Venice Unica City & vaporetto Passes

72 hour vaporetto passes run for exactly 72 hours from the time it is first used. Be sure to validate EVERY time you use the vaporettos, and when changing vaporetto lines.

If you like heights I'm surprised you didn't mention San Giorgio. My favourite tower in Venice.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ChurchofSanGiorgioMaggiore,_Venice

We were in Venice for two nights earlier this year. Yes, two nights was not enough, but better two nights in Venice (for me) than none at all. We stayed in Venice and bought a vaporetto ticket to get to our accommodations, and back to the train station. We did not go to the other islands and we walked everywhere, which was easier (to us) than going to a vaporetto stop, waiting, boarding, etc. So, just some food for thought, look at your plans and unless you are island hopping (everything you listed above we walked to and our accommodations were near the Arsenale stop), or need to reduce the amount of walking, you may not need the vaporetto as much as you think.

Thank you for the helpful input all around. Yes, you are right, Nigel. I meant San Giorgio, not Santa Maria della Salute.

If I read the Veneziaunica website (the "Official Tourism" site), the prices for the ACTV passes increase on 1 September. The 2 day pass will now be €35 instead of €30. But if you buy the pass at least 30 days before you need it, the price will remain €30. What I find strange is that no other website mentions this price increase in 3 days from now. We will arrive in Venice mid-October so I guess we have some time to buy the pass. Does anyone know if it is best to buy the transport pass combined with the museum pass or is it better to keep them separate? Thanks

I was in Venice for a week in May, and I bought a vaporetto pass, and the pass that included the Corer museum and the Doges palace and several churches and other museums. I had been into the Doges palace before, and went again because I really enjoy all the spectacular ceilings. You can also go down into the prison and look out through the bridge of sighs. There was also the museum of 18th century Venice included that I also enjoyed, but with just three and a half days you won’t be able to cover as much ground as I did. I probably made more use of the pass at the various churches on my walking route. At the start of the day I would get out my map and my phone and find the churches and try to map my walking route to visit the churches. Sometimes I would get on the vaporetto and ride it to one end of the grand canal and start at the closest church, and then just walk the alleys and canals from one to the next, using my phone to navigate. I highly recommend going out to Murano before the shops open, wander the canals there, then all the glass shops once they open. From Murano you can then get back on the vaporetto to Burano, but it may be crowded if you stay a while on Murano. Instead, I went out to Burano the next morning so I could also arrive there before the shops opened. Burano is more photogenic than Murano so it’s great to get there before the crowds. On the way back you can stop at Torcello. I also got off at the cemetery island for a nice peaceful walk through the beautiful grounds. Sometimes, the most fun is had just riding the vaporetto and meeting other tourists from all over, then just picking an unknown stop to get off at and just get lost in the back alleys and canals. You can also walk from St. Marks square along the water all the way out to the Biennale area, where there is a nice park, and not many tourists. I also visited the Peggy Guggenheim, and the Acedemia gallery(if you arrive at 0830 you won’t need a reservation, and it will be mostly empty). Do try to get up early one morning to see the city as it is waking up, before all the tourists get there, and a vaporetto ride after dark gives a different perspective, too. Even with the vaporetto pass I was still walking in excess of 20,000 steps a day.