Early shuttle from Trieste and late flight from Venice

[sammyboots]

Can anyone tell us of their experience of checking in their luggage at Venice airport and then heading into either Venice or Murano for an afternoon please? 

[VMax1700]

Most airlines won't check in luggage until 2 max 3 hours before the flight, so you may have a problem that way.

There is a left luggage place.

https://www.trasbagagli.it/

[Torquer]

I haven't done what you propose, but from reading all about Venice/Trieste over the last couple months on the HAL board, I think there are a number of issues to consider:

• Will your airline even allow you to check your luggage many hours before the flight.  On some airlines/airports you can only begin to do this 3-4 hours before your flight.  Does your airline even have other flights leaving around when you propose to drop your bags?  For example, if a particular airline's first flight of the day leaves at 5PM, they will not have their check-in counter staffed that morning.  These are questions you need to ask your airline.
• If HAL knows you have a late flight, will they allow you to board one of their early shuttle buses?  Of course, if you have your own transportation from Trieste to VCE, that is not a problem.
• You may have to wait a long time both checking your bags at the airline, and almost certainly going through security; 2-3 hours would not be uncommon for VCE.  Search this topic on Cruise Critic.
• It takes a while to get from the airport to where you want to go on Venice island.  Best case, you hire a private water taxi and it is a half-hour each way.  If using public water taxis, it would be considerably longer.

 

So overall, I'm not sure how much time you will have to actually see Venice.  It would be much better to stay overnight in Venice and fly home the next day.

[sammyboots]

12 hours ago, Torquer said:

I haven't done what you propose, but from reading all about Venice/Trieste over the last couple months on the HAL board, I think there are a number of issues to consider:

• Will your airline even allow you to check your luggage many hours before the flight.  On some airlines/airports you can only begin to do this 3-4 hours before your flight.  Does your airline even have other flights leaving around when you propose to drop your bags?  For example, if a particular airline's first flight of the day leaves at 5PM, they will not have their check-in counter staffed that morning.  These are questions you need to ask your airline.
• If HAL knows you have a late flight, will they allow you to board one of their early shuttle buses?  Of course, if you have your own transportation from Trieste to VCE, that is not a problem.
• You may have to wait a long time both checking your bags at the airline, and almost certainly going through security; 2-3 hours would not be uncommon for VCE.  Search this topic on Cruise Critic.
• It takes a while to get from the airport to where you want to go on Venice island.  Best case, you hire a private water taxi and it is a half-hour each way.  If using public water taxis, it would be considerably longer.

 

So overall, I'm not sure how much time you will have to actually see Venice.  It would be much better to stay overnight in Venice and fly home the next day.

Thank you VMax1700 and Torquer for your replies. We originally had an earlier flight back but our flight has been cancelled and we are now booked onto a much later flight. This has all been booked through HAL including transfers which they have given us fairly early so we’re just trying to consider options. Staying over isn’t an option as the flights are not organised by us. We’d already seen there was a left luggage facility and researched that VCE takes 75 minutes at times just to get through security never mind check in. The airline we’ve been changed to has several flights operating over the day so we are now considering asking if there’s availability on the afternoon flight instead. Worth a try. Thanks again for your replies. 

[terrydtx]

2 hours ago, sammyboots said:

Thank you VMax1700 and Torquer for your replies. We originally had an earlier flight back but our flight has been cancelled and we are now booked onto a much later flight. This has all been booked through HAL including transfers which they have given us fairly early so we’re just trying to consider options. Staying over isn’t an option as the flights are not organised by us. We’d already seen there was a left luggage facility and researched that VCE takes 75 minutes at times just to get through security never mind check in. The airline we’ve been changed to has several flights operating over the day so we are now considering asking if there’s availability on the afternoon flight instead. Worth a try. Thanks again for your replies. 

