Getting Around Venice

Venice is a crowded, ancient city built in a lagoon on top of hundreds of individual islands. It is this very nature that makes Venice one of the most charming places on the planet and probably why you want to go there in the first place. However this unique history also causes it to be a difficult city to navigate. This guide will help you to avoid frustration as you visit this incredibly amazing location.

Embrace Getting Lost:

While there are a few "must sees" in Venice, like the Grand Canal and St. Mark's Basilica, the real attraction is Venice itself. This place is amazing, I can't even tell you how much I loved just looking at it. So if you are lost, don't sweat it, you are seeing what you came here to see and sooner or later your going to stumble upon a major area with lots of people and be able to find your way again.

Getting lost is easy in Venice because it has two types of streets: canals which will only help you if you are a boat, and alleys that cross the canals via hundreds of bridges. Because you are not a boat you will mostly get around Venice on foot, and you will love it. A few tips though are to carry as little as possible, because you will be going up and down a lot of bridges, and be aware that the main alleys can get extremely crowded during busy times, so watch for pick pockets. 

Watch for Yellow Signs:

As you walk around Venice you will go down many different alleys and through an enormous number of squares. You will likely have some famous place you are trying to get to, such as San Marco Square. The key to getting there is to watch when you come to crossroads or through a square for the yellow signs posted on the walls above alleys. These will have arrows directing you down certain alleys to certain places. They key is to keep looking for these signs. For example if you follow a sign pointing to the Rialto Bridge down one alley, the next time you come to a square you need to look for the next sign pointing to the Rialto Bridge. Following this pattern will eventually get you to the place you are looking for.

Use Vaporetti (Water buses):

Like most major cities in the world, Venice has a public transit system. Unlike most major cities this system is made out of vaporetti, or water buses. These are public ferries that cruise around Venice, mainly on the Grand Canal, and to the outlying islands like Lido, Murrano, and Burrano.

There are a couple things to consider before taking a vaporetto. The first is whether you can figure out how to get there on a vaporetto. The lines are confusing, especially when you first arrive and don't know much about the city. Maps can be found posted at each vaporetto stop or can be purchased from the info station near the railway station for €3. Its a rather steep price for a rather bad map, Venice is one big tourist trap, so be prepared for it.

The second thing to know is that if you take the number 1 or the number 2 bus which are the main lines down the Grand Canal you likely could have walked to your destination faster. The benefit of taking the water bus is that you don't have to walk. The drawback is that travel on the Grand Canal is not fast, especially when making a lot of stops. On the plus side if you can get a spot standing on the deck you can see Venice in a completely different way than you do by walking.

The third thing to know is to make sure you get the right stop. There will normally be several stops right next to each other each one only receiving one or two of the routes, normally only in one direction. These stops will all have the same name (i.e. Ferrovia) but will be labeled with different letters (i.e. Ferrovia A, Ferrovia B, etc).

The fourth thing to know is that it is expensive to take the water buses. A ticket will cost you €7,50 and unless you are making a transfer right away you can assume that is a one way price. In the next section I will talk about getting a pass if you are going to ride the buses quite a bit.

One important note is that if you want to visit any of the outlying islands you will need to take a vaporetto or a private water taxi. Since we highly recommend you visit the islands of Murrano and Burrano this will entail at least one vaporetto trip.

Unica/Rolling Venice Pass:

The best way to use the vaporetti system, if you plan to ride it more than a couple times, is to get a pass. Unfortunately this is fairly confusing process online, so I suggest you just wait until you get there which is what we did. If you arrive by train into the railway station, or by bus into Pizza Roma you will be close to the information booth just outside the train station. This is where you can buy passes. You might also be able to buy passes at the airport, but I am not sure about that.

When you buy a pass you can choose how many days you want it for. If you are over 29 years old be sure to plan your trip so that you only get the number of days you need. If possible try to group all your water bus trips on to a single day to save money. If you are under 29 years old you qualify to get a special youth pass with the purchase of an add on called Rolling Venice. This special youth pass will be good for 3 days and will cost you only €22. The Rolling Venice costs €6 itself but this is by far the best deal. I know that is confusing, for some reason they can't seem to make it easy.

Note that online it will say that this "youth pass" won't get you to the airport, that is only true for airport direct shuttles. The pass will work fine on the public bus (#5) that runs to the airport.

The passes are made out of somewhat heavy paper which have a proximity chip inside them for tapping on to the water busses. Be sure the keep them in a safe place, preferably a theft resistant bag, and keep them dry.

Gondolas:

Gondolas are very cool to watch on the canals, they also happen to be very expensive. If you ride in a gondola it is not to get from one place to another but rather to experience the gondola ride. We did not do one because of how expensive it is, but if you are wondering it is €80 during the day and €100 during the evening. You can take up to 6 people with you, so if your group is large enough you can lower the price per person quite a bit.

