Moment · Italy
A Private Gondola Through Venice’s Quiet Canals
Board away from San Marco's crowds and glide through the small canals where Venetian life goes on, at the hour you choose.
A Thousand Years on the Water
For more than a thousand years, gondolas were how Venice moved, across the lagoon and through the city’s waterways. Their flat bottoms, lopsided hulls and ornate iron prow, the ferro, were all shaped for shallow, twisting canals. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries there were thousands; today fewer than 500 are still working, most of them for visitors.
Every gondolier trains hard and must pass a licensing exam covering navigation, history and foreign languages, and many come from long lines of gondoliers, carrying on a craft built on precision and pride.
Leave the Queues Behind
In high season, the main stations by San Marco and the Rialto feel more like queues than romance. Boats leave one after another on near-identical Grand Canal routes, sometimes with five or more others in sight.
A private ride does away with all that. You pick the time, early morning or the blue light of evening, and the route can favour small canals where everyday life carries on: laundry strung between balconies, church bells echoing, the sudden hush of a shaded passage.
For honeymooners, couples or anyone wanting time to connect, it’s uninterrupted peace.
Your personal travel specialist, from the first conversation to the flight home.
Request a quote →The City’s Intimate Side
The Grand Canal gives you domes, basilicas and bold palace fronts, but the smaller canals tell more personal stories. Your gondola might pass beneath the Bridge of Sighs or into Cannaregio, where few visitors venture, sliding under the carved windows of a Gothic palazzo or along stretches where the houses lean close and the water glows with afternoon light.
Starting from quieter spots such as San Polo or Calle del Perdon changes the rhythm. Venice appears not as a stage set but as a living city, people walking to market, shutters swinging open overhead, washing flapping in the breeze.
Stories or Silence
Some gondoliers share history as you go, pointing out where Marco Polo once lived or the house that inspired a Vivaldi sonata; others let the canals speak for themselves. Music or singing can be arranged, best agreed in advance, though many couples find that without a performance the ride becomes more reflective.
Your Out Of Office LGBTQ+ travel specialist can arrange the gondola and a welcoming hotel in Venice.
Tell us how you like to travel. We will shape the trip around it.
How long you want to be away, how much you want to move, and what you would rather leave out entirely.
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We plant trees for every booking
For every booking made with Out Of Office we commit to planting trees in your name to help reduce the impact of travel on future generations. You'll even get a link to see where your trees are planted in the world via our partner Ecologi.
We donate to Rainbow Railroad with every booking
Rainbow Railroad helps LGBTQ+ people escape state-sponsored violence and persecution. A donation goes with every trip we sell, funded by us and never added to your price.
Start Planning Your Trip
Tell us where you would love to go, when you are thinking of travelling and what kind of trip you have in mind. One of our LGBTQ+ travel specialists will create a tailor-made itinerary designed around your destination, style and preferences.
One named specialist, first enquiry to homecoming. No call centre, and nothing is charged until you decide to book.