We are sailing from Trieste next month and we are using HAL Flight Ease. Once your air tickets are issued by HAL you can call the airline directly and make changes based upon the airline's previous cancelations, if seats are available. Our air tickets were paid by HAL and issued 30 days from our departure of Aug 2 by HAL, and we have been able to call United to make a change after our connecting flight was changed and left us not enough time to make the connection to Rome. We are doing another cruise from Rome before our Oosterdam cruise from Venice (Trieste). Good Luck flying in the current climate of flight cancelations and delays.

[sammyboots]

2 minutes ago, terrydtx said:

We are sailing from Trieste next month and we are using HAL Flight Ease. Once your air tickets are issued by HAL you can call the airline directly and make changes based upon the airline's previous cancelations, if seats are available. Our air tickets were paid by HAL and issued 30 days from our departure of Aug 2 by HAL, and we have been able to call United to make a change after our connecting flight was changed and left us not enough time to make the connection to Rome. We are doing another cruise from Rome before our Oosterdam cruise from Venice (Trieste). Good Luck flying in the current climate of flight cancelations and delays.

Thanks, that sounds an absolute pain for you. Our outward flight was fine but the return cancelled the day before we left to join the ship. It was rearranged with a different airline and with another stop en route which is a pain. We were told it was this flight or we were welcome to cancel and book our own flights instead! Not too big a deal but not the nice straightforward flight home we had planned. 

[Essiesmom]

Our second visit to Venice, we got off the plane, collected our luggage, walked out of the terminal and got on a shuttle bus straight to Piazzale Roma.  Cost less than 10 euros each.  

[sammyboots]

Well we decided to go into Venice after all. We arrived early at the airport, 10.15am and our flight wasn’t until 18.20 so we took our luggage to the left luggage office and then got straight into a water taxi into Venice. We enjoyed a lovely walk around and had the best lunch of the week. Returned in time to check in without any rush, so much better than spending hours just sitting in an airport. 😊

[VMax1700]

15 minutes ago, sammyboots said:

Well we decided to go into Venice after all. We arrived early at the airport, 10.15am and our flight wasn’t until 18.20 so we took our luggage to the left luggage office and then got straight into a water taxi into Venice. We enjoyed a lovely walk around and had the best lunch of the week. Returned in time to check in without any rush, so much better than spending hours just sitting in an airport. 😊

Glad you enjoyed it.

How did you return to the airport?  Water taxi again?

How long did it take to checkin and get through security?

[sammyboots]

1 hour ago, VMax1700 said:

Glad you enjoyed it.

How did you return to the airport?  Water taxi again?

How long did it take to checkin and get through security?

We did a return ticket water bus for around 27 euros which worked very well. They ran fairly regularly and we had the timetable with us. We got off at the first stop at dell’Orto and walked around the Cannaregio area where we found restaurant  Diane which I would highly recommend. We originally planned to get off at Rialto to begin with but we decided to take the first stop as I ( not my husband!) was worried about timings. It all worked incredibly well though. Check in at the airport took us around 20 mins and the same for security. 

Edited July 16, 2022 by sammyboots

[VMax1700]

12 minutes ago, sammyboots said:

Check in at the airport took us around 20 mins and the same for security. 

Magic!  Security took us well over an hour on a Saturday in June.

 

[sammyboots]

On 7/16/2022 at 5:00 PM, VMax1700 said:

Magic!  Security took us well over an hour on a Saturday in June.

 

We felt we needed to factor that in with our timings incase it ended up being busy. We ended up having a while to wait for our flight ( which was delayed until 7.30pm in the end!) but you just never know and I prefer to err on the side of caution. 

[montythecat]

On Saturday we put our cases into left luggage (7 euros per case) and walked the ten minutes to the water taxis. We used Alilaguna (27 euros per person return) which took us to St. Marks Square (1.5 hours). We were

happy with what we did, although there are other companies which are

quicker, but more expensive. We were only in Venice for 20 minutes. It could have been longer but obviously we weren’t to know how long

check-in and security would take. Anyway, it was enough to take some 

nice pictures and we felt it was preferable to hanging around the 

airport for five and a half hours. If there is another time we would probably 

cut down the length of the boat trip and get off at Murano. I hope that helps anybody else in a similar position. By the way don’t bother to try

checking in which will only open three hours before the flight leaves. We

wasted at least half an hour messing around in the airport when we could have gone straight to the left luggage store which is on the way to the water taxis.