Getting To and From the Airport:

The Marco Polo airport is one of the most likely places you will arrive in Venice. Except that it is not actually in Venice since it is on the mainland. That means that when you arrive you will need to get from the airport to Venice. This was one of the most stressful parts of the trip because we didn't know how we would get there even though I had looked it up online and was planning to take the #5 bus. It turns out that there are actually quite a few ways to get to the city from the airport, so it isn't something to stress over. 

The #5 bus worked just fine, although we missed one right when we arrived because of a delay our plane had leaving Paris. The #5 is a public bus and what Google Maps will likely recommend to anyone looking for a public transportation option. Since it is a public bus it makes quite a few stops on the way to the island and also can get quite crowded. There are several other buses that are just for getting to and from the airport so you could also buy tickets for one of them. You can of course also take a private taxi if you want, either land or water.

If you take a land vehicle to the island you will cross a huge bridge and get off at Piazza Roma. From there you can cross the large glass bridge to the area by around the train station and the vaporreti stops. 

A 3 Day Travel Guide to Paris

We spent a solid 3 days in Paris and felt like we saw everything we wanted to see. I'm sure if we stayed longer, we would have found some amazing hidden gems. But in 3 days we were able to hit lots of major landmarks.

After our experience, we found that there were a few things we could have done better. So while this travel guide is not exactly how we saw everything, we did see everything in this guide and want to share from our experiences.

Before we start, here are a few suggestions of things to do before you start your trip.

• Hotel: Make sure to get a hotel near a metro stop. We suggest going through Hotels.com. When you are looking at hotels, make sure to check the comments from previous guests. They are usually good about saying if the hotel is close to a metro stop or not. We stayed at this hotel and it was SO CLOSE to a metro stop, but it was also a teeny, tiny room which we were not expecting. 
• Paris Museum Pass: You can't go to Paris and not get a museum pass. It saves you so much money! And it lets you into so many different sites around Paris. Some of the sites even let you skip the waiting line if you have the Museum Pass. We bought our passes just at the airport near baggage claim, but you can also buy them online and have them mailed to you before you go or you can pick them up in Paris when you get there. 
• Metro Passes: Check out our post here to get all of the details on what and how to get the passes. 
• Apps: Make sure to download these four apps before you get to Paris. 

Day 1:

Because you're in Paris, probably the first thing you will want to see is the Eiffel Tower. This is one of the attractions in Paris that opens at 9:00 am during peak season (mid-June through early September). You can check out our post here for specific details. Plan on spending 2-3 hours at this site, especially if you are planning on walking up the stairs! 

**For another cool Eiffel Tower experience, try going 30-60 minutes before sunset so you can watch the sun setting and see the tower lit up. While we did not do this on our trip, this was something I saw recommended after we were already home**

While at the Eiffel Tower, you may want to stop and eat at one of their restaurants or cafes. We found that the cafe had delicious food and wasn't too terribly priced. 

After viewing the Eiffel Tower, make sure to take some time back on the ground to take some pictures of the whole tower. When we were there, the grassy area in front of the tower was closed. So we just went across the Seine and were still able to get amazing pictures. 

From the Eiffel Tower, we suggest heading to the Arc de Triomphe. Check out our post here to find out details about the tricky way to go to get to the Arc. While at the Arc, we definitely suggest climbing up to the top if you can! After the Eiffel Tower, it might be a lot for people in poor health or for young children. Our legs definitely hurt after our first day but the stairs were worth it!

For an easy end to the day, we suggest going to Napoleon's Tomb and the Army Museum. While we didn't actually go inside the museum (because it was closed when we got there), from what we hear it is a good place to visit. Check out our post here about Napoleon's Tomb.

At this point we suggest finding a place to grab dinner. Our favorite places were little crepe stands and shops.

After dinner we headed back to our hotel to unwind and relax for the evening because we were so tired from touring all day! If you're up for it, head back to the Eiffel Tower to see it at night all lit up. The Arc de Triomphe at night is also an amazing sight.

Day 2:

The second day we suggest going to the old city center. By getting off at the Cite metro stop, you are within walking distance of 3 amazing sights in Paris. 

First, head over to Sainte Chapelle. This was my favorite place we saw in all of Paris. Plan on spending at least an hour there. Ben wanted to stay longer and I now wish that we would have. 

After Sainte Chapelle, go over to Notre Dame and wait in line to climb the towers. Check out Ben's post here about the towers. This was my second favorite thing we did in Paris. 

After the towers, grab some lunch at a crepe stand across the street from Notre Dame and start to listen to the Rick Steves Audio Europe App. Go to the track called Historic Paris. As you eat your crepes and start listening to Rick, you can stand in line to enter the cathedral. Even if the line looks long, it moves pretty fast. Check out Ben's post here about seeing the inside of Notre Dame. 

When you come out of the church, if you have time and want to cool down a bit, head on over to the Archeological Crypts at the opposite end of the plaza. 

After the Crypts, continue listening to Rick and take the Historic Paris walking tour. Sadly we did not have time to do this tour and I really wish that we had.  

