We have a 6:55 am flight out of Venice (Marco Polo) Airport. We are traveling other places in Italy so will only have the one day before we leave to spend in Venice. Does anyone have suggestions on whether we should sleep in Venice or close to the airport? I wanted to sleep in Venice to experience it at night, but it sounds complicated (or expensive) to get to the airport, esp. that early in the morning. Alternatively, are there decent hotels near the airport?
Thank you!
You will find that question pretty frequently addressed in this Travel Forum and the consensus is always to sleep in Venice. I believe the airport is not staffed before 5:00. All of the transfer services start pretty early.
Thank you for this information. I tried to find this topic before posting, but it is challenging b/c there are so many postings to search through. And I couldn't find a search field to narrow down all the postings.
I had the same departure time last fall. I stayed near San Marco and took the first Alilaguna boat to the airport. It left around 4 AM. It worked fine, and I was glad I didn't have to transfer during the journey. The other alternative is to take an early morning vaporetto to the train station area, and then transfer to a bus.
Just make sure that you're staying reasonably near a vaporetto stop that has a very early pick up. Not all of them do.
You can still experience Venice in the evening... just have dinner, walk around and then instead of going to bed in Venice and dealing with the stress in the morning, take a bus or taxi or whatever and go to the hotel at the airport. So much less stress and an hour or two more sleep. Or... pay more and sleep in Venice. I have spent many nights there, but try not to the night before the early flight. Once there was such heavy fog in the morning it was doubtful we would make it to the airport. Can't remember the name of airport hotel, but it was fine, and reasonable... there are a few.
You should try to find a hotel in Venice as close as possible to Piazzale Roma (cars can drive there).
Then early in the morning you can walk to Piazzale Roma (or take a short vaporetto ride) and from piazzale Roma take a regular taxi (the type with wheels).
The drive to the airport from Piazzale Roma early in the morning is less than 15 minutes. A little longer with the Aerobus.
The Alilaguna boats all the way to the airport is another option, but via boat it's a long ride. Boats aren't as fast as cars.
Your flight is a intra-EU flight, therefore you need to be at the airport about 60-75 min. prior to departure. For your 6:55am flight, an arrival at the airport by 5:45 would be sufficient.
Thank you for all the suggestions. These are very helpful!
