A Venice water taxi is a licensed private motorboat, and it has two prices. The tariff set by the Comune di Venezia is 15.00 EUR at departure plus 2.00 EUR a minute, or a fixed 40.00 to 70.00 EUR between points inside the historic centre and 110.00 EUR between Marco Polo Airport and the centre (Comune di Venezia, 2011). The fare actually quoted is higher. The booking system of Consorzio Motoscafi Venezia, the largest operator, prices the airport run to an address in the city at 160.00 EUR, and Piazzale Roma or Santa Lucia railway station to a city hotel at 80.00 EUR (Consorzio Motoscafi Venezia, 2026).
Every one of those figures is for the boat, not for each passenger. A taxi carries up to ten people and twelve suitcases, so the sum only looks reasonable when it is divided by four or more. Supplements sit on top: luggage beyond the first four bags, passengers beyond the fourth, night hours, and a mooring the boat cannot easily reach.
This page sets out the municipal tariff in full, the fares the consortium charges online, the supplements from both, the shared airport boat that costs a fraction of a private one, where the taxi stands are, and the cases where a water taxi cannot take you to the door.
How much does a Venice water taxi cost in 2026?
The municipal tariff sheet, issued by the Direzione Mobilità e Trasporti under council resolutions 227 of 19 May 2011 and 516 of 2 November 2011, prices the service in two ways. On the meter there is a fixed charge of 15.00 EUR at departure and 2.00 EUR a minute on urban routes, with 5.00 EUR added when the pick-up or the destination is somewhere other than a taxi stand. The alternative is a fixed fare for a named route, quoted before you board.
Inside the historic centre the fixed fares run from 40.00 EUR (Tronchetto to Piazzale Roma or the railway station) to 70.00 EUR (a central stand to the Lido at Santa Maria Elisabetta). Piazzale Roma or the railway station to Rialto is 50.00 EUR and to San Marco 60.00 EUR. Murano to a central stand is 60.00 EUR.
From Marco Polo Airport the sheet gives 110.00 EUR to the historic centre, 60.00 EUR to Murano, 120.00 EUR to the Lido at Santa Maria Elisabetta or the Excelsior, 140.00 EUR to Burano or Torcello and 250.00 EUR to Pellestrina. Any stand to a hospital or the cemetery island of San Michele costs 40.00 EUR. Residents, and disabled passengers who cannot walk, pay 20 per cent less on every line of the sheet (Comune di Venezia, 2011).
Venice water taxi from the airport: price, pier and journey time
The municipal figure of 110.00 EUR is the tariff. The price you will be charged comes from the operator. Checked on 23 September 2026 for travel dates in October and December, the online system of Consorzio Motoscafi Venezia returned 160.00 EUR from Marco Polo Airport to a hotel or address in the city, the same 160.00 EUR to Piazzale Roma and to the Lido at Santa Maria Elisabetta, 170.00 EUR to the Hilton Molino Stucky on the Giudecca, 200.00 EUR to Burano or Mazzorbo and 210.00 EUR to Torcello. Both dates returned the same figures. A return bought in a single transaction saves 5 per cent, and arriving passengers are met at pier 3 or 4 of the airport dock (Consorzio Motoscafi Venezia, 2026).
The crossing takes 20 to 30 minutes from the airport to the historic centre, 10 to 20 minutes from the railway station or Piazzale Roma to a central address, and 15 to 25 minutes to the Lido (Italia Nostra Venezia, 2026).
There is a cheaper boat. Venicelink sells a shared water taxi, the Venice Shuttle, at 39.00 EUR a person, or 36.00 EUR when the inbound and outbound legs are bought together, for a minimum of two people. It runs for arrivals between 08:00 and 22:30, adds 6.00 EUR after 20:00, meets passengers at box 71 in the airport hall and drops at set landings rather than at your door (Venicelink, 2026). The airport's own website could not be read for this update.
The meter, the fixed fare, and why the quoted price is higher
A Venice licence is usually bivalent: the same boat holds a taxi licence and an authorisation for hire with a driver. The city draws the distinction by purpose. The taxi service exists to meet an immediate need, while hire with a driver covers a journey arranged in advance, under the municipal regulation implementing regional law 63 of 30 December 1993 (Comune di Venezia, 2026).
That distinction is where the money is. The meter would settle the price automatically, at 15.00 EUR plus 2.00 EUR a minute plus 5.00 EUR for the call. Drivers are reluctant to switch it on, and prefer the hire tariff, which leaves room to agree a figure (Italia Nostra Venezia, 2026). Neither practice is hidden. The tariff sheet covers both the metered service and the fixed routes, and the fixed routes are themselves a negotiated schedule between the city and the drivers' cooperatives.
