Venice

If you are flying into Marco Polo airport, make sure you are seated on the right hand side of the plane. You will get to see stunning Venice and the cruise terminal from above.

Marco Polo Airport Terminal is far too small for the amount of passengers it is handling and especially when flying back home it can become claustrophobic, not knowing which line starts where. Just be patient and it all will work out. Do not arrive too early, two hours before plane departure is more than plenty. You will not be able to drop your bags any earlier anyhow.

For detailed instructions how to reach your cruise terminal from Marco Polo airport.

If you have time to spare, take the Alilaguna blu line boat, for 15 Euro, you will enjoy a 90 minute tour around Venice and it will dock right in the middle of all the cruise ships.

Left luggage is 6 euro per 24 hours.

By bus from Treviso Airport to Venice:

An efficient coach service for Venice is scheduled to coincide with flights landing and departing at Treviso. The service is run by a local company called ATVO, there are coaches specifically to serve arriving flights, so if your plane is late there will still be a bus waiting. At Treviso you can buy tickets in the airport's arrivals hall, validate them in the machine provided, and then simply step outside to find coaches waiting on the tarmac. In Venice you can buy tickets at the ATVO office in Piazzale Roma, underneath the car park building. You can't buy them on the bus.

By car:

The car park at the terminal is open on days when cruise ships are in port; make you online reservation here.

By train:

Arriving at the main train station St. Lucia Railway station the terminals can be reached by: - Public water buses (vaporetti) to P.le Roma (1 stop) where you will find the terminal's bus shuttle or you can take a taxi cab or the new people mover. - Water taxi directly to the cruise terminal.

From Mestre Railway station (10 km far away from Venice) the Port of Venice can be reached by: - Taxi cab (about a 20 minute ride) - Public bus arriving in Piazzale Roma, nearby the Port of Venice.

Please note: some cruise companies make you believe that taxis are difficult to get. In general a taxi for 2 persons or more is cheaper than a cruise organized transfer.

In terminal 103 you can arrange to get your luggage shipped to the airport for €12.50 a piece, great if your ship arrives early and your flight leaves late and want to explore Venice in the mean time.

The most popular way to do sightseeing in Venice is as follows:

Exit the cruise terminal, head for the People Mover and buy a ticket (1.50 Euro), take this driverless train to Piazzale Roma, only a few minutes, than head for the ACTV terminals and buy a day or longer ticket for all canal buses (Vaparetti). It is like a giant Hop On/Off cruising experience covering all of Venice, Murano, Burano, Lido all the way to Punta Sabbioni.

There are ACTV Pass kinds:

20,00 € - 1 DAY TRAVELCARD

30,00 € - 2 DAYS TRAVELCARD

Note: When you get off your cruise ship you will be tempted to buy local transportation tickets at the booths outside the terminal. These only sell tickets for the Alilaguna boats, which are great to get you to the airport and Piazza San Marco, but are of limited use if you want to discover Venice as a whole. Return ticket to Piazza San Marco is €15. Check return times before you set out.

Gondola

A gondola should cost € 70,00 for 50 minutes (up to six passengers), with an additional € 35,00 surcharge for every additional 25 minutes. The price goes up to € 80,00 between 8pm and 8am (prices at time of writing). The tariffs for gondola rides are established by the government, but the gondolier are notorious for extorting large sums of money from unsuspecting tourists. You are advised to agree on a price before boarding.

Hop on/off Boat. From one of the most beautiful squares in the world, Piazza San Marco, to the Bridge of Sighs from the pristine beaches of Lido to the island of Murano.

Be aware that Venice is not the most friendly for passengers with walking difficulty and there are no shuttles in the port area.

It's not too hard to travel onwards from Venice, but if you are planning day trips in the Veneto you do need to consider the extra time it may take you if you have to begin your journey by crossing Venice on foot or by boat. Trains run from Venice 's Santa Lucia Station all over Italy, although for some services you may need to change at the mainland station Venezia Mestre. Padua and Verona are among the interesting towns which can be visited by train from Venice. Buses depart from Piazzale Roma and cover the region.

What to see in the Veneto:

Verona, with its Roman ruins and rather spurious Shakespeare connection is a lovely town to wander around. So too is the rather humbler Treviso, a quiet and prosperous town near Venice with picturesque canals of its own.

Padua is an attractive and interesting town with a rich history, impressive architecture and art - particularly Giotto's frescoes - which is a must for the art historian.

Venice and its lagoon offer unmissable sightseeing experiences, and once you're tired of crowded bridges and canals there are plenty of interesting excursions around the lagoon to quieter destinations such as the fishing port of Chioggia and the abandoned island of Torcello.

The wealthy city-dwellers of the Veneto became obsessed with erecting elegant villas in the countryside, and employed the finest architects to design these rural palaces. Andrea Palladio was the most famous, and the Palladian villas of the region are, after the canals of Venice, one of the Veneto 's most renowned images. The town of Vicenza is the place to visit to see more of his work, while a trip down the Brenta Canal passes his famous villa La Malcontenta, and scores of other summer homes of the Venetian aristocracy.

Culture-lovers will want to attend the famous outdoors opera season in Verona 's Roman arena, and will be spoiled for choice with the region's collection of art galleries and fine architecture. Wine-lovers will find several good local wines, including the sparkling Prosecco which can be sampled in vineyards along the so called 'Ring of Prosecco'.

Venice has always been a busy retail center, with an emphasis on luxury goods and a flair for the eccentric. The main retail areas are the Mercerie and the streets known collectively as the Frezzeria, which wind between campo San Fantin and piazza San Marco itself. The densest concentration of big-name fashion houses is in calle Larga XXII Marzo, just west of the piazza, where Gucci, Prada, Valentino, Fendi and Ferragamo huddle together. Calle della Mandola is the street for books and glass beads. For antiques, nose around campo Santo Stefano and San Marco. Look out for unique boutiques with imported or hand-crafted items between the Rialto…

There are duty free stores in the cruise terminals, but often are not operating or are not very competitive priced. Hand luggage will be checked by state officials, before you enter the ship, but not on the ship itself.

Euro.

Venice is very expensive. A soda or cappuccino on a nice outdoor terrace on San Marco Square including classy live music from a quintet and perfect service will cost you around €14 each!

Marco Polo airport has free WiFi for the first half an hour. 4.95 per hour thereafter.

The cruise terminals offer also free WiFi. The login codes are somewhat clumsily posted at the entrance. If you can not find it try VTPWIFI and FREE

Emergency number: 112

The typical majority of the clothing and gift stores are closed Monday morning, while in general the food stores close Wednesday afternoons.

The most current schedules of opening are 9 a.m. in the morning to 7:30 p.m. in the evening with a closing for the lunch break and nap- 1:00 p.m. to sometimes until 4 p.m.

Nearly all of the stores are closed Sunday, except for certain shops which sell souvenirs.