Evening arrival in Venice-help!

Contact your hotel for advice.

You may want to spring for a water taxi from wherever the land shuttle drops you, rather than finding your way from a vaporetto stop.

Yeah, if you can fit it in the budget ; a private water taxi will always put you in a good mood to start or end your time in Venice.
Unless packing really light I would always recommend it.

Zoe's advise about asking the hotel so you know 1.) what to tell the water taxi driver in terms of best place to drop you off and 2.) walking instructions from drop off point to hotel

Take a water taxi. Any other option will take at least 1.5 hours and the last place you want to be looking for an address is Venice after dark, even without luggage.

Edit - I don't think you'll save much money by taking a land journey to the city and then a water taxi to San Marco - and it may even take more time.

I come down on the other side of the coin.

By the time you will have walked the 10 to 15 minutes from the arrivals hall to the taxi docks at the airport your efficient, fast, cheap bus right from the door will be half way to Venice.

It is so easy then to get a vaporetto which goes every 20 minutes at that time of day (takes 39 minutes) from P Roma - it will want to be the number 1 because the number 2 doesn't go down the Grand Canal at that time, just around the outside, and the views into the the chandelier lit buildings are SO incredible at that time of day, and the vaporetto will be nearly empty.

Your hotel will tell you which stop to get off at for the easiest arrival - or tell us which hotel and I will help you.

Venice in most places is by no means dark, especially near S Marco, and the hotels (almost) all have big illuminated signs so finding your hotel shouldn't be hard at all. You will be at the hotel, having had a fun trip down the Grand Canal, not a whole lot slower than an expensive taxi.

But if you want to take a taxi by all means do so - it s your vacation to enjoy however you wish.

My point is that your arrival isn't all that late, and you can have a lot of fun on the way no matter what you choose.

Well, almost. If you pick the Alilaguna (I did, just the once) you won't see much, it is slow, it is still the long walk to the dock at the airport, and the boats aren't the nicest. I wouldn't suggest that one.

Agree with Nigel completely. It's really not that late, the bus from the airport and the vaporetto will still be running, and with good directions from the hotel you should not have a problem finding it even at night. It's even an interesting way of doing things the "local" way. If you go to googlemaps.com and type in the address of the hotel, you can get the lay of the land before you leave home. By playing around you can use the street view and even walk the route itself.

Bravo, Nigel!

Hi, thanks to all who replied! I really appreciate your advice and suggestions---now this doesn't sound as scary as I thought it might be--I was freaking out a bit about arriving at night! Now, you have given me knowledge (always powerful!) and the courage! Thank you! Karen

Do go to your hotel's website and look at their arrival recommendations. Since Venice addresses are "unusual," most hotel websites have detailed directions for getting there from the station and the airport. The "St. Marks Square area" is large, and different parts of it are best accessed from different vaporetto stops. If you are taking a water taxi right from the airport, you can access many more docks than the vaporetti can (your hotel may even have its own dock, or one very close by). Again, the website should have these details.