and past Rialto. 34 reviews at 4.6, the highest rating of the three rides on their own.
$303: St Mark’s Square and its monuments, then 30 minutes on a gondola. Rated 4.8, but on 4 reviews.
$1,007: St Mark’s Basilica, the Doge’s Palace and a gondola, 4.5 hours, 9 reviews at 4.8.
$1,680: the Grand Canal by gondola, then a gala dinner, 2.5 hours, 17 reviews at 4.7.
Is it worth it
The shared Grand Canal ride costs $41 and has 26,711 reviews at 4.2. The cheapest private gondola ride Venice listing costs $178 and has 1,183 reviews at 4.3. The rating barely moves; what you pay for is the empty boat and the side canals.
So the best private gondola ride in Venice for a first time on the water is the one with the most reviews behind it, unless the hour with champagne is the point: at $246 it costs $68 more than the cheapest private listing and is rated 4.6, but on 34 reviews.
The four-figure listings are more than a private gondola ride Venice visitors book for the water. $1,007 and $1,680 buy a whole private tour or a dinner, with 9 and 17 reviews. Book them for the palace or the meal, not for the gondola alone.
Want to see what the shared rides and the walks with a gondola cost, next to these?
Every gondola price→Common questions
$178 for the cheapest listing here, shown at 30 minutes to 2 hours, and $223 for a fixed half hour. The one-hour champagne ride is $246. The six listings on this page run up to $1,680 for the gondola ride with a gala dinner.
Not from these listings: no description here offers a Venice private gondola ride with serenade, and none mentions a singer. The live singing on this site is the travelling opera in a building on the Grand Canal, $106, with 4,518 reviews at 4.7, and it is not on a gondola.
Not under that name: none of the six descriptions mentions sunset. The private sunset outing on this site is a boat among what its listing calls the forgotten islands, at $358, rated 5.0 on 7 reviews.
The closest listing is the one-hour ride at $246, which comes with what it calls Italian Champagne. No gondola listing here names Prosecco; on this site it appears on the sunset catamaran cruise at $90, a glass of spritz or Prosecco with cicchetti.
A fixed 30 minutes on the $223 ride, one hour on the $246 ride, and 30 minutes to 2 hours on the $178 listing. With a private walk first it is 2.5 hours, 30 minutes of them on the gondola.
The $178 hidden-canals ride, with 1,183 reviews at 4.3: the most reviewed private gondola ride Venice listing on this site. The other five have 4 to 34 reviews each, so their ratings of 4.5 to 4.8 rest on far fewer people.
Go deeper
Venice: Grand Canal Gondola Ride with App Commentary
★ 4.2 · 26,711 reviews · 30 minutes - 2 hours
