I took my kids to Venice for the first time. Our trip would've been better if we'd avoided these 5 mistakes.

• I went on a trip to Venice with two of my children and made travel mistakes I wish I'd avoided.
• Our gondola ride felt overrated and I wish I'd researched more about the best places to eat.
• The hotel I booked was actually on a different island in Venice, not the main one.

I've visited more than 65 countries and consider myself an experienced traveler.

Sometimes, I prepare for trips by doing exhaustive research, and other times, I wing it and hope for the best. I've been to Italy a few times so, on a recent trip to Venice, I decided to play things by ear.

I thought it would be a better use of my time to concentrate on other parts of the trip, which involved taking two of my children through Europe from Rome to Warsaw.

Although my kids and I had a great time in Venice, there are five travel mistakes I wish we'd avoided.

Not staying on the Venice mainland

Most visitors to Venice, including us, come for the sites on the main island, like Piazza San Marco and Doge's Palace.

However, Venice is made up of over 100 islands that all include "Venice" in their address. This confused me when I was booking hotels and I ended up accidentally selecting an accommodation in Murano.

We had to take ferry rides to get from there to the main island of Venice and back throughout our trip, which ate into our travel time and budget.

I met plenty of people who intentionally chose to stay on quiet, laid-back Murano, but I wish I'd booked a hotel on the main island.

Going on a gondola ride

Like many visitors to Venice, I was convinced the highlight of our trip would be being paddled through the city's serene canals by a gondolier. However, our gondola ride was anything but the bespoke experience I'd been dreaming of.

Instead of leisurely floating through picturesque waters, our ride along Venice's main canal was mostly spent bumper-to-bumper with other boats while we listened to our gondolier chat with the gondolier in front of him.

Fortunately, we found a better way to enjoy the waters of Venice.

Later in the trip, my children and I took a laid-back rowing lesson with Row Venice, which was more fun than the gondola ride.

We learned to row a traditional Venetian boat on a nearly empty canal, and the instructor gave us a ride as part of the lesson.

Next time, I'd skip the gondola ride and book another rowing lesson.

Not getting up early

I'd heard Venice gets crowded (especially in the summer) and that getting there early is important to try to dodge crowds, but I'm a night owl.

I ignored this advice and figured that, as an experienced traveler, I'd be fine to navigate the crowds.

However, I was not prepared for just how crowded Venice's narrow streets would get during the day. We regularly found ourselves squeezing around other sweaty tourists in the narrow streets or waiting behind groups of people to look at landmarks.

I still had a great time in Venice, but I regret not setting my alarm earlier at least once to enjoy the city when it was calmer and less crowded.

Believing all Italian food is delicious

At home in the United States, Italian food is a staple of my family's diet. It's usually hard to go wrong with any pizza or pasta, so I didn't research where to eat in Venice.

I assumed all of the food in Italy would be delicious. Unfortunately, by being open to eating wherever, we wound up at a number of tourist traps with mediocre pasta and even worse pizza.

Toward the end of the trip, I started putting effort into finding the best traditional Italian food in Venice and found a few gems, including the oldest pizzeria in the city.

If I ever go back, I'll do more research about where to eat ahead of time. After all, Italy has so much incredible cuisine that there's no excuse for eating even one subpar meal there.

Not giving ourselves enough time to leave

There are no cars in Venice, so it's not possible to hop in a cab to get to the city's airport, train station, or bus depot.

On our way to leave the city, we had to navigate narrow walkways and bridges — with our luggage — on foot. Doing so took longer than expected and was stressful.

Next time, I'd allocate more time to just getting to our exit point in Venice.