My two daughters and I were in Venice, Italy from August 15 to August 17. You can purchase the mainland bus and the Venice waterbus ticket online. The Waterbus two day ticket was a great bargain and a very convenient way to get from one location to another while in Venice. As soon as we arrived at Marco Polo International we hopped on a ATVO bus for 8 euros each and arrived at the waterbus stop in about 20 minutes. We picked up our waterbus pass at the station from a dispensing machine with our code that we got from the online purchase and hopped on the watertaxi for the 20 minute water ride to our hotel stop. A five minute walk and we were at our hotel! This was a lot easier than I imagined. We used the waterbus extensively throughout our 2.5 days while in Venice. We took the waterbus all over Venice and to Murano and to the little island where the San Giorgio Maggiore chuch is located. The bell tower is the best view looking at Venice and it's not crowded! Buy a pass!

I enjoyed the boat rides - although none of the commentary could be heard if outside on the one boat with outside seating and not much could be seen through dirty windows when seated inside on the inside-seating only boats, although could hear description well. Unfortunately a thunderstorm hit while we were on the second island, which was ok as was a little town and could duck into shops etc., but it was bucketing down on the third island where it was all totally exposed and everyone got soaked as we were not allowed to stay on the boat (although there was small ferry terminal building nearby that many people crowded into to shelter for the hour). Enjoyed the second island, Burano, the most.

I booked the morning on the internet and it is much cheaper than booking at the station. They had to get phone clearance with my booking number because it was done so late via the internet, but that was not a problem at all. The tour is very nice hopping on and off several boats. I suggest that they do a trip with only Burano and Murano to have more time to spend there. You really don't have enough time before you have to catch your next boat - next time I would actually spend the whole day at Burano.

Definitely buy a pass for however many days you are there as much better value for money. You can also jump on and off as much as you like. Do not buy in advance though as slightly cheaper in Venice. Although you cannot buy tickets at all the stops you are never very far from a ticket machine. Once purchased just scan your ticket each time you travel.

Although slightly more than just buying from a ticket machine, it was reassuring that we had transport cover which included return to the bus pick-up point on the last day to get to the airport. We used the water busses to get from Venice to Lido, Burano and Murano, as well as using the bus on Lido and getting around Venice itself.