A single vaporetto ticket costs 9.50 EUR and is valid for 75 minutes in 2026. The vaporetto is Venice's water bus and the only public transport inside the historic city. ACTV runs it, and one ticket covers the whole urban network: the boats, the mainland buses, the Mestre tram and the People Mover. Passes cost 25.00 EUR for 24 hours, 35.00 EUR for 48, 45.00 EUR for 72 and 65.00 EUR for seven days (ACTV, 2026).
Since June 2024 you can also skip the ticket office entirely. Tap a contactless bank card, or a card held on a phone or watch, at the validator, and AVM's EMV system charges the best fare it can: three journeys within 24 hours of the first tap reach the 25.00 EUR daily cap, so you pay 25.00 EUR rather than 28.50 EUR and then travel without further charge (AVM Venezia, 2026).
Below: the full 2026 tariff, how the tap-to-pay cap works, which line to board and how long Line 1 takes, the Torcello booking rule that catches island visitors, where to buy and validate a ticket, and what an unvalidated ticket costs. Every figure is taken from ACTV's own published tariff, timetables and sanctions table and checked in November 2026.
Vaporetto ticket prices 2026 (official ACTV fares)
ACTV sells the urban network as one tariff, Rete Unica: the same ticket covers the vaporetto, the mainland buses, the Mestre tram and the People Mover (ACTV, 2026). The standard 75-minute Rete Unica ticket costs 9.50 EUR and allows unlimited changes within 75 minutes of the first validation. It excludes waterbus routes 16 and 19, the Casino route, every Alilaguna service, and any journey starting or ending at Venice Marco Polo Airport.
The Venezia Daily Pass costs 25.00 EUR for 24 hours and also covers Trenitalia Regional and Regional Fast trains within the comune, which means Venezia Santa Lucia, Porto Marghera, Mestre, Carpenedo and Mestre Ospedale. Longer passes cost 35.00 EUR for 48 hours, 45.00 EUR for 72 hours and 65.00 EUR for 168 hours. Holders of a Rolling Venice card, for ages 6 to 29, pay 27.00 EUR for the 72-hour ticket, plus 6.00 EUR for the card itself at any Venezia Unica ticket office.
Every pass runs from the moment of first validation rather than from midnight. The airport sits outside the tariff: a supplement of 7.00 EUR one way or 13.00 EUR return extends any daily or multi-day ticket to the airport bus lines, and it has to be bought at the same time as the pass. The Aerobus on its own is 10.00 EUR single and 18.00 EUR return. A return beach ticket on Line 14 is 16.00 EUR and must be used by midnight on the day it was first validated (ACTV, 2026).
Source: ACTV / AVM Venezia (2026).
Tap a bank card: the best fare cap, and when a pass still wins
Since June 2024, activated progressively by fare type, AVM's validators accept contactless payment cards and cards digitised on a phone, watch or wearable. Mastercard, Visa, V Pay, Maestro and American Express all work, and the system runs on the boats, the Mestre, Lido and Pellestrina bus lines, the suburban lines, the tram and the People Mover stations (AVM Venezia, 2026). One validator will take up to five passengers, which means five taps within one minute on the same machine.
Tap in when you board and again at every change of vehicle. Tap out when you get off, except on the boats and the People Mover, where no tap-out is required. The fare charged is the best one available for the journeys made on the same card: the waterborne fare starts at 9.50 EUR, and three journeys within 24 hours of the first tap generate the 25.00 EUR Venezia Daily Pass automatically, so you pay 25.00 EUR instead of 28.50 EUR and travel free for the rest of the 24 hours. The same works at 35.00 EUR, 45.00 EUR and 65.00 EUR for two, three and seven days. Travel is debited the day after it happens.
Two things still argue for buying a pass at a counter. The automatic daily pass is not valid on the Trenitalia regional trains inside the comune, while the 25.00 EUR pass bought as a ticket is, and neither the tap fares nor the automatic passes cover airport journeys or suburban sections.
Which vaporetto line to take
Line 1 is the boat most visitors mean: Piazzale Roma, Ferrovia, the length of the Grand Canal, San Marco and the Lido, calling at every landing stage. In the timetable in force from 2 November 2026 it leaves Piazzale Roma every 12 minutes from 06:21 until 19:57, and the 06:01 departure reaches Ferrovia at 06:04, Rialto at 06:20, San Marco Vallaresso at 06:40 and Lido Santa Maria Elisabetta at 06:59. That is 3 minutes to Ferrovia, 19 to Rialto, 39 to San Marco and 58 to the Lido (ACTV, 2026).
Line 2 is sold as the Grand Canal express, which the current winter timetable only half supports. Most Line 2 runs work San Marco and San Zaccaria, the Giudecca Canal, Tronchetto, Piazzale Roma, Ferrovia and Rialto, and stop there. Only two departures a day in each direction continue down the rest of the Grand Canal to San Marco Giardinetti: 09:18 and 16:30 from Piazzale Roma, arriving 09:51 and 17:03, with 09:55 and 17:07 coming back (ACTV, 2026).
Lines 4.1 and 4.2 circle the city through Murano in opposite directions; lines 5.1 and 5.2 circle it through the Ospedale and the Lido. Line 3 runs Piazzale Roma, Ferrovia and Murano and back, and Line 6 crosses from Piazzale Roma via the Zattere to the Lido. Line N covers the Giudecca Canal, the Grand Canal and the Lido at night. Lines 7, 8 and 18 are suspended. Alilaguna's airport boats are a separate company and ACTV passes do not cover them.
