Sunset Cruise Venice

A Venice sunset cruise is a short evening on St. Mark’s Basin or the Giudecca Canal, with the city skyline turning gold behind you. I found three, from $63 to $107, and they are a kayak, a catamaran with live jazz and a traditional wooden boat with Prosecco. None of these sunset cruises in Venice is a dinner cruise. For the daytime trips and the islands, my guide to boat tours in Venice has every listing I compared. Prices are in US dollars, checked in October 2026, and the booking links are affiliate links, as I explain on my about page.

My pick is the catamaran sunset jazz cruise at $90: 1.5 hours, 4.8 from 1,621 reviews, with a live saxophonist, a free drink and cicchetti. For the best view of the basin with wine, the Prosecco sunset cruise at $107 is rated 4.8 from 282 reviews. The canal kayak at $63 is the active choice, and it also runs by day and at night.

Venice Sunset Boat Tour

Times matter more for a Venice sunset cruise than for most boat trips, because the season moves the whole evening.

A Venice sunset boat tour usually points toward the water in front of St. Mark’s. Sunset times in Venice change a lot over the year, and the table below is my calculation from the sunrise-sunset.org service for the city’s coordinates, shown as local clock time (Europe/Rome, with daylight saving time) for the middle of each month. In mid-June the sun sets at 9:02 PM, and in mid-December it sets at 4:29 PM, so the same trip can be a late-evening cruise or an afternoon one. Italian clocks go back on the last Sunday of October. You can check any date with the NOAA solar calculator.

Month	Sunset (mid-month)	Month	Sunset (mid-month)
January	4:55 PM	July	8:58 PM
February	5:39 PM	August	8:20 PM
March	6:17 PM	September	7:24 PM
April	7:57 PM	October	6:27 PM
May	8:35 PM	November	4:42 PM
June	9:02 PM	December	4:29 PM

The catamaran listing is the one that sells itself on that light, and it is the sunset cruise in Venice I would book first. It is a 90-minute tour on a spacious catamaran, with a limited number of participants, cruising San Marco Bay and the Giudecca Canal and crossing the lagoon toward the Lido. A jazz saxophonist plays bossas and standards, the bar serves Prosecco, Spritz and non-alcoholic drinks, and one drink is free. It lists two toilets on board and seven languages: English, Italian, French, German, Russian, Spanish and Portuguese.

Xpert Travel

Catamaran Sunset Jazz Cruise with Aperitivo

• ★ 4.8 (1,621 reviews)
• 1.5 hours
• Free cancellation

My pick: My pick: $90, 1.5 hours, 4.8 from 1,621 reviews, live jazz, one free drink and cicchetti; not a dinner.

from

$90

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Sunset Boat Tour Venice

The other Venice sunset cruise on the water is the Prosecco cruise by IL Bragozzo: $107 for about 1.5 hours to 105 minutes, rated 4.8 from 282 reviews. Your captain opens chilled Prosecco as soon as you set sail, and the listing includes one bottle of wine for every two guests. The route crosses St. Mark’s Basin past the Arsenale, Sant’Andrea, Vignole, the Lido, San Lazzaro degli Armeni, San Servolo, San Clemente, Giudecca and Sant’Elena, with views of the Salute church. It runs in Spanish, English and Italian.

Reviewers like it. One says the captain was perfect and the sunset beautiful, and another was called in at the last minute with a skipper and ended up with a boat for just the two of them, which they rated 10 out of 10. That is a reminder that group size varies, so I wouldn’t count on it. The 282 reviews are fewer than the catamaran’s, but the rating is the same. The listing has two meeting points depending on the option, so read your confirmation closely.

