It’s not worth it to pay online, you find loads of gondoliers that are free to take you on the spot. We paid more than £100 for an evening ride and after we booked it we were walking and as the gondoliers are trying to attract you, we found one and his price was 80€ on the board but he said he can make a 20€ discount cause that was his last ride. That would have been half of what we paid online, but I couldn’t cancel anymore the reservation unfortunately…

Although it was a bit difficult for us to get to the meeting point, there was a guide who later took us to the starting point. The gondolier was very friendly and entertained us with anecdotes and comments about Venice since the gondola was exclusively for the four of us.

We weren't sure about doing this ride but really pleased that we did. We booked and paid for it online earlier in the day (about £100), went to the travel office in Campo san Luca at the allotted time, where we were issued with a voucher which we took to Bacino Orseolo to give to any of the gondoliers there. Three of us enjoyed having a gondola to ourselves (although we probably could have arranged a ride for just 3 of us on the spot earlier in the day at one of the quieter gondola stations), and booked for 6pm so we enjoyed sunset on the Grand Canal. The gondolier hardly spoke to us but that was fine, we just enjoyed the sights from the water.