- 0 minPiazzale Roma
- 3 minFerrovia
- 19 minRialto
- 39 minSan Marco Vallaresso
- 58 minLido S.M.E.
Source: ACTV / AVM Venezia (2026).
Murano, Burano and Torcello: Line 12 and the Line 9 shuttle
Line 12 leaves Venezia Fondamente Nove, on the north shore, every 30 minutes through the day and runs Murano Faro, Mazzorbo, Torcello, Burano, Treporti and Punta Sabbioni. On the timetable in force from 2 November 2026 the 09:10 departure reaches Murano Faro at 09:19, Mazzorbo at 09:43 and Burano at 09:49: 9 minutes to Murano and 39 to Burano (ACTV, 2026).
Torcello is the trap. ACTV prints it in brackets in the line's own name, and a footnote on the timetable says the marked departures call at Torcello only when passengers ask, and that to board at Torcello you can book by telephoning the free number 800845065 at least 20 minutes beforehand. Through the middle of the day the Torcello row on the Line 12 sheet is blank altogether, so most daytime departures do not go near it.
The reliable way to Torcello is Line 9, the five-minute shuttle from Burano. On the timetable in force from 8 June 2024 it leaves Burano at 09:30 and then at 00, 15, 30 and 45 minutes past the hour until 17:45, and returns from Torcello at 09:40 and then at 10, 25, 40 and 55 past until 17:55 (ACTV, 2024). Murano is also served by lines 3, 4.1 and 4.2, and Burano by Line 14 from San Zaccaria via the Lido and Punta Sabbioni. Standard tickets and passes are valid on all of them, and an island day is at least four boardings, which is past the 25.00 EUR daily cap.
Where to buy vaporetto tickets, and how to validate them
Tickets are sold at Venezia Unica ticket agencies and ticket points and at IAT tourist offices in Venice and its province, at self-service machines that work 24 hours a day, by authorised resellers in the city and on the mainland, online through Venezia Unica, and in the AVM Venezia Official app. Chat&Go sells a ticket over WhatsApp: scan the QR code posted at any stop, or save +39 339 990 8002 as a contact. ACTV also names Civitatis, DaAaB, GetYourGuide, Headout, MooneyGo, Musement, Mypass and Tiqets as authorised partners, several of which issue a booking code that a self-service machine turns into a ticket (AVM Venezia, 2026).
At counters and resellers you pay by card or in cash. On a boat you can buy from the crew, by card only, and you have to ask as you board: the ticket is issued already validated at the same 9.50 EUR. On a bus or tram, on-board sale is cash only, on public holidays and between 20:00 and 07:00, and costs 3.00 EUR against 1.50 EUR bought in advance.
Validate before you pass the gate at a waterbus stop, and immediately on boarding a bus or tram. A ticket bought in an app has to be activated at least three minutes before boarding. ACTV states plainly that the turnstile opening does not prove the ticket was read: wait for the light and the beep. If every validator at a stop is broken, ask the sailor to validate as you board (ACTV, 2026).
The fine for travelling without a validated ticket
AVM publishes the amounts, last updated on 1 April 2026. On the waterborne network a fine paid within five days is 50.00 EUR plus the 9.50 EUR fare plus 5.00 EUR of procedure costs, so 64.50 EUR. From the sixth to the sixtieth day it rises to 100.00 EUR plus 9.50 EUR plus 15.00 EUR, so 124.50 EUR. From the sixty-first day the maximum can be applied: 300.00 EUR plus 9.50 EUR plus 15.00 EUR, so 324.50 EUR (AVM Venezia, 2026). On buses and trams the fare element is 1.50 EUR instead of 9.50 EUR, and on a journey to or from Marco Polo it is 10.00 EUR.
Two details matter. A pass holder who cannot produce the pass during an inspection is charged under "forgetting the ticket" and pays 1.50 EUR, provided a valid pass is shown within 15 days and paid for at an authorised Venezia Unica agency. And an unpaid fine puts a Venezia Unica card on a blacklist that blocks it even while it is still valid, with a new card issued only once the debt is settled.
Paying the inspector on the spot avoids the procedure costs, and you have to give identity details from a valid document. Travelling on a contactless card without tapping in counts as travelling without a ticket, so the tap matters as much as the card does (ACTV, 2026).
Luggage, bikes, dogs and accessibility
ACTV's baggage rules are more generous than most visitors expect. With a valid ticket you carry free three items of baggage whose three dimensions add up to no more than 150 cm, plus a musical instrument within the same limit, a pair of skis, a domestic shopping trolley, a folded bicycle or scooter in a case, and a folded pram. Beyond that it is one passenger-price ticket per three pieces, and nothing over 150 cm is carried. Luggage goes on the floor or in marked areas, never on seats or in gangways, and the officer in charge can refuse it on a crowded boat (ACTV, 2026).
Unfolded bicycles and scooters travel only on routes 2, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15 and 17, at 1.50 EUR one way, at the captain's discretion. Mopeds up to 50 cc cost 3.00 EUR on ferry routes 11 and 17, and motorcycles over 50 cc 6.00 EUR on the Pellestrina to Chioggia section.
One dog per passenger travels free, muzzled and on a lead; medium and large dogs are barred from buses and trams. On the water, wheelchairs and unfolded pushchairs are allowed when crowding and safety permit, and EU Disability Card holders and wheelchair users pay 1.50 EUR for 75 minutes, a companion free. In fog or high water the boat service changes: ACTV's English page sets the tide threshold above 95 cm and its Italian timetable page above 85 cm, with fog counted below 150 m of visibility, so check Infomobilita first.
