Venice

Danieli, Venezia, A Four Seasons Hotel

Castello / Riva degli Schiavoni

Venice's legendary grand hotel, reborn as a Four Seasons in July 2026 — Gothic Palazzo Dandolo on the Riva degli Schiavoni, a gilded lobby, lagoon-view rooms, and the Terrazza Danieli rooftop facing San Giorgio. Steps from St Mark's.

The Gritti Palace, a Luxury Collection Hotel

San Marco / Santa Maria del Giglio

A fifteenth-century doge's palace on the Grand Canal, opposite the Salute — antiques, Rubelli fabrics, a canal-side terrace, Bar Longhi and a cooking school. The most romantic grand hotel in Venice.

Ca Sagredo Hotel

Cannaregio / Grand Canal at Santa Sofia

A fifteenth-century Grand Canal palace between the Rialto and the Ca' d'Oro, full of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century art — breakfast under painted ceilings, a canal-side restaurant terrace and a quieter Cannaregio address.

Londra Palace Venezia

Castello / Riva degli Schiavoni

A refined Relais and Chateaux hotel on the Riva degli Schiavoni with a hundred windows on the lagoon — Biedermeier rooms, a rooftop terrace with 360-degree views and LPV restaurant. Tchaikovsky wrote here.

Hotel Flora

San Marco / Calle Larga XXII Marzo

A family-run hideaway in a seventeenth-century palazzo just behind St Mark's — period rooms, Murano chandeliers and a leafy inner garden for breakfast. Classic Venetian charm at a fair price in the heart of San Marco.

Hotel Moresco

Dorsoduro / near Piazzale Roma

A boutique hotel with a private garden in residential Dorsoduro — elegant Venetian rooms, breakfast outdoors in the warm months, and an easy walk to Piazzale Roma, the Frari and Campo Santa Margherita. Smart value for a real neighbourhood stay.

Generator Venice

Giudecca / Zitelle

A design hostel in a restored granary on the Giudecca waterfront, looking across to St Mark's — dorms for adults, private and family rooms with canal views, a bar and restaurant, and the Zitelle boat stop outside.

Hilton Molino Stucky Venice

Giudecca

A vast neo-Gothic flour mill on the Giudecca turned into a big, comfortable hotel with a summer rooftop pool, a spa and the highest rooftop bar in Venice. The hotel shuttle boat to San Marco makes it the city's best family base with real space.

Starhotels Splendid Venice

San Marco / Mercerie

A polished four-star on the Mercerie, midway between Rialto and St Mark's, with its own canal dock for gondolas and water taxis, a rooftop altana bar, and family connecting rooms where children under sixteen stay free on breakfast rates.

Hotel Indigo Venice Sant Elena

Sant Elena / Castello

A boutique hotel in a converted 1930s monastery on leafy Sant'Elena, at the quiet eastern tip of Venice beside the Biennale gardens. A hidden garden, a calm residential setting and a vaporetto ride to San Marco along the lagoon.

Avani Rio Novo Venice

Dorsoduro / Rio Nuovo

A modern, mid-range hotel in Dorsoduro, ten minutes' walk from the station and steps from Campo Santa Margherita, with a garden for spritzes and a cinema-themed cicchetti restaurant. Easy arrivals, fair prices, a lively student quarter.

Papadopoli Venezia MGallery

Santa Croce / Piazzale Roma

A refined boutique hotel overlooking the Papadopoli gardens and the Grand Canal, two minutes from Piazzale Roma and five from the station. Triple rooms, a winter-garden restaurant and terrace suites make it an elegant, easy base for families and couples.

Hyatt Centric Murano Venice

Murano

A modern hotel on the glass-making island of Murano, with canal-view rooms, two-storey suites, a Venetian restaurant and an airport boat shuttle on request. Quiet evenings, glass workshops on the doorstep and a short boat ride to Venice.

Novotel Venezia Mestre Castellana

Mestre (mainland)

The honest family answer to Venice prices: a mainland hotel in Mestre with four-person family rooms, a seasonal outdoor pool and playground in a big garden, parking and a bus stop at the door. Venice is a short bus or tram ride away.

a and o Venezia Mestre

Mestre station (mainland)

A big, budget hostel-hotel right next to Mestre station: private rooms and dorms, a bar, an all-you-can-eat breakfast, a guest kitchen and a kids' corner. The cheapest sensible way to stay near Venice, about fifteen minutes from the city.

Doge's Palace

The pink-and-white Gothic palace where the Venetian Republic ruled for centuries — golden council chambers, Tintoretto's colossal Paradise, the prisons and the Bridge of Sighs. Book ahead, go early, and add the Secret Itineraries if you can.

St Mark's Basilica

Venice's golden church — domes of Byzantine mosaics, the jewelled Pala d'Oro, and the bronze horses that once crowned the facade. No bags, covered shoulders and knees, and a booked slot make it painless.

St Mark's Campanile

The red-brick bell tower of Piazza San Marco, rebuilt after it collapsed in 1902 — ride the lift to the belfry for the best panorama in Venice: domes, rooftops, the lagoon and, on clear days, the Alps.

Gondola Ride

Yes, it is touristy, and yes, it is worth it — half an hour gliding through quiet side canals with a gondolier in a striped shirt is the one Venetian cliché that delivers. Choose the right hour and the right route.

Murano and Burano Islands

The lagoon's two famous islands in one day — Murano's glass furnaces and glass museum, then Burano's rainbow-painted fishermen's houses and lace. Go by organised boat tour or by vaporetto, and leave time for a long seafood lunch.

