Romantic Getaway Venice
Venice, a timeless and enchanting destination
Treat yourselves and travel more often!
Among Italy’s many cities, a stay in Venice, the city of lovers, yet another one, captivates visitors with its winding canals, romantic bridges and fascinating history.
I have been to Venice twice. The first time was with my boyfriend at the time when I was 18, during an Interrail trip around Europe, which was incredibly romantic, and the second was during the low season in 2018. I can assure you that the magic of this place still works every time.
A romantic weekend in Venice promises an unforgettable experience combining romance, culture and culinary delights. While an affordable weekend in Venice is certainly possible, we would not recommend an all-inclusive weekend in Venice. Follow this guide to create magical memories in the City of Doges.
When is the best time to plan a romantic weekend in Venice?
Let’s forget about the weather for a moment. Venice is an extremely touristy city, and we can only encourage you to disregard the weather when deciding when to visit. Travelling responsibly is also important if we want to preserve this beautiful city for as long as possible.
If you want to avoid the crowds swarming through the narrow streets and along the canals during the summer, because there is nothing romantic about having to elbow your way through the city, you should absolutely avoid July and August. This may seem obvious, but it is worth saying!
The Venice Carnival, a world-famous event, is also an extremely busy period. So unless you are visiting specifically for the Carnival… During school holidays, Venice also fills up with families and children.
Although some attractions may have reduced opening hours during the winter, consider visiting Venice during the low season, outside school holidays, or in October, excluding the school holiday period, and November, when there are generally fewer tourists. This will ensure a more peaceful experience and better conditions for your romantic weekend.
How do you get to Venice?
Venice can be reached by plane, train, bus, car or boat. Its narrow streets quickly fill up whenever cruise ships unload their passengers on certain days.
Choose a flight to Marco Polo Airport, located 12 kilometres from Venice, and then reach the city centre in a fun way by water taxi or vaporetto with Alilaguna. Alternatively, you can take the more conventional option of a bus, which crosses the bridge connecting the mainland to the Venetian islands in 15 to 35 minutes, depending on whether you travel with ATVO or ACTV.
A good option for taking a water taxi directly to your hotel is to book a shared boat online in advance. With a maximum of six passengers per boat, the journey costs around €35, compared with approximately €200 if you book a private boat. If your accommodation is close to a vaporetto stop, this is also an excellent and more affordable option. Otherwise, treat yourselves to a water taxi and embrace the Venetian atmosphere from the moment you leave the airport.
Book your shared water taxi in advance here or here.
For a more economical option, consider flying to Treviso Airport, although it is located farther away from central Venice. Santa Lucia railway station welcomes travellers arriving by train, while those who prefer to drive can park near Piazzale Roma. Compare parking prices carefully, as some car parks charge up to €45 per day. The most economical option is to park for free in the streets of Mestre, on the other side of the long bridge, and then take the bus.
Which cosy and romantic accommodation should you choose in Venice?
For this trip, choose charming accommodation to match Venice’s romantic atmosphere while remaining within your budget.
If you are travelling on a tight budget and are planning an affordable romantic weekend in Venice, consider finding accommodation in the neighbouring city of Mestre, which is often considered a more affordable alternative to staying in Venice itself. Mestre is connected to Venice by the Liberty Bridge and has excellent public transport connections, particularly buses, to central Venice.
If your budget allows, you will find options to suit every taste and budget in the Floating City itself, from elegant hotels and luxury properties along the Grand Canal to charming bed and breakfasts hidden away in narrow streets. Prices can vary enormously depending on the season and visitor numbers.
How do you get around during your romantic weekend in Venice?
Choosing how to get around Venice is particularly important during a romantic weekend because the city is so unique, with its canals and deeply romantic atmosphere.
The options, suitable for a range of budgets, include exploring the Floating City on foot, wandering through its picturesque narrow streets for an intimate and completely free experience. There is more than enough to discover on foot during an entire weekend and even longer. However, this will prevent you from visiting picturesque, charming and peaceful islands during the low season, such as the colourful island of Burano.
Affordable vaporettos, especially with a 24-hour pass, offer magnificent views across Venice. Water taxis are practical and comfortable, while the iconic Venetian gondola is more expensive but provides an unforgettable romantic experience. Choosing one or several ways to travel around Venice will allow you to create unique romantic memories in harmony with the city’s beauty.
What romantic things can you do during a weekend in Venice?
Simply being in Venice is already incredibly romantic, but we have selected a series of specific things to see and do that will enhance this atmosphere throughout your romantic weekend.
Explore a different side of Venice
What could be more intimate than discovering authentic Venice, slightly off the beaten track, during a private guided tour for two?
