"Venice vaporetto will give you a chance to have a romantic but inexpensive ride down the Grand Canal of Venice..."
Vaporettos are one of the popular ways of Venice transportation when it comes to getting downtown Venice from the port of Venice.
If you decide not to go with the cruise ship organized water shuttle, water taxi or walking Venice isn't your thing, then taking Venice vaporetto is a good way to go.
It will give you a chance to both:
If you are wondering where to get on one of the vaporettos closest to the ship, you need to know the closest vaporetto station to the cruise terminal is in Piazzale Roma.
The square of Piazzale Roma is the furthest point that cars can reach and this is where the canals of Venice begin.
It takes about 15-20 minutes walk to reach it from the "main square" of the cruise terminal area, which is by the terminal building #107.
If you wonder if you could take a land taxi to Piazzale Roma from the cruise terminal, the answer is - no. But you can take a Venice people mover and cut your trip much shorter.
Land taxis are mostly around in the Venice cruise terminal during a ship's turnaround days. Even if the day of your cruise ship's visit coincides with another ship's turnaround day, it would be very very difficult for you to catch a taxi.
There is always a long line waiting for them and they are always snatched by passengers rushing to catch a flight at the Venice airport.
Even if you got one, keep in mind, you would need to pay €15 just for the 5 minute taxi ride from the cruise terminal to Piazzale Roma.
So, taking a Venice people mover is our best suggestion.
When you plan to use a vaporetto to get downtown instead of your cruise ship organized water transfer, make sure it's for the right reasons: for enjoying the vaporetto route and seeing the Grand Canal.
Some cruise guests do it thinking they would save money that way but that is often times not the case.
Even if you walk/take a people mover to Piazzale Roma and purchase a 36 hour vaporetto pass, the price will probably be about the same as your cruise line's unlimited use ticket for their water transfer boat.
The only case where the Venice vaporetto passes for multiple days may work for cruisers is if they use the passes to reach the islands outside the Venice historical center (Murano, Burano etc).
How to walk from Venice cruise teminal to Venice vaporetto
So, there are vaporettos that leave right there from the venice cruise port itself but their purpose is to help people who are getting off their cruise ships after a finished cruise to reach their hotels downtown Venice or vice versa.
These are run by a private company Alilaguna and they go straight to San Marco down the Giudecca canal.
In other words, if your ship's visit coincides with another ship's turnaround day and you see the Alilaguna boats are running, yes, you can absolutely purchase a ticket and take a ride to Piazza San Marco, but you will not experience a romantic ride down the Venice Grand Canal.
If you want to save some money, you can buy your tickets online and then exchange the vouchers for a ticket at the Alilaguna booth before you board the boat:
This service can be very helpful for back-to-back cruisers who would quickly like to pop to Venice downtown on their ship's embarkation day.
If you are just visiting Venice for a day, remember, check if there is Alilaguna service on that day.
Alilaguna Venice vaporettos from the cruise terminal straight to Saint Mark's square depart from:
Hotels in Venice - HotelsCombined.com allows you to instantly search and compare room availability and prices from all major travel websites!
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