One of the three San Marco piers
Whatever your budget, the Venezia Unica tourist pass is still the best place to start. Venice can get expensive very quickly if you buy every vaporetto ride and museum ticket separately. As of this update, a 7-day ACTV vaporetto/public transport pass is €65 per person. The Museum Pass is now listed at €50 full price and gives one admission to the Doge’s Palace and the other Civic Museums of Venice. Public restroom passes are less clearly presented online than they used to be, so I would no longer plan the trip around a WC pass without checking the current Venezia Unica options before leaving.
Also worth knowing: Venice now applies an access fee on certain days for day visitors who enter the historic city between 8:30 a.m. and 4:00 p.m. If this applies to your visit, check the official Venezia Unica access-fee site before you go.
VENICE – Useful prices to know
- Single vaporetto/ACTV ticket, valid 75 minutes: €9.50
- ACTV 1-day pass: €25
- ACTV 2-day pass: €35
- ACTV 3-day pass: €45
- ACTV 7-day pass: €65 (still a good deal if you use the vaporetto often)
- ACTV 3-day transport + Rolling Venice, for travellers aged 6 to 29: from €33
- St. Mark’s Square Museums ticket: from €35
- Museum Pass for the Civic Museums of Venice: €50 full price
- Wi-Fi packages: check the current Venezia Unica options, as these are not always shown as clearly as before
- Public restrooms: historically around €1.50 per visit, but check the current Venezia Unica or on-site information before relying on a restroom pass
- Piazzale Roma bus to Marco Polo Airport: about €10 one way / €18 return for the airport bus
- Alilaguna from Venice to Marco Polo Airport: €18 one way / €32 return; allow about 1 hour 15 minutes to 1 hour 30 minutes depending on the stop and line
- Road taxi from Piazzale Roma to Marco Polo Airport: fixed fare around €40
- Water taxi: fast, beautiful and expensive; expect well over €100 depending on the route, time and luggage
Most of this is available on the old VeniceConnected service, now called Venezia Unica.
- To purchase a service, go to Venezia Unica services.
- Create your card/profile first, then select the products you want.
- Add the desired passes or tickets to your cart. To understand exactly what is included, open the offer details before buying.
- You can usually collect or activate your tickets at a terminal or ticket office at the train station or airport, depending on the product purchased.
The ACTV automated service point at Santa Lucia Station is near the vaporetto stop on the left as you exit the station.
Santa Lucia Station
Taxi, ACTV vaporetti and the Alilaguna line
Arrival at Marco Polo
Marco Polo with Alilaguna. The boat is not a subway. From St. Mark’s Square, allow a good hour and a half before arriving at the airport, so plan your departure time carefully before your flight. There are several stops along the way, but it is one of the most scenic, least stressful and still reasonably priced ways to say goodbye to Venice. Plan on a 5 to 8 minute outdoor walk from the arrival dock to the airport terminal. There is no moving walkway, so wheeled suitcases are a must.
- €18 one way
- €32 round trip
Via Libertà by train
Bus and road taxi. If you are close to Piazzale Roma, you have several options to get to Marco Polo Airport. The airport bus is about €10 one way or €18 return, luggage included, with a trip of roughly 20 to 25 minutes. A road taxi from Piazzale Roma to Marco Polo Airport is a fixed fare of about €40 and takes roughly 15 to 20 minutes depending on traffic.
Obviously, you still have to get to Piazzale Roma first. For example, from St. Mark’s Square to Piazzale Roma by vaporetto, allow around 30 minutes and make sure you are going in the right direction. If walking from the Alilaguna dock to the airport terminal with luggage is a bit of a workout, taking a crowded vaporetto with luggage can be even worse, especially at peak hours. Stay near the central area of the boat if you can, because you do not want to fight your way through the crowd with your bags when you reach Piazzale Roma. The stop just before is Santa Lucia Station, so there can be a lot of people on board.
I arrived by train from Lyon and found the Via Libertà rather disappointing as an introduction to Venice. I imagine it is not much better as a farewell route either. It is definitely less poetic than leaving by Alilaguna if what you want is one last look at Venice. The photo on the right was taken from the train on arrival, and the one below was taken on my way to Marco Polo Airport.
Departure from Venice with Alilaguna
Museums
It is easy to get confused in a city you do not know. Validating a single vaporetto ticket at the wrong stop can become expensive. Buying a ticket for the Doge’s Palace and then paying again at the Correr Museum, only to realize that the combined ticket already included both, is the kind of mistake that can make Venice feel more expensive than it really is.
I became more careful after an experience in Paris, where FNAC sold us Versailles passes with extra tickets for the Musical Fountains, only for us to discover on site that everything was already included with the pass. As the French might say: putain de merde. Since then, I pay much closer attention to packages, passes and what each ticket actually includes.
Be aware: the St. Mark’s Square Museums ticket is a combined ticket. It includes the Doge’s Palace and the museums around St. Mark’s Square. In other words, do not pay separately at every museum without checking what your first ticket already includes.
The St. Mark’s Square Museums ticket generally includes:
- Doge’s Palace
- Correr Museum
- National Archaeological Museum
- Monumental Rooms of the Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana
The full Museum Pass is now more expensive than it used to be, but it can still make sense if you plan to visit several Civic Museums. It includes the Doge’s Palace and the other Civic Museums of Venice, with one admission to each museum.
The Museum Pass includes:
- Doge’s Palace
- Correr Museum
- National Archaeological Museum
- Monumental Rooms of the Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana
- Ca’ Rezzonico, Museum of 18th-century Venice
- Carlo Goldoni’s House
- Mocenigo Palace Museum and Study Centre of the History of Fabrics and Costumes
- Ca’ Pesaro, International Gallery of Modern Art and Museum of Oriental Art
- Glass Museum in Murano
- Lace Museum in Burano
- Natural History Museum
- Fortuny Museum
Restrooms in Venice
This is not the first thing you think about before going on a trip, but it can become very practical information once you are there. In Paris, there are modern automated public toilets. In North America, you can often rely on what I would call the McDonald’s network. For example, in Montreal, on Sainte-Catherine Street, you can pass several McDonald’s, Burger Kings, Tim Hortons and other places where washrooms are usually easy to find.
Italy is different, and Venice is even more different.
- In trattorias, cafés and snack bars, restroom access is usually for customers only, so you should expect to buy at least a bottle of water, a coffee or another small item.
Unless you are a charming lady in distress, getting free access to a restroom can be difficult. Since I am rather hairy, I did not test the smile strategy. I have seen tourists being firmly reminded of the rule, even in places like Hard Rock Cafe. And McDonald’s? That network is not really useful in central Venice.
Public restrooms are scattered throughout the historic city, but the old online restroom-pass information is less clear than it used to be. If you know you will need them often, mark the locations on your map and check the current Venezia Unica or on-site information before relying on an old pass price.
- Public restroom access has historically been around €1.50 per visit
- Older Venezia Unica restroom passes may no longer be presented the same way online
- Bars and cafés are often the most practical option if you are already stopping for a drink or snack
- And if you are going to pay anyway, you might as well pay a little more for a Campari Soda. Cheers!