Holidays to Venice
For canals, cathedrals, cicchetti and Campari, a Venice holiday beckons! Home to 100-plus islands and 400-plus bridges, the Floating City will send your wow-ometer rocketing off the charts.
City breaks
Easy to get to from the UK (it’s just over two hours by plane from London), Venice is a top choice for the kind of city break you’ll be banging on about even after the cows have come home.
Colourful houses? Check. Bridge of Sighs? Check. Bee-yoo-tee-full architecture? Check. Charming cafes, tasty eateries, classy bars? Check. Culture, history, entertainment? Check. Look, if you can forget about the tourists, Venice absolutely nails the short break, last-minute break, cheeky break and romantic city break brief.
Current affairs
Loved-up, cheesy romantic? Yeah, Venice was made for you. Swanning around this fairytale city is kind of like being in your own romcom – minus all the drama and Hugh Grant, of course.
So take a gondola cruise along the Grand Canal, enjoy long lunches and gelato overlooking the lagoon, stroll hand-in-hand along car-free streets after dark and … well, the list goes on. This is, after all, the City of Love.
Art smarts
It’s no surprise that Venice has a healthy smattering of art galleries and museums. The Gallerie dell'Accademia is perfect for big names like Carpaccio to Bellini (the artists, not the dish or drink!) To indulge in Carpaccio and Bellini, however, you can pop over to Harry’s Bar where they were both invented!
The Peggy Guggenheim Museum isn’t to be missed either, both for its massive collection of art (think Picasso, Dalí, Miró), and the canal-side palace it’s all housed in.
History at every turn
One minute you’ll be admiring the iconic Basilica di San Marco, the next you’ll be gawping at the 18th-century opera house Teatro La Fenice and the one after that you’ll be gazing at the canal-facing Palazzo Malipiero … nobody does historic eye-candy quite like Venice!
And don’t forget the islands. Check out beautiful mosaics (the oldest in Venice) in the Basilica di Santa Maria Assunta in Torcello and, over on Murano, learn about Venetian glass making which started in the 13th century.
Sneak Peek
Best for... Romantic weekend breaks and culture overload 🎭
Go... Between November and March for the calmest vibes 😌
You have to... Fork out for a gondola ride – it’s worth it 🌹
Venice holiday deals
Al Graspo de Ua
3.9
Good
- 10 Jan 2026
- 7 nights
- Bed & breakfast
- From Stansted
Prices from
NH Venezia Santa Lucia
- 10 Jan 2026
- 7 nights
- Room only
- From Stansted
Prices from
Do Pozzi
4.1
Very Good
- 10 Jan 2026
- 7 nights
- Bed & breakfast
- From Stansted
Prices from
Hotel Locanda Vivaldi
- 10 Jan 2026
- 7 nights
- Room only
- From Stansted
Prices from
Details
Currency
Euro
Language
Venetian and Italian
Time difference
GMT +1
Cost of a beer
€ 4.75
3-course meal
€ 32
Flight time
London: 2 hrs
Grand designs
You might need to battle some crowds, but it’s worth it to lay eyes on famous sights such as the Bridge of Sighs and the Doge’s Palace. On the quieter side, in Cannaregio, there’s a memorial for Jewish people sent to Nazi concentration camps – walking tours are recommended.
One of the fab things about Venice is that many of the finest artworks are just hanging out in churches – what a twofer! Crane your neck to admire the ceiling frescoes by Giovanni Battista Tiepolo at the Gesuati church or the works of Cima and Lotto at Santa Maria dei Carmini.
No snack-cidents
Fried sardines on crusty bread, pork meatballs, calamari or deep-fried mozzarella, Venice’s very own bar snacks (known as cicchetti) are simply mouthwatering. Any of Venice’s bacari (little bars) will serve these with your drink of choice. Time your cicchetti crawl between 6pm and 8pm, as after that many of them close up for the night.
For breakfast, grab a fresh pastry with a cappuccino at your nearby Pasticceria. And only in the morning – the Italian coffee police will not be impressed with a 2pm order.
Feeling crafty
For classic Venetian souvenirs, it’s all about craft goods like leather, Burano lace and glassware (with a reel of bubble wrap for the flight home!).
For the latter, head to Murano and hit up the island’s stores for colourful glasses or beads. On a slightly less practical note, carnival masks are another Venetian speciality. Visit a workshop in San Polo or Dorsoduro to see how they’re made.
When to go to Venice
Venice gets very busy especially between April and October (yeah, a fair chunk of the year), when the city swells with day-trippers and summer tourists. If this is when you want your Venice holiday to be, our advice is to hit the streets nice and early, siesta in the afternoon and head out again when it’s a little quieter in the early evening.
If you want to swerve the crowds, you could go in low season – November or early December, January, February (outside of carnival weeks, mind) or March. It’s the best time for relatively cheap Venice holidays, but it’s also when the city is most prone to flooding.
