Taking the Alilaguna in Venice
 

I plan to take the Alilaguna from Marco Polo airport into Venice. I also plan to buy a 48- or 72-hr vaporetto pass. Is there an advantage to buying this pass at the airport befoe boarding the Alilaguna? (i.e., would there be a discount on the Alilaguna?)

(Since I need a 60-hr pass, which doesn't exist, I haven't decided yet whether to get the 48 or the 72)

No discount on Alilaguna boat. Advantage is just a slight convenience. Once you got to Venice, whenenver you want to ride a vaporetto for the first time, you only have to validate it with the machine. Or if you choose to take a ACTV land bus to Pizzale Roma instead of Alilaguna boat to San Marco, the pass will cover the bus.

I bought both the Alilaguna and the Vaporetto Pass (3 day) at the airport, then took the Alilaguna into Venice (San Marco) and changed to the Vaporetto to reach my hotel which was near the Rialto. On the return I went to the bus station on the Vaporetto and used the same ticket on the bus to the airport.
Next time I'll just buy the Vaporetto Pass, take the bus into Venice, and then take the Vaporetto. The walk to the Alilaguna dragging luggage was quite long and there was quite a crowd so we had to wait for the next boat. The bus is right outside the arrivals door.
The ride into Venice on the Alilaguna was fun and a great way to approach the city, so you'll have to weigh that, too. If your hotel is not convenient to the Vaporetto, you might want to take the Taxi - same long walk, though.

PS Although there is no discount, you'll save 12 euros per person if you take the bus/Vaporetto route.

Thanks to both of you for the info. I'm not sure I understand your P.S., iloveparis.

The Alilaguna ticket costs 12 euros. That is a separate ticket. If you buy the Vaporetto Pass, you may, as kappa explained, take the bus to Pizzale Roma on the pass, then continue using the Pass on the Vaporetto. Since you will not need to buy the Alilaguna ticket, you will save 12 euros. In other words, the bus is covered by the Vaporetto Pass.

The bus covered by the vaporetto pass is the ACTV bus, a normal orange city bus with no luggage storage, that makes a few stops on its way to Piazzale Roma.

There's also the ACTO express blue coach bus, more like a tour bus with luggage storage below, that goes directly from the airport to Piazzale Roma. This bus is not covered by the vaporetto pass and cost 3-4 euros.

We took the Alilaguna from St Marks to the airport last week at 6 am. A note of caution. It was crowded even at that hours. My advice: Get at the front of the line unless you want to stand for the 75 minute ride.

> ACTV bus, a normal orange city bus with no luggage storage,...

It does have luggage racks. Just not like blue direct shuttle that has luggage compartiment underneath.

> There's also the ACTO express blue coach bus,

That's ATVO and cost like €3, not much more than ACTV. No stops to Piazzale Roma (ca.20minutes) vs. ACTV ca.30 minutes with a few stops.

kappa, thans for the clarifiation . . . at least I got the blue part correct.

Sorry to hijack your post, but I am confused about the bus/vaporetti information.

We are flying into Venice and need to get to the San Marco vaporetti stop. We were going to take the Aliguna boat. However, we are also planning to buy the 72 hour vaporetti pass. If we go the bus option, which bus should we take and which vaporetti to get to San Marco stop and is it covered by the vaporetti pass?

Cindywho - I'll let someone else who knows the details better than I do answer your question.

We just got back from Venice and took the Alilaguna from the Marco Polo to St. Mark's Square. Going back to the airport we took the vaporetto/bus combination.

We also took the Alilaguna from St. Mark's to the port (went on a cruise) and from St. Mark's to Murano. The crowds were large and there were LONG waits. The boat that was to take us to the port was very late and not everyone that was waiting even got on.

If anyone plans to take to arrive at something that is time sensitive (like a flight), be sure and allow plenty of extra time.

