The cruises compared here
The two products get compared as if they were alternatives, but they cover different water. Gondolas work the small canals and a short stretch of the Grand Canal near La Salute. The one-hour boat trip stays outside the city, in St Mark's basin and the Giudecca Canal.
So the first thing to settle is which Venice you want to look at: house fronts at arm's length, or the waterfront and domes from a distance.
1What you get per euro
The shared gondola costs from €42 per person for 25 to 30 minutes. The Bridge of Sighs gondola costs from €36 for the same time. The one-hour boat trip costs from €12.50 and lasts twice as long, with an English-speaking escort included.
On time and commentary the boat trip wins easily. The gondola listings are blunt about what is missing: gondoliers are not guides, there is no commentary, and there is no serenade. You are paying for the boat itself and for where it can go.
2Where each one goes
From Calle Larga Ascensione, the shared gondola heads onto the Grand Canal towards Santa Maria della Salute, then turns into the small canals around the Teatro La Fenice. From San Zaccaria, the other shared gondola works the canals behind the Doge's Palace and passes under the Bridge of Sighs, tide permitting.
The boat trip leaves Riva degli Schiavoni, passes the Doge's Palace and St Mark's from the water, follows the Giudecca Canal past San Giorgio Maggiore, and turns at the Molino Stucky. It never enters a canal narrower than a shipping channel.
Neither is a Grand Canal tour. The catalogue has no boat tour that runs the Grand Canal from end to end. If seeing the palaces along its full length is your goal, none of these products does it.
3When the gondola is the wrong call
Families with a pushchair cannot bring it on board or leave it at the quay, according to the shared gondola voucher. The same listing is marked not wheelchair accessible, while the boat trip is marked accessible with a companion.
Travellers who mind queues should read the San Zaccaria voucher, which warns of a possibly long wait while groups are walked to the station and loaded. And anyone who would resent 30 silent minutes beside strangers should either pay for the private gondola or put the money elsewhere.
4When to do both, or neither
Doing the boat trip and the cheapest gondola together costs from about €48 per person, still far under the galleon dinner cruise at €120. They do not overlap, so the pair makes sense for a first visit of two days or more.
If you have one evening and a larger budget, the galleon is a different kind of product: three hours, dinner and wine included, a 9.5 score. It shows the lagoon islands and the Giudecca Canal, not the small canals, so it replaces the boat trip and not the gondola.