Getting Here & Onward

Two airports, and the boat is the good one

Marco Polo (VCE) is about 8 km north on the mainland edge of the lagoon. Treviso (TSF) is 40 km away, serves low-cost airlines, and is a coach ride — allow the best part of two hours door to door.

From Marco Polo

Three ways in, and they are genuinely different journeys:

• Alilaguna, the shared water bus, goes from the airport pier to stops around the city. Slowest, cheapest on the water, and lands you near where you are staying.
• The land bus (ATVO or ACTV line 5) runs to Piazzale Roma in about twenty minutes and is the cheapest of all — but Piazzale Roma may be nowhere near your hotel, and then you still have to get across the city.
• A water taxi takes you to a door, costs many times the others, and is the only option that removes the luggage problem entirely.

⚠️ The airport pier is a seven-minute walk from the terminal along a covered walkway. Budget for it.

By train, which is the best way to arrive

Trains cross the causeway and stop at Venezia Santa Lucia, which is in the city — you walk out of the station onto the Grand Canal. ⛔ Do not get off at Venezia Mestre: that is the mainland, and it is a ten-minute train ride short of where you want to be. It is the single commonest arrival mistake.

Luggage, which is the real problem

There are no taxis to your door and there are bridges with steps between you and almost anywhere. Pack light, genuinely. Left-luggage exists at the station and at Piazzale Roma, and several private stores operate in the centre.

Onward

Padua is 25 minutes by train, Verona about 70, Bologna about 90 — all of which makes Venice an easy base. Coaches leave from Piazzale Roma, and the Tronchetto car park connects by the People Mover.