Debbie

If I were staying close to San Marco, I would probably take the Alilaguna, since there would be less shlepping of bags from one mode of transport to another. Plus the vaporetto ride would be the full length of the Grand Canal, which might be more or less desirable with luggage or after an overseas flight.

We took the bus/vaporetto option on a recent visit because we were staying near San Stae, just a few vaporetto stops from Piazzale Roma and not convenient to any Alilaguna stop. It was truly the quickest and most efficient way to travel there.

Cindywho - THe ALilaguna stop at the airport is about 5 minutes walk from the terminal and is well marked. Quite frankly it will be one of the easiest walks you'll probably do in Venice. It costs 12 euros and you buy tickets in the Terminal. It makes some stops before you get to San Marco so it will take about 40 - 45 minutes.

Arrival day for a lot of folks is a take it easy day. Once you get to accomodations and get settled, you may just want to explore on foot a bit and eat dinner and make an early night of it. You could purchase your vaporetto pass the next day.

Bookmarking - I will be making the same journey next year!

I just realized that the information that our hotel sent us as to how to get there from the airport would be pertinent to some of the questions. The following is from the very helpful folks at Locanda Orseolo!

Debbie



There are 3 alternative ways to reach Venice and our Locanda from Marco Polo airport:



- you can decide to walk (about 6 minutes) or take a complimentary shuttle bus from the check-out point to the docks of the airport and there take advantage of the public transportation. In fact, the connection from the airport to St. Mark's Square is regularly ensured by the ALILAGUNA company; the ride by ALILAGUNA water bus takes 70 minutes (line “red”) or 80 minutes (line “blu”) and currently costs 12 Euro per person, luggage included; from the water bus stop to the Locanda it's a 5 minutes walk and the relevant directions are given on our web site on the location page and on the directional map attached to our reconfirmation message. The timetable for the ALILAGUNA water bus is available on the web site www.alilaguna.it;



- the second option is to use private transportation. If the level of the water is not too high, a water taxi can deliver you directly to our hotel after a 25 minutes ride. The price for this service amounts to 95 Euro up to 4 people and 4 bags. We suggest you to look for a VENEZIA TAXI water taxi, as this company ensures regular transportation to our Locanda. Like all the licensed taxis, they are recognizable for having yellow stripes on their windows and an assigned number. Unfortunately they do not accept reservations for incoming travellers.

One very important note: if for some reason you do not find any VENEZIA TAXI water taxi and decide to take another water taxi of a different company, please be warned that some taxi drivers, those who want to earn easy money, cheat the tourists and, instead of taking them directly to our Locanda, drop them at the Rialto Bridge or St. Mark's Square in order to avoid all the travelling down the little, internal canals; so please make sure before getting on the water cab that the driver is not reluctant to reach us;



- otherwise, right out of the airport, you find the bus area. There are two types of busses that leave from the airport towards Venice, just take the first one you see as they have different schedules, either service run all day. The ATVO private line (blue bus) takes you directly to Venice Piazzale Roma; the cost per person, luggage included, currently amounts to 3 Euro and the trip takes 20 minutes. The ACTV public line (orange bus number 5) takes you to Venice Piazzale Roma in 25 minutes, after making several stops. The cost of the ticket is 1 Euro: rigid suitcases and those bigger than 50cm x 50 cm are charged by 1 Euro, hand luggage like trolleys and soft bags are not charged.

From Piazzale Roma, the ACTV water buses of the line 1 and 82 regularly connect Piazzale Roma to St. Mark's Square; the ride down the Grand Canal up to VALLARESSO stop takes 37 minutes by water bus 1 and 30 minutes by water bus 82. One important note: actually, as far as the 82 is concerned, only one out of two of them reaches the Vallaresso stop, while the other has its last stop at the Rialto Bridge... so, if you take the 82, please make sure you take the right one! A single ride (both by 1 and by 82) currently costs Euro 6,00 per person (luggage is not included, but it's never charged unless it is cumbersome). However, if you have already planned your visit to Venice and know for sure that you are going to take a few other times any ACTV water buses during your stay, you may consider to buy from the very beginning either a 24 hours travel card (at 15 Euro, current price) or a 36 hours travel card (at 20 Euro) or a 48 hours travel card (at 25 Euro) or a 72 hours travel card (at 30 Euro).

