Hotel Cipriani, A Belmond Hotel, Venice

The Cipriani was the clear answer when someone asked me about quiet luxury in Venice — beautiful pool, gorgeous gardens, and the kind of warmth you actually remember.

I recommended it without hesitation. The pool alone sets it apart from everything else in the city, and the gardens give the whole property a resort feeling that's genuinely rare in Venice. The service had that easy, unforced quality that makes you feel looked after rather than processed. I even wrote up a full account of our stay — it's the kind of place worth that effort.

My strategy for Venice in summer heat is simple: stay at the Cipriani, do the city in the cool hours, and retreat to that pool in the afternoon — it's genuinely your own oasis.

I've done Venice enough times to know the secret is not fighting it. The Cipriani's private boat gets you into the city in ten minutes, so you hit the sights by nine in the morning, leave before the worst of the crowds, and spend the afternoon exactly where you want to be — at one of the best pools in Italy. Then you go back in the evening when the light is perfect. It completely changed how I experience Venice.

We combined Venice and Lake Como in 2023 — the Cipriani was fantastic and the accommodations absolutely shaped how we experienced both cities.

Where you stay in Italy really does define the trip. In Venice the Cipriani delivered completely — it's one of those hotels where the choice of property becomes inseparable from the memory of the destination. For Lake Como we chose the Mandarin Oriental and loved that equally. The Cipriani belongs in the conversation of Italy's best.

Seeing the Cipriani ranked 12th on The Telegraph's global top 50 feels about right to me — it's genuinely world-class company.

The Telegraph list places it alongside Ballyfin, Ellerman House, and Soneva Fushi — hotels that each define their category in their region. For Venice, the Cipriani has that same claim: it's the definitive property. The ranking reflects sustained global recognition rather than a single year's performance.

The Cipriani creates its own reality — a pampered, manicured world that feels entirely distinct from the Venice outside its gates.

Condé Nast Traveler·Jun 2026·

What Condé Nast identifies here is the thing that keeps guests returning: the hotel's ability to function as a sovereign territory. The service is super-attentive, the greenery is immaculate, and the atmosphere is sophisticated without being stuffy. It is, by design, an escape — and it delivers on that promise at a level few hotels anywhere manage.

Visiting for a drink felt like being transported to a beach holiday — and that's the highest compliment I can give a Venice hotel.

The hotel organises transfers, which alone makes the whole arrival feel ceremonious. Just going for a drink and spending an hour in that environment was enough to make it the best place we visited in Venice. I genuinely wished I could afford to come back and actually stay.

I've stayed at the Aman Venice and the Gritti, and the Cipriani blew them both out of the water — it's not even close when you factor in the pool and that private-island feeling.

The Gritti left me underwhelmed — small, dark rooms and service that didn't match the price. The Aman had better food, I'll give it that, but the Cipriani has something neither of them can replicate: its own world. Sitting with a Bellini — at the place where they were invented — looking out over the water on a sunny afternoon is one of those travel moments you can't manufacture anywhere else. That pool is magnificent.

I'd always wanted to stay here, and from the moment our water taxi pulled up, it delivered on every single expectation — and then some.

Five-star luxury and five-star service, full stop. The staff were wonderful throughout and genuinely seemed to enjoy making things work for us. After a few hours in the heat and crowds of Venice, coming back to the tranquility of the Cipriani felt like stepping into a different world entirely. The food was exceptional — just book your restaurants well in advance, even as a hotel guest.

No superlatives will quite do it justice — every element, from the elegance of the rooms to the Cipriani's own boat ferrying you across the lagoon at any hour, felt perfect.

I'd been building this trip up for years and it still exceeded what I'd imagined. The staff were professional and genuinely charming without a trace of stuffiness. What I didn't expect was the breakfast terrace — there's a trained hawk that keeps the pigeons and seagulls away, which sounds like a gimmick but becomes one of the loveliest, most singular morning rituals you can imagine. I left wishing I could have stayed longer.

We stayed four nights and while the grounds are genuinely beautiful, I have to be honest — service didn't deliver the above-and-beyond we expected at this price, and the A/C failed us every night.

The Junior Suite Pool View with Terrace was spacious and the closet space was generous, but waking up sweating every night in a five-star hotel is simply not acceptable. No one was ever rude, but nobody was reading the room either — there was no intuitive anticipation of needs, no proactive gestures. The gardens and pool are spectacular and the setting is undeniably peaceful, though for us it tilted a little too sleepy. Good but not great given what you're paying.

We came for a drink at Cip's Club and what should have been a magical introduction to the Cipriani became the reason we decided not to stay there — all because of how a dress-code issue was handled.

We arrived in polo shirts and linen shorts on a scorching day, not having been told about a pants-only policy by our hotel. Rather than handling the situation with the guest-first grace you'd expect at a place like this, the host made it our problem and blamed the hotel that referred us. We'd made the reservation more than a month out and ended up seated near the kitchen without proper waiter service. We'd genuinely been considering booking a stay — that experience changed our minds.

Three nights here and the place exceeded every expectation — the garden is maintained with real obsession and the pool is the clear highlight of Venice.

I was welcomed with wine and fruit in the room, which set the right tone immediately. My morning views across the lagoon were stunning — that Bellini-pink exterior looks even better from the water. The afternoons at the pool were the best part: you can feel how seriously they take maintaining it and the experience around it. The garden is pristine, cared for daily, and gives the whole property an unhurried, curated quality.

The team made this hotel — I genuinely cannot overstate how much Alessandro, Marchello, and Chiara shaped our entire stay.

The hotel itself is lovely, but what elevated it to truly spectacular were the people. Alessandro as concierge handled everything we threw at him with warmth and precision. Marchello at the bar turned every evening into something worth anticipating. And Chiara at Il Porticciolo made our daily lunches feel like visits with a friend — her kindness was completely genuine. This is why the hotel maintains its reputation: the people are exceptional.

The Cipriani has lost some of its iconic identity — there's a tension between old-world grandeur and a newer, shinier aesthetic that doesn't always resolve well.

The famous bones are still there and some areas retain genuine charm, but the property feels like it's trying to be too many things at once. The glitzy shopping-mall section is tonally jarring against the heritage character. Operationally, we found dirty cups left in our room after turndown, and poolside service at Cip's required us to pour our own wine more than once. The pool bar had no atmosphere in the evening — it was simply empty. For a hotel of this history and price, consistency should not be optional.