Venice - IMOB card
 

My husband and i are going to Venice - he for 10 days and I for a month. Does anyone have thoughts about the IMOB card? The weekly and 2 week passes for the vaporetti are costly and we generally walk most of the time although we DO take the vaporetto when we are tired and, of course to the islands - Burano and Murano. The IMOB card costs 40EU and one passes it in front of a machine that is on the vaporetto on each ride so it's an up front cost but then pay as you go.

I'd appreciated any input that you might have re. purchasing the IMOB card. - 2 weeks (husband) and 4 weeks (me).
thanks...

The Tessera di abbonamento may be right for you:

http://livingveniceblog.com/venice-i...piazzale-roma/

You pay 40€ for the card, and then you can buy passes and/or individual fares at the resident's rate. You'll have to do the math to see what will work best for you.

europeforvisitors.com/venice/articles/imob-cartavenezia.htm

good link for you personally unless you will be riding a lot

over your longer stay I enjoy walking...

bascially for 40 euro per person you then get local price

or 1 euro per ride or so... most of the locals walk

that is what I do eurocheapo.com/venice good tips

do a short pass all the rides you want then just walk

might be wise for all the islands Torcello is the coolest

of all for me great Mosaics very historic where it all started

Have fun!

I endorse ellenem's suggestion - it costs 40 Euro, but lasts for five years. So you can use it maybe for your next visit.

The link given is not quite correct – you don’t buy a ten-pack of tickets any more, but you load euro onto the card when you buy it. The card is electronic, so you swipe it when you get onto the vap, and the swiper tells you how many euro is left on the card. You can top the card up at the tourist info place near San Marco.

A standard vap ticket costs 6.50 euro, but a standard ride if you have an imob card is 1.10. It means that if you use the card more than six or seven times, then it starts to pay for itself.

Two nice things if you have an imob card:
You have a tiny feeling of being a local when you use it, and you can feel a bit Venetian, with your photo on the card.
And you can be much more spontaneous about taking a vap, as the cost is so small.

Take your passport with you when you go to get the card. The process took us all of 20 minutes.

Thank you - We'll do it! I know that sensation of feeling like a local. We live in Boston but are in San Francisco often so i bought what they call a Clipper Card which is comparable to an IMOB - you swipe the card in a machine as you embark the trolley or ferry etc. The difference is that it's connected to my CC. I feel like a native in SF - which i actually AM so it's satisfying. I'd enjoy that feeling in Venice!

Gianetta, we got these on our last but one trip and I reckon they are well worthwhile if you are ever going to spend a total of 2 weeks there, even if like us you walk more than take vaporetti. Yes, this is known as the IMOB card or Cartavenezia (not to be confused with the tourist 'Venice Card'). In case you haven't seen it, this is the official website which shows the different ticket types - http://www.actv.it/en/movinginvenice/movinginvenice

Not all ticket office do them. We coudn't find anywhere that did them at the airport but the website said the Accademia ticket office did. They denied all knowledge and sent us to Rialto. Once at Rialto we had to identify the *one* ticket office that does them - it's the furthest one away from the bridge. You can take your own photos but no need, the person in the ticket office can take photos.

Once you have the card, you can top them up at any ticket office or self-service machine.

You don't actually load euros on to it, you load tickets. You can load any number of tickets but multiples of 10 (virtual 'carnets') are the cheap way to go. Note that there are 2 different types of tickets you can load on it, water only (at €11 for 10) or land + water (at €18 for 10). You would need the latter if, for example, you wanted to get the vaporetto to the Lido then get a bus. We have not yet worked out how quite how this works. Do you load both on your card ? When you touch your card for the boat does it subtract 1 water only ticket, then if you touch it on a bus within 90 mins does it add back on the water only ticket and subtract 1 water+land ticket ? We have got by so far without having to find out.

Each time you touch the card to the device before boarding, it shows you how many tickets you have left after that. One tickets covers more than one boat if it's all within 90 minutes - you just can't use it for a return on the same route. If you are using it for a journey involving 2 boats, when you touch the card before boarding the 2nd boat, the device tells you how many minutes you have left instead of subtracting a ticket.

Also they give you a discount off Alilaguna tickets - I think on our last trip, in June, a return was €14 instead of €25.