How Difficult is it to Get to Venice Airport?

Yes, you can take a water taxi if you like. They are expensive (125 EUR range) and drop you at the airport dock which is still about 400 meters from the actual airport, but they now have a moving walkway on a sky bridge that helps a lot.

Much less expensive, and more convenient (IMO) is the frequent bus service from Piazzale Roma that drops you right at the front door. There are also land taxi's available there if like to spend more.

Lastly, there is a scheduled bus-boat service called Alilaguna, which can be crowded, makes lots of stops and drops you at the same dock the water taxis use.

what Sam said, but with more explicit dislike of Alilaguna to which in addition to all those criticisms, I would like to add stuffy cabin, high windows caked in salt while you sit low which means very very limited view, and to top it off are the yummy strong diesel fumes.

otherwise, what Sam said....

We are flying out of Venice next month on a 11:20 am flight so this thread is relevant to me as well. I had planned to take the Aliluguna from the Rialto stop but comments here are giving me pause.

Is it still preferable to take the bus if you have to first take the vapor et to? I had thought would be simpler but perhaps that advantage disappears when you arrive.

If you look at the Alilaguna schedule, you'll see that you will be on the boat for over an hour to get to the airport and it makes 4 intermediate stops between Rialto and the airport, including Murano which adds to the time. Taking the vaporetto to Piazzale Roma might seem complicated, but it is pretty simple and there is a combined boat plus bus ticket that gives a discount over buying separate tickets for each. Further, if you buy a multi-day vaporetto pass, you can add a one way airport bus transfer for less than the cost of an individual bus ticket when you buy the pass.

From the Piazzale boat dock it is a walk of about 50 meters to the bus stand, and it is a low-floor bus that is easy to board with luggage. As I said, it drops you right at the airport front door. The bus ride is about 30 minutes and though technically it can make stops to pick up additional passengers, it is usually direct to the airport.

I have not ridden the Alilaguna boats, but Nigel's description sounds about right.

What time would the return flight be? How many travelers? That may be the indicator of how difficult it may be. The difficulty tends to be for those very early flights. Alliguna doesn't start to run until 6 or 7 a.m. There is a perfectly reasonable bus that runs hourly and starts early.

Rialto is an easy and fast vaporetto ride to P Roma where the bus goes from. The vaporetto is every 10 minutes or less, and if you are on the Rialto side (as opposed to the Rialto Mercato side) you can take either the number 2 or the number 1, whichever comes first; if you are on the Rialto Mercato side it will be the number 1 as the number 2 doesn't stop there. If you are confident with Venice navigation you could walk to P Roma from the Mercato side pretty easily.

Some others may like the Alilaguna, and it is somewhat convenient at Rialto but less so at the airport, but I have used it once and that was enough for me. Until covid I was in Venice almost every year and that's a route I'll not repeat.

We are planning on flying home from Venice next summer and our decision on how to get to the airport is based on our flight time (morning), hotel location (just off St. Mark's), and group size (4). Water taxi. If you are staying closer to where it is convenient for the bus do that, but as others have said the A-boats are awful.

I appreciate the input as I thought I had figured out the best alternative. I knew it was an hour but just assumed that was how long it took to get to the airport as that is the case in many cities.

We will take the bus instead.

Hi,
I last flew home from Venice on November 7, 2018, a Wednesday. I paid $15 (I think that's euros) for a 6:35 AM ticket for an Ali Laguna (sp.?) boat to the Marco Polo Airport. I think I boarded at or near the Rialto stop. Other than a married couple from VA, there was no one else on the boat. My diary says it took about an hour to get to the airport. It was a smooth, effortless and nice trip. There were a couple of cafes open at that time of morning and I was able to grab an espresso and croissant/lemon tart for a quick breakfast before boarding.

Best of luck

If you decide to take the #5 bus from the Piazzale Roma, I recommend that you go scope out the Piazzale Roma at some point in advance so you are sure of where the bus leaves from and its schedule. You could also pick up a ticket then. I had a bit of a hassle trying to find it at 4:00 a.m. once - didn’t miss the plane, but it was a bit nerve racking.

A water taxi is expensive but a once in a lifetime thrill. Especially if it’s early morning. Seeing Venice “wake up” without the crowds is spectacular

We would be staying in one of Rick’s suggested B&Bs near San Marco. I need to dig into the various terms and modes of transportation. Is the frequent bus service from Piazzale Roma that drops you right at the airport door a land bus that I take some type of boat to?

Wheeled means of transport (cars, cabs and buses) can't go further Piazzale Roma.