IL Bragozzo

Prosecco Sunset Cruise on a Traditional Boat

• ★ 4.8 (282 reviews)
• 1.5 hours - 105 minutes
• Free cancellation

My pick: Best view of St. Mark's Basin with wine: $107, about 1.5 hours, 4.8 from 282 reviews, a bottle for every two guests.

from

$107

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Compared: Sunset Trips in Venice

Operator	Price	Duration	Boat type	Rating	Cancellation
Real Venetian kayak	$63	1 hour to 100 minutes	Kayak, guided	4.8 (629 reviews)	Free up to 24 hours
Xpert Travel	$90	1.5 hours	Catamaran with live jazz	4.8 (1,621 reviews)	Free up to 24 hours
IL Bragozzo	$107	1.5 hours to 105 minutes	Traditional wooden boat, shared	4.8 (282 reviews)	Free up to 24 hours

Venice Italy Sunset Cruise

If you are searching for a Venice, Italy, sunset cruise, notice that the name also belongs to Venice in Florida, which has its own cruises that are not covered here. In Italy the active choice is the Real Venetian Kayak tour: $63, about 1 hour to 100 minutes, 4.8 from 629 reviews, at day, night or sunset. It meets at the operator’s premises on Calle Brazzo in Cannaregio, and it includes an officially approved kayak, a paddle, a life vest and a qualified English-speaking instructor. Meals, kayaking clothing and transfers are not included.

The reviews describe a different perspective on the city, with history and local insight from the guide, and one reviewer recommends doing it at the start of a stay. A kayak tour is only a sunset cruise if you pick the evening slot, and I would choose it with the time of year in mind: in December the sun sets before 4:30 PM, which is the same as a late-afternoon paddle.

Night tour

Real Venetian kayak

Guided Canal Kayak Tour at Day, Night, or Sunset

• ★ 4.8 (629 reviews)
• 1 hour - 100 minutes
• Free cancellation

My pick: The active choice: $63, about 1 hour to 100 minutes, 4.8 from 629 reviews; pick the sunset slot, and wear clothes that can get wet.

from

$63

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Choosing the Month for a Sunset Cruise in Venice

The table shows how much the season moves a sunset cruise in Venice. In June and July the sun sets after 9:00 PM, so a 1.5-hour cruise starting at 7:30 PM still ends in daylight and you see the sun go down near the end. In March and October it sets around 6:17 PM and 6:27 PM, which makes an early-evening start natural. From November to January the sun is down by about 5:00 PM, and in those months I would book the earliest slot on offer and expect it to be dark for the second half of the trip.

I did not find departure times in the three listings, so I cannot say which slot is closest to sunset on your date. The listing for the kayak says only that it runs by day, at night or at sunset, and the Prosecco boat’s options differ by meeting point. My advice is to pick your date in the booking widget, find the slot that starts roughly an hour before the sunset time in the table, and read the operator’s note about weather. Rain and strong wind can change any sunset cruise in Venice, and the catamaran listing adds that popular dates sell out.

Dinner Is Not Part of It

Nothing in my data is a sunset dinner cruise. The catamaran listing says in so many words that it is not one, and its cicchetti are a snack, not a meal. The Prosecco boat serves wine and no food. So the practical plan is to book a table before or after and give the sunset cruise in Venice 90 minutes in the middle. If you want a gondola on the same evening, my page on a gondola ride in Venice shows the three rides I compared, at $42 to $44 for about 30 minutes.

Which Sunset Trip I’d Book

My short answer for a sunset cruise in Venice is the $90 catamaran jazz cruise, because 1,621 reviewers rate it 4.8 and the evening comes with music, a drink and snacks. Here is how I’d decide:

• Most relaxed: the $90 catamaran, 1.5 hours.
• Best view with wine: the $107 Prosecco boat, shared, about 1.5 hours.
• Active: the $63 kayak, with a life vest and a guide.
• A private boat for a group: see my private boat tour in Venice page.

Before you book a Venice sunset cruise, check your date’s sunset time in the table, the meeting point and the cancellation text, which is free up to 24 hours on all three. Choose a trip above and use the booking links to see availability, or see every trip in Venice boat tours. The homepage lists the other cities I cover.