Modes of transport from Venice Marco Polo to Boscolo Hotel

The RS guide to Italy covers this in detail.

Your hotel can provide specific instructions, including which alilaguna or vaporetto stop to use, which way to walk. How many in your party ? Does anyone have mobility issues, or will you be traveling with excess luggage ? We plan to take the cheap method -- bus then transfer to vaporetto for a hotel near Rialto.

There are 4 ways to get from the airport to your hotel. The 1st is a water taxi and it is the most expensive. Probably 120 Euros for the boat. But if you can join up with another couple or two it might be worth the cost. Only you can decide.

The 2nd and next least expensive is the Alilaguna boat. It will cost about 20 Euros per person but prices might have gone up or down. It takes longer, you do have to "check" you baggage so you don't have control of it the entire time, and you may not be able to get a "non stop" line to the area of your hotel.

The 3rd and least expensive is a combination bus and vaporetto (vap.). It takes a bit longer, but that is what we do because we travel very light with just one carry on apiece. There are two bus lines that serve the airport. One is ATVO and is NOT affiliated with the vap. system. The other is ACTV and IS affiliated with the vap. system. At the airport you can get a vap. pass for various periods from 24 to 72 (or more?) hours. You can have a one way or two way bus fare added to the vap. pass. There is a good site maintained by the ACTV system that has current prices and etc.. Don't remember the url so just Google it.

If you decide on option # 3, take the # 5 ACTC bus from the airport to Piazzale Roma. Be sure and validate the vap. pass on the bus. Do not wait until you get on the vap. Also, validate the pass each time you use the vap. Then take to the vap. to the stop closest to your hotel. It appears that the # 4.1 or # 5.1 vap. to the Orto stop will take you to the vicinity of your hotel and you'll walk from there. Confirm this with your hotel in case I picked out the wrong hotel.

The fourth way is to take a regular land taxi from the airport to P. Roma and then take the vap. from there as you would in option # 3.

If you go to googlemaps.com and type in your hotel name you can locate it, and get great aerial views, satellite views, and in some cases street views. Play around with it and you can "travel" the route before you leave home. We've done option # 3 many times. Easy Peasy and cheap to boot.

There is a site called veniceforvisitors.com that has a lot of good info. that you might want to check out. The vap. system also has a site that can be very helpful.

We've cruised into and out of Venice a number of times so let us know if you need specific info about getting to and from the cruise port.

Thank you, all. We are several weeks away from departure and just want to make sure we can figure it out. We've never undertaken a trip over 7 days, NEVER been to Italy or anywhere else in Europe. So:

1. I will get RS Guide of Italy
2. Will contact the hotel and ask for an email detailing directions from the airport to the hotel; and...
3. Probably take the Alilaguna directly from the airport

Thanks, again.

If you decide on the Alilaguna be aware that you are sitting down low in a low boat with the windows relatively high up, and the windows are caked in salt and often humidity because of the lack of ventilation in the cabin. In other words, you can see virtually nothing of the most beautiful city. It is also loud and can be rocky as you are passed by other boats.

I've done that method once - never again. And it is a long walk from the airport arrivals hall on a paved path (often sidewalk) to the dock.

Bus to P Roma and vaporetto down the Grand Canal for me always now (when flying although I much prefer to arrive by train as the station is directly on the Grand Canal -the view can't be beat for an arrival).

The contact page http://venezia.boscolohotels.com/contacts of your hotels shows that you will be on the very northern edge of Cannaregio and says:

The Hotel is located on Sestiere Cannaregio, in the northern part of
the city, shielded from the usual paths of mass tourism, immersed in
one of the largest private gardens of Venice, in the area in front of
the Island of Murano. Vaporetti water taxis leave every 10 minutes
from the Santa Lucia train station and arrive at the pier of the
Church of the Madonna of the Garden and the Boscolo Venice in 15
minutes. NOTE: due to maintenance the closest Vaporetto and Alilaguna
stop is now SANT'ALVISE (10 minutes walking from the hotel). The hotel
offers a free water taxi service to visit St. Mark's Square.

Sant Alvise is 5 stops on the 4.1 or 5.1 vaporetto from P Roma and the boat does not go down the main part of the Grand Canal, just the bit between P Roma and where it turns left past the Ghetto.

You can use the map at http://www.actv.it/sites/default/files/ultimamappa.pdf and you will see the closed closer stop is Orto. I don't know when the repairs will be complete, perhaps before your arrival (we don't know that either).

From Orto it is a very simple no bridge walk to the hotel, from S Alvise not so simple including going inland before being able to cross and go back towards the lagoon, including several bridges.

Don't take this the wrong way, but that hotel is pretty much for high rollers so perhaps the best way would be - especially with cruise luggage - to take a water taxi from the airport directly to the hotel. It is still most of the walk at the airport end to the taxi dock, but not the trek to the hotel from S Alvise. If Orto is open again, I'd go back to that.

Perhaps the hotel can tell what the situation is likely to be during your visit...