How you go from your BnB to Piazzale Roma Square depends on you, on the number of suitcases you're dragging around and on your ability to lift those suitcases up and down Venice bridges.

Since central Venice is very small, you could just walk. Otherwise you could take a water bus from San Marco Square to Piazzale Roma and then get on a wheeled bus or a wheeled cab to the airport. It wouldn't make much sense, but you could even take a water taxi from a dock close to your BnB to Piazzale Roma.

I agree with Nigel about Alilaguna's ferries to the airport, I hate that they are so low on water. On the other hand, they have a stop close to San Marco Square and you'd avoid the transfer from a floating to a wheeled mean of transport. Your choice, but do not overthink it. If everything else fails, you'll have a last walk around Venice before the departure. It could be worse!

How do you plan to get from the train station to your lodgings in San Marco? Probably by vaporetto. So you just go back the other way and go one stop past the train station to get to Piazzale Roma.

If you want to buy a vaporetto pass to use during your visit, you can get a 72 hour vaporetto pass plus a one way bus to the airport for 46 EUR when you arrive at the train station. 40 EUR of that is for vaporettos and 6 EUR for the airport bus. Since an individual vaporetto ride is 7.50 EUR and a one way airport bus ticket is 8 EUR, it's not a bad deal.

Note, San Marco covers a wide area and there may be other vaporetto stops that are closer to you lodgings than the actual San Marco stop. Look at a detailed Venice map.

I hadn’t figured out how to get to our hotel yet lol 😊 Not sure we should even go to Venice:

We will have 4 weeks in Aix en Provence with a weekend trip to Beaune and day trips to the Luberon, maybe Avignon or Lyon.

Then flying Marseilles to Bologna on RyanAir; train to Florence to visit our college senior for 3 nights.

Our return flight from Paris on United was canceled - the good news is they have to honor the price and I can change the date. So I have a little wiggle room to add one more destination before returning to Paris. But it needs to be easy because we will want to get home after 5 weeks..

I was originally thinking just return to Paris after seeing our daughter, spend 2-3 nights - make the trip to Giverny or Versailles.

My husband mentioned Venice and I see they have a lot of flights to Paris. From what you all say, the airport is easy enough. There are lots of nonstops to Paris..

The train to Paris sounds kind of relaxing but it is long and I would not like to arrive at 10pm. Thello is cancelled.

Happy to be back travel planning! 😊

CaliMom- the difficulty departing from Venice arises when one is flying out early am. Most that ask are flying to US direct and those flights tend to be early, or with a connection somewhere in Europe and the first leg is early.
Since you want to fly to Paris and sounds like you have choices of flight time- just book a flight that is later in day- problem solved

FWIW we flew out of Venice direct to US- flight was 11 am- we had no problem getting to airport on time but we knew the drill and planned accordingly. We took a water taxi- bit of a splurge for us but it was our 40th anniversary trip. And it really was cool.

We love Venice and wouldn't miss a chance to include a stop over. If you do decide to go- give it at least 3 nights to really enjoy it. Definitely head over to Burano/Torcello to get away from the crowds on 1 day.

Another note about the Alilaguna boat to and from the airport.
Sometimes the boat drivers are cowboys and drive so fast that the water sprays up and onto your luggage, which is stored in the open air on the deck.
You are down below in a cabin, and you can’t see out of the salty windows.
There is nowhere outside for passengers.
Last time our luggage got soaked and we had to wash everything on arrival.
Take the bus,

Wow, I appreciate your question because we always took the Alilaguna boats to or from the Venice airport and never had an issue. Our hotels have always been near one of the stops on the Arancia (Orange) line. I will be staying at Hotel Ala near San Marco in early September and had just planned to take the Alilaguna boat as usual. My flight doesn’t leave until 1:15pm this time, so I at least have some alternatives to consider.

Which, until a few years ago before they built the sky bridge, was a half a kilometer slog dragging your luggage.

We traveled to the airport via Alilaguna two years ago. My son is special needs, in a stroller, and I didn’t want the hassle of multiple transfers via vaporetto/land bus with him and our luggage, and I felt that boarding a water taxi might be tricky.

I will note that we had (effortlessly) taken countless vaporetto trips during the week we were in Venice, but the combination of the luggage, stroller, and land bus transfer made me twitch.

The Alilaguna was fine. We wheeled my son and our luggage right into the boat and sat below. We were able to store the luggage behind our seat. The ride to the airport was hassle-free and seamless, no stress.

It wasn’t scenic, but it got the job done. I’d make the same choice, for us, next time.

