Sant Elena / Castello

Hotel Indigo Venice Sant Elena

★★★★★

Sant'Elena is the Venice most visitors never see: a small, green, residential island at the eastern end of Castello, beyond the Giardini, with tree-lined streets, a park, a football ground and a lagoon promenade where Venetians walk their dogs and children ride bikes, something almost impossible in the rest of the city. Hotel Indigo Venice occupies a converted 1930s monastery here, next to the ancient church of Sant'Elena, and the setting gives the hotel its character: a cloister-like calm, a courtyard and an inner garden, which the hotel calls its hidden garden, used for breakfast and evening cocktails in good weather. As with every Hotel Indigo, the design draws on the neighbourhood, so expect references to the monastery's past, the lagoon and the Biennale, whose gardens are a few minutes' walk away. Rooms come in standard and premium categories, with suites, including one-bedroom suites, for those who want more space; they are contemporary and comfortable rather than ornate, and quieter than almost anything in the centre. The Savor Restaurant and Bar serves a breakfast buffet and, later in the day, a cocktail menu. The hotel is smoke-free and has moved away from single-use plastics, and pets are welcome for a fee. Distances are honest: St Mark's Square is about two kilometres away, a pleasant thirty-minute walk along the waterfront or a short vaporetto ride, and the Biennale Gardens are under a kilometre away.

Location logic: the Sant'Elena vaporetto stop is close, with boats along the waterfront to San Zaccaria and San Marco and on to other parts of the city, so the hotel works well for travellers happy to commute by water. The walk to San Marco along the Riva, past the Giardini, the Arsenale and Via Garibaldi, is one of the nicest in the city. In Biennale season, this is the most convenient hotel imaginable for the Giardini and the Arsenale; outside it, Sant'Elena is peaceful to the point of sleepy in the evenings, with a few local bars and restaurants rather than a buzzing scene.

Practicalities: there is no car park, as there are no cars in Venice; drivers use the garages at Piazzale Roma or Tronchetto and continue by vaporetto or water taxi, and there is no hotel shuttle. There is no pool. Check-in is mid-afternoon and check-out at midday. Ask for a garden-facing room for quiet and morning light, and budget for the city's per-night tourist tax on top of the room rate.

Who it suits: repeat visitors and families who want calm and a park on the doorstep, Biennale-goers, and couples who prefer a garden to a crowd. It is less suited to first-timers on a short break who want to be steps from the Rialto, and to anyone who dislikes boat commutes; for them, the Splendid or the Flora in San Marco are better choices. One more advantage worth weighing: because Sant'Elena is residential, the restaurants and bars in the surrounding streets and along Via Garibaldi serve mostly Venetians, with prices to match, and the lagoon promenade at the island's tip is one of the best places in the city to watch the sun set behind San Marco and the domes of the Salute.