When the Covid-19 pandemic shut down global travel in March 2020, our city break to Venice was shelved and it wouldn’t be until January 2025 that we would get around to finally making the trip.

Logistics & Costs

Venice is pretty easy to get to from the UK, with daily flights run by most of the budget airlines taking around 2 hours. We paid £400 for return flights from Manchester with EasyJet and a water bus from Marco Polo airport to the centre of Venice takes around 45 minutes, costing €13 per person for a one-way ticket. We stayed at the Hotel Scandinavia on Campo Santa Maria Formosa for around €85 per night.

Best Time to Go

When booking we had been advised to avoid the height of summer and the peak tourist season, so we decided to go in early January and coincide the trip with my birthday. The weather at that time of year is cool but not uncomfortable with daytime temperatures around 10 degrees centigrade, falling to low single figures in the evening. Remember to take your sunglasses though as it can still be very sunny and bright. I had got very excited about atmospheric night-time foggy Venice canal shots before we left but we never had any fog at all during our stay.

Must Do’s

All the most famous attractions in Venice are well worth a visit. Piazza San Marco can be combined with the nearby Basilica di San Marco and the Palazzo Ducale. The Ponte di Rialto offers amazing views down the Grand Canal during the day or night and was one of our favourite places to sit with a drink and watch the boat traffic go by. By far and away however, my favourite thing to do was put on some comfortable footwear and walk, spending hours getting lost in the maze of narrow streets and exploring the canals.

Venice has some great restaurants, bars and cafes and the highlight for us was an evening out at the Old Post Office Trattoria, which first opened in 1500 and is right in the heart of the famous Rialto market.

Photography

As always, the challenge in a location like this is to make interesting photographs that are not too reminiscent of an everyday postcard shot.

I made things harder for myself by sticking to my 2025 photographic challenge of only shooting with a 50mm lens, which is 85mm equivalent on APS-C. Being restricted to this lens meant I would have to approach my photography slightly differently than if I were shooting with a more traditional street photography lens like a 35mm or 50mm. With this in mind, I chose to look for details and scenes that would let the viewer know that it was Venice but without slapping them in the face with a vista of the Grand Canal.

A few things were in my favour, however. The first was the time of year. The streets are so much quieter in winter and the atmosphere is much more relaxed as opposed to the hot and crowded summer months. I also had the bonus of the low winter sun providing good light for most of the daylight hours, reflecting from the buildings and flooding the narrow streets with great light.

Don’t neglect the hours of darkness either, when the aesthetic and the mood change as the city’s lights come on and the shopfronts are full of interesting neon lighting.

I found the attitude towards photography to be very relaxed in Venice and it also felt pretty safe to walk around with a camera even after dark. I would still take the normal precautions as in any big city, especially in the crowded areas where pickpockets are known to operate.

Would I Recommend Venice

So would I recommend Venice for street photography ? Definitely! Whether you visit on a dedicated photography trip or as a holiday with a bit of photography thrown in, Venice is an amazing place and probably my favourite city break I have been on in Europe.

I would recommend going in the quieter winter months when you avoid the height of the tourist season and the highest prices. My advice would be to not over-plan but explore and see what you can find.

If you liked the images and want to view the whole set from the trip, you can do so in my portfolio. Also, if you would like to support this blog and my photography, you can do so by purchasing a copy of the accompanying zine in my store. It’s limited to 100 copies and each one is signed and numbered.

Thanks for reading.

Street & Travel Photography in Venice