I’d also add that if I weren’t accommodating mobility issues, I’d choose the water taxi every time. Flight days are too crazy; I always opt for the easiest transfer option to/from airports. And it is so much nicer being on the water than a land bus!!!

Check with your lodging to see if the shared taxi, shuttle is still operating.

https://www.venicelink.com/en/products/shuttle

I also like the idea of departing Italy from Venice because there are so many flights to Paris. I recall the budget airliners are famous for canceling. Florence has a few but there are 6-8 nonstop from Venice.

Of course, there is only one from Marseilles to Bologna and that is on RyanAir! Will need to work on a backup plan just in case…

United will let me change our return flight straight from Paris so we can fly home from Venice. Of course it’s at 7am.

It looks like this starts at 4:20 am. Will that work?

https://www.atvo.it/index.php?lingua=en&area=menustandard&idpadre=23&idmenu=35

The ATVO buses are separate from the Venice Public Transport network, the ACTV. So you have to buy the tickets separately. They are a bit more comfortable as all the luggage is stored in the bays underneath the bus. The ACTV bus is the No 5 bus, which is a low floor bus that you bring the luggage on with you. Advantage of these is they have combined tickets with the vaporettos as I described with the multi-day vaporetto pass, or a single combined vaporetto-airport bus ticket for 14 EUR.

Schedule is at http://actv.avmspa.it/sites/default/files/attachments/pdf/UM/U-5.pdf

As you can see, there is a bus at 4:35 am that gets you to the airport at 4:56 am, plenty of time for a 7 am flight.

There is all night vaporetto service from San Marco, the "N" boat. schedule at
http://actv.avmspa.it/sites/default/files/avm/navigazione/Actv_nav_linea_N.pdf

Hi, I'm so sorry to have another question but just so I'm clear about getting to the airport from Venice; there are 3 main options:

1. Water taxi from my hotel stop (San Marco-Zaccaria) to Marco Polo Airport (VCE) € 105 (US$ 124.60) and € 135 (US$ 160.30)

2. Take Alilaguna public water bus from San Marco to Marco Polo Airport
   -The Blue Line starts at 4:56 a.m. and arrives at 6:20 a.m. which doesn't work for a 7:00 a.m. flight.

3. Get to Pizzalle Roma and go from there:
   -There are 2 ways to get to Pizzalle Roma: 1) Walk (30 minutes) or 2) Vaporetto (30 minutes)
   -The Vaporetto is the Venetian public waterbus. This is different than the Alilaguna. The Vaporetto has scheduled stops at San Marco-Zaccaria. I read the chart Sam sent above; my choices are 3:30 a.m. or 4:30 a.m. so I would need to take the 3:30 a.m. Vaporetto to Pizzalle Roma

-Once at Pizzalle Roma, we have 3 choices to get to the airport:

-ACT Wheeled bus (departs at 4:35 a.m.; takes 30 minutes)
-ATVO Wheeled AIRPORT bus (I don't see how or what time this bus starts)
-Wheeled taxi (40-50 euros; takes 30 minutes)

Do I have this right? Based on all this, if I don't want to pay up for a water taxi or catch a Vaporetto at 3:30 in the morning, a 7:00 a.m. may not work. Is that correct?

It looks like staying at a hotel near the airport is another option.

Thank you a ton! :)

(now you know why we say fly into Venice and out of Rome or Milan, eh?)

there's early and then there's early.

I don't know know about the taxi prices - in all the years of Venice I have never taken either a land taxi or water taxi.

Don't know your exact hotel so can't answer absolutely, but for your question number 1, most hotels have a water gate at the hotel unless they are not on a large enough canal. If they do, the water taxi would usually use that instead of the vaporetto dock.

I'm a little confused because you are referring to S Marco but you began by referring to Rialto?

Number 1
Not clear why you have 2 rates
We paid about 115 euros for water taxi

You got that pretty much right.

One thing about the "N" boat, if you look at the chart below the top chart, you will see that boats going in the other direction from San Zaccaria "C" dock at 3:47 and travels up the Grand Canal (for one last look in the dark) to Piazzale Roma arriving at 4:20 for the 4:35 No 5 Bus. The 3:30 boat uses the Giudecca Canal and gets to Piazzale Roma at 4:09, which leaves a lot of time hanging around the lonely bus stop.

Another option is to get a hotel walking distance from Piazzale Roma. Still has the Venice feel if not being close to all the sights. Besides, IMO riding the vaporettos is the quintessential Venice experience. Where else can you go where the city buses are boats?

