Travel Planning A Week In Venice With Teenagers

A long time ago, pre-family, I visited Venice on an interrailing trip, staying in the Youth Hostel, eating pizza squares for lunch, and trying to see Venice ‘on the cheap’. This beautiful city was somewhere I hoped to return to with my other half and the kids, but we didn’t make it until the kids had nearly left home. However, as it turns out, Venice with teenagers was great fun, so better late than never I say!

Why go to Venice with teenagers?

Venice’s layout and its relationship with the water makes it very special place – a city without cars, where you end up hopping around on boats, eating gelatos to cool down, and all with an Instagram-friendly sight around every corner, make it a great destination with teenagers, or young adults. Throw in a fascinating history, great art, and ‘aperitivo time’ and there is plenty for the adults to enjoy as well.

I have only visited Venice with teenagers, and not had the experience of visiting with young children and so will not be writing about that here, but there were plenty of families with young children staying in our hotel. My assumption is that their itineraries would have been significantly different to ours – less walking, fewer churches, more breaks, and different activities or tours.

What to see on a trip to Venice with teenagers – too many options!

My modus operandi is always to get variety into my holiday itineraries, so that we get a good overview of a place and have seen ‘a bit of everything’ if we don’t have much time. When planning our trip to Venice with teenagers, I therefore tried to include at least one of the following ideas:

1. Get out on the water

Book a Gondola ride

To be honest, we probably wouldn’t have booked a gondola ride if we were travelling without the kids. Gondola rides are pricey and a bit corny, however, despite this, the experience of meandering through the canals with iconic views along the way was very special.

We booked our Gondola Ride via Get Your Guide (about 40 Euros per head) and were on the water for 30 minutes. The embarkment point for the gondola ride had a bit of a gondola traffic jam as people got in and out, but then, quite quickly our gondolier took us to quiet waterways with no sound except the the splash of the oar, and wonderful vantage points of the stunning buildings from the water.

The experience was enjoyed by all, even if our gondolier did spend most of the journey on his mobile phone which slightly ruined the allure (see above photo)!

Take the public vaporetto (water bus)

The vaporetto (water bus) became an invaluable way to get around the city, visit some of the Lagoon islands, or to help at times when our feet were tired. I didn’t predict that we would use the vaporetti as much as we did. Vaporetto Line 2 was particularly useful as it criss-crossed the Grand Canal and we never seemed to be far from a vaporetto station.

The vaporetti (water buses) are well used by locals and tourists alike, so be prepared for some queues at key times of the day. Sometimes it’s the simple things that the kids enjoy, and jumping on and off the vaporetto was a hit.

2. Visit the Art Biennale or see Renaissance art in Venice

Visit the Art Biennale

If you are visiting in a Biennale year (the 60th Art Biennale happened in 2024), then make sure you experience this ‘Art Olympics’ where countries are invited to submit art installations relating to a particular theme. In our case the theme was Foreigners Everywhere.

There are two main sites for the Art Biennale exhibitions – at the Giardini and the Arsenale, both in the Castello neighbourhood. However, there are many other art spaces throughout the city which join in with the Art Biennale celebrations. The Biennale ticket will allow you access to both the Giardini and the Arsenale.

We wandered around the Giardini park exhibits, splitting up so that we could go at our own speed, meeting back at the entrance at an agreed time – we then enjoyed an Aperitif at a nearby bar and swapped stories about what we had seen and how the countries had interpreted the theme so differently. I think that even if your kids are not particularly arty, they would still enjoy seeing the exhibits at the Art Biennale which can be quite wacky.

Visit one of the main art galleries

Venice has several top-quality art museums, including the Accademia (mainly Renaissance Art and classics) and the Peggy Guggenheim Museum (modern art) in the Dorsoduro, which are very popular. As we had spent a chunk of time at the Art Biennale however, we decided not to include any other art museums on this trip…next time…

See Renaissance masterpieces in the churches

The churches in Venice are full of paintings by famous Venetian Renaissance painters so you are never far from being able to view a Tintoretto or a Titian painting up close, and without the crowds of a museum. Although I prefer modern art, I could appreciate the beauty of the Renaissance art we saw, but to be honest, the teens would have been happy just to see one of these!

Get up high for a view of Venice and the canals

Ascend St Mark’s Campanile

Perhaps the most obvious viewpoint to visit in Venice is to ascend St Mark’s Bell Tower (Campanile). I booked Skip-the-line tickets on-line for the Campanile before travelling to Venice which were welcome because the queues seemed to be permanently long for the Campanile. I think this is because you ascend this narrow tower by lift, which can only hold a small number of people, thus causing a bit of a bottleneck to get up to the top. The tickets cost 16 Euros each (no discounts for teens).

Tip – visit at dusk to see Venice spread out below you as the lights come on which was quite magical. There was a good view over the top of St Mark’s Basilica from the Campanile.

Scala Contarini del Bovolo

This is a more unusual tower to ascend – a spiral staircase on the outside of Palazzo Contarini del Bovolo (‘bovolo’ being a Venetian word for snail and refers to the spiral shape of the staircase).

The Scala Contarini del Bovolo has around 80 steps and is 28 meters hight. It provides some lovely authentic Italian views across the houses and roofs of the neighbourhood, complete with washing hanging outside and potted plants on balconies, across to St Mark’s Basilica and the Campanile in the distance.

