Alilaguna: airport boat lines, times, fares and which line for your hotel

What the boat costs

Alilaguna runs the water buses between Marco Polo Airport and Venice. It is a separate company with its own tickets, not part of the ACTV network that the vaporetto ticket covers. A single journey between the airport and any stop in the city costs €18, a return €32. If you are staying on Murano, the airport fare is €10 one way and €18 return. Children travel free until their sixth birthday.

Alilaguna also sells time passes for its own network: €40 for 24 hours, €60 for 48 hours and €80 for 72 hours, airport transfers included. They are sold at Alilaguna ticket offices only. For most visitors they do not pay off, because two single airport journeys cost €32 and every ride inside the city is cheaper on the ACTV vaporetto ticket. They earn their price if you are based on Murano or the Lido and use the Alilaguna lines several times a day.

Set against the other ways in, the boat is the middle option. It costs more than the €10 bus and takes at least three times as long; it costs far less than a water taxi and is slower again. What the fare buys is the arrival point, a landing stage in the old city instead of the bus station on its western edge.

The three lines and how long they take

Which line you want depends on the district you sleep in, not on which boat leaves first. Blu is the long way round the city: Murano, Fondamente Nove, the Lido, San Zaccaria, San Marco, Zattere, Giudecca, Tronchetto and finally Santa Lucia station. Arancio cuts through the Cannaregio canal and the Grand Canal to Guglie, Rialto, Sant'Angelo, Ca' Rezzonico and Santa Maria del Giglio. Rossa runs only in the season, April to November, and takes the Blu route as far as San Marco Giardinetti.

In the other direction the day starts earlier and ends much sooner. The first Blu towards the airport leaves San Marco Giardinetti at 03:46 and arrives at 05:10, a run of 84 minutes; from the railway station the first departure is 08:15 and the crossing takes around 115 minutes. Arancio leaves Santa Maria del Giglio every 30 minutes between 06:15 and 19:15, needs 55 minutes from Rialto and puts its last passengers at the airport at 20:26. Rossa leaves San Marco at 07:16 and then hourly from 08:40 to 15:40. The stop lists and the timetable for each line are on the Alilaguna line pages.

Where the boats leave from

The dock is not outside the terminal door. From the arrivals hall you follow the blue signs for water transport onto the moving walkway, which runs under cover to the waterfront. The signs promise four minutes; with a suitcase in tow, allow up to thirteen. The Alilaguna ticket office at the airport is open from 07:30 to 23:00, and the landing stages sit at the end of the walkway.

Luggage

One suitcase of up to 160 cm in combined dimensions and one piece of hand luggage travel free on every Alilaguna ticket. Each further piece costs €4 and has to be bought before boarding, not from the crew. That is tighter than the rule inside the city, where the ACTV conditions of carriage let three pieces of up to 150 cm travel free, so a family arriving with four suitcases pays a supplement on the airport boat and nothing on the vaporetto.

Booking, voucher and the return leg

A ticket booked online is tied to a date. You receive a voucher, exchange it for a ticket at the Alilaguna desk at the airport and validate it before you step on board. A booking made here can be cancelled free of charge up to 24 hours before departure; the vaporetto ticket itself is nonrefundable.

On a return ticket the second leg stays valid for 30 days from the first validation, and you validate it again on the day you travel back. Alilaguna refunds a ticket only if a service is cancelled with less than 60 minutes' notice or runs more than 60 minutes late; a boat you miss is not refunded. Plan the return generously: the crossing from San Marco takes about 84 minutes, and the counters and security at Marco Polo come on top.

Which line for your part of Venice

Pick the line by the stop nearest your accommodation, then look at the departure time. In the middle of the day Blu and Arancio both leave every 30 minutes, so a boat you let go costs half an hour, and the walk from the quay with a suitcase is part of the journey.

• San Marco, Castello, the Lido or Murano: Blu, or Rossa in season. Both call at Murano Colonna, the Lido, San Zaccaria and San Marco Giardinetti.
• Cannaregio, Rialto, San Polo and the Dorsoduro around Ca' Rezzonico and the Giglio: Arancio. It is also the quickest line to the middle of the Grand Canal, 57 minutes to Rialto.
• Santa Lucia station or Piazzale Roma: Blu to the end of the line, 114 minutes, or the bus, which needs 20 minutes for the same stretch.
• Giudecca and Zattere: Blu, shortly before it reaches Tronchetto and the station.

Alilaguna and the ACTV vaporetto ticket

The two systems look alike from the quayside and are billed separately. The AVM fare page excludes the Alilaguna lines and every journey starting or ending at Marco Polo Airport from all timed ACTV tickets, whether they run for 75 minutes or seven days. There is no combined ticket and no upgrade: you buy the airport crossing from Alilaguna, and the vaporetto ticket takes over for your days in the city.

On land the same trip is cheaper. The ATVO express bus costs €10 one way and €18 return and reaches Piazzale Roma in 20 minutes; the ACTV Aerobus line 5 costs the same €10, or €7 one way and €13 return as a supplement bought together with a timed ticket. The supplement is the only bridge between a timed vaporetto ticket and the airport, and it has to be bought at the same time as the ticket itself. If speed and the hotel door matter more than the fare, the water taxi and the shared water taxi do that job better.

The lines, times, fares and luggage rules on this page follow Alilaguna's own published fares, line timetables and conditions of carriage, together with the official ACTV tariff published by AVM and the ATVO line 35 timetable.