The Grand Canal

When we have visited Venice, riding on the Grand Canal was a highlight of the trip. We usually used vaporetto to get around, because it is the most affordable way to travel. We did take a water taxi once as well, although that is a great deal more expensive. Here is what I recommend about visiting Venice and the Grand Canal:

#1 most important: get a Venezia Unica City Pass. The website is here: Venice City Pass

On the home page there is a description of the services offered, and then at the top of the page select "Buy." You can choose which pass you'd like to purchase. For our most recent trip we just purchased the transportation pass, the ACTV time limited tickets. We bought the 2 day transport for 35 euros. This is definitely worth the price! It allows you to ride around on all the vaporetto around Venice, and also includes the nearby islands. I printed my voucher off rather than only having it on my phone, in case my phone battery had died before I arrived. If arriving by train, when you get off the train, head straight for the exit to the Santa Lucia train station. Once exiting, you will see directly in front of you the ACTV small building. In front of the building are machines that look like vending machines - these are ticket machines. You will enter the PNR code from your voucher of your online purchase and the machine will print off your pass. To use the pass, there are scan machines at the entrance to each vaporetto stop. Line 2 takes you in a circular route through the Grand Canal to most places you would want to visit as a tourist, including St. Mark's Square. When getting on vaporetto 2, be sure that the boat is facing in the direction you want to go. The boats come only minutes apart, so don't be worried if you miss the boat. Some of the stops have digital signs that tell you which boat is coming at what time. If you want to visit Murano, which I highly recommend, there are a few options for boats. We took 4.2 from the Santa Marta stop because it was the closest stop to our hotel. It took about a half hour to reach Murano. We got off at the Colonna stop, which is the first Murano stop, because we wanted to walk all the way through Murano and see all of the different glass shops and factories. Then we walked back to Colonna (although you can get on at any stop in Murano) and rode the 4.1 back to Venice, because 4.1 goes in the opposite direction of 4.2. You can also ride the boat 3 or 12 to reach Murano, although these weren't scheduled as often as 4.1 and 4.2. Each time it took only about 30 minutes to get between the two. Be sure to scan your pass each time you get on a boat, because if they check tickets and you have not scanned your pass, you will receive a large fine. Some stops to take note of are:

* P. Roma stop is the bus station

* Ferrovia stop is the train station

* S. Zaccharia (or S. Marco S. Zaccharia) is Saint Mark's Square

* Rialto is the Rialto Bridge

* Fdte Nove is the most direct stop to Murano, it is the last stop boats take before heading in the direction of Murano, stopping at Cimitero on the way (cemetery - San Michelle island, where the dead of Venice are buried)

Most tourist attractions are around, or within walking distance of St. Mark's square. If you get on vaporetto line 2 and ride it until the S. Zaccharia stop, you can get pretty much anywhere you'd want to see. There are plenty of souvenir shops and places to eat near there. It is very helpful to download the AVM Venezia app on your phone. The app allows you to enter your destination and it gives you a variety of options for which boats to take to get there. It also allows you to look at the timetables of the different lines.

On our trips to Venice, we enjoyed just riding up and down the Grand Canal on the vaporetto and looking at all the different sites that we could see from the water. With a pass, it's so easy to get off and back on, so you're not at all limited in exploring Venice.

You can watch a video of our most recent visit to the Grand Canal here: Grand Canal

My daughter and I in March of 2025 on the Grand Canal

View of the Campanile, the Doge's Palace, and St. Mark's Basilica from the Grand Canal

One of the Vaporetto stops. You can wait inside these until the next vaporetto arrives. Be sure to take the boat that's going in the direction you want to go.

This happened to be the vaporetto stop closest to the hotel we stayed at in March 2025

Beautiful Venice at night

The Scalzi Bridge - you can walk across this bridge if arriving by train and that can save you some time in reaching your destination

Ponte della Guglie is near the train station as well

Ponte dei Tre Archi - this three-arched bridge was close to the Airbnb that we stayed at in 2018

the island of Cimitero (cemetery)

This vaporetto stop is the closest stop to departures for Murano - you can walk to this stop, or ride the vaporetto to this stop if you want to reach Murano.

The Cimitero vaporetto stop - you can get off and visit the cemetery island

My daughter riding the vaporetto in 2025

The Rialto Bridge, one of the most famous bridges in the world

View from the Rialto Bridge

View from the other side of the Rialto Bridge

Inside a water taxi

When we arrived at night in March of 2025, we took a water taxi to our hotel so that we wouldn't have to figure out the most direct way to get there. The rest of the time we rode vaporetto to get around.