Hotel Cipriani, A Belmond Hotel, Venice Europe – South Europe – Italy
A timeless Venetian dream, floating between gardens, lagoon & light
On the tip of Giudecca Island, just a five-minute boat ride from the bustle of St. Mark’s Square, stands a Bellini Pink palazzo at the water’s edge. Arriving by the hotel’s teak launch at the private jetty, one steps into another world – a quieter Venice that smells of jasmine & salt. From the moment the ivory-jacketed waiter greets you by name, there’s a sense that time moves more slowly here. Lush flower gardens encircle the hotel, stone paths lead past trickling fountains & neat rows of white peach trees. Instantly, the din of boat engines & tourist chatter fades; all that remains is the distant toll of a church bell across the lagoon & the whisper of breeze through cypress & rose trellises. Here, Venice feels “a world away” in the most blissful sense. In the early morning, sunlight dances off the marble terraces & warms the hotel’s pastel walls, easing everyone into the day’s gentle rhythm. Come afternoon, the piano’s melody drifts lazily from the Bar Gabbiano, mingling with the clink of ice in spritz glasses & laughter from the pool. Beneath striped parasols, elegant signoras of a certain age lounge by the water, dripping in jewels & vintage designer prints – as if extras from an old Hollywood film set. A veteran barman at the Gabbiano Bar, who has served here for decades, shakes up cocktails with a personal flourish – perhaps a dry martini with herbaceous local vermouth, or a Buona Notte concoction originally dreamed up for a movie star guest. As evening approaches, some guests wander to Cip’s Club, the hotel’s casual restaurant on a wooden deck, to watch lights twinkle across the lagoon at St. Mark’s Square. Others remain by the pool, wrapped in the Hotel Cipriani’s aura of casual glamour, where dolce far niente is the unspoken rule. In this secluded sanctuary of Venetian grace, every hour is meant to be savored & even the most restless traveler finds herself slowing down, simply being, under Hotel Cipriani’s spell.
Location
Hotel Cipriani is a legendary Venetian retreat that embodies timeless glamour & Italian elegance, offering guests an exclusive escape surrounded by the beauty, art & romance of Venice
- Hotel Cipriani, A Belmond Hotel, Giudecca 10, 30133 Venice, Italy
- Situated on Giudecca Island, at the heart of the Venetian archipelago, surrounded by lush gardens
The journey itself is part of the arrival. A private launch crossing the Giudecca Canal, with the domes & campanili of Venice assembling themselves across the water, delivers you to an address that most visitors to this city will never reach.
The island sits close enough to feel the pulse of Venice & far enough to forget it entirely. This particular distance – measured in minutes by water, in atmosphere by something considerably more – is the hotel’s most fundamental luxury.
Rooms & Suites
Blending classic Venetian style with refined luxury, the hotel features 67 elegant rooms & suites adorned with Murano glass & antique details, offering lagoon or garden views, private terraces & modern amenities such as WiFi, Air Conditioning, TV, Nespresso Machine, Minibar & Luxury Toiletries
- Superior Room (20–30 m²): Elegant retreat located in the Main Building or Palazzo Vendramin, featuring sitting area & marble bathroom with walk-in shower or bathtub, offering space for 2 guests
- Premium Lagoon View Room with Balcony (25–55 m²): Refined Venetian style with private balcony or terrace offering sweeping lagoon views & spacious bathroom, offering space for 2 guests
- More Facts
The rooms here do not compete with Venice – they frame it. Silks, hand-painted details & the warm palette of the Venetian tradition are present throughout, but deployed with restraint: the view through the window is always the protagonist.
The garden-facing rooms offer something rarer still – a silence so complete it is difficult to believe the most visited city in the world lies just across the water. The palazzo suites carry the full weight of the building’s history in their proportions & their quiet authority.
