Fly home on the same day we arrive back in Venice?

First time cruiser here....I need help to determine what is feasible on our return home flights. Traveling on the RCCL Rhapsody and arrive back in Venice at 6:45 am. What it the typical amount of time needed to disembark and pick up our luggage? How far is it to the airport from the port by taxi? Is it hard to get a taxi at the port?

What time would make sense to book a return flight but not cause too much stress? Thanks!

If you look around the board there are a couple of recent threads on how Venice works, with answers to all your questions.

While some may try for earlier than noon flights, particularly if flying direct to the US, after noon is better. Venice is not a well organized airport...it will take time to go through the steps.

Taxis should be reserved/booked. The drive is about 25 or so minutes.

If you haven't been to Venice before why not stay the extra day?

Please don't leave Venice without seeing it....If you have the time, stay a few days and ENJOY...You will not be disappointed. If you must leave....after NOON you should be okay

Please don't leave Venice without seeing it....If you have the time, stay a few days and ENJOY...You will not be disappointed. If you must leave....after NOON you should be okay

I was thinking this when I read the initial post. I can't imagine never having been to Venice and running straight from the ship to the airport.

Do stay in Venice for a few days if at all possible. Wonderful at night when it is quieter.

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We have a 1:00am flight out of Venice this June. We have a driver picking us up at 9:00am for 60 euro (we are 2 couples traveling together so splitting costs makes it reasonable, and we used them our last trip and were happy with them. info@tourleadervenice.com

On our last trip in 2014 we stayed 2 additional nights in Venice even though our ship was overnight in port on our first day. You just can't see everything in one day and it's truly magical...especially at night.

This year we are (sadly) not staying any additional nights because we have a London/Florence/Rome pre-stay.

If it is at all possible, stay at least one night. We stayed in Piazza Roma area which was so easy with our luggage and getting to the airport. There are some reasonable hotels in that area too.

:-)

Marco Polo airport is a 20 minute ride from the pier. The airport is always chaotic so plan to be there 2 1/2 - 3 hrs prior to departure.

If you're on a tight schedule, have a cab or car reserved.

To answer your question, simply ask the cruiseline what they recommend. They set up flights for anyone who bought air from them and they can tell you. Given a 6:45 am arrival, I'm guessing you won't want to take a flight any sooner than 11:45 am. Later will give you more wiggle room.

I do agree with others that you may wish to consider staying a few days in Italy before you depart. You're already over there. Enjoy it!

Just returned from Venice.

We did a ship transfer to the airport and had a 2:50 p.m. flight. We were dropped off at the airport by about 11 a.m. The cruise rep at drop off told us that there is a rule at Venice airport that you can't check in with your luggage until 1:19 p.m. for a 2:50 p.m. flight. This was a bit weird. We didn't find the airport overwhelming or crowded though while we waited. We went to go check out how long the line was at noon, and we actually were allowed to check in then as we had priority status.

Once through security, there are lots of nice shops to look around. We ate lunch at a burger bar upstairs and there were also lots of deli type places.

There was a super long 2nd line after going through security before going to the gates. However, if you were a U.S. passport holder you got to skip this line and just had your passport scanned then stamped.

I was expecting much worse chaos than we actually experienced.

Thanks for the post about Venice. We have exactly the same flight time as you next month and it’s reassuring that the airport wasn’t too bad.

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We returned from Venice yesterday we did not pre-book a taxi and there was one at the rank after the people mover, it took about 20 minutes and the rate was shown on the car as a fixed rate of 40 euros we were charged this both ways and there were 4 of us. The airport bus was there as well which we had decided should we be unable to catch a taxi we would use, it runs every twenty minutes. We had no problems at all at Venice airport, we did have plenty of time though.

Marco Polo airport is a 20 minute ride from the pier. The airport is always chaotic so plan to be there 2 1/2 - 3 hrs prior to departure.

If you're on a tight schedule, have a cab or car reserved.

We have flown in and out of Venice several times and find it very easy and not chaotic. With this in mind we still always arrive at any airport at least 2 hours prior to flight.