Let's continue our series of articles on the city of Venice. After having told you about the essential places to visit in Venice, accommodation, with our article "Where to sleep in Venice", let's now move on to an essential step of your stay in Venice: the purchase of your city pass.
Buying your city pass for Venice is not easy. Indeed, Venice is one of the cities that offers the most different city passes. City pass to visit the essentials of Venice, city pass for the museums of Venice or even a city pass for transport in Venice.
In this article we will try to see more clearly in order to decide which Venice city pass will suit you best.
Summary:
> Why a city pass to visit Venice?
> What are the different city passes that exist in Venice?
> Summary: How to choose the right Venice city pass?
Why a city pass to visit Venice?
The first question to ask is: why buy a city pass for Venice?
For those who are not familiar with the term city pass, a little explanation. The city pass is a kind of "pass", like a ticket to visit a monument, with the difference that this famous "pass" includes many services.
The city pass can include visits to different places, churches, museums, etc. The city pass can also include city transport such as buses, metro, tram or, in the case of Venice, water taxis.
If you are planning to visit Venice, then you know that there are many things to see and do in the city. During your stay, it's a safe bet that you will have to buy different tickets to visit a particular museum or church. The city pass allows you to combine these tickets into one.
In addition to the practical side, the financial side is also present. The city pass encompassing many visits, the latter is, in the vast majority of cases, cheaper than the purchase of single tickets.
Similarly, for the transport side, a city pass including transport will in most cases save you money, especially if you have to regularly take a water taxi to return to your hotel.
In addition to its center and its San Marco district, some places of interest in Venice require taking a boat, such as the islands of Burano and Murano, real must-sees on a visit to Venice.
Last (big) advantage to opting for a Venice city pass is the possibility of buying it online. It may not seem important to you at the moment but you will find it very convenient not to have to wait in a queue for long minutes to get your bus, boat or entrance ticket. to visit the Doge's Palace.
What are the different city passes that exist in Venice?
We are now going to try to see more clearly the many possibilities that will be offered to you during your stay in Venice.
We will only see here the main city passes for Venice. There are many, each with its own particularity. I have selected the most interesting to my taste in order to simplify the offer as much as possible.
> Chorus Pass: The pass to visit the churches of Venice
> The "Museum of Venice" Pass: the museums of Venice and the Doge's Palace
> The Venice City Pass: Doge's Palace, Museums and Transport ACTV
> The Venice City Pass: Doge's Palace, Museums, ACTV Transport + Alilaguna
The ACTV Pass: transport pass for Venice
Let's start with the ACTV Pass. ACTV is Venice's transport company. It has the city buses in Mestre or Marghera but also the “Water Bus” in Venice. These can take you through the city's canals but also towards the surrounding islands such as Lido and its beach or Burano and Murano.
The ACTV Pass is therefore particularly practical, even essential during a stay in Venice.
There are several formulas for this transport pass.
It is possible to buy passes for 24 hours, 48 hours, 72 hours or even a week.
These passes are on sale at, respectively, 23€, 33€, 43€ or 70€ for the whole week.
You can buy these transport passes for Venice online but be careful, you will have to print the voucher and exchange it in one of the many ACTV offices in the city or at vending machines. No worries on that side, there are many agencies and distributors.
The ACTV – Venice Transport Pass allows you to travel on the ACTV public transport network. See offers
Even if this transport pass is practical, we will see that there are other city passes including the main activities of Venice as well as transport.
Chorus Pass: The pass to visit the churches of Venice
First "visit" pass of our selection, the Chorus Pass. This pass alone is not really interesting in my opinion. This allows you to visit many churches in Venice. A pass dedicated to churches but no museums or palaces included in the pass.
We will see that this Chorus Pass is very often included in other passes, such as the “Museum” pass, which we will detail a little further down.
Thanks to this Chorus Pass you will have the possibility to visit the following churches:
- Church of Santa Maria del Giglio
- Church of Santo Stefano
- Santa Maria dei Miracoli
- Saint John the Almsgiver
– Ca' San Polo
- Basilica of Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari
- San Giacomo dell'Orio
– San Stae
- Sant'Alvise
- San Pietro di Castello
- San Redentore
- Santa Maria di Rosario
- San Sebastian
- San Giobbe
- San Giuseppe di Castello
– San Vidal
- San Giacomo di Rialto
The "Museum of Venice" Pass: the Museums of Venice and the Doge's Palace
Now let's move on to the visits to do in Venice. You will quickly be able to see the large number of things to see and do in Venice. It is even sometimes difficult to find one's way among the many palaces or churches of Venice.
There are two “museum” passes in Venice, the Museum Pass and Museum Pass Plus. These two passes include the Chorus Pass, which we talked about above.
In addition to entry to the Chorus Pass churches, the Museum Pass includes:
- Doge's Palace
– Running Museum
– Archaeological Museum of Venice
- Marciana Library
For the Museum Pass Plus, in addition to the places of the Chorus Pass and the Museum Pass, the following places are added:
- Ca 'Rezzonico
– House of Carlo Goldoni
- Palazzo Mocenigo
- Ca 'Pesaro (modern and oriental art gallery)
– Glass Museum (Murano)
– Lace Museum (Burano)
- Natural History Museum
An ideal pass if you don't want to combine your visits with a Transport pass. The Museum Pass (Plus) does not include transport.
