City Hotel
Venice, Italy
9.5
Aman Venice
A 16th-century palazzo on the Grand Canal, its Tiepolo ceilings and private gardens sheltering just 24 rooms of monastic-luxe calm.
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Italy
Venice
Venice remains the world's most improbable city: a marble labyrinth floated on oak piles, where the streets are water and the traffic is gondolas, vaporetti and the occasional heron. Its beauty has been described for eight centuries and still routinely defeats the first-time visitor's composure.
The city's luxury tradition matches its setting — palazzo hotels on the Grand Canal where doges once entertained, lagoon-island resorts with gardens and pools, and arrivals by private launch that never lose their thrill. Stay overnight and the equation changes entirely: the day-trippers recede, and Venice returns to the Venetians and to you.
The best hotels in Venice
Resort
Venice, Italy
9.5
Hotel Cipriani, A Belmond Hotel
Giuseppe Cipriani's 1958 lagoon-edge legend on Giudecca island, with Venice's most famous swimming pool and a private launch to St Mark's.
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City Hotel
Venice, Italy
9.3
The Gritti Palace
A 15th-century doge's palace on the Grand Canal whose terrace, antiques and Santa Maria della Salute views embody Venetian grandeur.
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City Hotel
Venice, Italy
9.2
Hotel Danieli
A 14th-century doge's palace on the Riva degli Schiavoni, whose gilded Gothic atrium and lagoon-view rooftop define Venetian grand-hotel romance.
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Best areas to stay
San Marco
The monumental heart around the piazza and the Grand Canal's lower reach holds the city's legendary hotels and its grandest views.
Dorsoduro
The gallery district offers a quieter, more residential Venice, with the Accademia, the Guggenheim and sunset spritzes on the Zattere.
Giudecca & the Lagoon Islands
Across the water, island resorts trade doorstep sightseeing for gardens, pools and skyline views back to San Marco.
Dining & nightlife
Venetian eating is best done standing at bacari over cicchetti and a glass of ombra, then seated over lagoon seafood and risotto nero. A handful of refined dining rooms and legendary hotel bars — birthplace of the Bellini — complete the picture. Nightlife is a murmur, not a roar; the city's evenings belong to walkers.
Travelling as a family
Children treat Venice as a puzzle to be solved: bridges to count, gondola traffic to watch, glassblowers on Murano and beach afternoons on the Lido. Vaporetto rides substitute happily for theme-park queues, and gelato solves all navigational disputes.
Travelling as a couple
Venice is the honeymoon city archetype: a private gondola at dusk, dinner in a candlelit campo and a Grand Canal balcony at dawn before the crowds. Add a lagoon picnic on Torcello or a glass-buying expedition to Murano for texture.
Cultural highlights
- St Mark's Basilica and the Doge's Palace
- The Grand Canal by vaporetto or private launch
- The Accademia and Peggy Guggenheim collections
- The lagoon islands of Murano, Burano and Torcello
Stories from Venice
Inspiration
In Praise of the Shoulder Season: Europe at Its Most Generous
The weeks either side of high summer are when Europe's most celebrated destinations return to themselves — and when their grandest hotels are at their most rewarding to inhabit.
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Travel News
The Rail Renaissance: Why Luxury Travel Is Slowing Down
Sleeper services are returning to European timetables and heritage trains are selling out seasons ahead. Inside the industry-wide shift towards slower, richer journeys.
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Travel News
The New Discretion: How Quiet Luxury Conquered the Hotel World
Logos are shrinking, lobbies are hushing and the most expensive rooms increasingly refuse to look expensive. Inside hospitality's decisive shift towards understatement.
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The Browntravels Edit
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