Flying out of Venice early

This is a very common occurance in Venice as these early flights are designed to get you to major airports to board your plane back to the USA. The water taxi will cost about 90E-110E for up to 6-8 passengers. It is the most expensive taxi ride you may ever experience. However, some find it one of their best experiences in Venice. I've called it the James Bond ride for years as you go through the canals as the City wakes up. It's really great. Alternatively, buses begin running to the airport from the Piazzale Roma at 4:40 for the ACTV No 5 bus and at 5:00am for the ATVO bus. The trip to the airport takes about 25 minutes. If you are on either of these two buses, you will be checked in on time. Marco-Polo is not that large. However, if you miss either of these two buses, the next buses are about an hour later and you will most likely not make it in time. This brings up the question of how you will get to the Piazzale Roma by 4:40 when the daily vaporettos don't begin their daily runs until 5:00am. The vaporetto travel time from S.Marco-S.Zaccaria is about 32 minutes. The answer is the Night Vaporetto. You will need to be on the 3:58 or 4:18 night vaporetto to make it in time for either of the two buses. Fare is been going up to around 7Euro. Here's a picture of the night vaporetto schedule. http://gyazo.com/b7c96390ef8dac1d1982af971e564396

With a flight that earlier in the AM it will be a connecting flight to somewhere else in Europe for your flight home. So if you are there by six you should be fine. Ask you hotel for best recommendation to the airport. Water Taxis are expensive.

AA doesn't fly out of VCE, therefore you are on a code share flight (based on the time of departure I presume it is the Iberia flight to Madrid). Since MAD is within the Schengen area, you will be required to be at the airport one hour prior to departure. The check in closes 30 min. prior to departure. So make sure you are at the airport at 6:30 am and you'll be fine. From the San Marco area, the water taxi or the Alilaguna are probably the fastest options. The Alilaguna blue line has a boat at 4:50 leaving San Marco and getting to the airport at 6:07. That is early enough and certainly cheaper than the watertaxi.
http://www.alilaguna.it/en/linea-blu/blu-timetable

With the early morning flights I usually stay closer to the airport. I just like to be closer and we typically do a nice dinner in Venice, then out to the hotel by the airport to organize our stuff and get ready for early wake up call.

Yes, Roberto....we are flying to MAD that morning to catch our flight home. I will check into the Aliguna timetable. Thanks for the tip!

Rachel , I would STRONGLY agree with Terry Kathryn's advice to stay out at the airport the night before . You can undoubtably finesse something early in the AM but that adds a high stress factor and a certain level of risk for something going flooey at the last minute . As a matter of fact , we always stay the last night at the airport , regardless of where we are before a homebound flight . As an example this coming fall we are spending ten days in Paris at the end of our trip . Our flight out from CDG is 8:04AM , and the last day before departure we will check out of our hotel near Les Invalides and leave our bags there for the day while we enjoy our last day in the city . After dinner , and rush hour , we will take the RER to the airport arriving around 9 PM in time to relax a bit and get some sleep . No early morning scrambling or concern about a cab or whether we can make an early train . We have learned that this is one of those travel techniques that eliminates stress with no negative side effects. After all , while you are asleep , you aren't missing anything !!

For early flights out of Venice, a hotel closer to the airport might be better. By boat it takes well over an hour. If you were flying out of Rome, I would say there is no need to be close to the airport, since a taxi can take you from the city center to the Rome Fiumicino airport in less than 30 min.. But reaching the airport from Venice is a little more time consuming. Same problem with Milan Malpensa, which is also a distance away from the city center.

This is one of the reasons that I'm willing to pay a little more to find flights that depart later in the morning. FWIW, the Venice airport is very small and easy to negotiate. Good luck!

My 2 cents: While in the airport, listen carefully to the announcements. There were numerous gate changes the morning we flew out of VCE. Our gate was changed and I missed the first announcement, but was fortunate enough to catch just a bit of the last announcement due to the announcer's (rightfully) heavy accent. We had to hustle and barely made our flight. Dave

I'm flying out of Venice airport on the 7:30 Iberia flight to Madrid (in March). My hotel is walkind distance from the Fondamente Nuove stop. According to the Alilaguna schedule, I can hop on the blue line at 4:21 AM and be at the airport at 5:00 AM, or if I miss that, I can be on the 5:29 AM boat and be at the airport at 6:07 AM. My only concern is that by the time the Blue Line gets to the Fondamente Nuove stop, it will already be full. But other than that, it looks like the perfect (inexpensive) set up.

I strongly suggest staying that last night near the airport just to avoid the added stress of surprises on connections. You could spend the day/evening in Venice and head over to the airport hotel late evening.