Dining & Culinary
The hotel offers a refined culinary experience featuring Venetian, Italian, Mediterranean & international cuisine across 3 restaurants & 2 bars
- Oro Restaurant: Michelin-starred fine dining, offering a modern take on exquisitely re-imagined local Venetian ingredients with a focus on fresh seafood & refined Italian cuisine
- Cip's Club: An elegant yet relaxed waterside restaurant offering contemporary spins on timeless Venetian & Italian classics, including fresh catch from the Rialto market, traditional pasta & signature dishes like beef carpaccio
- More Facts
There is a view from Cip’s Club that other restaurants in Venice have spent centuries trying to replicate & never quite managed: the Doge’s Palace across the water, the gondolas tracing their lines across the foreground, the light of the lagoon changing by the hour. The kitchen understands that a setting of this magnitude asks for food of equivalent confidence & delivers it.
The seafood is Venetian in the truest sense: drawn from the lagoon & the Adriatic, prepared with the intelligence of a cuisine that has never needed to borrow from elsewhere. A long lunch here, as the afternoon light shifts across the water, is one of those experiences that requires no embellishment in the retelling.
Pools
The hotel offers exceptional pool experiences designed for both relaxation & exclusivity in a serene garden setting
- Main Pool: 1 Olympic‑sized outdoor seawater swimming pool, fully heated & filtered, open seasonally, set in the lush Casanova Gardens & surrounded by sunbeds & poolside bar service
- Private Pool: The Palladio Suite features a private heated plunge pool
Most visitors to Venice are unaware that such a thing exists here: a full-length outdoor pool, heated, private & surrounded by gardens that muffle the sounds of the lagoon beyond. To swim here – unhurried, unobserved, with the Venetian skyline visible above the garden wall – is to inhabit a version of this city that almost no one else gets to know. The pool is not an amenity. It is an argument about what a stay in Venice can be.
Service & Hospitality
The hotel provides exceptional, personalized service marked by seamless luxury, thoughtful care & meticulous attention to every guest’s comfort & convenience
- Wedding & Event Management
- Personal Butler & Concierge Service
- More Facts
Belmond properties carry a particular inheritance of hospitality – unhurried, deeply personal & rooted in the understanding that the guest’s experience is the only thing that matters. At Hotel Cipriani, this takes on an additional quality:
the staff here seem to share the hotel’s own relationship with Venice, knowing its secrets, its moods & its rhythms with the intimacy of people who have chosen to make the island their home. The result is service that feels less like a professional standard & more like the generosity of a very well-connected friend.
Secrets & Short Cuts
Blending heritage with contemporary elegance, it offers exclusive experiences that celebrate art, fashion & the timeless charm of Venetian history
- Dioriviera Boutique: In summer, discover Dior’s pop-up boutique set within a lush, tropical-inspired space – complete with bamboo murals, glass sculptures by Simone Crestani & custom Bonacina furniture
- Casanova Gardens: Casanova Gardens, once a secret retreat of Giacomo Casanova, now offer a romantic blend of history, serenity & fragrant greenery
In summer, a bamboo-lined space arrives within the hotel bearing the unmistakable signature of Dior – glass sculptures catching the light, bespoke furniture & the particular atmosphere of a boutique that has been designed as an experience rather than a transaction. It is exactly the kind of discovery that rewards guests who explore slowly. Elsewhere, the Casanova Gardens hold their history lightly but unmistakably: fragrant, secluded, designed by time rather than by a landscape architect. To sit there in the late afternoon, with the scent of the garden & the distant sound of the lagoon, is to feel, briefly & completely, that Venice has let you in on something it does not share with everyone.
Sports & Activities
Guests can enjoy a diverse range of recreational & cultural activities that celebrate both the beauty & heritage of Venice
- Water Adventures: Sailing, Canoeing & Boat Touring
- Land Activities: Fitness, Tennis, Golf, Personal Training, Biking, Tai Chi & Pilates
Venice rewards those who move through it at the right pace & the activity offer here is calibrated exactly to that understanding. On the water, sailing & canoeing reveal the lagoon’s quieter geography: the smaller islands, the fishing routes, the channels that the tourist maps do not show. A bacaro tour through the calli of the city – stopping at the small, standing-room wine bars that Venetians have frequented for centuries – offers something no museum or palazzo can: the city as it is actually lived.
