Stunning, must do activities for Venice in a day & a trip to Lido Di Jesolo

Venice

Venice is a piece of art, a floating triumph which makes its images synonymous when thinking of beautiful cities. There’s something special and romantic about Venice. It’s such a picturesque and photographic city, whether that’s visiting squares, palaces museums or even getting lost down an alley, all of it looks so perfect.

You certainly won’t run out of things to visit and experience here, the biggest thing is deciding how long to stay. We will discuss some of our favourite things. As well as this, we’ll also talk about the local resort of Lido Di Jesolo. A lovely family resort which is nearby and makes a perfect vacation if staying in this area.

This was a different kind of trip for us. We wanted to set off our summer with a bang and tick Venice off our bucket list. We planned to see Venice in a day and then move on to relaxing into the nearby resort called Lido Di Jesolo.

When to visit

Venice is a trip which you can make all year round. We know of people visiting in winer and summer. If you’re visiting in winter, it is more convenient staying inside the city and allowing yourself more days to explore. Bear in mind that when visitng during winter, it has been known to flood so think about your clothes and footwear carefully. Visiting in summer provided amazing photographs due to the great weather, however it can be quite hot to be roaming around. Summer is also a much busier time, so you will find queues to a lot of the more sought-after landmarks to visit.

We prefer visiting these types of places with nice weather, but if you want to avoid huge queues, you may find April – June and September – November more appropriate times to visit. We visited towards the end of July and although we got sweaty and were caught in queues, still had a blast.

Getting to Venice from the airport

Less than 24 hours after finishing teaching for the summer we were on an early flight to Venice. As soon as we landed, we’d already decided to spend our first day sight-seeing in Venice and the rest to spend relaxing in Lido Di Jesolo. 

The most convenient way of seeing Venice is by going there straight from the airport. This is all very simple. Start by getting to Venice by using the waterbus to San Marco from the airport. You will find ticket stations in the luggage handling areas where you can book your tickets. If you’re unsure, of the ticket you need, there are various people around to help you. San Marco is a great central place to aim for when visiting.

You will capture some amazing sights on the journey (which took around an hour). If you have luggage and are only making this a day trip, then there are various areas where you can store your luggage. We found that luggage could be stored nearby for €2.50 an hour. This was a great deal, but more importantly a much better alternative to lugging our baggage around whilst trying to see the sights of Venice. We were then free to have a look around then try some delicious food.  You can find luggage storage places here.

Food

As we mentioned food, we’ll carry on. There’s not a great deal to advise, you’re in a city which prides itself on delicious food. You will be able to eat in San Marco Square and take in the glorious surroundings. Be prepared to pay premium prices for this though. Because of that, we decided to experiment with restaurants down the side streets. You’re in one of the best cities in Europe for food, it will be hard to have a bad meal. We certainly suggest looking for your own hidden gem. We went down a side street for a cheaper meal and it was one of our favourite tasting meals of our summer trips. To check out our other summer trips, you can check out our travel routes here.

Things to do/see

Visit the Piazza San Marco

This was one of our first visits after arriving. The most famous and largest piazza in Venice. You’ll have great surroundings to see, a great place to people watch and you’ll sometimes hear some entertainment in local restaurants and cafes. Try not to fall in the tourist trap of paying way over the odds for food here. We decided to eat at a beautiful restaurant down a nearby side street.

Campanile di San Marco

After eating, we were ready to check out some of the famous sights of Venice. We decided to go up the Campanile di San Marco (a great viewpoint of Venice) and take some photos. We love a viewpoint and we were able to capture the stunning surroundings of this beautiful city. This is a must do activity for a day in Venice. It has a large queue, but you can get the lift up and the price was fairly cheap for such a fantastic overview of Venice.

Step inside Basilica di San Marco

The crown jewel of Piazza San Marco is the magnificent Basilica San Marco. A stunning cathedral built in 1063. Looking from outside it looks majestic and inside it is beautiful aswell. What’s more is that it is free to enter, although you will find very large crowds at peak seasons. The earlier you get there, the better.

Ride a gondola

Next for a day in Venice, we went on a gondala tour around the canals which was beautiful and relaxing, and definitely the highlight of our day. Riding a gondola is the greatest way of exploring the city. Your guide will alert you to historic buildings and explain the history. It was around €100 as our guide took us to a few more places and it lasted around 40 minutes. This was our must-do trip if spending a day in Venice but make sure you don’t get ripped off. We recommend doing research first.

Bridge of Sighs and Dog’s palace

Visiting the famous Bridge of Sighs is a must for lots of people. It gets its name because prisoners inside the Doge Palace would walk through the interior of the bridge on the way to their execution. The bridge gave them there very last view over Venice before being executed. The bridge can now be the cause of chaos. 

The congestion around this area is unpleasant and especially during summer. We found seeing it from a gondola the preferred method. Although people visit the bridge, to take in some amazing sights. A popular way of seeing it is to take a tour of the Dog’s Palace and the prisons. You will wander through the Bridge of Sighs, take a look out over Venice which will ignore the crowds. You can book a tour here.

Visit a museum

You’ll find many museums to visit. These can be: 

National Archaeological Museum – collection of Greek sculptures, Roman busts and more.

Galleria dell’Accademia – established by Napoleon and is home to numerous artistic works from the 14th-18th centuries

Correr Civic Museum – expansive collection of art and artefacts from the city’s history, as well as from the homes of former royals, including Napoleon.

You can find museum and ticket information here.

Getting lost and visit a park

As with lots of cities in Italy, one of the most fun activities is to just stroll and get lost and find your own list of things to do and see. You’ll find various parks to just sit at and soak up the atmosphere of the city. You can find some of the best parks on tripadvisor here.

There’s obviously tonnes more to do, but these were the best parts of our day-trip. During the chaos of us trying to make our way to Lido Di Jesolo we found ourselves chilling out in parks further down the coastline and soaking up this special city built on water.

Getting to the beach resort of Lido Di Jesolo

Getting to Lido Di Jesolo should have been a simple ferry from San Zaccaria to Punta Sabbiani then a bus to Lido Di Jesolo…

However, we had visited on the same day as a festival, which caused havoc with the normal timetables. Tourists had been left to figure things out for themselves. The people in the ticket office were rude and not very helpful when telling us where to go. We were trekking with over 30kg of luggage with us in over 30 degrees heat. However if you make a similar trip, then this shouldn’t be a problem on a normal day.

After sweating profusely in over 30 degree heat, going backwards and forwards, up and down all the bridges, we finally found out we just had to get the ferry to Punta Sabbiani from the other side of the city.

Finally, 30 minutes later we made it, albeit shells of our former selves. After another mishap, as the ferry went to the port next to us, we were finally on our way to Punta Sabbiani and Lido Di Jesolo. 

Lido Di Jesolo

Looking for a beach nearby?

Lido Di Jesolo

Firstly, even for activities for a day in Venice, you may fancy a beach trip if staying longer. However, it is more suited to a longer stay due to the travelling. Lido Di Jesolo is a purpose built family resort for the Italians. We came here just to relax. In the evenings, busy is an understatement, there are queues to get in every restaurant but during the day you shouldn’t have a problem.

For what we wanted, it was great, a time to relax. This place is perfect for families, there is a million of things to do for children, such as arcades and fairgrounds and a very popular beach. 

Finally, our hotel had a private beach and was central to everything. It was just what we wanted and they even gave discount to nearby restaurants. It was the Hotel Janeiro Frontemare, which you can check out below and book on booking.com

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