[Torquer]

Just to clarify for others that might be reading, Alilaguna is not a "water taxi".  It is more like a "water bus" that is public transportation that a relatively large number of people can ride and pay a relatively small fare per person but they have a limited number of places they stop.  A water taxi in Venice is a much smaller boat, 10 person max, where you pay a fixed amount for the first 4 passengers and a small supplement for more than that.  They are hired by one person, although they can agree to share a ride with other parties who are going to the same place.  They are much faster; they usually travel faster than the water buses and they take you directly to where you want to go.

[montythecat]

I am sorry I did not refer to Alilaguna as a waterbus which is, of course,

exactly what it is. That is why I pointed out that it takes longer than the

(more expensive) competition.

 

[sammyboots]

On 7/18/2022 at 8:35 PM, Torquer said:

Just to clarify for others that might be reading, Alilaguna is not a "water taxi".  It is more like a "water bus" that is public transportation that a relatively large number of people can ride and pay a relatively small fare per person but they have a limited number of places they stop.  A water taxi in Venice is a much smaller boat, 10 person max, where you pay a fixed amount for the first 4 passengers and a small supplement for more than that.  They are hired by one person, although they can agree to share a ride with other parties who are going to the same place.  They are much faster; they usually travel faster than the water buses and they take you directly to where you want to go.

We found it very easy to navigate the various options available to get to Venice by boat. The prices, including a speed boat option, are clearly written and the staff were very helpful giving us a written timetable to take away with the times even highlighted for us. For anyone not in a hurry, ie planning to stay over, the bus is an even cheaper option but whenever we’ve travelled from the airport to Venice, by boat seems the most fun and practical. 

[sammyboots]

On 7/18/2022 at 5:20 PM, montythecat said:

On Saturday we put our cases into left luggage (7 euros per case) and walked the ten minutes to the water taxis. We used Alilaguna (27 euros per person return) which took us to St. Marks Square (1.5 hours). We were

happy with what we did, although there are other companies which are

quicker, but more expensive. We were only in Venice for 20 minutes. It could have been longer but obviously we weren’t to know how long

check-in and security would take. Anyway, it was enough to take some 

nice pictures and we felt it was preferable to hanging around the 

airport for five and a half hours. If there is another time we would probably 

cut down the length of the boat trip and get off at Murano. I hope that helps anybody else in a similar position. By the way don’t bother to try

checking in which will only open three hours before the flight leaves. We

wasted at least half an hour messing around in the airport when we could have gone straight to the left luggage store which is on the way to the water taxis.

Sounds like you were in the same position as we were. The area we went to is a similar time journey to Murano and I’d recommend it. If you haven’t been to Venice before of course you’ll want to see the main tourist attractions but if you’re short of time and just wish to have a lovely wander over pretty bridges, watch the gondolas go by and enjoy a coffee or a lovely lunch, I’d recommend getting off at Dell’Orto. The whole hassle of our flights changing from direct to then going via Frankfurt, an early drop off at the airport and what turned into over nine hours until our flight resulted in us not getting home until 2am. I can’t say it will encourage me to book a cruise leaving from Trieste again but… if it ends up like childbirth and a distant memory, I’d definitely take a trip into Venice again rather than spend a long time twiddling our thumbs at the airport. 😊

[Hlitner]

Another option for getting between Marco Polo Airport and Venice (Piazale Roma) is to simply take the express ATVO bus.  It runs every 30 min (leaves from the center median just outside the airport entrance) and takes about 25 min.  Cost is 18Euros round trip.  Once at the Piazale Roma you have easy access to the Vaporettos or you can simply start walking.  These are very nice coach-type buses with A/C, WiFi, and pretty comfy seats.

 

Hank