Water Taxis in Venice

There are few places where they have docks where you can get them, but they are few and far between, like the train station, bus station, Rialto, San Marco. If you want to use them for internal trips, have your hotel book them and they can pick you up at your hotel. They don't "cruise" like New York taxi's. I don't how they would even see you trying to hail them.

I tagged on once with a some friends who were on an opera tour and they used several water taxis to get the group from the hotel on the Grand Canal to La Fenice opera house and return after the performance.

To get an idea of prices, look at: http://www.venezianamotoscafi.it/en/ or: https://www.motoscafivenezia.it/

I am in Venice right now cooling down in my hotel room before heading out to dinner so I will try to answer some of your questions.
"When you - or the hotel - call(s) them, they will arrive within the next minutes?" Sometimes and sometimes not. It is the exact same thing as an automobile taxi. Traffic, the number of taxis on duty or even police speed traps will affect how long it takes. Today I waited for ages for my water taxi from Murano to St Marks and the guy who called the taxi for me told it was because of traffic and speed traps set by the Venetian police.

"Are there spots where they wait for people who did not pre-book a water taxi? Other places than train station or airport. I found a map from 2011 where this is indicated (but that's not very current)." You can't flag empty taxis down but there are spots other than the ones you mention where they congregate: near Piazzale Roma, near the Rialto bridge and near San Marco.

"When you want to take a water taxi from Murano or Burano back to i.e. St. Mark's Square, are there water taxis available in Murano/Burano or do you have to wait for a longer time for them to arrive?" There are a decent number of water taxis available in Murano so the wait for one should not be so long but anything could happen. There are one or two water taxis in Burano (so says the front desk person at my hotel) and you should book those ahead of time and they will cost around 100€ to get your paarty to St Marks Square. I have never used the Burano taxis but when I saw your post, I asked the front desk clerk at my hotel and am repeating what he said.

They're just too expensive for my pocketbook. I've been to Venice 8 times and have always found alternative ways to get around.
I've been known to walk from place to place within the city.

Been to Venice a hundred times and never once taken a water taxi - waaaaaaay too expensive.

I have been to Venice many many times but I have never used a water taxi or a gondola. The boats look nice from the fondamenta and from onboard a vaporetto but I've never wanted to use one.

Have a great time with the 4 of you, and take the (deep pockets) plunge. Enjoy it now that you can see how the other half lives.

No flagging down.

Having returned from Venice yesterday I can say that all our pre-arranged trips worked. We also used a water taxi once just going to a taxi stop near St. Mark's Square. Thanks for your responses which gave me hope - before the trip - to manage our transportation. Thanks especially to JHK for your investigation while actually being in Venice.

We stayed opposite of San Giorgio Maggiore at the Metropole which has its own landing stage at the lobby. My wife couldn't thank me enough for using water taxis this time and my daughters loved it, too. Who wouldn’t love it? By the way, the vaporetti were pretty crammed.

We did all the booked transfers with 'Consorzio Motoscafi Venezia'. We were able to book the return trips from Murano and Burano without a fixed time allowing them 30 minutes for their arrival after calling them.

Marco Polo Airport to Venice: 101.65 Euros (5% discount when also booking the trip back to the airport, 20 minutes)

Venice to Murano: 70 Euros (20 minutes)

Venice to Burano: 130 Euros (30 minutes)

Tour of the Grand Canal: 120 Euros (60 minutes)

For a 10 min ride in Venice without pre-booking: 60 Euros

I shared a more detailed report under ‘Tips & Trip Reports’.