1. Home
2. Veneto
3. Venice

Best Things to Do in Venice With Kids

While Venice may be known as a romantic city, perfect for a couples' getaway, that doesn't mean it's not also suitable for a family vacation with children. In addition to the classic tourist attractions, Venice offers several activities and experiences that children will be thrilled to take part in.

1. Take Them on a Gondola or Vaporetto Ride

A gondola ride on the canals of Venice will enchant the little ones. If your budget is tight, you can take a traghetto, which only costs €2 per person. The traghetto is a boat similar to a gondola, used to cross the Canal Grande. The journey from one bank to the other only takes a few minutes, but the children will enjoy it just as much.

See Gondola Rides

Another option is to take a vaporetto, which is the local public transport in Venice. However, you should know that during the high season (which is pretty much all year round), the water buses are very crowded, which might make the experience of riding with children less pleasant.

Book Vaporetto Tickets and Passes

2. Take Photos with the Lions in Piazzetta dei Leoncini

Right next to Piazza San Marco, to the left of St. Mark's Basilica, is a small piazza called Piazzetta dei Leoncini. It gets its name from the two lion statues made of red marble, next to which we are sure the kids will be delighted to pose for pictures.

3. Show them the Ships at the Historical Naval Museum

One of the most suitable museums in Venice for a visit with children is the Historical Naval Museum, which also includes the Ships Pavilion. There you can show them different types of historical boats - from fishing boats and gondolas to warships.

Book Tickets

With an additional ticket, children over the age of 6 (younger children do not have access for safety reasons) can climb aboard the Enrico Dandolo submarine, discovering the command room and the torpedo launching room. This was one of the first four submarines designed during the Cold War but was never used for attack purposes.

Book Ticket+Submarine

4. Take them to Play in the Park

Venice has a few parks and green areas that also feature children's playgrounds. The largest one is in Parco delle Rimembranze, near the vaporetto stop.

You can also find other playgrounds in Parco Savorgnan and Giardini Papadopoli.

5. Take them to the Natural History Museum

Most likely, at the Natural History Museum, children will first be drawn to the dinosaur skeleton, which is over 7 meters long. Besides that, they can see the Cetacean Gallery, numerous interesting fossils, a butterfly collection, an aquarium, and objects from various African tribes that Venetian explorers met during their journeys.

Book Ticket

6. Go to the Beach

During the warm season, one of the activities you can do in Venice (especially with children) is to go to the beach. Lido Island (be careful not to confuse it with Lido di Jesolo), which you can easily reach by vaporetto (lines 5.1, 6, 2, or 5.2), has both organized and free beaches that stretch for 12 km.

7. Tell them Stories about Toys from the Past

In the center of Venice, there is a small, unusual museum, perfect for visiting with children. Creature di Gomma - Venice Vintage Toys is a collection of over 6,000 toy figures from the '60s to the '90s. The figures, made of rubber or plastic, embody characters from cartoons, comics, shows, or commercials.

8. Explain Leonardo da Vinci's Inventions to Them

If the children are a bit older, you can take them to one of the two permanent exhibitions dedicated to Leonardo da Vinci. The Da Vinci Museums in Venice are quite small (they don't compare, for example, to those in Milan), but they also have interactive sections and can serve as a welcome introduction to the complex world of the Renaissance inventor's creations.

One museum is located in the Scoletta Vecchia building (opposite the Scuola Grande di San Rocco), built in 1494 as the first seat of the confraternity.

Book Ticket

A second exhibition dedicated to Da Vinci can be found in the Church of San Barnaba, whose current appearance dates back to the 18th century. Scenes from the movie "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade" were filmed in this church and the square in front of it. An idea: a fun activity you can do later with the kids is to watch the movie together and recognize the places in Venice where it was filmed.

Book Ticket

9. Show them Venice from Above

In Venice, there are a few towers and churches you can climb to the top of for a panoramic view of the city. The St. Mark's Campanile and the Church of San Giorgio (located on the Venetian island of the same name, just a few minutes away by vaporetto) also have elevators, so the climb won't be tiring. From above, the children can have fun recognizing the different places they have visited.

10. Take Them to See How Glass is Made

A trip to Murano, for a visit to a glass factory, is another activity idea to do in Venice with kids. They will be captivated by the art of the craftsman blowing glass, transforming it into a delicate little horse or another figurine.

You can reach the island either on your own by vaporetto or with an organized excursion (see details in the article Excursion to the Islands of Murano, Burano, and Torcello).