Practical Venice guide
Traghetto vs Gondola in Venice: Is the €2 Crossing a Real Alternative?
Verified against Comune di Venezia · October 2026
A traghetto is a useful €2 public crossing of the Grand Canal. A gondola is a sightseeing ride. They use similar boats, but they are not interchangeable experiences.
The short answer
A traghetto is a €2 public crossing of the Grand Canal. A gondola is a sightseeing ride. They use similar boats, but they are not substitutes.
What is a traghetto?
A traghetto da parada is a public gondola ferry that crosses the Grand Canal at specific points where there is no nearby bridge. Venice currently lists five active crossings: Dogana, Santa Maria del Giglio, San Tomà, Carbon and Santa Sofia.
The municipality lists a €2 fare for other passengers and a reduced €0.70 fare for residents and IMOB-card holders. It also publishes specific operating hours for each crossing, so it is worth checking before making a detour.
Some traghetti and gondola stazi share similar names, but they are different services and should not automatically be assumed to use the same exact boarding point.
For the precise tourist-gondola locations, see our map of the Comune-listed stazi.
What does a gondola ride give you instead?
A regular gondola ride is the experience people usually mean when they say they want to take a gondola in Venice: time on the water, a chosen route, and typically a mix of smaller canals and larger waterways.
The current official standard fare is €90 for 30 minutes during the day and €110 for 35 minutes in the evening. That fare is for the whole boat, not each passenger. See the full official-fare breakdown in our gondola price guide.
See the official-fare breakdown.
Which should you choose?
Choose a traghetto if you are walking across Venice and the crossing is convenient. Choose a gondola if you want the ride itself: time on the water, a route through the city and a planned experience.
A third option: share a regular gondola
If the full fare is the obstacle, sharing a regular gondola with another pair is closer to the experience you may actually be looking for. At the €90 daytime fare, two pairs would pay €45 per pair, or €22.50 per person. A match is not guaranteed, but it is a real way to split a regular ride.
Traghetto fares, crossings and hours: Comune di Venezia
Traghetto questions
Yes. The Comune lists a €2 fare for ‘other passengers’; the €0.70 fare is for residents and IMOB-card holders. A traghetto is a public crossing, not a tour.
The Comune currently lists five active crossings: Dogana, Santa Maria del Giglio, San Tomà, Carbon and Santa Sofia. Check its live page before making a detour, because operations can change.
No. Each active crossing has its own operating hours, and some do not run at weekends or holidays. Check the current Comune timetable rather than relying on a generic schedule.
No. It is a short functional crossing of the Grand Canal, not a private sightseeing ride or a way to choose a route through Venice’s canals.
Not necessarily. Some names overlap, but a public traghetto and a tourist gondola service are different services and may use different exact docks.
Keep planning
More Venice gondola guides
Official fares, duration, capacity and how to divide the fare.
See current prices →How a regular shared ride differs from an organized shared tour.
See how sharing works →A practical overview of gondola fares, boarding points and what to expect.
Read the overview →