Ripped off Gondola in Venice

[GreenAir80]

Hello I want to make you all aware of this as we got totally ripped off in Venice and I want to warn you all.

We took a Gondola from outside St Mark’a Square right in front of where the two pillars are, the gondoliers run a racket there, they all have these cards where they say it’s up to €200ish euros for a Gondola ride. We took a €185 option and paid €160 for it, they refused card we walked off and then another person came and said he’ll take card.

We were taken on a max 25 minute gondola ride.

I found out after it should have been €90 and you can go on a side street and pick up a gondola
and they’ll still take you on the Grand Canal and under the Rialto bridge, I just wanted to let you all know. It was a lovely experience but tarnished.

This racket has been going since I went as a child in the 80s, my parents were ripped off too and the Goldoliers took us down a deserted side street to 'ask' for payment when it ended

I know they can charge what they want but there is guidance from the Venetian council, we paid up front by card, I mean it was horrifyingly expensive but we didn’t know otherwise. Felt awful. Just conned.

we spoke to people at our campsite after they said if you go down the side streets you’re looking at around €90 from a gondola there.

OP, in the nicest possible way, anyone taking a gondola from right outside a major tourist trap in a touristy city knows they are paying a premium — there’s no ‘should’. It’s like moaning about the cost of a coffee at Florian’s, compared to a little cafe somewhere in Cannareggio.. You agreed to a (high) price and that’s what you were charged. Surely it’s obvious that picking up a gondola somewhere more obscure/less touristy will be cheaper? Did you think St Mark’s Sq. gondoliers were the only ones allowed on the Grand Canal, or something?

You sound surprised? Rickshaw drivers in London rip off tourists all the time. Its a common problem.

You were told a price and agreed it.

A post on MN isn't going to stop it.

Prices at peak tourist spots are always inflated. You saw the price and chose to go anyway.

I can understand you feel ripped off but you weren’t scammed or extorted, you just didn’t shop around.

This has been going on forever.

I first went to Venice in the early eighties with my parents and we were aware of rip-off Venice even then. We refused to go on a gondola at all because of it.

A few years later I went again with an Italian friend of mine who lived near there with her family. They steered clear of the gondolas too.

I've been twice more recently because my DD3 spent half of her student year abroad just outside it. Again, no gondolas. They are just far too expensive anyway and it is just money that I don't want to pay. We walked everywhere. Venice isn't so big. Lovely to walk around.

Meh. A horse draw carriage ride around Central Park in New York charges by the minute and it's ridiculous. A helicopter ride over Manhattan is extortionate.

Gondola from St Mark's square costs a fortune - shocker.

When my family visited Venice they used the water buses as an affordable way to go on the canals
https://www.rometoolkit.com/venice_visit/venice_water_transport.html

Yes, but you still chose to do it. Plenty of people do choose to do it too, perhaps thinking that they might as well because they might never visit again. A valid choice, but not my choice. We enjoyed the vaporettos (water buses) instead. They are fun and very cheap.

Of course it's a rip off. Venice IS its canals, its tourists (thousands and thousands each day) and its gondolas. So they can afford to charge rip-off prices. You choose whether you want to pay or not and to what degree you accept being ripped off. I imagine that €90-ish is around the minimum that you could expect to pay for a gondola trip, especially if you wanted the ones with music, entertainment and wine on board.

You weren’t conned! You saw the price and paid it anyway. You got what you paid for. The fact it is cheaper elsewhere does not make this a con.

Nobody lied and told you this was the price everywhere. Nobody took you down a deserted canal and told you to pay extra. Nobody told you it was an hour but you only got 20 min. Those things are cons.

This is just you being naive. By all means kick yourself and learn from the experience but please don’t call it a con, there are plenty of actual cons about and this isn’t.

Hi @EmoCourt yes we did! We didn’t realise you could get a gondola elsewhere, we thought this is the place everyone got them.

To those saying that's just what it costs, that's not true. Official gondoliers have to follow the set price fixed by the council - 90 euros for halfan hour during the day. Sorry you got ripped off OP, hope it didn't ruin your trip.

The standard price is €90/€110 for 25 mins. You're on holiday, you only paid €55 more, just think of it as a tip for the gondolier and enjoy your holiday.

Well were conned as the council set rates, that we were not aware of, they show these cards to look like those are official rates etc,

I’m sure many people got ripped off like we did and I’m just letting people know for the future not to do that.

We got 25 mins maybe a couple of comments on some houses. No wine nothing etc

My dp is such a skinflint that he’d only agree to something where the gondola takes you from one side of the canal to another. I think it cost us £2. I don’t honk we wer ripped off 🤪.

€70 more! We got charged €160

Ha! That's the only one I've ever taken too and I've been lots of times.

I think that’s known as something else it’s not the same as the gondola around the canals.

I agree with this and it's to be expected in these sorts of locations. Not nice, but it's the way of the world.

Having said that, I bought an ice cream in the little ice cream kiosk right next to the Trevi fountain in Rome.

There were no prices on anything and because it was busy and noisy, I didn't hear when I asked how much it was. I only got a small ice cream because that's what I usually have and I was worried about how much it was going to be, having being scarred by what became to be known as the '24 euros for Sangria on Las Ramblas in Barcelona' incident (this was years ago and we only had 20 euro on us and thought it would be enough, we had to go to a cash machine to pay).

But the ice cream was only 3.50 euro, which is more or less what I normally pay, which was a relief. But the moral of the story is never agree to buy/do anything without asking the price and sense check it online if you don't know if it's reasonable.

Do the Gondoliers have to pay to use the pick up in front of St Marks?

The water taxis are reasonable value as an alternative IMO.

Isn't St Marks square the place that's famous for terrifyingly expensive coffees?

Getting the water taxi from the airport to Venice in the early evening was amazing. I think I’d prefer that to a gondola ride.