best way to get from Marco Polo airport to Venice mainland? What service to buy tickets from, please?
Trudy, There are several travel methods available from Marco Polo Airport into Venice. These differ mostly according to cost and travel time. The description of all methods would be a bit lengthy, so if you could provide some information on whether you want the cheapest method or the fastest method, it would help. Cheers!
Ken, thank you for reply. Reasonable cost is the key word. We're also senior citizens so not as adventurous as someone in their 20's would be.
Trudy, there are two bus lines that run between Marco Polo and the Piazzale Roma which is a mainland stop. The bus lines are ACTV www.actv.it and ATVO www.atvo.it. You can buy the tickets on the bus. Fare is less than 5Euro and the ride takes about 25 minutes. The ACTV is a city bus. The ACTV also runs the vaporettos (water buses) on the canals. The ATVO seems to be a private bus line but either will get you there fast and cheap. Although the Piazzale Roma is a mainland stop, it is also a major stop on the Grand Canal. After you get off the bus, you can walk over to the canal and hop onto the vaporetto to get to where you are going. You can buy the vaporetto hourly tickets there or even at the airport. You can also buy them online at www.veniceconnected.com. For tourists, the tickets are sold in large hourly groups - 12hr, 24hr, 36hr, 48hr, 72hr. The prices are different for each hourly group. Indiviual tickets for one run are 6.50Euro.
Trudy, assuming you are talking about getting from the airport to Venice itself, the most efficient and interesting way is by boat. The most efficient and cost-effective boat depends on how large your traveling group is. If 5-6 people, a water taxi is great. For fewer than that the Alilaguna at 12-13 Euro is the best bet. If you Google transportation from the airport to Venice you'll see all the choices laid out for you. There's even a discount if you buy ahead online. We did this last summer with our family of 6, and it worked great. We walked off the plane to the dock, stepped onto our water taxi, and were at our hotel in 20 minutes. The driver even called ahead to our hotel, and the wonderful hotel owner met us at the dock and carried our luggage and led us to our hotel.