Three days in Venice: what the boats cost

Three nights, no car, and one arithmetic problem: a single vaporetto ride costs €9.50 while 24 hours of unlimited travel costs €25, so the pass pays for itself before your third boat.

The fare that decides the shape of your stay

A standard ACTV ticket is €9.50 and lasts 75 minutes across the combined network of water and land services, including buses, trams and the People Mover. The land only version of the same 75 minutes is €1.50.

Timed passes cost €25 for 24 hours, €35 for 48, €45 for 72 and €65 for 168² hours, and validity starts at first validation rather than at midnight. Travelers aged 6 to 29 pay €27 for the 72 hour pass after buying the €6 Rolling Venice card.

On the boats you can only pay by card, never cash, and lines 16 and 19, the Casinò line and all Alilaguna services sit outside the ticket.

Arrival day: the airport is not in any of it

Marco Polo is excluded from every ordinary ACTV title, which is the most expensive misunderstanding available in this city. The Aerobus fare is €10 one way and €18 return on lines 5, 15 and 45, or €18 for a combined Aerobus plus 90 minutes on the city network.

Holders of a 1, 2, 3 or 7 day pass can add the airport for €7 one way or €13 return, but only if the add on is bought at the same moment as the pass. Buy it afterwards and the discount is gone.

Walk the first evening. Prices here are in euros, and the cheapest hour in Venice is the one you spend on foot.

Day 1: Palazzo Ducale at €30 instead of €35

Palazzo Ducale costs €35 at the door and €30 if you book online at least 30 days ahead, with €15 reduced. That 30 day threshold is unusually long and easy to miss by a week.

The ticket is cumulative for the St Mark's Square museums: Palazzo Ducale, Museo Correr, the National Archaeological Museum and the monumental rooms of the Biblioteca Marciana. A Museum Pass at €50, or €25 reduced, covers 12 civic museums for six months.

Opening is 9:00 am to 7:00 pm from April 1 to October 31, last entry 6:00 pm, and 9:00 am to 6:00 pm from November 1 to March 31. On Fridays and Saturdays between May 1 and September 26, 2026 it stays open to 11:00 pm. Booking is not compulsory.

Day 2: St Mark's is now a paid basilica

The Basilica di San Marco stopped being free: €10 for the church, €20 with the Pala d'Oro, €20 with the museum and the Loggia dei Cavalli, €30 for everything and €15 for the bell tower.

Every ticket carries a name from the booking stage. Individuals enter at Porta San Pietro; guided groups and tour operators use Porta San Clemente and pay roughly a fifth more, while teachers and pupils on school visits enter the basilica free.

Reductions run at half price for ages 10 to 18, students up to 26 and over 65s.

Day 3: the lagoon, and the 25 person rule

Guided groups in Venice cannot exceed 25 people, and guides may not use loudspeakers or stop where they block pedestrian flow. The rule came into force in August 2024 and 3 fines were issued on the first day it was applied.

School parties on educational visits are exempt, as are boarding and landing operations. If a tour you are considering advertises a coach load of forty, it is not operating inside the rule.

We could not open the city's own pages on this measure: the only readable source is trade press with a date on it, and the penalty amount and any extension to Murano, Burano and Torcello are unverified.

The access fee: not in force, with a date

Venice's access fee has not applied since July 27, 2026. The 2026 trial ran from April 3 to July 26 across 60 non consecutive days and then ended, and reintroduction for a later season is a decision for the city council.

The charge only ever targeted day visitors to the historic city, not people staying the night. Check again before spring 2027, because nothing about the next season is decided.

What the nights add, per person

Venice's overnight tax moves on 4 variables: zone, season, property type and classification. In the historic center during the high season, February 1 to December 31, it runs from €1.00 per person per night in 1 star hotels to €5.00 in 5 star hotels, and it stops after 5 consecutive nights.

Guest houses and short lets are graded in lions rather than stars, from €2.00 to €5.00. The Lido, Murano and Burano get a 20% reduction and the mainland 30%, and in January the base rates drop by 30%.

For the wider picture of how crowded this gets and when, see Venice.

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