Boat Taxi's, travel in Venice

Let me try to answer the questions....

The passes are good for all land and water transport that ACTV operates in Venice. that would be the orange ACTV bus from the airport and the vaporettos. The vaporettos running to the other islands in the lagoon are included. The way they work is you purchase the pass, validate it as you get on the transport and it will be good for the number of hours from that time. If you get a 24 hour pass and validate at 11:00 am it will be good until the next day at 11:00 am.

You'll get lots of differing opinions on how long to stay in Venice. I'm one of the folks that believes you can't spend too much time there. So I vote for extending your reservation. We went in September last year and were there for 8 days and could have stayed another week or a lifetime.

Getting to the airport very early can be a challenge. The public boat Alilaguna (not covered by the pass and about 12 euros each) looks like it leaves the San Marco stop at 03:40 and arrives at Marco Polo at 05:00 and it should take you about 10 minutes to walk to the terminal.

A water taxi can get from the city to the airport in about 30 minutes or less but costs around 85-100 euros, probably on the higher end because of the early hour.

I don't know how sleeper friendly the airport is but ALilaguna also has a run from San Marco to the airport at 22:25 arriving at 23:44

here is their website

www.alilaguna.it

Re #3, it depends on what you like to do. There's plenty for most people to do and see in Venice for five days. (We're going to be there for six in May. I'd spend a month in Venice if I could.) And if you get a little antsy during the day, there are easy daytrips (Verona, Vicenza, Padova, Ravenna). You would then be doing the "reverse commute" during the day, leaving Venice when it's at its most crowded, and then returning in the early evening when its magic really starts to shine.

One of the worst oversights in booking Venice is an early morning trip to the airport from the main part of the city. This site has numerous posts of early morning flight problems to Venice-Marco Polo. To use reasonable transportation (buses, Alilaguna, etc.) you just can't have a flight depart earlier than 8:00am. Even though transportation services start as early as 4:00am, it's a struggle to get there in time for the proper check-in.

What traveler's are forced to do is hire a water taxi for high-speed water transport to the airport. It's currently running 100E-115E ($155-$170) to hire a water taxi.

Yes you can have a water taxi standing by at your hotel at 3:30am or so but look at the expense. However, I would strongly suggest staying near the airport. There are a few hotels there. I would suggest the Marriott Courtyard which is .8km from the airport. 132E/night. Not sure about shuttle. You might also look into the Titian Inn Hotel and Residence. It's also nearby the airport and, they have a shuttle. http://titianinn.hotelinvenice.com/overview.html?source=-titian+inn+hotel+venice

I vote for spending another magical night wandering Venezia care free...and dropping the $150.00 US to arrange for the private water taxi very early AM near your hotel. When you think about how much you're paying to get there, why sacrifice a minute of quality Venetian time for $150.00?

Thanks Ron:
Does this mean that if we buy the 5-day pass we would be able to hop to the barrier islands and use bus on them and mainland?

How far onto/into the mainland is the pass valid?

If so I am probably going to lock in the other 3 days to stay right there in Venice!
Last day I may get room at motel near airport, seems safest way to actually get to plain in time.

The pass would be valid anyplace that ACTV services. On the mainland that would be Mestre and the airport. I also believe there are buses in Chiogia and on the Lido. The lagon islands are reached by vaporetto. Most of the guide books will have a reasonably up to date route map.

1st trip to Venice we also had an early flight leaving. We opted to move to a hotel near the airport the night before. Yes, we missed being in Venice that night, but it was worth the lack of worry about missing the flight due to strikes or whatever. Venice is a great place to end your trip, the lack of traffic and cars makes it seem so relaxing, even if you're like us and walk everywhere. Remember the vaparetto is great, BUT, you see more by walking. We take a different route back to the hotel every time just to stumble upon different sights. We were heading into this small church in Venice, and a great group of people started coming out. So we stepped aside to wait, and actually saw a funeral procession with the funeral boat pulling up and away. When we realized it was a funeral we backed off about a 1/2 block, the people who walked by smiled and tipped hats, I think grateful.

Just wanted to say GRAZIE to everyone who helped and left suggestions.
If the trip is anywhere as friendly, and I have no doubt it will be, we will have a great time.

I hope to be able to contribute as much when we get back.

Thanks again, keep the suggestions coming, I am reading and printing.

Ray & Kim

About the early air departure, we were also concerned about dragging our bags through Venice at 4 am and then the Vaporettos don't seem to come quite as frequently in the early morning hours either. Our solution was to stay at the Courtyard Marriott, about 5 minutes from the airport. It was ideal and we got all the stress of getting out of Venice over with so the flying day merely had the flying stress!

I just wanted to past-back that I tried to purchase the Venice Pass online yesterday, (blue or Orange), and the web site simply refused to accept the info.
S I called directly, they said I can simply purchase the pass upon arriving. This is in direct contrary to what I have read in RS's 'Venice' book. (It says you need to purchase 2 days in advance)

If this is wrong, I hope someone will respond, but as for now I am going to wait to arrive then buy a 5-day pass, probably the Orange pass.

This may not be of help as you are leaving at such a horrid hour but last year I took the vaporetto to Roma Square and then got a taxi (car taxi not water taxi) to the airport. I found that the least stressful for me but I 'm not sure that there would be a taxi around at that hour. Perhaps your hostel can help with the best solution.

Grazie persone!

As it stands now we are leaning towards enjoying the heck out of Venice, possibly interior (Suggestions?) within a days train ride. We have decided that if we stayed in a hotel we probably wouldn't sleep anyway. (1st we wouldn't want to retire early on out last night, and 2nd we would probably not fall asleep for the 3 hours we would have worrying about getting to the airport)

So we will either ride the first vaporetti to the airport after a entire evening of Venice. (we do OK without sleep, are parents). The only concern is are there places open basically all night??. I figure we will find this out while we are there.

or

Wander by train into the interior, and time our return to be early morning and arrive at the airport at the horrible hour required.

All suggestions are still welcomed and appreciated.

Ray & Kim