familiar with Alilaguna water bus?

Jamie - Alilaguna boats and routes are not numbered, they are color coded. From the Rialto stop, you will want Alilaguna Linea Arancio (Orange Line). The Alilaguna logo at the stop and on the boat should be orange. Although that is the only Alilaguna boat that goes that far down the Grand Canal.

Depending on exactly where your hotel is one of two stops may work for you. Alilaguna Linea Arancio leaves the San Angelo stop at 07:59 and then leaves the Rialto stop at 08:03 arriving at the airport at 08:57.

It is about a 5-10 minute walk from the docks at the aiport to the terminal. So taking this one should get you there before 09:30. this is the first run for the Arancio line. If you need to get there earlier then Linea Blu runs earlier but only from San Marco not Rialto.

Please be advised that the Alilaguna stops are near but are not the same places as the ACTV vaporetto stops. Make sure you are waiting at the correct entrance dock. cost should 13 euros per person.

http://www.alilaguna.it/lineaarancio.html

Jamie - From the Rialto Bridge stop you would take Vaporetto #81 to the Airport. Figuring about 40 minutes to play it safe and having to be there at least an hour and a half prior to flight tells you you're leaving early!!
The alternative, which would save a short amount of time would be the water taxi but that's about a $100 bill. It is a sweet ride;however, and my favorite way to leave Venezia.
Have a Great time in Venice!!

Ciao, Greg

An alternative, in case you miss the 8:03 a.m. ARANCIO (orange) line, is to walk from the Rialto bridge to San Marco (a very short walk) and pick up the "ORO" (gold) line which leaves from the San Marco (Giardinetti) stop and goes directly to the airport. This is their FAST line. This line goes around Venice and not down the Grand Canal which means that it might be a little faster depending upon traffic congestion along the canal. There are also two extra stops along the ARANCIO line to consider. The earliest departure of the "ORO" line is 8:30 a.m. from San Marco (Giardinetti) and it arrives at the airport at 9:30 a.m.

http://www.alilaguna.it/lineaoro-eng.html

Jamie, the first Alilaguna Orange line boat seems to depart Rialto at 7:59 and arrives at Marco Polo at 8:57. Here's the link to their schedule. http://www.alilaguna.it/pdf/alilaguna_routes2009.pdf

You do have other choices. You can easily take the No 1 or No 2 vaporetto to the Piazzale Roma and take either the ACTV No 5 bus or the ATVO bus to Marco Polo. The bus ride takes 20 minutes. Buses depart the Piazzale Roma as early as 5:00am.

As for a bit of information above, but unless things have changed recently, no vaporetto goes to the airport. It's either bus, Alilaguna, the water taxi or the new service listed above. Also, the No 81 vaporetto went away over a year ago. It's now the No 2 vaporetto. Same runs.

I took the bus # 5 last Monday to the airport and it only cost $2.5 euros. It took 20 minutes. You can purchase the ticket at the newspaper stand inside of the train station. Walk back out and turn right and go over the new bridge and the bus # 5 is to your left and it will say San Marco airport (in italian) on it. It worked out great for me because I already had a 48 hour vaporetto pass from my hotel to the St Lucia station.

Thanks to you all for all of the information offered. We will either do the Alilaguna Orange line or the shared transfer but I think that we will wait until we get to Venice to decide. The important thing is that it looks like we have two excellent options. I appreciate your info about the bus but we want to leave Venice by water just in case we don't get back there again it will be the best way to remember it.
Hey Ron, go Salukis! My husband and I met at SIU 32 years ago.

We just came back from Venice and had an 8:50 a.m. flight. We were a bit nervous and could not get a straight answer from anyone finally we figured it it and it worked perfectly. We took the Vaporetto to Piazzale Roma (6.50 euro) and then took the bus to the airport (2.50 euros). Nice and easy. No problems whatsover. Got to the airport with plenty of time to check in and have a Caffe Latte!

Jamie, if you want a water ride that you won't forget, take the water taxi. I call it the James Bond ride. With an early morning flight, you get to see Venice wake up as you sprint to the airport. Travelers on this site will tell you that it is truly unforgetable. Your hotel can set this up. The fare is about 90-100Euro but this cost can be shared by up to 6-7 people. You might work with other couples in your hotel to share the ride.