Prices for private tours in Venice

How the price is worked out

Per tour, not per person

One guest or three, the price is the same. That is the substantive difference from a group tour, where everyone pays a head.

One to three guests

At the price shown.

Four guests and above

Quoted on request. What changes is not only the figure but the itinerary: a larger party moves at a different pace and needs different logistics.

Currency and payment

Prices are in euros. Payment terms are agreed at booking; a deposit is not always required.

What every price covers

• A licensed private guide
• An itinerary built around your pace and your interests
• Reservation of admission and priority entry where the itinerary provides for it
• Correspondence before and during the visit, including help planning the rest of your days

What is paid separately

Admission

To museums and sites. The price is set by the museum and changes; I confirm the current figure at booking. It is charged per guest.

Transport

Where a boat is not stated in the description. On the water itineraries it is already included.

Food and drink

Except where a drink forms part of the itinerary — the bottle of prosecco on the night boat, for instance.

Purchases

In workshops and manufactories. Buying is entirely optional and nothing is marked up for introducing you.

What the final figure depends on

Length

An hour on the water and eight hours end to end are different formats, not one service at different lengths.

Transport in the price

A private launch with a boatman is the largest item after the guide. That is precisely why the walking itineraries cost less.

Type of access

Ordinary admission, priority entry, and opening a closed building outside its hours are three different orders of magnitude.

The date

During Carnival, the Biennale and the film festival demand is higher and some venues keep altered hours.

The size of the party

From four guests the itinerary is rebuilt, and the quote becomes individual.

Why some itineraries are quoted on request

Three entries in the table carry no fixed price, and that is not an evasion. In each, the cost is made up of things that are not constant in advance: the official fee for opening a basilica outside its hours, an arrangement with the owners of a palazzo, the composition of a particular brief.

An indication for any of them comes in my first reply, before anything is committed.

Why this costs more than a group tour

A group walking tour of Venice runs at something like thirty euros a head. The gap looks unfair right up until the first tour.

In a group the route is pitched at the average interest of twenty strangers: you move at the pace of the slowest, listen to other people’s questions and look at the backs of heads. Privately the city is yours, and the route is built around what actually holds you.

There is also the plain arithmetic. One ruined lunch in a tourist trap costs a hundred and fifty euros, and two hours lost in the queue at San Marco cannot be recovered by anything.

Questions about cost