Early flight out of Venice. Where should we stay?

Last July, my family of four stayed very close to the Rialto Bridge and the Alilaguna boat has a stop there which starts very early in the morning to the airport. It made for a very simple and comfortable departure. For a family of four, the expense is not much more than other means of getting to the airport and much nicer. The Alilaguna has other stops, so anywhere near one of them would work. I'm sure others can help with where those stops are located.

Resist the temptation to stay close to the aiport. Busses start running from Piazzale Roma at 5 am and will get you to Marco Polo by about 5:30. Alilaguna starts running from the San Marco stops around 3:40 and arrives at the aiport at 5:00. there is about a 10 minute walk from the docks to the terminal. You will want Linea Blu. Linea Arrancio that runs from the Rialto stop doesn't start early enough for your departure. http://www.alilaguna.it/index.en.htm Marco Polo is a smaller aiport and easy to navigate. Frankly there is not a lot going on prior to 05:30. Vaporettos will be running on a reduced night schedule but they will get you around Venice at that hour. They just don't go to the airport. Consider packing an LED headlamp or a couple of small flashlights.

This is an often asked question on this site. In general, you have 5 choices. 1) get to the Piazzale Roma by 4:30am to take the first ACTV No 5 bus at 4:40am. The ride to the airport takes 25 minutes (airport at 5:05am). The next ACTV bus departs at 5:40am. This may be too late. There is also the ATVO bus that departs at 5:00am. ACTV is a city bus. ATVO is a private bus line. 2) Take the Alilaguna water bus. To do this, you will need to be near one of their stops. The big question is where are you staying? The Alilaguna has limited stops in Venice so this will determine if Alilaguna works for your family or if you will have to take the vaporetto to get to the Piazzale Roma. You can check out www.alilaguna.it to see their route maps. I can tell you that the Blu line has no stops on the main part of the Grand Canal. It does stop at San Marco and San Zaccaria. The Arancio line has only 5 stops on the Grand Canal. The fare is 15Eu per person. Again, where are you staying? Note that the #1 and #2 vaporettos don't begin daily operations until about 4:30am. The first #1 will get you to the Piazzale Roma at 5.16am. You won't make the the first two buses. Next, there is the night vaporetto. Line N. This water bus runs during the night and stops at most stops. 3) The private water taxi (90Eu-110Eu). Your hotel can arrange the taxi pickup. I believe that you can do this online as well. For 4 people, it might be worth it. 4) Stay in a hotel near the airport. The Courtyard by Marriott is almost within walking distance. Others are nearby. You can stay in Venice and make it. 5) Sleep in the airport. Yep - people do it. See www.sleepinginairports.com.