No, I would definitely buy a vaporetti pass. The have them in 24 hour increments too if you don't think you will get full use out of the 72 hour one. We bought the one day pass and used it about 4 or 5 times (went to outlying islands of Lido, Burano, Murano) and for stops in Dorsoduro and some other areas off the Grand Canal. Paying each time you board a vaporetto will be expensive, a pass is the best route to go! Buon viaggio!

We were just in Venice and the cost was 5 euro per hop or 10,50 for 24 hours. 3 trips and you're set.

I was looking at the website provided by Rookie (thank you). It mentions a Conference Card, valid from 1-8 days. 10.5 euros for first day, 15 euros for two days, 19.5 euros for three days, and 3 euros for each day thereafter. Card to be booked at Venice office of Calle Fuseri. Does anyone know where this office is? I'll be in Venice six days and would like as long a pass as possible.

The site also talks about monthly passes. "Ordinary" for monthly services network Lagoon Services (Lido Island watebus and land-bus routes). Has anyone every done this?

I checked multimap.com and it looks like the ACTV office you are looking for is in San Marco sortof between P'zza San Marco and Rialto Bridge

If you've never used multimap before, it is similar to mapquest. Just enter as much of an address as you have and it will get you reasonably close to what you are looking for. The first map it gives you will be the closest most detailed map it can, then you can zoom out for a broader geographical view.

ACTV has a "contact us" page on their web site. You could try getting directions from them.

We brought home a detailed timetable purchased for 0,60 euro at a vap ticket window. I can dig it out and look for a more complete street address if you'd like.

If I remember correctly, ACTV tickets are good on both water & land busses (if you are planning to visit Lido). I can check that, as well.

Enjoy Venice - we certainly did.

I only used them from then back to the train station, and one day on the Grand Canal. Never considered a pass. Just bought individual tickets from the little booths on the pier/platforms. Individual rides are quite inexpensive.

I was in Venice in April for a week. We did get the 7-day vaporetto pass and were glad we had. My companion and I love to walk, but there were many times that it was nice to be able to hop aboard to rest for a minute without having to think about how much or which stop we'd get off. As other folks mentioned - it's also worth the trip out to Murano, Burano and Torcello. I also found that there were scenes along the canal that you just can't see from land. We thought it added variety to our visit. We actually tried to fit in one boat ride per day just for fun. Your pass is not valid until you get it stamped by the little machine near the ticket booth. Don't validate your ticket until you're ready to go on your first ride. Then it's good from that time on (for the number of days you purchase).
Another fun thing to try is the traghetti (sp?) that also cross the canal at certain points. They're shown on most maps that I've seen. Basically they're a simple gondola that takes you from one side of the canal to the other. It's CHEAP (less than 1$) and just kinda fun. We couldn't afford to do a full gondola ride - but this gave us a taste of it.
We also bought one of the museum passes at the first museum we went to. We couldn't decide if it was worth it, but in the end we had visited everything on the card. Many afternoons we were ready for another museum or something to see -so we could just pop into the next museum on the list. We never would have visted half of those places if we'd had to decide if it was worth buying a ticket each time. Some of the museums were not as big or as interesting as others - but we never felt disappointed because we had "paid" for it with the pass. We weren't constantly comparing ticket prices with what we'd seen-or thought "we only spent 1/2 hour there, that wasn't worth $5.00".

i bought passes for myself and 3 kids, we are all good walkers but previous messages re:side trips, flexibility make sense to me. i know this is probably not legal but i sold my leftover passes which were still good for 10 hours to a nice older couple at the train station and made back a little cash...just don't say i recommended this!

We were in Vemice for seven days last year. We bought the seven-day pass and, although we walked a lot, we also used the vaporettos enough that we felt it was a good value.