The palace and tower are found in the San Marco neighbourhood, exactly halfway between St Mark’s Square and the Rialto bridge. We booked tickets on-line before we travelled, which cost 8 Euros for an adult ticket at the time of booking. The ticket gives access to a small exhibition space on one of the floors attached to the staircase

T Fondaco dei Tedeschi

Apparently one of the best views of the Grand Canal is from the rooftop terrace of a luxury shopping centre in San Marco, the T Fondaco dei Tedeschi. The terrace is free to visit, however, because it is so popular, then they have introduced a booking system to manage the flow of visitors. You therefore need to book a slot in advance to be able to go up to the terrace. Sadly, I left it too late, and all the timeslots were taken up to 10 days before we travelled. So book as early as you can so as not to miss out.

4. Book an activity to do together

Venetian mask making

There are several places in Venice offering mask making workshops. We booked a Venetian Mask Making Workshop through Get Your Guide at Carta Alta on the island of Guidecca. We chose this one partly so that we could also get out to the island of Guidecca and have a look around, as well as decorating Venetian masks.

We met our host at the rendezvous location, outside an old brewery converted to artist workshops on Guideccca, with a courtyard in the middle. Our host started by explaining the role of masks in Venetian history and showing us some of the masks his company had made for films such as Spiderman 2, 50 Shades of Grey and TV series Gossip Girl.

We then spent a very enjoyable hour and a half painting our papier mache masks in Baroque styles – first with a strong base colour, secondly with a contrasting metallic colour for highlights, before finishing the mask by adding ribbons. Our host was friendly and helpful throughout the process, and we were very happy with the quality of the masks we made.

Enjoy a ghost walk at night

As it was Halloween whilst we were in Venice with teenagers, it seemed appropriate to book a Ghost Walk one evening, although it doesn’t have to be Halloween to enjoy a ghost walk in Venice as the city has lots of scary stories to share.

Our tour, booked through Get Your Guide, was called Venice: Mysterious Tales of Ghosts and Murders which included a story about Marco Polo and his wife who is believed to have met a very unfortunate end. Taking the tour at night, mainly around the Cannaregio district, had the advantage of exploring the narrow alleys of the city after dark when it was quieter which was welcome.

5. Savour the food and drink

Check out the ciccetti

Venice is famed for its bite-sized snacks called cicchetti which are designed as bar snacks, to be eaten alongside your aperitivo between 5pm and 7pm. There are numerous bacaros (bars serving cicchetti) around Venice and so the snacks are easy to find. We visited Cantione gia Schiavi in the Dorsoduro, and there was already a queue down the street at 5pm.

After a lot of pointing at options on the counter, we secured some very tasty morsels indeed – tuna and celeriac, prawn mayo, salami and jalapenos, gorgonzola and pear ciccetti. Rather ominously, the last thing the owner said to us after we had paid, collected our cicchetti and were heading outside, was Attenzione ai Gabbiani (be careful of the seagulls) – we had been warned!

Aperitivo time

The Venetians invented the Spritz cocktail which comes in several varieties, such as:

- Aperol Spritz – the sweet one which has become very popular in recent years outside of Italy.

- Campari Spritz – a more bitter version, but my favourite.

- Select – apparently for locals and ‘old men’, not dissimilar to a Campari Spritz, and

- Limoncello Spritz – mouthwash with bubbles!

Older teens will be able to help you work out which one is your favourite, alongside some cicchetti. However, beware, as they are strong – you don’t want to end up in the water, which is very dirty and illegal to go in!

Grab a gelato from Nicos

Unsurprisingly, there are gelato options all over the city, but one of the most popular is Nico’s on the Zattere in the Dorsoduro neighbourhood. Head there in time to watch the sunset on the promenade and feel very happy with the world.

We also enjoyed our gelato from Gelatoteca Suso in San Marco sestiere – just another of the many options for good gelatos around the city.

6. See the St Marks icons

Other than the Campanile, there are many other iconic buildings in and around St Mark’s Square to explore, but I cover these in a separate blog – Explore the San Marco sestiere, the beating heart of Venice.

When to visit Venice with teenagers?

When planning to visit Venice with teenagers, I would advise avoiding the Summer months when the crowds are large and the temperatures high. Visiting in Autumn, Winter and Spring is preferable, if you can.

We visited in the UK school October half term holiday when we hoped it would be cooler and less busy than in Summer. The weather was actually unseasonably warm at 20 degrees with clear blue skies every day, which was a pleasant surprise.

It didn’t feel particularly busy until our final day (1st November) which was an Italian bank holiday for All Saints Day, when there was a noticeable jump in the number of visitors arriving for the weekend, including dignitaries arriving with their entourages.

Where to stay when visiting Venice with teenagers?

There are lots of options depending on your budget and accommodation needs. We chose to stay at the JW Marriott Venice because it had good room options for families, and we collect Marriott Bonvoy hotel loyalty points.

The JW Marriott Venice is based on its own island and so feels like a nice retreat away from the bustle of the city. The hotel has a shuttle boat running every half an hour to St Mark’s Square which takes 20 minutes and was very convenient. It was a joy to catch the shuttle boat in the morning after breakfast and watch the beautiful skyline of Venice approaching across the water, although, on the flipside, the return boat shuttle journey was an additional hurdle to manage after a long day of sightseeing, but then not too onerous when the scenery is so impressive.

Final thoughts…

We found it easy to find things to do when travelling to Venice with teenagers. Although we would have been happy just to wander the streets and canals for hours, it helped booking some activities to give the trip some structure which worked well for the kids. They said their favourite day was the trip out to the islands of Murano and Burano which I cover in another blog, but overall Venice was a big hit with all of our kids as older teens.

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Travel Planning A Week In Venice With Teenagers

Why go to Venice with teenagers?