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Venice Water Taxis

Posted by (Bacharach, Germany) on

Having returned from a four day trip to Venice yesterday I’d like to share our water taxi experiences. I couldn’t find detailed information on this topic before our trip and hope that others will find answers to questions they might have.

My wife and I were in Venice for the fourth time, my two daughters’ for the first time. We usually travel on a budget. This time it was the complete opposite. We stayed with a view to San Giorgio Maggiore at the Metropole. Very friendly staff, nice rooms, great breakfast in their backyard, nice view (when you book the lagoon view), and its own landing stage at the lobby. We also decided to use water taxis this time. I booked them in advance and we also used a water taxi once just going to a taxi stop near St. Mark's Square.

We did all the booked transfers with 'Consorzio Motoscafi Venezia'.

Marco Polo Airport to Venice: 101.65 Euros (5% discount when also booking the transport 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

Booking of an airport transfer is perfectly organized on the Consorzio Motoscafi Venezia home page. You receive your voucher(s) instantly when booking ... However, all other requests ... I was surprised that they don't offer a better service. We live in the age of internet and apps ... it could be so simple ...

Tour of the Grand Canal: A week before the date of the tour I dropped a request on their website. That was Wednesday evening. There is only a 'request information' form. I asked for the price and mentioned the date and time we would like to do the tour. They did not respond before Friday 5:20 pm. Their office hours are Mo-Fr from 9am-1pm and 2pm-6pm. So I didn't get a fair chance to finalize this booking before the weekend and had to wait for two more days to continue.

Transfer to Murano and Burano: On Wednesday evening I also sent an email to the correct address asking for the Murano and Burano transfers. This email was not replied at all.

Monday afternoon it was high time to give them a call. The lady knew about the two emails and responded in a single email with their offerings. She also offered the transfers back from Murano and Burano on demand allowing them 30 minutes to arrive. We would be picked up, where we were dropped. The waiting time was acceptable for us. I confirmed immediately by email.
No response from them within 24 hours. So I called again. The good thing was that I always talked to the same lady on the phone (using the same of their three phone numbers). She said she hadn't received any email (I put myself on cc on these kind of emails and did receive the email myself the night before). I sent it again and she confirmed receiving it and processed the booking.
After having received the confirmation by email I replied once again asking for the phone number I was supposed to call from Murano/Burano (they have a couple of phone numbers on their website). This email was not answered again.
I didn't receive any vouchers for the bookings. Another thing they could improve. So I printed the email conversation as a proof of booking.

Posted by
9 posts

Wednesday morning: airport transfer. I had booked the water taxi 45 minutes after our scheduled arrival time which turned out to be just the time we needed. This included the long walk to the boats (about 10 minutes). At the desk in the terminal they told us to go to the boats where someone will lead us to our taxi driver. That worked perfectly.

Wednesday afternoon: When the water taxi arrived for the tour of the Grand Canal the driver asked for a voucher. I showed him the email and mentioned the name of the lady on the phone. He accepted that. I assume that he only wanted some proof that identified us as the ones who booked this trip. To avoid that someone else hops on the boat. Every time we got on a water taxi later they asked for a voucher and the printed email was accepted. The tour itself is great. Up the canal to the train station, going through the smaller canals/rios to the Giudecca canal, passing close by San Giorgio Maggiore, dropping us at St. Mark's Square.

Thursday: Transfer to Murano. The water taxi picked us up at the hotel and dropped us at the vaporetto station Murano Faro. When we returned to the vaporetto station it turned out that there was no chance to easily bypass the waiting crowd to get to the landing stage. I remembered that there was a taxi stop at Murano Colonna where we headed then. I phoned the lady which remembered me and requested the return trip. She put me through to someone else who explained to me that I do not have a reservation. Don't they talk to each other? I referred to my booking and the lady who he must have talked to a minute before. After me listening to an Italian conversation he got convinced and told me the number of the taxi which would pick us up. It was a different number when it arrived, though. The driver said that he took over from a colleague. He dropped us at the requested place in Venice.

Friday: Arriving in Burano I convinced myself that the drop off point could also serve as a pick up place. It was a vaporetto station where access to the boat was possible using the exit (no gates like in Murano). When we returned for pick-up everything still seemed to be fine. I called 'my' lady and also mentioned my minor problems with the man she put me through the day before. This time I did not have to convince him and I told him that we were waiting at vaporetto station 'A'. While we were waiting an Alilaguna boat landed at this very vaporetto station and … stayed there. Luckily a stop for smaller boats was in sight and I wondered whether the water taxi wouldn't go straight ahead for this place anyway. It did. So we got on the water taxi. The driver confirmed the booked drop off point in Venice but dropped us a 5 minute walk from there. He didn't say so when we boarded. For me that was not a problem since I know Venice quite well. But why didn't he say so before? This was the only driver who insisted to keep the hardcopy of the email. Fortunately, none of the other drivers did. Since this was the last ride I could give it away.

Using water taxis in Venice is definitely far from travelling on a budget. A trip to Murano is worth to be considered since it is ride of about 20 minutes across the lagoon. Burano in comparison is much more expensive and takes only 10 minutes more (70 Euros versus 130 Euros). The Tour of the Grand Canal in a water taxi is surely different from just sitting in one of the front seats of a vaporetto (it is becoming harder and harder to get one and not all vaporetti are equipped with front seats). You have a 360 degree view.
Call them early, don’t wait too long for an answer by email. They are friendly and supportive but need to be triggered by a call. I wonder if a different company provides better service.
I wish they would better organize the non-airport-transfers. It could be so easy to combine a booking app with sharing locations for pick-up and drop off. At least they could improve their website for these kind of bookings.

Posted by
1 posts

My wife and myself were in Venice from July 5 to July 8, 2017.
We arrived and got our luggage and then got a water taxi to take us to our hotel.
We paid for the taxi at the airport, and then walked with our luggage to the dock and got onto the taxi. It was seamless and there was no need to make this in advance.
We used water taxis to get to Venice restaurants and to the Guggenheim Museum and it worked out very well.
I tried the public water taxis to Murano and Burano and I wish I had not. The wait for these boats was long and we missed on the Murano glass blowing we would have liked to see. We did buy glasses from the Murano Glass factory and they shipped them to our home in laguna beach, Ca faster then post cards I sent home.

We had a wonderful Gondala ride on the grand canal and we really enjoyed venice. It was my first time in Italy and my wife had been there before.
I would like to say we booked a Photo walk in Venice and the photos were wonderful.

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