Venise, water taxi's

[luv2cruise2]

Though my husband and I are avid cruiser's this will be our first venture into Europe. Our final port is Venice where I have booked a 3- night hotel package. My question is does anyone know how to pre reserve a private water taxi from the pier and what the cost normally is? (Our tour operator has one on our booking and we are being charged $257.00 USD for a transfer from the pier to our hotel in the mid Cannaregio area. I've heard private water taxi's are expensive but this sounds like way to much.)

[Uwe]

Hi,
you can book online your water taxi. The link is
www.motoscafivenezia.it/english/english.htm
The Consorzio Motoscafi Venezia has a stop at the statione marittima (Marittima Cruise Terminal)
You can also get information by mail. Therefore contact:
info@motoscafivenezia.it
or fone +39 041 522 2303.
Watertaxis in Venice are not cheap, but not as expensive as you marked.
Have a nice trip to Europe an much fun in one of the most beautiful citys in the world (ma favorite city!)
There is also a shuttle bus form the cruise terminal to Piazza de Roma, every 15 to 20 Minutes. Service should be free of charge to passengers.
Best regards
Uwe (from Germany)

[luv2cruise2]

Thanks so much for the reply. After many hours of research I had also come across the website
www.motoscafivenezia.it and one other company @ veniceguideandboat.it. I emailed both but only got a reply from the second. We booked transfers both ways with veniceguideandboat.it. They are charging us only $75.00 USD per privte water taxi transfer, a big savings over what our tour operator was charging. This site also has other great tours and transfer options. We will be in Venice in early May. I will be sure to let everyone know how it went!

[MeShell]

We did a 4 night Venice holiday in December of 2003 and we bought a card called the Venice Pass which got you into alot of the museum's, the public toilets (which you have to pay for)and the use of the water shuttles. We thought it was a execellent price.

http://www.venicecard.com/index_eng.jsp