Airport to Venice

i took the 13 euro water taxi from the airport to venice...makes a few stops along the way through the lagoon (murano, lido etc...)...on the way back i just took the bus...much quicker and only 3 euro...the bus lot is real close to the main train station and main water bus areas at the top of the grand canal...

Thank you both!

Matthew is not refering to a "water taxi" when he says he took one that makes a few stops. He's referring to Alilaguna, a private service that functions more like a bus on the water. http://www.alilaguna.it/index.en.html There are water taxis, that will take you from the airport to wherever you want to go on the island, but they cost a fortune.

Thanks Matthew!

im just wondering, can you buy the transit pass at the airport before bording the bus to venice? thanks

The most inexpensive way to get the main part of Venice from Marco Polo airport is to take a land bus to Piazzale Roma. All land traffic ends at P le Roma. From there you would either walk or take vaporetto and walk to your hotel. There are two busses. An orange ACTV city bus runs a regular route with stops along the way. Takes about 25-30 minutes, costs 2 euro per person. A blue ATVO bus is an express shuttle with no stops. Takes about 20 minutes and costs 3 euro. Either work, although the ATVO bus has more luggage storage underneath. A single ride vaporetto ticket currently costs 6.50 euro per person. If you are going to buy a vaporetto pass while you are in Venice, the pass would also cover the orange ACTV bus from the airport.

Just so I understand correctly, bus to the island and vaparetto to our destination? We're staying right of San Marco.

Natalie - Yes, you can get the transport pass at the airport so that the ride on the Orange ACTV bus would be covered. Remember though that when you first validate it is when the clock starts on the pass. you can also purchase the pass online in advance through www.veniceconnected.com and possibly get a discount depending on when you are traveling. the pass can be picked up at the airport.

We did this three weeks ago - my husband thought it was the coolest part of the trip. If you have bags I would highly recommend a private taxi to your hotel if possible. It's not the greatest city to have to cart around bags - there are a lot of bridges and irregular surfaces. The bridges have steps so you would be hauling up your bags and then hauling them down. Plus the streets can be very narrow. We paid $110 E to drop at the hotel steps (the door opened onto the canal so we all stepped up from water to the lobby - very memorable!) http://europeforvisitors.com/venice/articles/alilaguna-and-water-taxis.htm

http://europeforvisitors.com/venice/ has some useful tips with photos...taking the vaparetto after you get off the bus is probably the way to go...there are a bunch of small bridges and small alleys that may make toting your bags a hassle- but it is part of the fun of walking around Venice without bags later on! check out Rick's Grand Canal tour on the vaparetto...pretty much follows where you will be starting and ending once you get off the bus. (then again...how many times can you take a boat from an airport!)

You could take the Alilaguna line (Linea ORO) directly from the airport to San Marco. (30 Euro one-way or 50 Euro round-trip; 25 Euro one-way if purchased online). A little pricey, but more convenient and a time saver. http://www.alilaguna.it/lineaoro-eng.html

Is the Alilaguna line fee per person or per couple?

The ticket price listed for Alilaguna is per person. Let me try to give you the options: there are two methods to get to Venice from Marco Polo. Land or water. I've outlined the land options above, but you could also take a land taxi as well. I don't know the price. Any land based arrival will probably include traveling down the Grand Canal to reach your final destination in Venice proper once you get to P le Roma. On the water side you have two options. Both load at the airport docks which are about a 5 - 10 minute walk from the new terminal. Alilaguna is a large shuttle boat that probably holds 50 or so people. It runs on a fixed route and has a regular schedule. There are basically four routes from the airport to the main parts of Venice. Linea Blu and Rosso have been around the longest and have more scheduled runs and the earliest runs. They stop at Murano and the Lido and Venice. Linea Arrancio is a route that goes from the airport to stops down the Grand Canal from the P le Roma end. It only goes as far as the Rialto and San Angelo not all the way to San Marco. Linea Oro is an express. It only has 2 stops San Zaccaria and San Marco. Linea Blu, Rosso and Arrancio cost 13 euro per person and include luggage allowances. Linea Oro costs 30 euro person. The 3 "normal" routes will get you to Venice in around an hour 15 - 25. Linea Oro takes about an hour but costs more than twice as much. The second water method is by water taxi. Water taxis are sleek speedboats that hold 6-8 people with luggage. They generally take about 30 minutes to get to Venice and the current cost is around 100 euro per trip. The price is the same if you have one person or eight. Water taxis can navigate smaller canals and usually get you rather close to your hotel or apartment. Many spots will have a dock or a water door. You can also get a water taxi at P le Roma instead of the vaporetto. Price would run around 50-60 euro to most spots in Venice.

Alilaguna = www.alilaguna.it vaporetto = www.actv.it