Gallerie dell'Accademia

The greatest collection of Venetian painting anywhere — Bellini, Giorgione's Tempest, Titian, Tintoretto, Veronese and Carpaccio — in a former convent at the foot of the wooden Accademia Bridge. Closed Mondays.

Peggy Guggenheim Collection

Twentieth-century art in Peggy Guggenheim's own unfinished palazzo on the Grand Canal — Pollock, Picasso, Ernst, Magritte, Calder and Brancusi, a sculpture garden and a terrace on the water. Closed Tuesdays.

Rialto Bridge and Market

The stone arch over the Grand Canal that has been Venice's commercial heart for centuries — cross it at dawn for the view, browse the fish and produce market below, then eat cicchetti in the old bacari around it. Free to visit.

Grand Canal by Vaporetto

The best-value sightseeing trip in Europe — the slow Line 1 water bus down the whole Grand Canal past palaces from every century, from the station to San Marco. Buy a travel pass and ride it twice: once by day, once at night.

Piazza San Marco

The only square in Venice called a piazza — the Basilica, the Campanile, the Clock Tower and the arcaded Procuratie around a vast stone floor, with café orchestras playing at dusk. Free, unforgettable, and best at dawn or late evening.

Santa Maria della Salute

The great white domed church at the mouth of the Grand Canal, built in thanks for the end of a plague — Longhena's Baroque masterpiece, with Titian and Tintoretto in the sacristy. Free to enter, and the backdrop of every Venice postcard.

San Giorgio Maggiore

Palladio's luminous white church on its own island facing St Mark's — two great Tintorettos, a bell tower with a lift and arguably the best view of Venice, and a hedge maze inspired by Borges. One stop by vaporetto, a world away from the crowds.

Jewish Ghetto and Jewish Museum

The world's first ghetto, founded in 1516 in quiet Cannaregio — tall tenement houses, five historic synagogues and a Jewish Museum that reopened in October 2026 after a seven-year renovation. A moving, essential visit.

Teatro La Fenice

Venice's legendary opera house, twice destroyed by fire and twice reborn — gilded tiers of boxes, the royal box, and the stage where Verdi premiered Rigoletto and La Traviata. Tour it by day with an audio guide, or better still, book a performance.

Scuola Grande di San Rocco

Tintoretto's Sistine Chapel: more than sixty of his paintings still in the rooms he painted them for, from the overwhelming Crucifixion to a ceiling you study with a hand mirror. One of the great art experiences in Italy, steps from the Frari.

Ca' Rezzonico

A Grand Canal palace furnished as the Museum of Eighteenth-Century Venice: a glittering ballroom, Tiepolo ceilings, Longhi's scenes of daily life and Canaletto views. The best way to step inside a real Venetian palazzo.

Ca' Pesaro

A baroque palace on the Grand Canal holding Venice's International Gallery of Modern Art — Klimt, Chagall, Kandinsky and the treasures of the early Biennales — with a remarkable Japanese collection on the top floor.

Palazzo Grassi and Punta della Dogana

François Pinault's contemporary art showcase in two landmark buildings remodelled by Tadao Ando: a neoclassical palace on the Grand Canal and the old customs house at the tip of Dorsoduro. Check the calendar — the venues change shows, and Palazzo Grassi becomes a permanent collection in March 2027.

Torre dell'Orologio (Clock Tower)

The Renaissance clock tower over Piazza San Marco, with its blue-and-gold astronomical dial and the two bronze Moors who strike the hours. Small guided tours climb inside past the mechanism to the bell terrace — book ahead.

Ca' d'Oro (Galleria Franchetti)

The most beautiful Gothic facade on the Grand Canal, once gilded, now home to Baron Franchetti's art collection — Mantegna's St Sebastian, a mosaic courtyard and a loggia hanging over the water.

Basilica dei Frari

Venice's great Franciscan Gothic church, where Titian's blazing Assumption hangs over the high altar and Titian himself is buried. Bellini, Donatello and Canova are here too, for a modest entry fee. One of the best-value art visits in Italy.

Scala Contarini del Bovolo

A Renaissance spiral staircase wrapped round a hidden palace tower, five floors of white arches climbing to a rooftop belvedere over the domes of San Marco. A low-cost, low-crowd view in a secret courtyard minutes from La Fenice.

Torcello

The lagoon island where Venice began: a handful of houses, reed beds and canals around a cathedral with some of the finest Byzantine mosaics in Italy, including a vast Last Judgement. A short hop from Burano, and a world away from San Marco.

Lido di Venezia

Venice's long barrier island and beach: Adriatic sand, Belle Epoque villas, bike paths to the fishing village of Malamocco and the wild dunes of Alberoni, and the Film Festival every summer. A breath of open space, fifteen minutes by boat from San Marco.

Giardini Reali (Royal Gardens)

A restored royal garden on the waterfront beside Piazza San Marco: shady pergolas, flower beds, a rebuilt greenhouse and benches facing the lagoon. Free, calm and just steps from the busiest square in Venice.

Basilica dei Santi Giovanni e Paolo

The vast Dominican church Venetians call San Zanipolo, pantheon of the doges: monumental tombs, a Giovanni Bellini altarpiece, Veronese ceilings and a great Murano stained-glass window. Outside, the finest equestrian statue of the Renaissance.

Arsenale, Giardini and Via Garibaldi

The eastern end of Venice: the medieval shipyard that built the Republic's fleets, behind its lion-guarded gate; the Giardini, the city's biggest park and the home of the Biennale; and Via Garibaldi, the liveliest local street in town. Free to wander.

Madonna dell'Orto

Tintoretto's own parish church, in a quiet corner of Cannaregio, where he is buried among his giant canvases. A Gothic gem with a lovely brick facade, open daily and kept going by visitors' donations.