Gondola Ride - Venice - TravBuddy

A traditional Venetian rowing boat called "Gondola" which serves a major role of transport in most of the canals within the city. To ride a Gondola is not cheap at all.

The gondola ride is so typical of Venice and also so distinct that I would recommend it to everybody even for the relatively extreme price. The moment you slowly exit one of the narrow side canals into the Grand Canal and see the view of the palaces and the Rialto opening up inf ront of you with other gondolas going back and forth is definetly an experience from a time gone long ago. And some gondolieri double up as tour guides (as long as you find one who speaks relatively good english) and exceptionally it is possible to find one who sings adding that final icing on the cake of the overall experience. But to take full advantage of it and not feel that you didnt get enough for your money I believe it is useful to:

1 - Try to look knowledgeable about the city - at least be sure where you are and where you want to get, looking like the most stereotypical tourist wont help get the best value for the money. The sad reality is that some gondolieri may try to take advantage of the poor tourist you are so the best way is just not be one.

2 - Negotiate the route of the trip - the gondolier will propose you someting that might not be the most scenic route so just take out your map and show the exact path you would like to follow. Of course it is also important to...

3 - Take your gondola relatively close to the sights you want to enjoy from the water - you could go across the whole city but that might take a couple of hours and run you into a few hundred euros. It is best to take your gondola close the area you are interested in so you wont spend half the trip going through some nondescript canal with nothing to see beyond brick walls.

4 - Price and value - usually the gondolier will offer you a couple of options (as of March 2006) the prices were around: 60 minutes - 100 euro. Thats where you follow suggestions 2 and 3 and negotiate the route and all the details of the trip. It is also importante to finish the negotiation clearly stating the exact route, the price and the length of the trip so that no doubts arise.

5 - Supply and demand - the final pointer is that it is always useful to remember the basic laws of supply and demand. There may be hordes of tourists everywhere in Venice but you will still see gongolas near almost every bridge or popular street so take advantage of that and get picky about the gondola you like, the gondolier you like and play the cards to your advantage to get the best value for your money. The trip is expensive enough as to be worth the effort to be made as enjoyable as possible.

When the group I was with wanted to go on a gondola ride the first thing that went through my head was "the last thing I want to do is spend a fortune to get rowed around in a little boat through the smelly canals of Venice." I guess I'm not a romantic. But eventually they persuaded me to go, and it ended up being one of my most memorable experiences in 4 months of living in Italy.

The first step was to find a gondola. We had heard it was a good idea to bargain with the different gondoliers and try to play them against each other so as to get the lowest rate. The first guy we asked charged 80€ for four people, which we thought was a rip off. We blew him off and proceeded confidently to the second guy who charged 100€. Feeling that perhaps we had been too hasty, we went back to the first guy to find out that his price had mysteriously raised to 110€. We went back and forth like this for awhile until we came to the realization that all the gondoliers were probably communicating with each other via cell phone and that we were the only ones getting played. We ended up having to pay an exorbitant amount of money and the mood was dismal, to say the least.

Fortunately, the gondola ride itself was amazing! Our gondola was suped-up with a stereo system and the gondolier started playing some cheesy Italian songs that they probably play for all the tourists. Fortunately, we had been forced to learn most of these cheesy Italian songs in our Italian Language classes and we were able to sing along. Once the gondolier noticed that we had some appreciation and understanding of his culture and that we could speak a bit of Italian, his gruff mood instantly became warm and friendly. He sung along with us and we learned that his father had been a gondolier and he himself had been rowing gondolas since he was 13 years old. He even let some of the girls row the gondola once we had gotten out of the main canal.

About halfway through the ride he asked us if we liked "Queen." At first we didn't know what he was talking about, but eventually we figured out he was talking about the British rock band! He said that he had some Queen CD's and that if we'd like he could put some in. We ended up rowing through the darkened, otherwise quiet canals of Venice singing "We are the Champions" and "Bohemian Rhapsody" with our new Italian friend at the top of our lungs. We must have woken up half the city, but man was it fun.