What a water taxi in Venice really costs

Two prices for the same boat

In Venice, water taxis have a public price list. It’s set by the city council together with the trade associations: the resolutions in force are nos. 227 and 516 of 2011, applied from December of that year. The fare sheet must be posted at every official city taxi rank.

Alongside the price list there’s the commercial price. That’s what consortia, agencies and platforms charge for a transfer booked in advance, with a boat assigned and drop-off at your hotel door. The two figures almost never match.

A concrete example. For the airport–historic centre trip, the city tariff gives €110 per boat. Querying their booking systems, Venezia Taxi asked €140 and Consorzio Motoscafi €160. On GetYourGuide the private boat costs €215 per boat, at the time of checking. None of these prices is hidden or irregular: they’re different products, on different terms.

On this page we always keep the two apart. Calculations based on the city tariff are labelled as such. Commercial prices carry the name of whoever charges them. That way you can decide how much the difference is worth to you.

The city tariff, item by item

The official fare sheet provides for two ways of paying. The first is the fixed route: a round figure between two points, for example station–Rialto. The second is the meter for trips within the city: a fixed amount at the start plus a charge for every minute. Surcharges are added to both.

Every item has two columns: the full fare and a fare reduced by 20% for Venice residents and passengers with disabilities.

A note on the surcharge for extra people. The sheet shows €5 in a box headed both “meter” and “routes”, and €10 in a box headed “routes” only, without saying which takes precedence. In our calculations we use €5 for metered trips and, to be on the safe side, €10 for fixed routes: before you board, ask the driver which figure applies. Note one more detail on the sheet: the night surcharge and the call-out fee appear in the meter’s surcharge box, while for fixed routes the sheet provides for a call-out fee when the start or end point isn’t a taxi rank.

The most-requested fixed routes

The fixed routes link the official city taxi ranks, the public landings with the fare sheet on display: Ferrovia (two, in front of the Scalzi church and next to the ACTV pier), Piazzale Roma (Parisi and Rio Novo), Rialto (Carbon and Cerva), San Marco (four points between the Molo and Ca’ di Dio), Tronchetto, San Marcuola and Lido Santa Maria Elisabetta. If you board or get off elsewhere, for example at your hotel’s private landing, the €5 call-out surcharge is added.

The figures are base prices per boat, without surcharges.

The meter in the city: four trips worked out

For trips within the historic centre the official formula is simple: €15 + €2 for every minute + any surcharges. The hard part is knowing in advance how many minutes the trip will take, because it depends on the route and on traffic on the canals.

Below are four example trips. They are city-tariff arithmetic, not quotes: they’re there to give you a sense of scale and help you spot a price that’s out of line.

How the suitcases are counted in trip D: the surcharge applies to every bag beyond the fourth and beyond the number of passengers. With five people and six suitcases, then, you pay for just one extra suitcase. At the reduced rate for residents and disabled passengers, the same trip D comes down to €62.40.

A useful comparison: trip B, 12 minutes between two ranks, comes to €39 on the meter. The fixed Ferrovia–Rialto route costs €50. The city fare sheet doesn’t say when one formula or the other applies: before setting off, ask the driver whether they’ll use the meter or the fixed route. Italia Nostra Venezia, a heritage conservation association, describes the fare system as very complicated and notes that drivers rarely use the meter.

Commercial practice goes in another direction. Guidebooks quote a short trip in the centre, for example from Piazzale Roma to San Marco or Rialto, at between €60 and €90 per boat. Consorzio Motoscafi and Venezia Taxi were selling the Piazzale Roma → hotel trip online for €80, prepaid.

Surcharges: the Comune and the consortia don’t count the same way

The consortia apply their own rules to their commercial prices, published on their websites. They only partly match the city fare sheet.

Three things to note. Between 6:00 and 7:00 the city tariff no longer applies a night surcharge, but the consortia do: if you have a dawn flight, count on an extra charge. Consorzio Motoscafi’s base price covers 4 people and 4 suitcases. And Venezia Taxi’s €25 inner-canals surcharge adds up if your hotel isn’t on the Grand Canal.

More detail: the night water taxi has its own page, and for suitcases, pushchairs and wheelchairs you’ll find everything in our guide to luggage and accessibility.

From the airport: €110 on paper, €140–215 at the till

The airport–historic centre route is where the gap between the price list and the market shows most clearly. The taxi dock is a 7–10 minute walk from arrivals along a covered walkway; the crossing itself takes 30–40 minutes.

One arrival for six, worked out twice

Six people, eight suitcases, a late-evening landing, reaching the pier at 23:30. Here’s the same trip priced on two different lists.

City-tariff arithmetic, in the most expensive scenario: €110 base + €20 (fifth and sixth passengers, €10 each on a fixed route) + €6 (two suitcases beyond the sixth) + €10 night + €5 call-out fee for landing at the hotel’s pier = €151 per boat, about €25.20 each. The sheet doesn’t say whether the airport–historic centre route includes landing at a private pier, and it lists the night surcharge and call-out fee among the meter’s surcharges; without those two items the same trip comes to €136, about €22.70 each. Ask for the figure before you board.

Commercial price on Consorzio Motoscafi’s published terms: €160 base + €20 (two people beyond the fourth) + €20 (four suitcases from the fifth) + €15 night = €215 per boat, about €35.80 each.

