Venice Cruise Port Transportation

Getting to your ship from Venice's Marco Polo Airport

ABOVE: San Basilio (the smaller of Venice's two main cruise  terminals) is next to a vaporetto stop. INSET BELOW: The quays at Marittima.

By Durant Imboden

If you're boarding a cruise ship in Venice, the simplest way to get between the airport and the ship is to buy a transfer from your cruise line. This can be expensive, however, and many passengers resent having to pay hefty prices for a 20-minute ride by chartered coach. In this article, we'll tell you how to reach the cruise terminals on your own by bus or land taxi and by boat or water taxi.

Before deciding how to reach the cruise terminal, you'll need to know where to sign in for your cruise. Large cruise vessels (larger than 25,000 GRT) normally use the main Marittima terminals for check-in, with buses transporting passengers to piers on the Italian mainland.

Smaller ships often moor at Marittima or use San Basilio and its neighboring pier of Santa Marta.

Important:

• If you're arriving in Venice by ship and need transportation to the airport, simply follow our directions in reverse.

• This article focuses on transportation between the airport and the cruise terminals. If you're arriving or departing by train, use the new glass-and-metal Ponte di Constituzione pedestrian bridge to get from Venice Santa Lucia Station to the taxi stands at the Piazzale Roma. (Alternatively, you can take a land taxi between the Piazzale Roma and the Venice Mestre railroad station on the mainland.)

• If you're arriving in Venice a day or two before your cruise, or if you're staying in Venice afterwards, you may find it convenient to book a hotel room near the Piazzale Roma instead of lugging your bags to another part of the city. See Venice Cruise Terminal Hotels and Venice Airport Hotels for suggestions.
  
  Another option--which works especially well if you've got bulky luggage--is to stay in Mestre, on the Venetian mainland, and take a cab to your ship. For details, read our Venice Travel Blog post, "Mestre for Venice Cruise Passengers."

• Our other articles about Venice cruises and Venice local transportation may be helpful when you're planning your trip. And now, on to the next page:

Next page: By land: Airport buses and taxis

About the author:

Durant Imboden has written about Venice, Italy since 1996. He covered Venice and European travel at About.com for 4-1/2 years before launching Europe for Visitors (including Venice for Visitors) with Cheryl Imboden in 2001.

PC Magazine has called this "the premier visitors' site for Venice, Italy." Over the years, it has helped more than 30 million travelers. For more information, see About our site, our Europe for Visitors press clippings, and our reader testimonials.