Booking a water taxi: channels, details, cancellations

Four channels, four levels of certainty

You can book a water taxi in four ways. What changes is the price, when you pay and how well protected you are if something goes wrong.

Online, at the time of checking, a seat on the shared airport transfer started at about €39 per person and a private boat at about €180–215. Booking direct on the consortia’s websites, the private airport transfer cost €140 with Venezia Taxi and €160 with Consorzio Motoscafi. The difference, and the reasons for it, are explained on our operators and platforms page.

At the airport desk: what to expect

If you land without a booking, you’ll find several desks at Marco Polo. Consorzio Motoscafi has a ticket office in the arrivals hall (tel. +39 349 678 9357). The public transport ticket office is also in the arrivals hall, while the Alilaguna ticket offices are in the boat-basin area.

After the desk, you walk to the pier: 7–10 minutes along a covered walkway with moving walkways. Some travellers report that the entrance to the walkway is on the upper floor and poorly signposted. Follow the signs for water transport.

For a private taxi the desk works well, except on peak days: one traveller found Consorzio Motoscafi fully booked two days before a high-season arrival. For the shared taxi the limit is different: the boat leaves when it’s full. The GetYourGuide listing gives a maximum wait of 40 minutes at the airport; the Tiqets listing and the operator’s website talk of 20–45 minutes from arriving at the desk. If you’re in a hurry, add that time to the 50–100 minute journey.

By phone: the numbers that matter

The Comune di Venezia provides for three ways to get a taxi: board at an official city taxi rank, be picked up at a landing, public or private, or phone. As the number for the taxi service, the Comune lists 199 48 49 50, without specifying who’s on the other end. According to the TaxiVeneto website, it’s the “single number” of Radiotaxi Veneto: a cooperative based in Via Piave, Mestre, that coordinates radio taxis in several Veneto cities. To speak straight away to the people who run the boats, the safest bet is to phone a consortium.

If you’d rather call a consortium directly:

• Consorzio Motoscafi Venezia, switchboard staffed 24 hours: +39 041 522 2303.
• Venezia Taxi: +39 041 723112. According to its FAQ, the office answers on weekdays, Monday–Friday, 9:00–18:00.

Remember that a call-out away from a taxi rank costs extra. Under the city tariff, if the boat picks you up somewhere that isn’t a rank, €5 is added.

The number +39 041 5964 that you often see online is for road taxis (Radio Taxi Venezia): it covers Mestre, the airport and Piazzale Roma, not the canals. For those trips, see our page on road taxis and Mestre.

Online: platform or consortium website

On a consortium’s website you pay less, but check the rules. Venezia Taxi, for example, only accepts online bookings from October to March and doesn’t take same-day bookings. In the other months you have to phone or write. When the route goes through the inner canals, a €25 surcharge applies, paid directly to the driver on board. Both consortia give a 5% discount on an airport return trip bought together.

On the platforms you pay more, but you get written terms and a customer service team to turn to. On GetYourGuide some products let you book now and pay later: your card is charged 72 hours before the service. Tiqets adds a booking fee to some orders, shown at checkout.

A detail for business travellers: GetYourGuide acts as an intermediary and issues a payment confirmation, not a tax invoice.

What to tell them when you book

Most problems at the landing come from a detail missing when the booking was made.

Two special cases. For delayed flights landing between midnight and 7:00, Consorzio Motoscafi may arrange a first leg by car: you get to Piazzale Roma that way and board the boat there. And if your accommodation is away from the water, consider a car-plus-boat service: the options are on our private water taxi page.

Vouchers and meeting points

After paying online you get a voucher. On GetYourGuide it contains a booking reference and a PIN you’ll need to cancel or make changes. Most products confirm instantly; some need confirmation from the supplier, with the voucher arriving within 48 hours, and in a few cases the voucher only appears 24 hours before the service.

On Tiqets you receive two emails: the payment confirmation, then the tickets. According to Tiqets support, 98% of tickets arrive within 15 minutes, although the general terms give the supplier up to 48 hours.

Your voucher tells you exactly where to go. Don’t rely on directions found on forums: desks and piers can change. There’s just one exception worth knowing: the Alilaguna ticket sold on Tiqets must be shown at the Bucintoro Viaggi counter, not directly on board.

Cancellations: the rules product by product

“Free cancellation” doesn’t mean the same thing everywhere. Here are the rules for the products we mention most often, at the time of checking.

On GetYourGuide, if you cancel after the deadline or don’t show up, you get no refund; refunds go back to your original payment method, or as a voucher if you choose. Cancellations agreed directly with the operator, outside the platform, are not refundable. On Tiqets, deadlines follow Venice local time, and you can’t cancel just part of an order.

What people are really searching for

Many searches use words that mean something else in Venice.

“Water taxi tickets”. There’s no ticket for a private taxi: you pay for the trip, per boat. Tickets exist for the shared taxi, sold by the seat, and for Alilaguna, which is a scheduled line. The GetYourGuide product “w/ 3 Routes” at €18 is exactly that: an Alilaguna ticket.

“Water taxi pass”. Among the products we’ve checked there’s no water-taxi pass. Passes are for public transport: ACTV costs €25 for 24 hours, €35 for 48, €45 for 72 and €65 for 7 days; Alilaguna €40, €60 and €80 for 24, 48 and 72 hours. Neither is valid on taxis. To choose, see our comparison: taxi, Alilaguna or vaporetto.

“Water taxi company”. There’s no single company: the Comune has capped the number of licences at 250, and many licence holders sell their trips through consortia. Who’s who is explained on our operators page.

“Taxi service in Venice”. This can mean a water taxi in the historic centre or a road taxi between the airport, Mestre and Piazzale Roma. Cars don’t enter the historic centre.

Payment and agreeing the price

For online bookings you pay by card at the time of purchase. On board it’s mixed: many licence holders prefer or ask for cash, and card payment isn’t guaranteed. If you take a boat from a taxi rank, ask whether they take cards before you board.

Before the boat pulls away from the landing, agree the figure, and make clear whether it covers the whole boat or each passenger. For metered trips within the city, the city tariff sets €15 flag fall plus €2 a minute. Every item is on our water-taxi prices page. As for tipping, travellers’ accounts suggest it isn’t expected.

If you still need to choose between shared and private, start from our page on the water taxi from the airport, where you’ll find the per-person sums for every part of the city.

Frequently asked questions