While Venice is an extremely walkable city, it is very helpful to learn how to navigate the water bus systems. Being in Venice is a very unique experience because there are no cars on the majority of the island. Thus, most of the transportation is done by water buses or water taxis. One day in Venice, we decided it would be nice to visit some of the nearby islands, specifically Murano and Burano. But this meant that we had to use the water buses.
Our first step was to buy a day pass because we wanted to take multiple trips on the water bus, and it was cheaper than buying individual tickets. While in Venice, it is a great idea to get a day pass for the water buses since they last a full 24 hours. Once we had our tickets, we needed to validate them. This is one of the most important steps because you can get a heavy fine if they check tickets and yours isn’t validated.
From there, it is very easy to see the bus schedule using Google Maps or Citymapper. Once you put your destination in, it tells you which bus line to take and which stop to get on and off. This process was very simple until we got to Burano. Due to a lack of research, we arrived on the island about thirty minutes before all the shops and restaurants closed. Because of this, there was a line of about 300 to 400 people in line to take a water bus back to Venice. It would have taken us 4-5 hours to get back to Venice since there were only buses coming every thirty minutes.
Here is where knowing how to navigate the water bus system comes in handy. Instead of getting in line to go directly back to Venice, we went one stop in the opposite direction and waited twenty minutes for another bus that ended up stopping in Venice. Even though we spent more time on the water bus, we got back to Venice much earlier than we would have if we had waited in line to take the “fastest” route back.
