Getting to Venice and Around by Vaporetto, Train and Foot

Because Venice sits four kilometres off the mainland across a shallow lagoon, how you arrive and where your hotel sits determine whether your first hour is effortless or exhausting. Never pay for a private water taxi or an airport boat ticket before checking which stop is actually closest to your hotel.

From Venice Marco Polo Airport (VCE)

Marco Polo Airport sits on the northern shore of the lagoon. You have three ways into the historic centre:

• ATVO Express Bus or ACTV Bus Line 5 to Piazzale Roma (fastest for west Venice): buses leave right outside the terminal and cross the road causeway to Piazzale Roma in about 20 minutes. From Piazzale Roma you can walk into Santa Croce and western Cannaregio or board ACTV Vaporetto Lines 1 and 2 down the Grand Canal.
• Alilaguna airport waterbuses (Blue, Orange and Red lines): walk along the covered moving-walkway pier from the terminal to the airport boat docks. The Orange Line runs via the Cannaregio Canal and down the Grand Canal to Rialto and Sant'Angelo; the Blue Line loops around Murano, Fondamente Nove, the Lido and San Marco. Note that Alilaguna is a separate company from ACTV, so standard city vaporetto passes do not cover it.
• Private water taxi: sleek wooden motorboats waiting at the airport pier take you directly to your hotel's water door or nearest side canal in 25 to 30 minutes. Expensive for solo travellers, but reasonable if split between four to six people with luggage.

Arriving by train: Venezia Santa Lucia vs Venezia Mestre

Every high-speed Frecciarossa and Italo train from Milan, Florence and Rome stops first on the industrial mainland at Venezia Mestre before crossing the lagoon bridge to terminate at Venezia Santa Lucia. Stay on the train until Santa Lucia, where the station steps walk straight out onto the Grand Canal.

How to use ACTV vaporetti and traghetti

Public waterbuses (vaporetti) are run by ACTV. Single 75-minute tickets are costly, so if you plan to take more than two or three boats, buy a 24-, 48-, 72-hour or 7-day ACTV time pass from the Venezia Unica machines at Ferrovia (Santa Lucia) or Piazzale Roma; it covers all Grand Canal lines plus the lagoon boats to Murano, Burano and the Lido. Always tap your pass on the white validation post at the floating dock before boarding, and check which direction the boat is heading along the Grand Canal. For quick crossings between bridges, use the standing two-oar traghetto gondolas during daytime hours.