Once in the Square, you can follow the directions you find on the location page of our web site and, after a few minutes, you will meet us at Locanda Orseolo!

I forgot to mention that our hotel was in the St. Mark's area.

Debbie

hi, all your venice experts,

we are planning our veince trip for easter next year.

I know its'a small point, but as we are arriving after 8pm, I'm worrying about getting from the airport to the rialto [where the apartment owner/agent will meet us].

At the moment it's a toss up between the ATVO bus [I know where the stop is having caught it before] plus the vaporetto from the piazzale roma, or a water-taxi. between the 4 of us, the E95 doesn't seem too bad. my question is : How easy is it to find the water-taxi-dock at the airport?

regards, ann

Thanks, Debbie for GREAT info. I still think we may take the bus to save the Euros.

Kind of unrelated, does the vaporetti pass have to be time validated only once or each time you get on the vaporetti?

Thanks to all.

> you can decide to walk (about 6 minutes) or take a complimentary shuttle bus from the check-out point to the docks of the airport

The shuttle to the dock (2 minute ride) USED to be free and then for some reason (construction?) they discontinued it, started it again but for a small charge. There were different informations so I hope someone can clarify from recent experience. Maybe hotel is correct; it is free again. If your luggage is manageable, it's an easy walk to the dock as someone mentioned above.

annhig, water taxi stop is next to Alilaguna boat at the dock and easy to find.

Vaporetto passes : you validate only the first time, that's to stamp the date/time of the first use. So if you put it in the machine for the 2nd time, it might actually cause a problem as you will not be able to read time/date.

I was there in June/July & there was no bus.

When we were there a couple of weeks ago, I'm pretty sure we saw the shuttle bus that would have taken us to the dock. We decided that it would be easier just to walk than to schlep our luggage onto it.

The walkway to the pier is on the left as you come out of the airport. It is well-marked.

Debbie

kappa & Debbie,

thanks for the help. It seems silly worrying about such a little thing.

I tend to get stressed when I've got the family in tow and my arrangements for getting from airport to accommodation have not always been fool-proof. Two years ago we went to rome at easter and it all went like a breeze except that the pre-booked taxi was about 45 monutes late, by which time we'd all decided he wasn't coming at all and before that in Berlin, DH and I spent over an hour trying to locate the correct station platform to get into the city, depsite the fact that I speak reasonable german!

thanks, again,

regards, ann

Btw a) I find it more like a 10 minute walk from the airport terminal to the docks but b) there are trolleys for which you need a €1 coin.

Also we find a spend a lot of time in Venice just walking so we don't buy vaporetto tickets to cover the whole period. We covered our recent week there with 1 72 hr ticket and 1 24 hr ticket.

Ann

Two tips -

There is an ATM in Marco Polo airport. I got that information from a previous poster. When you exit out of the baggage area and are to the point where you see all the people with signs to pick people up, turn right and go to the end of the hallway. It is at the end of the hall on the right hand side. (I think there is a post office right next to it.)

To buy the Alilaguna tickets, you'll instead turn left. If you are at the ATM, turn around, go back past where you entered and you'll find it on the left hand side.

If you want to take the Alilaguna, you'll exit the building and look to the left for the walkway. It really is well-marked and even had a time estimate. It is a nice smooth pathway - not a walk through city streets or anything like that.

While waiting, take some time to study the map information on the walls. If there are lots of people, you might not get on the first boat.

Here's a tip that I learned from experience on this trip. When packing your suitcase, put the heavier things on the side of your suitcase with the wheels. It is much easier to pull. If you put the weight near the opposite side, you'll put holding up the weight as you pull. I don't know why I never realized this before.

