Venice Guidebook

In Rick Steves Venice you'll find in-depth Rick-tested information on:​

• Practicalities
  • Easy-to-follow maps (including color maps of Italy, the St. Mark's Square area, the Rialto Area, and a Venetian overview)
  • ​Trip planning: When to go, pre-trip checklist, festivals and holidays, recommended books and movies
  • Getting around Venice on foot and by vaporetto, traghetto, and water taxi
  • Advice on planning your time and avoiding lines
  • Detailed advice on managing money, communicating, reserving rooms, handling emergencies, and other helpful hints
• Recommended sights and activities
• Recommended hotels and restaurants
• Self-guided walks and rides
  • Grand Canal cruise
  • St. Mark's to Rialto
  • Rialto to Frari Church
  • St. Mark's to San Zaccaria
• Self-guided tours
  • St. Mark's Square
  • St. Mark's Basilica
  • Doge's Palace
  • Correr Museum
  • Accademia
  • Frari Church
  • Scuola San Rocco
  • Ca' Rezzonico
  • Peggy Guggenheim Collection
  • La Salute Church
  • San Giorgio Maggiore
  • Venice's Lagoon: Murano, Burano, and Torcello
• Near Venice
  • Padua
  • Vicenza
  • Verona
  • Ravenna
• And more
  • Venetian history, culture, and cuisine
  • Venice with children
  • Venice's shopping and entertainment
  • Handy Italian survival phrases

Also included: a 10¾" x 19½" full-color foldout Planning Map with a big overview of the city (with major sights), plus detailed close-ups of the heart of the Rialto/St. Mark's area and the main islands in the lagoon, floor maps of St. Mark's Basilica and the Accademia museum, and overviews showing Venice's neighborhoods, lagoon, transit options for arrival, and day-trip destinations.

Should I get this Venice book in addition to either Rick's complete Italy guidebook or his Best of Italy guidebook?

Probably not. If you're only spending a few days in Venice, as part of a longer trip in Italy, the Venice chapter of either Italy guidebook is all you're likely to need.

If, however, you're spending four days or more in Venice, the extra information in Rick Steves Venice can be worthwhile. It offers more in-depth sightseeing information, several additional self-guided city walks and museum/sight tours, and more specifics on shopping and nightlife, plus suggestions for kids. Other information is generally the same, especially compared to the complete Rick Steves Italy guidebook, which includes nearly all the hotels, restaurants, and nitty-gritty practical advice for Venice and its day trips that you'll find in the city book. (But compared to Rick Steves Best of Italy, the Venice guidebook does have a few more hotel and restaurant listings, as well as more comprehensive coverage of day-trip options.)

What's the difference between this Venice guidebook and Rick's Pocket Venice guide?

Rick Steves Pocket Venice works best for people taking a short trip, or perhaps a return trip, to Venice. Like our other Pocket guides, Pocket Venice is smaller than the complete guidebook and in full color (but still offers our best sightseeing advice and a handful of self-guided city walks and museum tours).

For travelers who want to delve deep into Venice, the full-size guidebook is a better option. It offers more substantial (and more frequently updated) advice on every front: practicalities, sightseeing, self-guided tours, hotels, restaurants, nightlife, shopping, kids' activities, and the city's history and culture, plus chapters on the best day trips.

Latest updates: When we learn of critical changes to the information in our guidebooks on Italy, we post them. (Of course, it's still smart to reconfirm critical transportation and sightseeing details locally.) Armed with a Rick Steves guidebook and these late-breaking updates, you're set for a great trip!

Submit feedback: Once you've used this book in Europe, we'd love to hear your feedback — good or bad — about our advice on sights, hotels, restaurants, and travel tips. We're also interested in any tips or discoveries you made while in Europe. Your comments help us improve our guidebooks for future travelers.