Getting to Venice by cruise ship or ferry

Arriving in Venice aboard a cruise ship or ferry from Greece or Croatia—How to get between the port and either the airport or downtown Venice

Most cruise ships to or from Venice dock at one of two nearby ports in the southwest corner of the historic center (between the Piazzale Roma parking garages and Tronchetto, just south-southwest of the train station).

The main port of Venice is called Stazione Marittima, and is where most Mediterranean cruises and other big ships dock.

Some smaller ships and ferries and hydrofoils to Croatia and Slovenia (and, in summer, even some larger boats when the Staz. Marittima's full) pull into the old S. Basilio ferry docks just to the southeast of Stazione Marittima along the Zattere.

The easiest way to figure out which one you need is, if you're just arriving in Venice, simply ask as you disembark "Stazione Marittima o San Basilio?"

If you're already in Venice and need to head to the port to catch a ship, make sure you ask beforehand which dock you want. (All things being equal, your best bet is to head first to the main Stazione Marittima; you can always make your way around to the other slip if need be.)

How to get to and from the Venice Airport and the cruise terminal

Many cruises that start or end in Venice include transportation to or from the airport.

If it's not included, do not buy the cruise line's "transfer" option.

It will inevitably cost far more than what you'd pay just doing it on your own. (The reason cruises are so relatively inexpensive is that they make virtually all their profits from shore excursions—that and on-board gambling and booze sales.)

How to get to and from the Venice train station and the main cruise port

If you've arrived at the Venice train station, and want to get to the ship terminal, just turn right out of the station, walk up the Grand Canal a bit, and cross over that shiny new glass-and-steel Ponte della Costituzione to Piazzale Roma.

To cover the final 900 yards from Piazzale Roma to the cruise terminal, you can either:

• Take the Venice People Mover - A fancy name for a small shuttle train (picture one of those terminal-to-terminal connectors at a large airport). Buy the €1.30 ticket at a machine; get off at the first stop—"Marittima"—less than 2 minutes later. It runs Mon-Sat 7am–11pm, Sun 8am–10pm (Nov-Mar 8:30am–9pm).
• Hop the shuttle bus - Free, and runs every 15 or 20 minutes, but usually available only Saturdays through Mondays, during cruise season, when a big ship is in port.
• Take a (land) taxi - Takes about two minutes, and should run about €5 (tel. +39-041-523-7774 or +39-041-595-2080).
• Walk - It's 10 to 15 uninspiring minutes along sometimes busy roads. Head away from Venice and up along the beginning of the bridge/causeway to the mainland, then turn left into the port area just after crossing above all the railroad tracks.

How to get to and from your hotel in downtown Venice and the main cruise port

Fastest and easiest option: Simply take the Alilaguna Blue public ferry (tel. +39-041-240-1701, www.alilaguna.it) from the San Marco-Giardinetti docks. It will cost €8.

More elegant option (direct to hotel): Take a private motorboat transfer either to/from your hotel's dock or to/from the nearest one (a representative will meet you in your hotel and take you to the launch site).

It costs €25–€35 (about €10 more after 9:30pm)—or, for about €4 more, you can get "full service" and the representative will accompany you the entire way:

• Venice Arrival Transfer: Cruise Port to Central Venice
• Venice Departure Transfer: Central Venice to Cruise Port

Otherwise, grab that brief land taxi ride (or walk in 15 minutes) the 900 yards around to Piazzale Roma, which is a major stop for the vaporetti, Venice's public ferry system of water buses.

If you're made of money, you can take a private taxi acquei (water taxi)—though these motoscafi are monstrously expensive, they might actually make sense if you're toting all your luggage, since most other options involve a healthy walk coupled with an often crowded ride on Venice's floating equivalent to a public bus, the vaporetto (which will cost you €7 anyway).

The San Basilio docks

If you happen to land at (or need to get to) the San Basilio docks, in the southwest corner of Dorsoduro, to get downtown you can either hop a water taxi, or take the public ferries/water buses known as vaporetti (lines 2, N, 8, 61, 62) at the S. Basilio vaporetto stop, just east of the ferry docks along the Fondamente Zattere (the quaiside promenade) and across a bridge.

(By the way, they aren't trying to rip you off on the vaporetto. Even though this is the local equivalent of a public bus, the tickets really do cost €7. Welcome to Venice.)

If you're coming from or going to the airport from the San Basilio docks, your best best is to continue walking east-southeast along the Zattere 450 yards to the Zattere vaporetto stop, where you can grab blu (blue) line of the Alilaguna traghetto (ferry) to Marco Polo Airport in 1 hour and 20 minutes (€15; tel. +39-041-240-1701, www.alilaguna.it).

The Venice cruise port and approach may change

There has been a strong movement to deflect large cruise ships from the familiar downtown docks, as they are having a deleterious effect on the fragile old city. This was to have happened in 2014, but the powerful cruise industry deep-sixed the plans to force larger ships to dock at Mestre instead of "downtown" Venice.

Those who actually care about the preservation of Venice did win one small concession: Ships will no longer cruise into Venice along the wide Giudecca Canal but rather come up from the south nearly to the mainland before turning to arrive at the old cruise port via a freshely, more deeply dredged Canale Contorta Sant'Angelo.

This does mean you will no longer cruise through the Bacino San Marco, past the mouth of the Grand Canal and the belltower and domes of St. Mark's Basilica. A litle sad, perhaps, the end of this era, but long overdue.

If nothing else, this new route will eliminate the despicably frequent occurance of some idiot captain, trying to give his passengers a thrill, nosing his boat—entirely illegally—into the mouth of the Grand Canal itself, sometimes getting stuck in the process, and nearly always damaging the already fragile city fabric.

There is also a plan to divert ferries (mostly from Greeceand Istria in Croatia) to the mainland docks. If that ever happens, and they have new maps of all of this, I will post them.

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