Venice Airports to the City: Which Alilaguna Line You Actually Want

The bus from Marco Polo to Piazzale Roma costs 10 euros and takes 24 minutes. The Alilaguna boat costs 18 and takes 70 to 90 minutes to San Marco. Most arrivals pick the boat because it sounds like the Venice thing to do, then pick the wrong colour line. This page sets out what every option costs and which line goes where, checked against ACTV, ATVO, Alilaguna and the Comune di Venezia in September 2026.

What each option costs

The thing to understand before anything else

Piazzale Roma is where the road stops. No car, bus or taxi goes any further into Venice. Every arrival finishes on foot, on a vaporetto, or on a water taxi.

That is also true of hotels advertising a private dock. It means a boat, not a car.

And a water taxi to your hotel is often not to your hotel. Only buildings on a navigable canal with a dock can be reached by boat. Everywhere else, the taxi drops you at the nearest public landing and you walk the rest with your bags.

The buses

Two operators run to Piazzale Roma and they are priced differently.

ACTV Aerobus line 5 costs 10 euros for a single valid 75 minutes, or 18 return. It takes about 24 minutes and runs every 15 to 20 minutes on weekdays. First departure from the airport is 04:08 and the last is 00:40.

ATVO Venezia Express line 35a costs 12 euros single and 20 return. It is non stop and takes 20 minutes, roughly every 30 minutes. First from the airport 04:20, last 00:40. Luggage is included with no limit.

If you already hold a Venice travel card, ACTV sells an airport supplement instead at 7 euros one way or 13 return.

Third party sites quote both of these wrongly. We have seen 8 euros, 12 euros and various others for the ACTV bus. The operators’ own fare pages say 10 and 12.

Alilaguna, and the line that actually serves your hotel

This is where people go wrong. Alilaguna runs three coloured lines and they serve different parts of the city. Booking Alilaguna generically gets you a long ride to the wrong side of Venice.

In short: Orange for Rialto and Cannaregio, Blue for the railway station, Giudecca and Zattere, Red only in season and only if Blue is inconvenient.

Fares are 18 euros single and 32 return to Venice, or 10 and 18 to Murano. One hold bag and one hand bag are included and each extra bag is 4 euros. Under 6s go free. There are 24, 48 and 72 hour passes at 40, 60 and 80 euros which include the airport transfers.

On timing, be realistic. Allow 70 to 90 minutes from the airport to San Marco, and 30 to 40 minutes to Murano or Fondamente Nove, with roughly half hourly departures by day. Alilaguna publishes its timetables only as files we could not read, and the secondary sources disagree by a wide margin, so we are giving you the range rather than a false precision. Several of those sources also still quote the old 15 euro fare, which tells you how stale they are.

One more thing. Alilaguna is a separate company from ACTV. Your Venice travel card is not valid on an Alilaguna boat, and an Alilaguna pass is not valid on a vaporetto.

The walk to the dock

The water dock is not at the terminal door. From the baggage hall you go up to the departures level, through the blue water transport archway, along an elevated moving walkway, then down to a covered dock lobby.

The airport’s signage says about four minutes. An accessibility survey measured it at roughly 500 metres and eight minutes. With bags, allow 10 to 15.

Lifts exist for luggage and wheelchairs, but the same survey reports that many airport boats are not wheelchair accessible. Check with the operator if that matters.

Water taxis

There is a regulated municipal tariff, set by the city in agreement with the trade bodies and in force since December 2011.

Airport runs are a fixed point to point price rather than metered. Metering, at 5 euros plus 3 a minute, applies inside the urban area. Residents and disabled passengers get 20 percent off. Supplements stack.

A caveat on our source. The city links only to display files we could not open, so these amounts come from a reproduction of the two resolutions rather than a city hosted document. The regulations are the right ones. Confirm the figures at the dock.

The main operator publishes no price list at all and quotes on booking.

Treviso, which is not Venice

Treviso is about 31 to 41 km away depending on the source, and it has no water connection whatsoever. Every arrival is by road to Piazzale Roma or Tronchetto, then on foot or by vaporetto.

ATVO line 351 takes about 30 minutes to Mestre and 40 to 45 to Piazzale Roma. First departure from the airport is around 07:45 and the last around 22:30, with roughly 20 to 24 a day. ATVO publishes no price on its own timetable, and the 12 euro single and 22 return in circulation come from third parties only.

Barzi Service costs 10 euros single and 18 return, with under 10s free. It takes about 30 minutes to Mestre and 40 to Tronchetto.

Note that Barzi ends at Tronchetto, not Piazzale Roma. That means a further People Mover ride or a vaporetto. It surprises people every week.

And note the last bus. A delayed late flight into Treviso can leave you with no bus at all.

Vaporetto tickets once you are in Venice

The airport is not included in any of them. To use a travel card for the airport you add the 7 euro one way or 13 euro return supplement. The Aerobus is 10 euros, not 9.50.

The access fee is not being charged

This is current and it matters, because a lot of people are still budgeting for it.

The city’s own payment portal states that the 2026 trial has ended and that from 27 July 2026 the access fee does not apply. There is nothing to pay and no exemption to declare.

For the record, this is how it ran while it was live. Five euros if you paid by the fourth to last day before entry, ten within the final four days. It applied on 60 non consecutive days between 3 April and 26 July 2026, to everyone over 14 entering the historic centre. Residents, workers, students and local property tax payers were excluded by law. Overnight guests, Veneto residents, people attending medical care and relatives of residents were exempt but had to register.

The scheme is still formally experimental and we found no decision for 2027, so we are not going to tell you whether it comes back.

If a third party site offers to book or pay the access fee for you right now, it is selling you nothing.

Acqua alta

High water does not slow the boats down. It stops specific lines, because the constraint is bridge clearance and gangway height.

ACTV publishes thresholds. Above 85 cm the San Marcuola to Rialto and San Marco stops become unreachable. Above 95 cm line 2 is limited, line 3 is suspended and night services from Murano stop. Above 120 cm Zattere closes in the San Marco to Lido direction. Above 135 cm boats cannot pass under Murano’s Vivarini bridge. Above 140 cm the public transport service is suspended as a whole.

There is no published figure for how many minutes acqua alta adds, because it does not work that way. Check the tide forecast rather than budgeting extra time.

We could not find equivalent published thresholds for Alilaguna’s airport lines.

What we could not confirm

Alilaguna’s first and last departures, frequency and per stop times. The official data sits in files we could not retrieve and the secondary sources conflict.

ATVO’s fare from Treviso. No official price is published.

Barzi’s first and last departures.

The water taxi amounts against a city hosted document.

Whether the access fee returns in 2027.

The exact terminal to dock time, which is given as four minutes by the airport and eight by an independent survey.

Sources

• ACTV, Venice fares and the airport supplement
• ATVO, Venice Airport Bus Express
• Alilaguna, fares
• Alilaguna, lines and stops
• Comune di Venezia, water taxi tariffs
• Comune di Venezia, access fee portal
• ACTV, waterborne services during high tide
• Barzi Service, Treviso airport line