Doge’s Palace tours

Rita was brilliant and so knowledgeable!!! We loved it and would recommend to anyone. Do this tour on your first full day so you can embrace the rest of Venice with more knowledge in your back pocket.

Our guide was very knowledgeable and kind. We really enjoyed the tour. I would definitely recommend the early access tour since it gets super busy after 9. Five Stars!!!

Fantastic guide. She was so knowledgeable and able to move us from one site or room to another without the slightest pause. Engaging and informative. Absolutely stellar.

Very well organised, meeting place easy to find. The best part, though, was our tour guide - Gina. She was engaging, witty, informative, thorough and incredibly knowledgeable. She made the tour unforgettable!

Great tour, guide was very funny and knowledgeable

Eliza was an excellent guide and we really enjoyed the amazing artefacts and history. Thanks

Lot of crowd at the venue made it difficult to identify and location of the venue and reach it.

Our guide was fantastic. Gave us a total understanding of the development of Venice.

Walking across the bridge of signs was the highlight for me.

Excellent tour guide, shows knowledge and experience!!. Service needs more organization for the package requested.

That the tour didn't start at the Doge's Palace but already above St. Mark's Square with a lot of background knowledge. The process from the meeting point and organization to the entrance at the various points. Very understandable and expert explanations.

Phillipo was a terrific guide and we learnt lots from him about Venice and its history. It was great in a smaller group and to be in the palace with not too many other people. Going from the bottom prisons through to all the levels of government was a great way to understand the system

My wife and I, having arrived in Venice by train only ninety minutes earlier, at the height of our excitement already along the water cab ride to the landing on the Riva degli Schiavoni, at fifteen o'clock on May 18, 2025, move from the nearby hotel to the place agreed upon when we purchased tickets online for direct access to the magnificent monument. One of the efficient and courteous young people at the Tour Shop in Campo San Zaccaria escorts to the southern portico of the Doges' Palace the group of those who, like us, had booked the tour and entrusts them to the various experts, depending on the nationalities of those present. Professional and clear, our Italian guide begins by telling us about the symbolic value, for the city, of Mars and Neptune, whose statues stand in the courtyard at the top of the Scala dei Giganti: the two classical deities are expressions of Venice's power both on land and sea. We ascend to the Gothic loggia, then to the first piano nobile-formerly the Doge's residence-along the Golden Staircase, so named for the gleam of the gold-leaf coverings of its stucco decorations. We continue our visit to the second piano nobile and contemplate the sumptuous vaulting of the Sala del Collegio, embellished with paintings by Paolo Veronese, completed in 1578. Between the two figures of Mars and Neptune is painted the winged lion of St. Mark, symbol of the lagoon city. The "Venetian blond" that characterizes the hair of female figures is highlighted, for example in the allegory of Dialectic, shown in the act of weaving a spider web. "Venetian terrazzo" is the mixture of cement and stone fragments that has been used in the city for floors over the centuries; our guide tells us about it as we stand in the enormous Great Council Chamber. Here, on an entire wall we admire Jacopo Tintoretto's Il Paradiso (Paradise), completed in 1592, crowded with characters, painted - the guide explains to us - on a single 24-and-a-half-foot-long canvas, specially made to be woven by the master. The black panel in the frieze of the doges represents the "damnatio memoriæ" of Marino Faliero, who was beheaded in 1355 for having wanted to conspire against the city's patriciate, aiming at the establishment of a tyrannical regime. During the passage in the Bridge of Sighs - in which in the past the condemned from the court to the prisons called the Wells passed - our escort tells us about the escape of Giacomo Casanova in 1756 from the Piombi, cells located higher up, under the roof of the palace. I am convinced that it would have been difficult to receive a warmer and more competent "Welcome to Venice!" than the one Headout reserved for my wife and me upon our arrival in the Serenissima.

False marketing. Paid for and was advertised as "mystery and secrets tour" which included the various places on the secret itinerary on the website and the tour was just a basic tour. Complete rip off

Very well organized. Our guide explained the history of the Doges' palace with passion. It was interesting. I recommend it.

Elena was outstanding!! The best guide we could have. Thank you so much for being fun and helpful. We definitely recommend her to other people.

The welcome at the meeting point was good and friendly. We are very satisfied.

The guide was very interesting and the visit very pleasant. We learned a lot of things really well

Good organization, very competent management

We had a ton of trouble finding the office to meet our guide. Google maps wasn't working well and we just kept going in circles around St Mark's Square. We asked military, regular police, and other shop owners for help but ended up finding the office 30 minutes after our tour departed for the Basilica. Thankfully, we were able to catch up to our party in the Basilica. For whatever reason, when going through the Doge Palace, those of us who were going on the gondola ride, had to leave the group and return on our own later to see the rest of the tour. The timing seemed to be too tight. The guide was great, but the timing was just off for the whole day. When we went on the gondola, the gondolier spent the whole time yelling at the other gondoliers and joking with them. It was like a bad Disneyland ride. We were one gondola after another just making a circle back to the meeting point. I think the only thing that was pointed out to us was where Mozart had stayed.

Really enjoyed the tour and liked our tour Guido Gloria

We had the chance to See many venues and sightseeing. In my opinion the islands need some more time to discover them adequately

The well-organized tour allows you to visit the main attractions of Venice in one day. Very knowledgeable tour guides. Recommended!

Giovana was the loveliest guide you could wish for. Her excitement, despite having likely done hundreds of these tours, was contagious. She paid great attention to detail while also ensuring that every person in the group felt included. The equipment quality was excellent, with clear audio throughout the tour. Giovana provided just the right balance of historical context and insights into current life and events. We loved every moment. Our gondolier was also praiseworthy. Despite being a young man, he was knowledgeable without being overbearing. Although we can’t recall his name, the boat was called ‘Luca,’ and he was stepping in for his father. A delightful experience with a charming young man.

The guide was excellent and everything was great until the end. When we went on our gondola ride we did not go by the bridge of sigh and the gondolier was on his phone the whole time. Not only was it bad enough that he was on the phone, he had it on speaker so we could hear the woman he was talking too. Missing out on the bridge and the phone ruined the entire experience.

The audio downloads are a nice compliment to the tour.