Pierce County gondola offers date nights, romantic views and a taste of Venice
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- Gig Harbor Gondola operates two authentic Venetian gondolas offering harbor rides.
- Owner John Synco has rowed gondolas since 2002, and in Gig Harbor since 2015.
- Tours run one hour or 90 minutes; guests may bring food or pre-order via Slice + Social.
There’s only one place in the world where you can see Mount Rainier from aboard an authentic Venetian gondola.
That’s according to John Synco, owner of a one-man show that takes passengers on slow, romantic rides just off of the town’s waterfront in one of his two gondolas, shipped directly from Italy. His business, Gig Harbor Gondola, recently celebrated its 10 year anniversary.
Synco has been rowing gondolas for longer than that. It’s been nearly 24 years since he started, he said. He got his first gondolier job in 2002 working for Gondola Getaway, a business that takes passengers on rides through the canals of Naples Island in Long Beach, California.
He jokes that he found Gig Harbor on Google Maps.
“I see the shape of the harbor, and I remember thinking, ‘Well, that might be a protected waterway,’” Synco said.
He and his wife fell in love with the town after they visited and started chatting with locals, he said. They made their home in Gig Harbor in May 2015, and Synco had his first boat by September of that year. He made a post on Facebook advertising gondola rides, and “then it just kind of snowballed from there,” he said.
The business operates out of Gig Harbor Marina & Boatyard at 3117 Harborview Dr., and Synco meets his passengers next to The Trolley @ the Boatyard, a restaurant that operates out of a red former trolley car. He leads them down to where he has two 36-foot Venetian gondolas, Nelly and Tommaso, moored to the dock. Both gondolas can hold a maximum of six passengers. From there, Synco offers rides lasting either one hour, traveling along half the harbor; or 90 minutes, traveling the full harbor.
For two people, the one-hour ride costs $100 and a 90-minute ride costs $135. Each additional passenger, up to six total, costs $25, with the exception of children 5 and under who ride free, according to the Gig Harbor Gondola website. Rides are offered year-round.
Customers may cancel their reservation at least 24 hours beforehand and have the option to get a full refund, to reschedule or to convert their ride into an e-gift card to use later on. If weather conditions aren’t favorable, such as “steady rain, high winds or snow,” cancellations can occur day of, per their cancellation policy.
Passengers can bring anything they’d like to eat or drink. Gig Harbor Gondola partners with Slice + Social to give guests the opportunity to pre-order appetizers for their ride at least two days in advance, the Gig Harbor Gondola website says.
Asked about his favorite memories from the last 10 years, Synco recalled how meaningful it was to give rides to some of his first passengers. They tended to be older people in their 80s or early 90s, born and raised in Gig Harbor, and would reminisce about how they’d seen the harbor change, he said.
“ ... some of them were telling me stories about how, for decades, one side of the harbor was pretty empty,” he said. “It was just like these little cabins ... . And so from afar, over the decades, they have watched the other side get developed with these bigger homes, and the gondola ride was their first time getting to see everything up close.”
As a former journalist, Synco soaked it all in, trying to retain as much as possible, he said.
Then there was his very first proposal — he still has a picture of the couple on his gondola, with one of them holding up a sign saying “She said YES!”
Or that time he passed right by a gray whale: “... I’ll never forget about that, exhaled out of its blow hole right next to me on the boat,” he said.
He doesn’t have any family ties to Venice, but he said he loves visiting the city and has “so much more to learn about it all.” Besides the boats themselves, he also sources his oars and forcola — the skillfully carved wooden piece or oarlock that holds the oar as the rower rows — from Venice and has politely declined when well-meaning passengers offer to make him new ones. He buys from Venice to show them respect, he explained.
“I think the next 10 years, I think it’s just going to be me growing old on the back of a gondola, basically,” he said. Just getting as many people out as I can. You never know who you’re going to meet out there.”
This story was originally published October 21, 2025 at 10:46 AM.
