Venice is made up of 118 small islands with over 400 bridges connecting them. You can spend hours wandering around, going over all of the different bridges and taking in the sights of the canals. However, as well as travelling around the centre of Venice, you can go further and visit the larger islands in the Venice lagoon. Two of the most popular islands to visit are Murano and Burano.

Spending the day exploring Murano and Burano

On our trip in March 2020, we spent a whole day visiting Murano and Burano. That particular day was the day before Venice went into lockdown. This meant that fortunately, both islands were quieter than usual, despite being a Saturday and we managed to explore and avoid any crowds. If you were to visit now, expect it to be a lot busier than my photos suggest. I’d recommend that you plan to travel over to the two islands as early as possible.

The best way to get around the city is via the vaporetti or water buses. The vaporetto network is much like a bus network, with timetables, numbers and stops, you just travel on the water rather than on a road.

How to get to Murano and Burano from Venice

From where we stayed in Mestre, it was just a 15 minute bus ride to the centre of Venice and from there we were able to catch a vaporetto over to the islands. As we knew we’d be using a lot of public transport during our stay, we paid for a 72 hour travel card at the airport which covered both buses and vaporetti. This cost us 46€ and was a great saving as one vaporetto ticket is 7.50€. Visiting Murano and Burano would usually cost you around 30€ return without a travel card.

Although it may look confusing, navigating the waterways of Venice is quite simple with the help of an app. We used a mixture of both CityMapper and Google Maps while we were there. Both apps will offer live public transport updates and showed us the routes we needed to take and the stops we needed to get on and off at.

To get to Murano and Burano, you have to get the vaporetto number 3 or number 4.2 from directly outside the Santa Lucia train station. This is the only train station in Venice city centre and is not hard to find. The vaporetto takes between 30 to 45 minutes to get to Murano, depending on which service you use as there are plenty of stops along the way. Once you get to Murano, you can either choose to get off here and explore the island, or switch to another vaporetto and travel onwards towards Burano. From Murano, the journey to Burano takes around 35 minutes and you can get the number 12 vaporetti.

What is there to do in Murano?

The island of Murano is famous for its glass making. You may have heard of Murano glass before – it’s used in all sorts from homeware to beads. Murano glass is an art form that has existed on the island for thousands of years. Each piece of glass is expertly handcrafted by master artisans who have had years of training.

As you can expect, there is glass for sale everywhere on Murano. There are hundreds of small shops offering different pieces. From the smallest animal figurines, to large pieces of homeware such as vases or lampshades. You can also purchase jewellery created using beads made of Murano glass.

If you’re particularly interested in seeing how the glass is made, you can visit the Original Murano Glass (OMG). Here, you can see the glass blowing in action, which is amazing to see! You can also wander around the factory shop and see the pieces of glass that are for sale. If you want to visit the factory, you must book onto a tour. You there’s also the option to partake in glass blowing lessons yourself if you fancy it. Another glass factory you can visit is Mazzega Glass Factory. Again, you can see the glass blowing in action and can also purchase pieces of Murano glass.

What is there to do in Burano?

You might know Burano for its colourful houses but it is also famous for its lace. The art of lace-making became popular in Venice in the 1500s. It was exclusivly created at the Scuola Merletti (Lace School) which is now the Lace Museum. Venetian lace has been well documented as being prized posessions of European nobles. Even Queen Elizabeth I was known to own pieces of Venetian lace. King Louis XIV owned a Venetian lace collar which he wore to his coronation in 1654.

While the demand for Venetian lace eventually died out, lace making continued to be a tradition on the island of Burano. Mothers passed the skill down to their daughters and many women still practice the craft to this day. If you want to learn more about lace and how it is made, you can visit the Lace Museum.

What is the history behind Burano’s colourful houses?

Burano is one of the most colourful places in the world. Many people visit just to see the brightly painted houses. But do you know why the houses are all so unique? As Burano is such a small island, it often gets enveloped by thick fog. Legend has it that the fishermen used to paint their houses a bright colour, so that they could easily find their way home after a long day out at see. It’s now a tradition to keep the houses as colourful as possible.

You’ll notice that no two houses next to each other are the same colour. Residents can’t just paint their houses any colour; they have to submit an application to the local government who will then dictate what colour they can use. I absolutely loved wandering around and seeing all of the beautiful houses – it was like something out of a storybook.

How Long Do You Need to Visit Murano and Burano

With all of the travelling factored in, we spent around 7 hours visiting Murano and Burano. Bear in mind that this was the day before Venice went into lockdown and two days before Italy went into lockdown. Had this been a normal Saturday, there would have been a lot more for us to do, we would have been able to visit a restaurant on one of the islands and wouldn’t have had to go back to the centre of Venice to eat. The fact that Venice was so quiet also meant that we didn’t have a to spend much time waiting around for vaporetti.

If you choose to visit Murano and Burano (which you must do!) I recommend that you block out a full day. Leave first thing in the morning, around 9/10am and spend a couple of hours on each island. Stop for coffee and food while you’re out there and take in the gorgeous scenery of the Laguna di Venezia.