Beautiful day along the Brenta - It was a wonderful experience; we spent a pleasant day accompanied by a very knowledgeable guide who accompanied us in the visit to the Villas and in the description of the route along the river, illustrating the functioning of the various locks and the many swing bridges. A trip I definitely recommend.

We traveled along the Brenta canal with Burchiello, our guide Silvia accompanied us and explained in an EXCELLENT manner. - We traveled along the Brenta canal with Burchiello, our guide SILVIA was EXCELLENT in her explanations

Outstanding - Very enjoyable. Excellent commentary. Great scenery. Good balance between cruising and time visiting villas and lunch was nice.

Serene Journey - The one-way journey commenced from San Marco Venice along the Brenta Riveria to Padua. Francesco was very welcoming and spoke impeccable English. The journey along the laguna and Brenta Riviera was very interesting and very tranquil as you glided along the calm water. The countryside was beautiful and the stop at Oriago was delightful. There was a small market and a great fruiterer where we bought some fruit that we ate for lunch whilst sitting by the canal on a bright and sunny day. All the villas we visited were very interesting and the talks given by Francesca were very informative. The tour is highly recommended.

A good trip, thanks to the sunny weather! - Greatly enjoyed the knowledgeable and unobtrusive guidance of the lady who took our tour on Tuesday last. She was excellent! The boat was comfortable, and the Brenta Canal a delight . Instead of the lunch, we found a charming local bar instead, and rejoined the guide and group afterwards.

Long tedious boat trip - Very long...sometimes tedious...boat trip along the Brenta canal. Not terribly interesting scenery. It was lousy weather and heavy rain so we were stuck inside the boat for half the time. But even with good weather I think the long boat trip would have been tedious! The villas were interesting and the guide was good.

River Cruise Disaster - The Villa Pisani was the third Villa visited and was well worthwhile. The other 2 Villas were okay but not impressive. The tour guide on the boat was very good in describing the history of the Villas. The lunch stop was a disaster for me and my partner. We ordered from a menu in advance of arriving at the restaurant. However, for some reason they got our order totally wrong. We had one hour to have lunch but we didn't served our second course until 40 minutes after arrival. The main course arrived after 70 minutes but we didn't have time to finish it. This was packaged for takeaway along with a fruit salad dessert. We didn't get a coffee. Towards the end of the cruise I asked if there was a taxi stand where we docked and was told no. The tour guide offered to call us a taxi but couldn't get through. we ended up calling our airbnb host who ordered us a taxi. The cruise was far too long (9.5 hours) and the boat was not as advertised. It had plastic seats on the top deck which were not attached to the deck. People had to make their own way back to Venice but the train and bus service required a taxi to get there. A complete shambles of a finish.

Don’t waste a day of your vacation doing this tour - We were so disappointed in this tour. It started out well with a small number of people on the boat and good narration as we left Venice but the day went downhill from there. The boat was exceptionally slow and tedious with way too much time spent looking at the weeds along the shore. Why were we stuck looking at weeds all day? Because the tour operators do not manage the use of space on the boat. At the stop for lunch, as we got off and went into the restaurant a group of 60 joined the tour. They rushed onto the boat and took 100% of the seats on the top of the boat while we were eating. We hadn’t been able to comfortably sit up top during the AM as the day started with overcast skies and it was too cold to be out. However, by the time lunch was over it was nice enough to be up top but we had no option of sitting there. When we stopped at the 2nd villa of the day the guides made zero effort to ensure those who hadn’t been up top had a chance to enjoy that space as we rebounded to go to the third and final villa. Instead, during the visit to the 2nd villa they let people leave their personal things on the chairs which meant we once again had no option but to sit downstairs looking at the weeds. It was SO BORING. Part of the problem is that this old boat is not well designed for viewing from inside. In the front there are two metal bars that cut across the view out the front windows. All of the seats inside are very low so if you aren’t very tall it isn’t easy to get a good view out of the windows (hence everyone’s interest in the seats on top). The organizers should ensure that the number of guests is not greater than the number of chairs on the top. In addition, the toilet on the boat is very substandard and it, along with the rest of the boat needs a lot of updating. We purchased lunch with this tour for 25E pp. The timing on the day meant the lunch was very rushed but the food was okay (not stellar, but okay). The toilets in the restaurant left much to be desired with only 2 stalls for women with one not working and the stalls in the men’s were squat toilets. The narration was in both English and Italian which made for a lot of speaking over the PA system but the guides were very fluent in each language and they tried to make it interesting. However, just naming and pointing out the many villas that were passed was not useful (especially on the last leg which was done by bus as the villas were passed too quickly to get a good look at them). It would be better to just focus on the villas visited with more detailed information about them as we sailed (to complement the narration inside the villas). The cost of this trip was not warranted given the condition of the boat or the quality of the onboard experience although I suspect that those who hogged the upper deck chairs all afternoon had a much better experience.

Too long - Sadly this trip was way too long. Didn't arrive Padua till almost 7pm so we opted to miss the last 2 hours and take a bus back to Venice. There was a one hour lunch stop as well which i felt was excessive. The 3 palaces we saw were lovely but we had excess time there as well, except for the last and biggest . Our guide was very knowledgeable and did a great job of translating into 3 languages.

DO NOT BOOK, Horrible Experience - DO NOT BOOK. It regrettably marked the most challenging aspect of my two-week journey in Italy. Initially, I had reserved a total of 12 seats on a boat voyage from Venice to Padua for my family, with a scheduled departure at 9 AM. My family and I, burdened with luggage from various hotels in Venice, arrived at the dock five minutes behind the designated time. Personally, I had arrived at 8:45 AM, only to be greeted by a rather disconcerting scene. The tour guide was on the brink of departing without us, fostering an atmosphere fraught with stress and tension. Her demeanor lacked friendliness and understanding of our predicament. The confirmation email address was wrong to begin with, the general address took us to a dock that was not accurate on Google or Apple Maps. Moreover, she claimed that the booking email had indicated an arrival time of 8:40 AM. It was only after meticulously sifting through a slew of confirmation emails and scrutinizing an extensive 8-page PDF outlining the trip details that I stumbled upon the 8:40 AM arrival time, while all other correspondence consistently mentioned a 9 AM departure. The voyage got off on the wrong foot due to this initial unpleasantness. However, it was during the subsequent 8-hour excursion that the boat's captain and the tour guide truly demonstrated their unfriendliness. They continued to treat our group with a palpable lack of courtesy throughout the entire journey. Their behavior included disdainful glances and thinly veiled, passive-aggressive remarks regarding our adherence to the designated boat return times. Additionally, the scorching 97-degree weather exacerbated our discomfort, and the boat's air conditioning proved inadequate. Despite having an 87-year-old member in our party, they denied us the option of closing the boat door to retain some of the precious cool air. Furthermore, my brother, who suffers from a sleep disorder, was not permitted to rest on the boat during the one-hour disembarkation period. An uncomfortable and unpleasant experience.