Debbie

Hi, Debbie,

That's brilliant. luckily we won't need the ATM as in the UK, all we need to do to get euros is to go to the post office and buy them over the counter. easy peasy.

but the info for the dock is REALLY useful. I suspect we'll take the water taxi, as the alilaguna doesn't go to the rialto, and the timetable means we'd probably not make it to Venice until 10pm. can you remember how the water-taxis are signposted?

regards, ann

Warning - if you don't arrive until 10pm you may find none of the ticket offices etc in the airport open anyway.

Admittedly we arrived later than that this year - it was 1145 by the time we got out - but *nothing* was open. (I hadn't researched for this situation as we should have been there c.1pm !)

With no clue as to whether the Alilaguna was still running or not, we trudged to the dock - and found it wasn't. Unwilling to fork out for a watertaxi we then trudged back to get a land bus from right outside the terminal. So we ended up having no option but to pay on the bus and the subsequent vaporetto N. I can't imagine what would have happened if we'd pre-booked Venice Cards to pick up at the airport.

Ann - I didn't notice where the water taxis docked.

If anyone is iffy on times for transportation, I'd suggest going to their websites. I know that before we went I checked times for the Alliguna.

I say that partially because friends of ours who planned to take the vaporetto back to the airport early one morning found out that it stopped at something like 4:30 AM. They were glad that they found out in advance as they just left a little earlier.

Why in the world it would run all night and stop at 4:30 AM, I don't know. Perhaps I misunderstood. But in any case, the point is the same. Don't assume anything runs 24 hours per day.

We took a cruise and when we got off and got ready to take the Alliguna back to San Marcos and our hotel, we found out that it didn't start running until 8:30 AM. We were REALLY glad that we hadn't decided to take the "unload your own luggage from the ship" option which was really early.

Debbie

Debbie

Ann
If you decide to take the water taxi, contact your rental folks and find out the closest place the water taxi can drop you to your accomodations. Meeting you at the Railto is probably just the closest public transport stop and may entail a great deal of additional walking. Since you will be paying for the service anyway, they may be able to drop you within a few feet of your Venice home.

Forgot to mention, the water taxis at the airport pick up in the same area that Alilaguna docks.

For an idea of scale and location use goolemaps to locate Marco Polo Airport on satellite view. Then Zoom in to view the docks. At the South west end of the runways, you'll notice a channel coming in offf the lagoon. Follow it up to the end, at max zoom in you can actually the boat and the white rectangle is the dock. Water taxis dock to the left.

Forgot to mention, the water taxis at the airport pick up in the same area that Alilaguna docks.

For an idea of scale and location use googlemaps to locate Marco Polo Airport on satellite view. Then Zoom in to view the docks. At the South west end of the runways, you'll notice a channel coming in off the lagoon. Follow it up to the end, at max zoom in you can actually see the boat and the white rectangle is the dock. Water taxis dock to the left.

> because friends of ours who planned to take the vaporetto back to the airport early one morning found out that it stopped at something like 4:30 AM.

Debbie, vaporetto does not go to the airport. Alilaguna boat, yes. Also ACTV land bus (same company that operates vaporetto lines) doe does go to the airport.

There is a HUGE advantage to getting your vaporetto pass at the airport - NO LINES!

hi, notbob,

brilliant, thanks.

I'll google the airport, to check for the position of the water taxi dock.

our apartment is apparently very close to the rialto but I'll check with the owners exactly where to ask for. Those italian lessons should come in useful!

regards, ann

>Debbie, vaporetto does not go to the airport. Alilaguna boat, yes. Also ACTV land bus (same company that operates vaporetto lines) doe does go to the airport.

I'm sorry that I stated that so poorly. I should have said that they were going to take the vaporetto on their way to the airport. They took the vaporetto to Plaza Roma and then took the land bus (or as one friend said - the bus with wheels) the rest of the way to the airport. That's what we did on the way back too.

Debbie