Casanova, libertinism, courtesans and romantic intrigues will no longer hold any secrets for you.
Discover Venetian cuisine together
Discovering Venetian cuisine as a couple is an exceptional experience combining the city’s legendary charm with authentic flavours. Bacari, small wine bars frequented by locals, offer an immersion in Venetian gastronomy with their delicate cicchetti served alongside local wines. Enjoy a few cicchetti and two Aperol Spritz to get into the Venetian spirit!
Each bacaro has its own personality and serves a tempting variety of cicchetti, such as creamy polenta, marinated sardines and crostini topped with baccalà mantecato. Perfect pairings with a selection of local wines turn the bacari experience into a sensory journey that goes far beyond a simple meal.
For a romantic evening, the Dorsoduro district and the area along the Grand Canal are home to restaurants overlooking the canals. In Dorsoduro, the charming narrow streets and the Rio della Fornace provide a spectacular backdrop at sunset. Along the Grand Canal, restaurant terraces offer an unforgettable culinary experience enhanced by the magic of gondolas gliding silently across the water.
Candlelit dinners provide the perfect opportunity to explore the authentic flavours of Venetian cuisine, from fresh fish and seafood dishes and squid ink pasta to decadent desserts such as tiramisu. Exploring Venice through its food becomes a celebration of flavour and love, combining enchanting Venetian specialities with the city’s unique charm and creating unforgettable culinary memories for every lover of fine food.
Enjoy a wine tasting
Venice’s hidden wine cellars are concealed inside historic buildings, offering an intimate atmosphere steeped in history. These spaces feature ancient architecture, with stone vaults and thick walls that create the perfect environment for ageing wine.
You can taste a selection of local wines from the Veneto and Verona regions, including Prosecco, Valpolicella and Amarone. Wine cellars often offer guided tastings and tours where you can learn more about the history of winemaking in the region.
Boats on the water...
Take the vaporettos
Take a water-taxi ride
Whether you are travelling from the airport or taking a short journey through Venice, water taxis are extremely convenient and can navigate the smaller canals, unlike vaporettos.
Take a gondola ride
Depending on your budget, take a shared Venetian gondola ride, generally with up to five passengers, or treat yourselves to a private gondolier just for the two of you!
Discover Venetian cuisine
Venetian cuisine is influenced by the city’s proximity to the Adriatic Sea and the abundance of local produce. Fish and seafood dishes are particularly popular, including sarde in saor and baccalà mantecato. Risotto, especially risotto al nero di seppia, is another much-loved speciality.
Cicchetti, small bites served in wine bars, are also typical of the city. Polenta is a staple food, often accompanied by meat or seafood sauces.
For dessert, you will find classics such as tiramisu and fritelle.
Plan your evenings in Venice in advance
Planning your romantic evenings in Venice in advance can transform every moment into a magical and unforgettable experience. Here are three suggestions for creating memorable evenings: a dinner cruise along the Grand Canal, a classical concert in a picturesque church and an opera or concert at La Fenice.
Book a dinner cruise
A dinner cruise offers an exceptional culinary journey through the Venetian Lagoon, showcasing exquisite Venetian specialities prepared by talented chefs. Spectacular views of illuminated historic monuments create a romantic backdrop. Treat yourselves to an exceptional moment together.
Book an evening at La Fenice Opera House
End one of your evenings in Venice in style at La Fenice, the city’s legendary theatre. Its historic elegance, with gilded decorations and frescoes, creates the perfect setting for an opera performance or concert. Its exceptional acoustics guarantee a musical experience of the highest quality, adding an emotional and sophisticated dimension to your evening.
Attend a classical concert in an exceptional setting
For an intimate musical experience, classical concerts held in Venice’s churches and richly decorated palaces offer an atmosphere far removed from everyday life. Classical works performed by talented musicians resonate through these remarkable venues and create a special connection between the artists and their audience.
Visit Venice’s museums
Venice is home to a multitude of museums offering a variety of art, history and culture that you can discover together according to your personal interests.
- Gallerie dell’Accademia: This museum houses one of the world’s largest collections of Venetian art, featuring works by Venetian masters including Titian, Veronese and Bellini. Oil paintings depicting pastoral scenes, lagoon landscapes and intimate portraits can create a romantic and enchanting atmosphere.
- Doge’s Palace (Palazzo Ducale): In addition to its magnificent architecture and vast rooms, the Doge’s Palace houses several remarkable works of art, including paintings by Tintoretto and Veronese. Walking hand in hand through the sumptuous rooms and secret passageways of this historic palace can inspire romantic feelings.
