A single vaporetto ticket costs 9.50 EUR in 2026 and is valid for 75 minutes in one direction, changes of boat included. Passes cost 25 EUR for 24 hours, 35 EUR for 48 hours, 45 EUR for 72 hours and 65 EUR for seven days (ACTV, 2026). Buy before boarding at a Venezia Unica office, a self-service machine, an authorised retailer or in the AVM Venezia app.

The price is the easy part. What catches visitors out is the paperwork around it. Tickets must be bought before you step onto the pontoon, validated at the gate at the start of every journey and again at every change of boat, and a passenger found without a valid validation on the waterborne network pays 50 EUR plus the fare plus administration fees even when settling on the spot (ACTV, 2023). This page covers every way to buy, what each ticket includes, how the app and contactless payment work, how validation works, the luggage allowance, the reduced fares, and the point at which a pass beats single tickets.

How much is a vaporetto ticket in Venice in 2026?

The standard ticket is the Rete Unica biglietto at 9.50 EUR. It runs for 75 minutes from the first validation and covers travel in one direction with as many changes as you need, so it is a journey ticket rather than a return ticket (ACTV, 2026). Within those 75 minutes it is valid on the waterborne network, on the mainland bus network including Lido and Pellestrina, on the tram and on the People Mover. It does not cover lines 16 and 19, the Casinò route, any Alilaguna service, or journeys to and from Venice Marco Polo airport.

Passes are sold by duration and start from the first validation: 25 EUR for 24 hours, 35 EUR for 48 hours, 45 EUR for 72 hours and 65 EUR for seven days (ACTV, 2026). Travellers aged 6 to 29 can buy the 72-hour Rolling Venice version for 27 EUR once they have the 6 EUR Rolling Venice card. Airport travel is added to a pass with a supplement of 7 EUR one way or 13 EUR return.

At 9.50 EUR a journey against 25 EUR for 24 hours, a pass pays for itself on the third ride of the day: two rides cost 19 EUR and three cost 28.50 EUR. The 48-hour pass is worth it from the fourth journey, the 72-hour pass from the fifth and the seven-day pass from the seventh. A Rolling Venice buyer pays 33 EUR in total for 72 hours, which breaks even in four journeys.

Where to buy vaporetto tickets in Venice

Tickets must be bought before boarding, and there are more channels than the queue at the Piazzale Roma window suggests (AVM Venezia, 2026). Venezia Unica agencies and ticket points sell the full range, as do the IAT tourist offices and a network of authorised retailers across the historic centre, the islands and the mainland. Self-service machines stand at the busier landings and run twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week; they take cards and are usually faster than the staffed window in the morning peak.

Online, tickets are sold through the Venezia Unica website and the AVM Venezia Official App, through a WhatsApp service called Chat&Go by scanning the QR code posted at a stop or messaging +39 339 990 8002, and through resale platforms including Civitatis, GetYourGuide, Headout, MooneyGo, Musement, Mypass and Tiqets (AVM Venezia, 2026).

On the water you can still buy from the crew, but only by asking as you board, and only with a card, since the waterborne on-board sale is card payment only (AVM/ACTV, 2026). Treat that as a fallback for a landing with no machine rather than as a plan. Boarding first and looking for staff afterwards is what turns a 9.50 EUR fare into a fine.

Buying and activating tickets in the AVM Venezia app

The AVM Venezia Official App sells the same ACTV tickets at the same prices and removes the queue entirely. Payment is by Mastercard or VISA, including prepaid cards, or from e-Purse credit, and the card step redirects to the mycicero.it payment page (AVM Venezia, 2026). A card can be saved for later purchases or used once.

A bought ticket sits in the app under "To be activated" and is not yet running. Activate it when you are at the landing and ready to travel: the app then generates a QR code that refreshes every 30 seconds. At the waterborne gate, press the QR reader button on the validator, hold the phone flat with the code facing up, and wait for the green confirmation showing the ticket details. Set screen brightness to maximum first, since the reader struggles with a dim display, and expect the validator to lock for about ten seconds after each activation.

Two limits are worth knowing. A ticket bought in the app stays on that phone: it cannot be shared by screenshot, and moving it onto a Venezia Unica card needs a call to customer assistance. A phone with a flat battery is a phone with no ticket, so a group travelling together is safer with tickets spread across two devices.