To withdraw your pass purchased online, nothing could be simpler, go to one of the places provided for this purpose (it will be almost compulsory for you to go through one of these places during your visit to Venice):
– Boat pier at Marco Polo airport
- Giardinetti Reali in St. Mark's Square
- Bucintoro Viaggi au Campo San Luca
– Alilaguna counter at the train station
The Museums + Doge's Palace Pass, a pass including entry to many museums as well as the Doge's Palace. See offers
The advantage of these passes is that their validity date is very long. You can use these passes for 180 days after activation.
Please note that a Museum Pass is valid for one person!
The only downside is that this pass does not entitle you to skip-the-line access.
The prices of these passes are €33 for the Museum Pass and €40 for a Museum Pass Plus.
The Venice City Pass: Doge's Palace, Museums and Transport ACTV
Another choice among the innumerable City Passes existing in Venice, a city pass combining the main museums such as the Doge's Palace, the main churches as well as an ACTV Transport pass.
Here is what exactly this pass, the Venice City Pass, includes:
– Entrance to the Doge's Palace
– Entry to the Correr Museum
– Entry to the National Archaeological Museum
– Admission to the Biblioteca Marciana
– Entry to 3 Chorus Pass churches (which we talked about above)
– Entry to the Querini Stampalia Foundation
– Access to the ACTV transport network (Bus and Vaporetto) for the duration of the Pass
This Venice City Pass includes an optional limited-time travel pass. Even if it is possible to use it to enter the places included in the pass for almost 6 months, access to the transport network is, of course, limited.
Three options are available to you regarding the validity period of the transport pass:
- 24 hours at € 59
- 48 hours at € 69
- 72 hours at € 80
Note that these durations correspond to the duration of access to transport and not to the duration during which you will be able to benefit from admission to the various museums, palaces and churches.
Buying this city pass may be a wise choice if you don't need the airport transfer or it is taken separately. A complete pass with many museums, the Doge's Palace and the city's public transport. See offers
Also note that in this “transport” pass, access to the airport (and to the city center from the airport) is not included. The transport included in the pass corresponds to the bus and vaporetto network of Venice or the surrounding islands.
To benefit, in addition, from the transfer to and from the airport, you will have to take the pass which we will talk about right away.
The Venice City Pass: Doge's Palace, Museums, Transport ACTV + Alilaguna
Last Venice city pass of our selection, the most complete, this city pass includes:
– The Chorus Pass giving access to the 16 churches described above
– Access to the Doge's Palace
– Access to the Correr museum
– Access to the archaeological museum
- Access to the Marciana Library
– Access for 24 hours, 48 hours or 72 hours (depending on the option chosen) to the ACTV transport network
– Access to the Alilaguna lines taking you to Venice airport.
This pass, certainly the most expensive, is also the most complete and will allow you to visit Venice in complete freedom without worrying about your entrance tickets, your transport tickets or your airport – city center transfer. See offers
This pass is sold for €78, €88 or €98 depending on the duration chosen (24h, 48h or 72 hours).
Summary: How to choose the right Venice city pass?
Let's now recap your choices in terms of city passes in Venice.
The ACTV Pass:The pass for transport in Venice: Bus and Vaporetto (excluding Alilaguna – airport transfer) See the Pass The Museum Pass:
A pass for the museums of Venice including the Doge's Palace. This pass includes the Chorus Pass (pass allowing access to 16 churches). View Pass Le Venice City Pass :
A pass combining visits to museums, churches and palaces with a transport pass (bus + vaporetto). View Pass Le Venice City Pass + Alilaguna :
A complete pass including visits to the main places of Venice, transport in the city as well as transfer to and from Venice airport. View Pass
To choose your city pass, you will have to ask yourself a few questions.
– The first will be to ask you what you really want to visit. If the goal is only to visit the 2 or 3 main places in Venice such as the Doge's Palace or Saint Mark's Basilica, then you can simply opt for the purchase of skip-the-line tickets. This can be useful if the duration of your stay is short, 1 or 2 days for example. Don't waste your time in the queues and, rather than buying a city pass, buy skip-the-line tickets, certainly more expensive than buying a traditional ticket but much more practical.
– The second question to ask yourself is related to the location of your hotel. If it is located in the center of Venice, especially in the San Marco district, then the transport pass may not be useful. Many places will be within walking distance.
It will therefore be necessary to weigh the pros and cons according to your desires to visit, your time and the location of your accommodation. Regarding this last question, we will quickly publish an article answering the question: Where to sleep in Venice? We will see the best neighborhoods to stay in during a stay in Venice.
I hope this article has been useful to you in choosing your city pass in Venice. Do not hesitate to leave us in comment your opinions and impressions on the city of Venice and on the advantages of opting for one of the passes.