3. Peggy Guggenheim Collection: Located in Palazzo Venier dei Leoni on the Grand Canal, this museum houses Peggy Guggenheim’s collection of modern art, featuring works by Picasso, Dalí, Magritte and many others. The museum’s contemporary atmosphere and picturesque location make it a romantic place to appreciate art together.
4. Ca’ Rezzonico Museum: Housed in an 18th-century palace along the Grand Canal, this museum offers a fascinating insight into Venetian life during the Baroque period. Its beautifully restored rooms, period furniture and works of art create an elegant and romantic atmosphere.
5. Museo Correr: Located on St Mark’s Square, this museum offers an in-depth exploration of Venice’s history and culture through a variety of collections, including paintings, sculptures, costumes and historical artefacts. Its richly decorated rooms and views over the square can inspire a romantic atmosphere.
These museums offer not only an opportunity to discover Venice’s art and history, but also the chance to create romantic and memorable moments while exploring these iconic places together.
Discover Venice’s natural spaces
Venice, famous for its canals and architecture, also conceals peaceful green escapes amid the urban bustle. You may be surprised to learn that Venice has no fewer than 500 gardens… Historic and public gardens, gardens that open only on special occasions, gardens inside cloisters, convents and foundations, as well as private and hidden gardens… These are all romantic places to discover at a leisurely pace during your romantic weekend in the Floating City.
Giardini Park, located in the Castello district, offers a peaceful escape with its shaded paths, flowerbeds and themed gardens. Best known for hosting the Venice Biennale, these gardens add a cultural dimension to your getaway.
Combine two experiences in one by visiting the gardens of Palazzetto Bru Zane, which date back to 1695, while discovering the centre for French Romantic music, yes, in Venice, which organises concerts, operas and recitals inside the palace itself or at other suitable venues. A lovely little garden filled with cherubs, white roses and hydrangeas awaits you. If you are in Venice on a Thursday afternoon, you can enjoy a free guided tour of this historic and romantic palace.
For a walk overlooking the water, Riva degli Schiavoni, near St Mark’s Square, offers a promenade along the waterfront. This walk allows you to admire magnificent views over the lagoon, combining Venice’s classical architecture with the serenity of the Adriatic Sea. With numerous benches where you can relax to the sound of the waves, these green spaces offer a welcome escape in the heart of the city, allowing you to reconnect with nature during your stay in Venice, outside the busy summer and peak periods.
Admire the sunset
Venice is renowned for its spectacular sunsets, picturesque canals and magnificent views across the horizon.
Ponte dell’Accademia offers panoramic views over the Grand Canal and is a popular place to watch the sunset.
Piazza San Marco is one of Venice’s most iconic locations, although it can be too crowded at sunset.
Located at the southern tip of the Dorsoduro district, the Punta della Dogana promontory offers breathtaking views over the Grand Canal and the Venetian Lagoon.
If you would prefer a view of the lagoon without the crowds of the city centre, Lido di Venezia is an excellent choice. This barrier island has long beaches and wide stretches of sand where you can settle down and admire the sunset in peaceful surroundings.
By taking the vaporetto to the island of San Giorgio Maggiore, you can enjoy panoramic views of Venice from the bell tower of the Church of San Giorgio. This elevated viewpoint allows you to fully appreciate the shimmering colours of the sunset over the lagoon.
Walk through Venice by night
Walking through Venice at night is a truly magical and enchanting experience that should not be missed.
The narrow streets, illuminated bridges and peaceful canals create a romantic and intimate atmosphere, perfect for a walk together. A private guided tour by lantern light is particularly romantic.
Venetian buildings are beautifully illuminated at night, creating captivating patterns of light and shadow.
At night, you may feel as though you are discovering an entirely different Venice, with corners and hidden passageways that appear even more mysterious and intriguing beneath the cover of darkness.
Where can you take a romantic excursion outside Venice?
Visit the colourful island of Burano
Venice is surrounded by numerous small islands, including Murano and Burano.
If you have to choose between the two, choose Burano, which is by far the more romantic island.
If you want to visit both islands and make the best use of your time, why not choose our private guided tour, during which you will learn a great deal in a short amount of time?
You could even decide to stay on Burano during your trip to Venice, which is far more peaceful and offers slightly more affordable accommodation. Vaporettos travel to Burano until around 10:30 or 11 p.m., so this is a perfectly feasible option for a quieter romantic weekend.
Combine Venice with a romantic break in Verona
Verona is only 1 hour and 15 minutes away from the Floating City by train. You could therefore easily plan a double city break in these two iconic and romantic Italian cities!
By combining these romantic activities during your weekend together, we are confident that you will experience unforgettable moments and return home with stars in your eyes. As always, if you do not have time to plan and organise your dream itinerary in Venice, our Love Travel Planner is available to help you turn your ideas into reality.