A cruise through the countryside and time. - This was a very well organized and professional tour. Our guide was terrific and explanations were given in Italian, French, and English. The county side is beautiful and going through the locks and swing bridges was great fun. The three villas we visited were incredibly beautiful. The water was high so were could not go all the way to Padua. Tour company arranged a bus to drop people at the bus terminal or the train station. This is a full day tour. The boat moves very slowly through the canal. Sit back and relax and enjoy the ride. You need to arrange your return to Venice or wherever you are staying. Tour started at 9 am and I was back at my hotel by 8 pm. I did not book lunch at the restaurant but found a cute local restaurant and had cichette. I highly recommended this tour to experience a different side of Venice.

Against all odds - Absolutely excellent guide! Made all the difference! It rained with thunderstorm but we fully enjoyed the experience

Superb trip through Brenta in the Burchieloo - The trip was magnificent, the villas impressive , the food very good and the boat crew extraordinary: a 10 for the captain and for the guide Stela

Lovely day - Beautiful tour, very knowledgeable host. Would recommend the pizzeria in the town where you stop for lunch.

Interesting and different - Cool tour to discover the country side. A bit long as the boat cannot go very fast. Happy with the guide , Olympia.

Beautiful day along the Brenta canal - Beautiful experience, very well organized tour. Even though my friend was about to fall into the water when boarding in Venice, the on-board staff was prompt and efficient to avoid the worst. The visits to the three villas were interesting, the guides Olimpia and Emma were really very good. Overall, great day.

Villas in Brenta - Well organized and recommended trip. We were lucky enough to have an excellent guide (Silvia) who made the trip very interesting

Beautiful villas, risks in going solo - Best way to travel, if you are interested in seeing different beautiful villas of Venetian elite from time when Venice declined as Mediterranean power and they turned inland. You will hear good guides tell about history. The combination of three quite different villas is interesting. And you’ll learn about locks and turnbridges of river cruises. You should know in advance that most likely the stretch from last villa to Padova will be covered by bus. If you stay in Padova, you can go yourself to look at the landing stairs area behind hotel Galileo. It has remained as it was, now university area and nice piazza with restaurants. If you are not sure of using the whole day, you can travel to beautiful Villa Foscari from Venice by local traffic quickly. Don’t trust Google Maps advice, check official route planner apps or ask for advice which bus to take from Piazzale Roma. I travelled solo. The previous evening I got message that Il Burchiello needed repairs and I needed to get on my own to first destination Villa Foscari on Venice local traffic. Another boat would continue. Their advice how to get to Villa Foscari was wrong - the bus dropped me on highway one hour’s walk away from Villa Foscari. I arrived there in time, but exhausted. After all, Il Burchiello arrived there and trip continued on it. Therefore I would strongly advise to take your booking through a service that provides you with support and advice in case the company refuses to take responsibility for part of the trip you have paid for. You need the support both for advice for optional travel arrangements and for requesting due treatment. I made a complaint, but the direction of the company didn’t offer apology, discount or compensation.

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.

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.