Ancona: a ferry port first, an airport second

Ancona is a ferry port before it is anything else: six international lines leave it for Igoumenitsa and Patras in Greece, Zadar and Split in Croatia and Durres in Albania, from a terminal that sits inside the city at Molo Santa Maria.

Six ferry lines from a port in town

The port authority lists six international ferry lines from Ancona in 2026: Igoumenitsa and Patras for Greece, Zadar and Split for Croatia, and Durres for Albania. A seasonal summer service adds Montenegro.

The terminal is at Molo Santa Maria, a few hundred metres from the centre, so arriving by sea puts you in town on foot. The authority names the routes but not the sailing times, which are on each shipping line's own timetable.

One line to watch is Split. It was temporarily suspended in 2025 and is back among the six on the 2026 list, so confirm with the operator before you plan a crossing around it.

How busy the crossings get

Ferragosto is the peak: over the weekend of August 14 to 16, 2026 the port handled more than 18,500¹ passengers on 15 ferries and one cruise ship. About 7,850¹ travelled on the Greek routes, 3,900¹ on the Croatian ones and 3,850¹ on the Albanian line, and Saturday, August 15, saw 6 ship movements.

Across the whole of 2025 the port counted 817,627³ passengers, 739,399³ on ferries and 78,228³ on cruise ships, 12% fewer than the 927,415³ of 2024. Part of that drop is the Split suspension.

If you're sailing in mid August with a car, book the crossing as early as you'd book the flight.

Falconara airport

Ancona-Falconara handled 345,397⁴ passengers from January to July 2026, 67,242⁴ of them in July alone. That is a running total for the year so far, not an annual figure.

The link between the airport and the city, by train or by bus, isn't in the data verified for this page, so check it with the airport before you land. Train times into Ancona are not published in our data either: use the Trenitalia planner for those.

Down to the sea at the Passetto

The Passetto beach, below the Monumento ai Caduti, is reached by a panoramic lift run by Conerobus that drops from the pine wood above to the shore and its caves, for €1.30 return (2026). A monthly lift pass costs €24, or €48 combined with the city buses.

The beach is white pebbles, with the Grotte del Passetto and the rock known as the Seggiola del Papa. Tickets are sold at the lift station, by card from the staff or in cash at the machines.

The operator doesn't publish the lift's hours on the page we read, and the €56 summer pass it quotes was the 2025 one. If the lift isn't running, walk down the staircase from the monument or take the stradello del Passetto.

The city itself is at Ancona, with what to see at things to do in Ancona and the Mole Vanvitelliana.

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