If you aren't into seeing the Crypts, or you don't want to do the walking tour, you could go to the Louvre and Orsay Museums. But, we wouldn't suggest them, except maybe going to the outside of the Louvre Museum in order to see the glass pyramids. Check out my post about the Louvre here and why you probably don't need to see it.

Day 3:

This last day, we suggest spending in Versailles. It is such a beautiful place and you can literally spend all day there. Make sure to take into account transit time getter there. Since it is outside of the main city center area of Paris, it does take a little bit of extra time getting there but it is so worth it. See my detailed post about Versailles here. 

And there you have it! 3 days in Paris! We loved our time in Paris and are so grateful that we got to experience one of the most popular cities in the world. It is so popular for a good reason. There are so many things to see and do, but don't over schedule yourself. Take your time and really enjoy the place you are in. Look for the beauty and the details and take lots of pictures! But also spend time in the moment. I think we had a good balance of enjoying our time in the moment and enjoying our time through camera lenses. Plan and prepare, but don't freak out when plans don't go your way. 

We hope you have enjoyed this travel guide! Make sure to Pin if for later!

Guide to Riding the Paris Metro

My first introduction to Paris was in the back of a shuttle van from the Orly airport to our hotel. And what I saw made me absolutely certain that I never wanted to drive a car in Paris. Fortunately for the average tourist there is no reason to drive through the city of the Paris; the public transportation system is excellent and will serve to get you wherever you are going.

While the metro system can get you anywhere in the city that also means it is quite large and can be confusing to new visitors, particularly if like me you don't know French. There are subways, rail lines, and busses, all with different colors and numbers making confusing transfers and crossing 5 zones.

There are two keys to successfully riding the Paris metro as a tourist, the first is to get the right tickets for your trip and the second is to use the metro app if you have a smartphone. Note that you can use the app even if you do not have a cellular connection while you are in France.

Tickets:

The first thing to do is make sure that you get the right tickets for what you will be doing in Paris. In order to do this you will need to know how long you are staying for and what sites you are going to visit. The best option for most tourists will be the Paris Visite pass. These passes come in options of 1, 2, 3, or 5 days for either Zones 1-3 or Zones 1-5. The pass will give you unlimited rides on the entire metro system for the designated number of days and zones you choose.

For example, when we were there we knew we would be touring for 3 days and that we would want to see the sites in the main area of the city and get back and fourth to our hotel, this would involve travel in Zones 1-3, but we also know that we wanted to go visit Versailles on one of the days which meant we would need to travel to zone 5. So we got the Paris Visite 3 day pass for zones 1-5.

Purchasing Tickets:

There is supposed to be a way to purchase tickets online but I am not sure where you pick them up if you do that. Most people purchase tickets from a tickets machine in the metro stations. Be aware when using the machines that if you don't speak French you will need to use a machine that lets you choose the language. These will normally be marked with a British flag on them. Once you have a machine you can understand getting the tickets is a fairly simple process of following the on screen directions.

Warning: the ticket machine we used would not take our Visa cards, we don't know why but we had to use cash Euros to finally get our passes. So even if you plan to use a card to purchase them make sure you have enough cash on hand to purchase them if needed. At least at our station the people at the window could not sell tickets so the machine was the only way.

When you do get your tickets you will find that they are very small, just about half an inch wide. We were really worried that we would lose them, but fortunately we didn't. You only need them when entering a metro station or getting on a bus, not when exiting or getting off. Keep them someplace safe when you are not using them.

The App:

You could try the figure out your own route through the city using just the Paris Metro maps in every station and at every stop, but that would be a huge hassle when you can just use the free NextStopParis app provided by the RATP which is the transit authority. The app is not perfect, but as far as transit apps go it is pretty well put together.

Make sure that you download the app before you get to Paris. This is especially true if you are not going to have cell service while you are in Paris, but is good practice even if you are. Once you have the app downloaded on your phone make sure you open it so that it can download the offline maps for you.

In the app you will most often use the option at the top of the main screen to get direction to a specific location. All of the main tourist attractions are in the app, if you need to get somewhere else such as a restaurant or hotel it is easiest to just find out which metro stop is nearest to it and navigate to that.

If you are planning your days and you want to know how to get from one spot to another, or if your GPS is not working, you can hit the plus sign below the destination bar to get the full options.

Other Things to Know:

• The Paris metro, like all metros, gets very crowded when people are going or coming from work, or if there is a major sporting event. If you don't like to stand close to people try to avoid riding the metro at these times.
• Also like most metros the Paris trains are home to pick pockets so stay aware of your surroundings and secure your belongings while riding.
• In metro stations where several lines meet you should follow the numbered colored circles for the train you are transferring to, these will be on signs above your head. In some stations there will also be footprints on the ground in the color of the different trains.
• Be aware that a down arrow means straight in France, this took me a lot of getting use to.
• Always make sure you know where the line you are looking for terminates in the direction you are going because you will need that information to know which side of the tracks you should be on.