Yes, I see why one should fly into Venice, not out of Venice! And... since I haven't changed my United flight yet, I am reconsidering. :)

Regarding water taxi prices, I took that off their website (unless I got bumped out to another site and didn't realize). Is there someplace I should look for a price; perhaps it is fixed.

Thank you for all the suggestions!

By hotels within walking distance of P. Roma, do you mean near the train station, the Santa Croce area or...? I see some recommendations in guide books near the Rialto Bridge which claim to be a 15-minute walk from P. Roma to we could catch that 4:35 a.m. No 5 Bus. I am guessing walking means pulling our wheely luggage on cobblestones, right? The neighborhood will kill me! ;)

I'm leaning toward moving to an airport hotel for night #3 OR perhaps going to Venice first, then to Florence and leave from Florence. Will look at my hotels now and see if I can get similar room rates.

Thanks all! I am typically such an advance planner but am being thrown for a loop this year. :)

Water Taxi estimate. Note there is a 10 EUR surcharge for early morning service. It is giving me a price of 107 EUR plus the 10 EUR surcharge for any Venice hotel to the airport. https://www.motoscafivenezia.com/en/

By hotels walking distance of Piazzale Roma, I mean like this one 500 feet from the bus station. (I never staid here).
http://www.hotelarlecchino.com/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=GoogleMyBusiness

Hmmm... 107 euros isn't horrible! Thank you a ton!

Is there a way to book a water taxi if you aren't staying in a hotel (we are staying in an air bnb)? I had looked for 7 which is what we will have and found upwards of 300 Euros. But this company is much more reasonable-137 Euros- so am reconsidering.

For Jean ---
We stayed at Hotel Ala and the vaporetto stop was an easy 50 yard (flat) walk. Great place to stay.

I am guessing walking means pulling our wheely luggage on cobblestones, right? The neighborhood will kill me! ;)

Nope - no cobblestones. Venice is generally paved in square stone or concrete paving stones, butted up. So no cobblestones but your bag will make the traditional click click click as you walk. You won't be the only one. Some calles are cambered so the rain water runs to the sides. And there are bridges, steps but usually no ramps. Always worth plotting out a trek and work out how many bridges.

(off topic - I agree with Mark about the Hotel Ala).

both the location and the hotel

One option to consider regarding a water taxi is to email your accommodations asking if they have a contact who can take you to the airport. We've had different offers from hotels we've stayed at ranging from 80-120€ for an airport transfer (40-60€ to get to the train station). The hotels would set these up for us and we paid the taxis in cash. Though, early, early morning will probably cost more...

Most often, we were riding the local ACTV bus #5, if their schedule met our needs.

Beth- use this link to book your water taxi
https://www.motoscafivenezia.com/en/

You’ll need to figure out where your pick up point will be—closest dock or vaporetto stop

Christine--thank you!

We are being met at Rialto vaporetto stop by someone with a sign with our name on it from rental company. So that would work, I would think. But I think it is a busy stop so maybe it would be better to use a different one (thinking of finding someone).

Beth

Beth
There are 2 Rialto stops
Rialto and Rialto Mercato on opposite sides of canal
Make sure you’ve got the right stop

Early am I wouldn’t worry about crowds at the stop and honestly I wouldn’t worry about not being found mid day or whenever you are meeting your contact The docks are not huge, if the person with sign is on the dock you’ll find them easily

Since we’re talking about vaporettos here just another reminder- remember to validate your vap ticket each and every time you board
They do often check and the fine is expensive

turn the light green for a flash as you validate - swipe

I'd suggest watching a YouTube video or 3 and see exactly what's involved...

Update: I reserved a water taxi to airport for 137 Euros for my group of seven. Thank you so much Christine H for the recommendation. I had checked online earlier with a different company but came up with price of twice that which is why I went with Alilaguna to start. This is only 5 euros more per person and much more convenient (can leave at 8:30 am rather than 7:00 am). It also and seems like a really neat way to end our trip.

And Nigel--your idea of watching u-tubes on validating tickets on the vaporetto was a good one. I watched a couple and now at least know what I am looking for!

Thanks so much to all on this thread!

Glad it’s working out well for you Beth
Arriving or leaving Venice via water taxi is so unique, well worth it if budget allows

And don't forget to pack light if you have to walk any distance at all with luggage in Venice.

Thanks for the reminder about luggage. Most of my crew went to Greece in 2018 with carry on only. We are having a zoom session tomorrow to indoctrinate the others; I have sent everyone a packing list.