What this means at the pontoon is simple. Ask which tariff is being applied before you step on board, agree the total including supplements, and ask for a receipt. A quote well above the fixed fare for your route usually includes the night supplement, extra passengers, extra bags or an awkward mooring, and a driver who is charging them should be able to say which.
Supplements: luggage, extra passengers, night hours and awkward moorings
The municipal sheet adds 3.00 EUR for each bag beyond the first four and beyond the number of passengers, so four people with four cases pay nothing extra. Each person beyond the fourth, with one bag included, costs 5.00 EUR on metered trips and on the fixed routes inside the historic centre, and 10.00 EUR on the airport and island routes. A night supplement of 10.00 EUR applies between 22:00 and 06:00, and 5.00 EUR is charged when the boat collects you away from a taxi stand (Comune di Venezia, 2011).
The consortium publishes its own, higher supplements: 15.00 EUR at night, with the night defined as 22:00 to 07:00 rather than 22:00 to 06:00; 5.00 EUR for each suitcase from the fifth, against the municipal 3.00 EUR; 10.00 EUR for each passenger from the fifth; and 20.00 EUR where the destination appears on its list of hotels and canals with difficult entry (Consorzio Motoscafi Venezia, 2026). Where the two disagree, the municipal sheet is the official tariff and the consortium's figures are what its boats charge.
One more line is worth knowing. If your pick-up point is not one of the municipal taxi stands, the call-out charge applies whether or not you telephoned for the boat.
Water taxi, vaporetto or traghetto: which one do you need?
A single vaporetto ticket costs 9.50 EUR and is valid for 75 minutes across the urban network (ACTV, 2026). Four people crossing the city therefore pay 38.00 EUR on the public boat against 80.00 EUR for a private taxi from Piazzale Roma, and 38.00 EUR against 160.00 EUR from the airport. The vaporetto wins on price at every party size, because the taxi fare covers the boat and the vaporetto fare covers a person.
The taxi wins on three things the fare table does not show. It goes to a hotel's own water door rather than to a public landing, which removes the bridges and their steps from the end of your journey. It takes as much luggage as a family can carry. And 25 of the city's 50 taxi-only licences are held by boats fitted with a lift for passengers with reduced mobility, which no vaporetto stop can match for a door-to-door trip (Comune di Venezia, 2026).
A traghetto is a third thing entirely: a stripped-down gondola that ferries standing passengers straight across the Grand Canal at a handful of fixed crossings. It is a way over the water rather than a way along it, it takes a couple of minutes, and it is no use with suitcases.
Where to find a water taxi and how to book one
Taxis wait in public, at pontoons the city designates as stazioni comunali taxi. Passengers can also present themselves at any public or private landing, or telephone the radio taxi service on 199 48 49 50 (Comune di Venezia, 2026). The stands worth knowing are the ones the tariff sheet names as fare points: Tronchetto, Piazzale Roma (Parisi or Rio Novo), the railway station, Rialto (Carbon or Cerva), San Marco (Todaro, Danieli, Londra or Ca' di Dio), the Casinò at San Marcuola, Murano, and the Lido at Santa Maria Elisabetta.
Licences are capped and awarded by public competition or transfer. There are 193 bivalent licences combining taxi and hire with a driver, 7 more reserved to the gondoliers' cooperatives, and 50 taxi-only licences, of which 25 belong to boats with a lift for passengers with reduced mobility (Comune di Venezia, 2026).
To book ahead, Consorzio Motoscafi Venezia runs more than a hundred boats around the clock, takes bookings online and on a 24 hour call centre, and issues a voucher to hand to the driver (Consorzio Motoscafi Venezia, 2026). A hotel can arrange the same thing. Booking in advance fixes the price in writing, which is the main argument for doing it.
What a water taxi cannot do
A taxi reaches your hotel door only if the hotel has a water entrance that a motorboat can use. Many do not, and the boat then stops at the nearest public landing. The consortium names several central hotels, among them the Duodo, Splendid, Cavalletto, Saturnia, Bonvecchiati and Bonvecchiati Palace, that it cannot reach directly when the tide is unfavourable, and says it will stop within a five minute walk instead. Very high or very low water closes some canals to motorboats altogether, and fog can suspend the Lido and island runs (Consorzio Motoscafi Venezia, 2026).
Capacity is the other limit. Ten passengers and twelve suitcases is the maximum, so a group of twelve needs two boats and two fares. The price remains unchanged up to four passengers and four cases, which is why a couple pays the same as a family of four.
Speed is limited as well, for the lagoon's sake. Italia Nostra's Venice section puts the limits at 20 kilometres an hour anywhere in the lagoon, 5 for private boats in the internal canals and 7 for taxis, and attributes much of the wash that erodes the canal banks and building foundations to taxi traffic (Italia Nostra Venezia, 2026). A water taxi is quick because it is direct, not because it is fast.
