Venice - please help!!!

[mamaof2]

My parents and I are doing a Med cruise in October. I will be flying back to the States the day cruise ends, so I'll need a ride from the pier to the airport (the flight is at 10:30 a.m.). My parents, who don't speak good English will stay in Venice overnight and fly next morning. What would be the best arrangement for them to get to the hotel from the ship and then from the hotel to the airport? (they will be staying in SanMarco area). How do I get to the airport from the ship? THanks much!!!

[wwinfl91]

You can get to the airport via land taxis that are available right at the dock. That is the easy part. If your parents are staying at a hotel that has water taxi access it may be possible for them to take a water taxi to it and then again take another water taxi from the hotel to the airport the next day. It would be expensive but would avoid them having to try to haul luggage over streets and bridges that weren't designed for rolling luggage. If their hotel stay was arranged as part of the cruise, the cruiseline should provide an option to purchase transportation to the the hotel and then again from the hotel to the airport. If you or they arranged it on your own then it would be up to you and them to find the transportation. It may be that the hotel they are staying at can provide an option of how to get there and then to the airport. Again it wouldn't be a cheap option but it would help make sure they got to the hotel and then to the airport.

 

Do a search on this board using "venice" as a key word and you will find a lot of threads about this topic.

 

Good luck and have a great next cruise.

[mamaof2]

Thank you, I'll do that!

[bankofdad]

You can get to the airport via land taxis that are available right at the dock. That is the easy part.

 

Thanks for posting this! Are there a lot of taxis waiting at the pier, or would you advise pre-arranging taxi service? We were a bit concerned that we would be cutting it close with a 1:45PM departure time back to the States on Debarkation day. We just got back from the UK and Heathrow was a time consuming mess to get through!

[mamaof2]

And one more question: if we need to pre-book water taxi - how do we do that? Is water-taxi station far from pier? THanks!

[wwinfl91]

Here are some links that might help you decide what to do.

 

Great general site with lots of info on Venice

 

http://europeforvisitors.com/venice/

 

Company site that does water taxi transfers from port to airport or hotel

 

http://www.veniceguideandboat.it/transferapt.htm

 

Company site that will do land transportation for airport to port

 

http://www.airports-shuttle.com/

 

Venice Marco Polo airport site

 

http://www.veniceairport.com/core/index.jsp?_requestid=466625

 

Venice cruise port site

 

http://www.vtp.it/Default.jsp?language=1

 

Land taxi company site loads slow

 

http://www.veneziaportaest.com/inglese/index_eng.html

 

Venice water taxi company site

 

http://www.veneziataxi.it/english/main.html

 

Venice public waterbus site

 

http://www.actv.it/english/home.php

 

Special private waterbus company from airport to Venice and back

 

http://www.alilaguna.it/

 

As far as land taxis at the port, there were some there when we got off the Golden in 2003 but if you are worried about your connections I would suggest seeing what the cruise line offers. That way you can put your luggage out the night before and they will truck it over to the airport and will take you and your carry-on luggage to the airport in a bus and leave you off in front of the airport. Your luggage will be there under a cover in a roped off area and you can rent a cart by the entrance to the airport (be sure to get a couple of euro coins to pay for it), load your luggage up and go find your airline.

 

Getting around in Venice with luggage can be a real problem. The sidewalks which are also the streets are not necessarily kept smooth so rolling luggage may or may not roll. Also there are many many bridges most of which have steps up and then steps down. Only a very few will have any sort of ramp so again you end up have to carry your luggage up and then down again.

 

There are porters who carry things around the city in special human pulled carts. It may be possible to have your hotel arrange to have a porter meet you at a waterbus stop and then transport your luggage to the hotel and then repeat the process when you are going to the ship or airport but it wouldn't be a cheap process.

 

Some hotels have direct water access so a water taxi can come right up to their dock and the luggage can be unloaded into the hotel. If you check the board there are a couple of posts of how this may not be as nice as you would think because of the slime and algae that grows on everything near the water in Venice. If the hotel again has a doorman or porter who can meet you and assist you that would be the best situation even this type situation.

 

Take a look at the links I posted above and see they can provide you with some answers.

 

Have a great next cruise.

[mamaof2]

Thank you very much for all the info! I am going to look at those!!