Paying with a contactless card instead of buying a ticket

Every validator on the network also accepts EMV contactless payment, which means a credit, debit or prepaid card, or the same card digitised on a phone or watch, tapped straight at the gate with no ticket bought in advance (AVM Venezia, 2026). A waterborne journey charges the ordinary 9.50 EUR fare per tap. The navigation network and the People Mover are exempt from the tap-out rule, so on the vaporetto you tap once, on the way in, and that is the whole transaction.

One card can pay for up to five passengers: the taps must be made within 60 seconds at the same validator, and the group has to travel together for the rest of the journey.

There is also a daily cap. Once ordinary Rete Unica fares charged to the same card pass 25 EUR within 24 hours of the first tap, the system generates the daily pass automatically and further journeys on the networks it covers are not charged (AVM Venezia, 2026). The cap is generous rather than perfect: three waterborne taps come to 28.50 EUR, which is 3.50 EUR more than buying the 24-hour pass at a machine first. If you already know you will ride three times in a day, buy the pass.

How to validate a vaporetto ticket

Validation is compulsory and it is the rule visitors break most often. A ticket must be scanned at a validator before you go through the gate onto the floating stop, at the start of every journey and again every time you change service or vehicle (ACTV, 2026). The validators stand at the entrance to the pontoon rather than on the boat, so there is no second chance once you are aboard.

Hold a Venezia Unica card or a paper ticket flat against the reader, or use the QR reader button for a phone. The validator answers with a light and a sound, and the passenger, rather than the machine, carries the responsibility for checking that the signal came (AVM/ACTV, 2026). If the reader stays silent or shows red, try the next validator and speak to the staff at the landing before boarding.

A pass is validated the same way. The clock on a 24-hour or 72-hour pass starts at that first validation rather than at purchase, so a pass bought the night before still gives its full run the next morning. Re-tapping a valid pass at each boarding costs nothing and is what an inspector expects to see in the record.

What travelling without a valid ticket costs

Inspectors work the pontoons and the boats, and the penalty on the waterborne network is set out in a published table. Settling within five days costs 50 EUR plus the 9.50 EUR standard fare plus 1.50 EUR of administration fees, so 61 EUR in total. Between six and thirty days it rises to 100 EUR plus the fare plus 5 EUR of fees. Between thirty-one and sixty days the fee element goes to 10 EUR. After sixty-one days the amount can go up to 300 EUR plus the fare plus 10 EUR (ACTV, 2023).

The same table applies whether the ticket was missing or simply unvalidated, which is why a pass in a pocket is not a defence if it was never tapped. On the bus and tram network the structure is identical with the 1.50 EUR fare in place of 9.50 EUR.

Under the general conditions of carriage, a passenger found without a valid ticket pays the ordinary fare for the network used plus the penalty set by the competent authorities, and has thirty days from the formal charge to submit a defence before the procedure closes (AVM/ACTV, 2026).

Luggage, children and reduced fares

Each passenger carries three items of baggage free, provided no single item exceeds 150 cm as the sum of its three dimensions. Beyond that allowance you buy one extra ticket for every three additional pieces, at the ordinary passenger rate, and nothing over 150 cm is carried at all (AVM/ACTV, 2026). A normal suitcase and a cabin bag are well inside the allowance, so the luggage charge that worries arriving visitors rarely applies. Crew may allow wheelchairs and unfolded pushchairs on board when crowding and safety permit.

Bicycles and scooters travel for 1.50 EUR unless folded into a bag within the 150 cm limit, in which case they are free. A motorcycle up to 50cc costs 3 EUR and a larger one 6 EUR, and goods are charged 2 EUR per 100 kg (ACTV, 2026).

Children under six travel free on the urban and suburban services of the Municipality of Venice (AVM/ACTV, 2026). Holders of the EU Disability Card and wheelchair users pay 1.50 EUR for 75 minutes and their companion travels free. School groups of at least ten students pay 6 EUR each. Residents and Venezia Unica cardholders pay 1.50 EUR for the same Rete Unica journey that costs a visitor 9.50 EUR.