Because there is nowhere else like it — a thousand-year-old city built on water, with canals for streets, no cars, and an unmatched concentration of art and architecture. Venice offers St Mark's and the Grand Canal, the quiet of its back canals, the glass and lace islands of the lagoon, and a beauty that survives even its crowds.

Where is the best area to stay in Venice?

San Marco for the monuments and the buzz; Dorsoduro for art, quiet and a residential feel; Cannaregio for everyday Venetian life and the best bacari; Castello for space and the Biennale. Stay on the main island and central — a hotel you can walk back to is worth far more than a cheaper room across the water.

How many days do you need in Venice?

Three days to see the city properly, more to do it justice — a day for San Marco and the Grand Canal, a day for Dorsoduro and the art, a day for the lagoon islands or simply getting lost. Day-trippers see the surface; the city only reveals itself in the early mornings and evenings, which means staying the night.

Do you need a car in Venice?

No — there are no cars in Venice at all. You arrive at Piazzale Roma or the station and continue on foot or by water: the vaporetto waterbuses, the traghetto crossings, or a water taxi to your hotel's canal door. Leave the car on the mainland; the whole city is walkable.

How do you get around Venice?

On foot and by water. The city is compact enough to cross in an hour's walk, and the ACTV vaporetto waterbuses run the Grand Canal and out to the lagoon islands; water taxis are the quick, costly option, and gondolas are for the experience rather than transport. A multi-day vaporetto pass pays off quickly.

Are the lagoon islands worth visiting?

Yes — Murano, Burano and Torcello make a rewarding day from the centre. Murano for the glass furnaces, Burano for its painted houses and lace, Torcello for the lagoon's oldest church and its Byzantine mosaics. Go early on the vaporetto, before the day-boats arrive, to have them at their quietest.

Boutique Hotels in Venice, Italy

The sestieri: where to stay and wander

San Marco is the monumental heart — Piazza San Marco and its basilica, the Doge's Palace, La Fenice opera house, the luxury boutiques along Calle Larga XXII Marzo — busy by day, magical once the crowds ebb. Across the Grand Canal, Dorsoduro is the art quarter and the connoisseur's choice: the Gallerie dell'Accademia, the Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Punta della Dogana and the great domed church of Santa Maria della Salute, with the sunny Zattere waterfront and a calmer, residential air. Cannaregio, stretching north, is where Venetians actually live — the historic Jewish Ghetto, quiet canals and the cicchetti-and-ombra bacari where the city drinks. Castello, east of San Marco, holds the Arsenale and the Biennale gardens; San Polo and Santa Croce keep the Rialto market and a tangle of artisan workshops. The pleasure everywhere is the same: lose the map, follow the narrowest calle, and let the city resolve into bridges, wells and sudden empty campi.

The Grand Canal and the lagoon islands

The Grand Canal is Venice's high street, a reversed-S of water lined with four hundred years of palazzo facades, best seen slowly from the number 1 vaporetto or, once, from a gondola. The Rialto and the Accademia bridges cross it; the fish and produce markets at Rialto have fed the city for a thousand years. Beyond the main island, the lagoon rewards a day: Murano, where Venetian glass has been blown since the thirteenth century; Burano, with its lace and its photogenic rows of brightly painted fishermen's houses; and quiet Torcello, the lagoon's first settlement, with a Byzantine cathedral and its golden mosaics. The vaporetto reaches them all; going early, before the day-boats, is the difference between a crush and a revelation.

When to visit Venice

April to June and September to October are the best windows — mild, lovely, the light at its most painterly, though never truly quiet on the Piazza. July and August are hot, crowded and prone to the lagoon's mugginess; the city empties of locals and fills with day-trippers. Carnival, in February, is spectacular but heaving; the Biennale (art or architecture, roughly May to November) draws a cultured crowd. Winter, from December to March, is Venice at its most atmospheric and intimate — mist on the canals, the opera season at La Fenice, prices and crowds at their lowest — with the risk of acqua alta, the high tides that briefly flood the lower squares. Quiet seekers should come off-season; the city is at its best for it.