Port of Venice has several main passenger facilities: Marittima, San Basilio, Santa Marta, Riva delle Zattere, and Riva degli Schiavoni.
Due to having many unique passenger terminals (with a wide range of services), Venice is one of the most popular Mediterranean ports today.
These passenger terminals offer services for…
- cruise ships,
- ferries, and
- fast ships sailing to the coast of Istria, as well as
- yachts & mega yachts.
If you’re coming to Venice via a cruise ship, you’ll arrive at Venice Marittima port, an area that has dedicated terminals for:
- large cruise ships, and for
- ferries linking Venice to Greece.
Marittima is, in fact, a multi-purpose facility, also used for hosting meetings, conventions, and fairs.
To get from Marittima to central Venice, you can use a modern public transportation system, “People Mover”…a land funicular that connects the terminal in 3 minutes to Piazzale Roma and the Venice railway station.
You can also use the water shuttle connection, Alilaguna shuttle, traveling the route to/from Port Marittima (cruise terminal) – St. Mark’s Square.
These Alilaguna water shuttles depart every 20 minutes (on days when ships are embarking and disembarking cruise travelers).
In addition to the large cruise liners, ferries of all kind are also major business here, especially those departing for Eastern Mediterranean destinations.
As an example of this, in 2010, Venice port was used by 357,664 ferry passengers.
If you are thinking about taking a ferry from Venice to Greece, there are now daily departures (and arrivals) 12 months per year, operated by two ferry lines.
For destinations nearby, in Croatia and Slovenia (three hour trip one way), many consider Venice an ideal transition point.
To go to Croatia or Slovenia from Venice, you can use either the hydrofoils or fast catamaran ships, from San Basilio terminal.
You can get to S. Basilio terminal with public transportation from
- Tronchetto,
- S.Lucia railway station, and from
- Piazzale Roma.
Hydrofoils and catamarans depart to popular destinations (Pula, Rovinj, Lošinj, Piran, Umag, Portorož, Rabac) daily, from April to October.
In 2010, a total of 109,127 passengers used the terminal to go to Croatia or Slovenia.
If you’re coming to the lagoon city with your own yacht, you’ll get to know the dedicated Venice Yacht Pier terminals at either:
- riva delle Zattere,
- riva degli Schiavoni, or at
- San Basilio…
…all among the most panoramic areas in the lagoon.