For the €215-per-boat private transfer on GetYourGuide, the product listing states up to 6 people with 8 suitcases, so the eight suitcases in the example fit; the night surcharge, however, isn’t included and is added to the price, in an amount the listing doesn’t give.

Why the same trip costs more online

Our research shows that booking direct with a consortium costs less than going through a platform: €140–160 against €215 for the same route. GetYourGuide’s general terms openly admit it: the price on the platform may be higher than the same supplier charges elsewhere. In return, if you find the same supplier selling the same activity for less, GetYourGuide refunds the difference.

What you buy by paying the platform: free cancellation up to 24 hours before on most transfers, thousands of verified reviews (the private airport transfer has over 4,000, averaging 4.5), and a voucher with support in several languages. What you give up: €55 to €75 against the direct price. We earn a commission if you book through GetYourGuide or Tiqets, which is exactly why we show you the direct price too.

On Tiqets the private airport–centre transfer costs €180 per boat, with 45 reviews averaging 4.6; according to the listing the maximum group is 6 people. Details for arrivals are in our guide to the water taxi from the airport, and for departures on the to the airport page.

The price ladder, from vaporetto to private boat

Every way of arriving or getting around on the water, ranked by price. Watch the basis column: some prices are per person, others for the whole boat or the whole car.

Two points about the lower rungs. ATVO bus plus vaporetto costs €21.50, which is more than Alilaguna at €18: it only makes sense if your hotel is a short walk from Piazzale Roma, which the bus reaches in about 20 minutes. ACTV also sells a combined 90-minute Aerobus + Rete Unica ticket for €18.

On Alilaguna, the ticket covers one piece of hand luggage and one suitcase whose three dimensions add up to no more than 160 cm; each additional item costs €4. The full comparison is on our taxi or Alilaguna page.

For the €130 car plus boat, the maximum number of passengers and the luggage included are shown on the product listing before you pay. The €292 private transfer from the station, on the other hand, carries up to 6 people with 6 suitcases, according to the listing.

The cost per head: when private beats shared

With a private taxi you pay for the whole boat, with a shared one for each seat. Where they break even depends on which private price you’re looking at.

With the private boat at €215, break-even only comes at six people: €35.83 each against €39. But book direct at €140 and four people are enough to spend €35 each, less than the shared taxi. At the €110 city fare, three people already pay €36.67 each.

For five and six people, the first two columns include the €10 surcharge per person beyond the fourth (for the city fare, the higher of the two figures on the sheet); extra luggage is excluded. The shared taxi has a cost that doesn’t show in the table: time. With several hotels to serve, the trip takes 50–100 minutes instead of 30–40. The detailed comparison is on our private taxi and shared taxi pages.

From the station and Piazzale Roma: the widest gap

From Santa Lucia station the city fare is modest: €50 to Rialto, €60 to San Marco, plus €5 if you get off at your hotel’s landing rather than a taxi rank. The consortia were selling the same trip online for €80.

On the platforms the range widens: the Tiqets private transfer costs €150 per boat but has only 6 reviews; the GetYourGuide one costs €292, with 143 reviews and an average of 4.8. The shared transfers from the station cost €39 per person and have low averages: 3.3 on GetYourGuide and 3.3 on Tiqets. For two people, the shared taxi comes to €78, practically the same as a private boat booked direct.

The budget alternative is the vaporetto: €9.50 per person, with a stop right in front of the station. All the options are in our guide to Santa Lucia station.

Islands and the Lido: fixed routes, not sightseeing tours

For the islands the city tariff works by zones. From the historic centre, Murano costs €60; Burano or Torcello €115, the same as for Sant’Erasmo, Treporti and Punta Sabbioni. The Lido costs €50 from San Marco and €70 from Rialto, Piazzale Roma or Tronchetto; San Nicolò and the Excelsior €60 from the centre. Pellestrina reaches €200, Chioggia €250.

These are point-to-point fares. A tour with stops on the islands is a different service, hire with driver, and the price is by agreement. Fares, vaporetti and tours are on our Murano and Burano by water taxi page.

The 20% discount for residents and disabled passengers

The city tariff cuts every item by 20% for Venice residents and passengers with disabilities: flag fall €12, per minute €1.60, airport–centre €88, night surcharge €8. Of the 250 water-taxi licences, 25 are for boats with a wheelchair lift.

The online products we track don’t offer an equivalent reduced fare. If you’re entitled to the discount, you’re better off going straight to a taxi rank or phoning a consortium. The Comune also lists 199 48 49 50 for the taxi service, without saying who answers: according to the TaxiVeneto website it’s the “single number” of Radiotaxi Veneto, based in Mestre.

How not to pay more than you need to

On payment: the consortia accept cards for online bookings, but not every driver accepts them on board. If you have no cash, say so before setting off. Tipping isn’t expected.

Complaints about water-taxi fares go to the Comune di Venezia: the DIME online service desk, Reports section, or the number 041 041. If you prefer to report in writing, the certified email (PEC) address of the Mobility and Transport Department is mobilitatrasporti@pec.comune.venezia.it.

Who the consortia mentioned are and how they operate: read our profiles of Consorzio Motoscafi Venezia and Venezia Taxi, or the overview of operators. For the booking process, step by step, see our guide on how to book.