Vaporetto tickets and passes: which duration fits your stay

Every duration and what it costs

ACTV prices the vaporetto by time, not by distance. You buy a duration, and inside that window you ride the whole urban network as often as you like: the Grand Canal lines, the boats out to the lagoon islands, the buses in Mestre and on the Lido. A crossing to Murano costs exactly what a single stop on the Grand Canal costs, which is why the right question is never how far but how often.

The reduced fare of €1.50 per 75 minutes applies to wheelchair users and to holders of the EU Disability Card, on every ACTV water bus line except 16, 19, the Casinò line and Alilaguna; the person accompanying a wheelchair user travels free. There is no senior discount for visitors: the ACTV reductions for older passengers are tied to residence in the Comune di Venezia.

Which duration fits your stay

The decision is a simple count: days on the water multiplied by rides per day. Venice is compact and many routes are quicker on foot than by boat, so two rides a day is a normal plan rather than a thrifty one. Work out the count first, then pick the row.

• One ride and no more: the 75-minute ticket. Inside those 75 minutes you may change lines and even break the journey and board again; there is no rule confining you to one direction.
• One full day with three rides or more: the 24-hour ticket. Three single rides already cost more, and a day that takes in St Mark's, an island and the way back to your hotel reaches three easily.
• Two days: the 48-hour ticket, which comes out ahead of single tickets from the fourth ride.
• Three days with an island day: the 72-hour ticket. Fondamente Nove to Murano and on to Burano and back is two rides on its own, and the clock runs for three full days.
• Four days or more: the 7-day ticket. It costs less than three day tickets and covers a full week, so it wins long before the seventh day.

If your stay is one arrival and one departure with walking in between, two 75-minute tickets are the cheaper answer and nobody needs a pass. Every amount is listed on the price overview, and the two most common choices have pages of their own: the 24-hour ticket and the 72-hour ticket.

Validity and validation

Validity begins at your first validation, not at purchase, and it then runs continuously rather than by calendar days. A 24-hour ticket validated at 14:00 is valid until 14:00 the next day; a 72-hour ticket validated at 18:00 on Friday runs to 18:00 on Monday. You decide when the clock starts, which is what makes an evening arrival harmless.

Hold the ticket to the white-and-yellow reader on the landing stage every time you board, and again at every change of boat. This is not a formality: an unvalidated ticket counts as no ticket at all if an inspector asks, and a fine follows.

A ticket booked online is nonrefundable and cannot be rescheduled, and once validated it is no longer transferable. Timed tickets also cannot be loaded onto a Venezia Unica card; they stay separate paper or voucher tickets. How the voucher becomes a ticket at the machine, and what the penalty costs, is set out on buying online.

What the ticket covers, and what it does not

Every duration covers the same network. That is the whole ACTV water bus system in the urban area, including the Grand Canal lines and the crossings to Murano, Burano, Torcello and the Lido, out as far as the water terminals at Chioggia Vigo, Punta Sabbioni and Treporti. On land it covers the buses on the mainland around Mestre, the buses on the Lido and Pellestrina, the tram, and the People Mover between Piazzale Roma and Tronchetto.

Four things sit outside it, and they account for most of the confusion at the machine. Journeys to or from Marco Polo Airport are excluded from every timed ticket. The Alilaguna boats belong to a separate company with their own fares. ACTV lines 16 and 19 and the Casinò line are excluded as well. The one bridge between a timed ticket and the airport is the Aerobus supplement: €7 one way or €13 return, bought together with the timed ticket. Every way in from the airport, with journey times, is on Marco Polo Airport to Venice; the boat lines are on Alilaguna.

One special case belongs to the 24-hour ticket: the ACTV Venezia Daily Pass includes the regional trains inside the municipality. The 48-hour, 72-hour and 7-day tickets have no train component at all.

Paying with a bank card instead

There is a second way to travel that needs no voucher and no machine. Hold a contactless bank card or a phone wallet against the reader when you board, and the system charges the ordinary fare of €9.50 for the first water bus ride, then caps what the same card pays: €25 over 24 hours, €35 over 48 hours, €45 over 72 hours and €65 over 168 hours. ACTV calls this Best Fare, and it turns the cap into the pass without you choosing a duration in advance.

Up to five people can travel on one card, with five taps at the same reader within 60 seconds and everyone staying together. Mastercard, Visa, V Pay, Maestro and Amex contactless are accepted, as are the usual phone and watch wallets; PagoBancomat is not. You tap in at every boarding and at every change, and there is no tap out on the boats or on the People Mover. What this route does not give you is the airport, the extra-urban buses or the trains, none of which the tapped pass covers.

The third option is the crew. Tickets are still sold on board the water buses, since 1 July 2024 by card payment only, and the ticket is handed over already validated. That does not work on the tram or the People Mover, where you need a ticket before you board.

Rolling Venice for travellers between 6 and 29

Anyone between 6 and 29 can buy the Rolling Venice card for €6 at the Venezia Unica ticket offices, and with it the 72-hour ticket costs €27 instead of €45. Even counting the card, that stays below the ordinary three-day ticket. The Aerobus supplement can be added to the Rolling Venice ticket in the same way as to any other timed ticket. For a three-day stay in this age group it is the cheapest legitimate route, and the detail sits on the 72-hour ticket page.

Children, luggage and dogs

Children travel free until their sixth birthday. From that birthday the full adult fare applies, because the vaporetto system has no standard child discount: a family of two adults and a seven-year-old buys three tickets.

Luggage is generous by public-transport standards. Three pieces per passenger travel free, each up to 150 cm as the sum of its three dimensions, and on top of that a folded pushchair, a folding bike or scooter in its bag and one musical instrument. On the boats a pushchair may stay unfolded where there is room. Pieces measuring more than 150 cm are not carried at all, and for one to three extra pieces you need a luggage ticket at the passenger fare.

Dogs ride free, one per passenger, on a lead and muzzled or carried in your arms. Small animals travel free in a carrier of up to 150 cm. A bike that is not folded, and mopeds or motorbikes on the car ferries, each carry their own separate fare.

The durations, fares and reduced categories on this page follow the official ACTV tariff and conditions of carriage published by AVM, the operator of Venice's public transport, together with the Trenitalia terms for the Venezia Daily Pass.