The cooking classes bring the same quality of access to the kitchen: local ingredients, Venetian technique & the understanding that food in this city is inseparable from place.
Family-Friendly
Families are welcomed with engaging activities, tailored services & thoughtful comforts that ensure an enjoyable & memorable stay for guests of all ages
- Smile Club: Mask Making, Pastry Lessons, Painting, Crafting & Balloon Gaming
- Other Activities: Watching Movies
Venice, experienced through the Smile Club, becomes something different for younger guests: not a museum city to be walked through but a living workshop of colour, craft & creativity. Mask making in Venice is not a tourist activity – it is an encounter with one of the oldest artistic traditions in the city & children tend to approach it with the seriousness it deserves. Pastry lessons, painting & crafting extend the same spirit: hands-on, place-specific & quietly formative. For parents, the knowledge that every practical need has been arranged & that the children are genuinely, happily occupied – transforms the stay into something it is very difficult to achieve elsewhere: a family holiday where everyone, at every age, is exactly where they want to be.
Climate & Seasons
Venice enjoys a classic Mediterranean climate with warm, lively summers & cool, tranquil winters, offering ideal conditions for both vibrant outdoor exploration & peaceful cultural escapes throughout the year
- High Season (Apr–Oct): Warm to hot weather, with Jul-Aug being the hottest months; average air temperature: 20–28°C in May-Sep, reaching highs of 30°C; average sea temperature: 11–25°C. This is the most popular travel time
- Low Season (Dec–Mar): Chilly Adriatic winter with cold temperatures; average air temperature: 1–10°C
Venice in spring is perhaps the most beautiful it ever is: the light returning, the crowds not yet arrived, the city exhaling after its long winter. The hotel’s gardens reach their full expression in May & June & the lagoon takes on a quality of stillness in the early mornings of those months that is entirely its own.
Autumn brings the same clarity with the added warmth of the season’s harvest – the markets full, the light amber, the pace of the city returning to something closer to its own. Summer is glorious on the island: the pool, the terrace, the long Venetian evenings that seem reluctant to end.
Reviews & Awards
Renowned worldwide for excellence, it consistently earns top ratings & prestigious international awards, reflecting its timeless luxury, exceptional service & global acclaim
- TripAdvisor: 4,7/5, based on 1300+ reviews
- Booking.com: 9,6/10, based on 160+ reviews
- More Facts
La Liste’s world’s best designation is not an accolade given to a moment. It is a verdict on the totality of an experience – the rooms, the kitchen, the service, the setting & the intangible quality that makes a property irreplaceable rather than merely excellent. To hold that title is to have been judged, by the most comprehensive methodology in the field, as the single finest hotel on earth in the year it was awarded. The sustained recognition that followed – across guest platforms, across seasons & into 2025 – confirms that the standard was not a peak but a baseline.
What Makes This a Hotel in Heaven
Beyond the prestige of its name, Hotel Cipriani remains an enduring masterpiece because it understands that true luxury is, at its heart, deeply human. This latest chapter of renovation — a masterful collaboration with Peter Marino Architect – does not simply modernize the estate; it breathes new life into the very soul of Venetian hospitality. It is a rare place where the avant-garde design of a new Dior Spa & the culinary evolution of Oro serve as the stage, yet the essence of the experience remains found in the quiet, personal moments: the intuitive warmth of a greeting, the stillness of the Casanova Gardens & the way the lagoon light dances across reimagined Murano glass.
Here, art, design & impeccable service converge to create a tapestry of memories that are as profound as they are beautiful. This is more than a world-class destination; it is a promise of dreams realized, where the multicultural spirit of Venice meets an unwavering devotion to excellence. Whether you are seeking a sanctuary for well-being or a celestial meal beneath a golden ceiling, your Venetian dream is waiting to be written. It invites you to step into this world of timeless elegance & discover why the Hotel Cipriani continues to stand at the pinnacle of global hospitality. Explore the newly reimagined suites or reserve your stay today to experience the magic of the new Hotel Cipriani for yourself.
Request form
Find out more about Hotel Cipriani...
- Visit the official website of Hotel Cipriani
- All images © Hotel Cipriani