The best boutique hotels in Venice, including beautifully frescoed interiors and Italianate courtyards
These are unusual times, and the state of affairs can change quickly. Please check the latest travel guidance before making your journey. Note that our writer visited pre-pandemic.
This unique gem of a city is best known for its watery landscapes and exquisite architecture, but beyond its immediate charms it’s surprisingly multi-faceted. It’s hugely attractive for fans of contemporary art, who flock for the Biennale, and for movie buffs who love the city’s film festival; while for gourmets, there are seven Michelin stars dotted around the lagoon; and for collectors, crafts people still practise ancient skills. So of course there are hotels to suit every type of visitor. Venice’s boutique accommodation ranges from Grand Canal-front properties to gorgeous rooms set in private gardens, with superb antique décor and international design. Here's our pick of the best boutique hotels in Venice.
Tucked away behind the Salute in the pleasantly quiet, gallery-filled Dorsoduro sestiere, Ca Maria Adele has its own water entrance. It takes Venetian style to gothic extreme in five statement concept rooms. An additional five Deluxe rooms and two top-floor suites are equally plush, with marble bathrooms. There’s no restaurant but guests order breakfast each evening, selecting not only what they want on their tray but where they want to have it: in their rooms, on the terrace or in one of the stylishly cosy reception rooms. Service is personalised and attentive.
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Across the Grand Canal from San Marco, the minimalist and stylish Charming House DD724 and its DD694 annexe round the corner have nine rooms and suites. They range from an extensive four-person Deluxe suite to the much tighter Essential room. The more expensive rooms, including the suite at DD694, enjoy views over the narrow Torreselle canal and/or the gardens of the Peggy Guggenheim Collection. Room G has its own little balcony. The feel is urbane but friendly; the position in tranquil, artsy Dorsoduro is handy for some great art galleries and a wide choice of restaurants.
A perfect mix of elegance and warmth, Cima Rosa offers five elegant classic-contemporary rooms – three of them overlooking the Grand Canal – and exceptional service from a welcoming team. Rooms are all beautifully decorated in Farrow & Ball pastels that pick up Venice’s water colours and enhance the classic-contemporary elegance. There’s a lovely courtyard by the entrance. The ground-floor living room – where breakfast is served in the morning – is filled with light reflecting off the Grand Canal right outside the windows. A kitchen for guests’ use means you can keep your wine chilled for evening aperitivi, and make tea and coffee (with biscuits) whenever you like.
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If the brocade-and-chandelier Venetian hotel norm doesn’t appeal, this 10-room, four-star boutique provides a refreshing alternative, juxtaposing serious design pieces, vivid colours and industrial-chic materials against exposed beams, beautiful terrazzo floors and some lovely ceiling frescoes. Nothing is too much trouble for the knowledgeable staff. Rooms are uniformly stylish and comfortably large. Breakfast is a highlight of the day for Corte guests, with a wonderful choice of goodies including crepes whipped up on the spot to order. There’s no restaurant but drinks and cicheti (snacks) are served in the wisteria-covered courtyard.
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Tucked away behind a high wall just around the corner from the Frari basilica, the six-room, two-suite Oltre il Giardino looks more country house than Venetian palazzo and boasts that Venetian rarity: a garden. Once through the gate and into the garden, you could be forgiven for thinking you’d left the city behind. Owner-manager Lorenzo Muner and his staff are unfailingly charming and helpful. Rooms are large by local standards and delightfully airy and bright. Some overlook the garden, others the canals around. In warmer months, breakfast (a good spread of fresh fruit, homemade cakes and other treats) is served in the garden.
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This is one of those places that turns a holiday into a special experience, and just five minutes' walk from St Mark's. With tastefully decorated interiors that make a refreshing change from the Venetian hotel standard, it sets itself apart as one of the more eclectic small boutique hotels in Venice. The charming Romanelli family extends the very warmest of welcomes which makes guests feel treasured from the word go. The array of excellent, fresh, homemade goodies at breakfast – which can be eaten in the courtyard in fine weather – sets you up perfectly for a hard day’s sightseeing.
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Palazzo Abadessa is a fair hike from many of Venice’s better known tourist attractions but very handily placed – in the quiet northern Cannaregio district – for lots of lesser known gems. With its beautiful heirloom antiques and frescoed ceilings, it is every inch the aristocratic family palace. But clients are treated very much as friends at a house party. The 13 rooms and suites are all elegantly kitted out, with individual colour schemes, rich fabrics and lovely antiques. And the lovely, lush garden is a wonderful place to relax. No on-site restaurant but dining options in Cannaregio are excellent.
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Five-star Palazzo Venart boasts 18 extravagantly decorated rooms and suites that aim to challenge Venice’s grandes dames. An inner courtyard shaded by magnolia trees and a pretty garden stretching down to the Grand Canal – where water taxis can pull up at a private dock – give Palazzo Venart an edge in this very urban city. Décor varies in the 18 sumptuous rooms, while remaining very much in the Venetian vernacular, with glorious fabrics and colours. Some rooms have original wall or ceiling frescoes, others have wonderful terrazzo flooring. Four suites enjoy Grand Canal views.
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This Venetian four-star is conveniently placed on oh-so-central Riva lagoon-side promenade, though at the quieter end, and handily close to the Arsenale and Giardini if you’re here for the Biennale. The style is charmingly ship-shape, with dark polished wood panelling and a comfortably old-fashioned air. Though it’s along the lagoon-facing promenade that hosts numerous luxe hotels, the Bucintoro remains intimate and friendly, with the air of a well kept secret – and it costs considerably less than its neighbours. All 20 rooms face the lagoon, each one with a view more spectacular than the next. The prize goes to the corner suite though, with views of Doge’s Palace.
Run by the same family that has owned this palazzo since it was built in the 16th century, the San Barnaba is distinguished, friendly and lovingly maintained. With its beautifully frescoed salon, plant-filled courtyard and simple, comfortable rooms – some with frescoed ceilings – plus a stately living room on the piano nobile and a little roof terrace, the feel is elegantly classic. Owners and staff are wonderfully welcoming and professional, and are always as happy to help haul luggage up the stairs (there’s no lift) as recommending great restaurants and sharing their Venetian knowledge.