#3 in Top 20 Venice for An Anniversary · ★★★★★
Belmond Hotel Cipriani
The Giudecca island legend, home to Venice's famous Olympic pool and a garden calm found nowhere else in the city.
The Giudecca island legend, home to Venice's famous Olympic pool and a garden calm found nowhere else in the city.
Belmond Hotel Cipriani is the Giudecca island legend: garden calm, Venice's rare Olympic saltwater pool and Michelin-starred dining, a short private launch from St Mark's. It is the anniversary stay for couples who want space and quiet over an address on the main island, and who plan around its spring-to-autumn season.
Scored on Design, Service, Location, Food and Value against every property on our Venice anniversary list. How we score →
Choose the Cipriani when you want the version of Venice that has room to breathe. Opened in 1958 on the eastern tip of Giudecca, it is a walled garden estate rather than a palazzo squeezed onto a canal, and that space is the point: lawns, terraces, and a rare Olympic-sized heated saltwater pool that is one of the very few hotel pools in the city. A morning swim with the lagoon and the campanile of San Marco in the distance is a scene no hotel on the main island can offer.
The romance is in the separation. You are minutes from St Mark's by the hotel's own launches, yet you return each evening to quiet gardens and the lagoon instead of a crowded calle. For a milestone anniversary, that combination, the glamour of Venice by day and a private garden retreat by night, is exactly what earns the Cipriani its rank near the top of our list.
Request a lagoon-view room or a junior suite with a terrace for the anniversary, and consider the 15th-century Palazzo Vendramin annexe if you want the most residential, palazzo-style feel with views toward the Doge's Palace. The roughly 95 rooms and suites are spread across the main building and the historic annexes, and nearly all have a balcony or terrace, with a choice of garden-facing calm or open lagoon views.
For a significant occasion, the named signature suites, among them the Palladio and the Dogaressa, offer the most space and the best private outdoor terraces, though they carry Venice's top-tier pricing. If value matters more than square footage, a lagoon-view double still delivers the balcony and the water. Tell the hotel it is an anniversary when you book; the concierge team is unusually good at tailoring the stay.
Swim the Olympic pool early, before breakfast, when the gardens are empty and the light on the lagoon is best. Book Oro for the anniversary dinner and Cip's Club for a relaxed over-water lunch, and use the complimentary launches for the short crossing to San Marco at any hour rather than fighting the vaporetto queues.
Dining is a headline act, not an afterthought. Oro, the hotel's Michelin-starred restaurant, was redesigned in 2014 by the architect Adam Tihany and serves creative contemporary Italian cooking in a jewel-box room; it is the natural choice for the anniversary dinner. For something more relaxed, Cip's Club sits out over the water with lagoon and San Marco views, ideal for a long lunch or an aperitivo as the light goes gold.
The setting seals the case. The Cipriani occupies gardens at the quiet end of Giudecca, with the pool, terraces and the lagoon as your backdrop, and the private launches shuttling you to the heart of Venice in about five minutes. From Marco Polo airport it is roughly a 30-minute water transfer. The result is a stay that feels like a private island retreat while keeping all of Venice within easy reach.
Even at this level, the Cipriani asks for some trade-offs. Know them before you book:
For a couple who prize space, a pool and a garden retreat, none of this undercuts the appeal. For those who want to be in the thick of San Marco on foot at midnight, a main-island palazzo may suit better.
The Cipriani is the outlier on our list: the one that trades a main-island address for gardens, a pool and space. The table sets it against the two palazzo grande dames it is most often weighed against.
| Hotel | Setting | Best for | HFK Score |
|---|---|---|---|
| Belmond Hotel Cipriani | Giudecca gardens, pool | Space, a pool, private-island calm | 9.8 |
| Aman Venice | Grand Canal palazzo | Rarefied, ultra-private grandeur | 9.9 |
| The Gritti Palace | Grand Canal, San Marco side | Classic canal-front glamour | 9.7 |
Guest sentiment across recent reviews is consistently high: the pool, the gardens, the service and the launches to San Marco draw the loudest praise, while the recurring caveats are exactly the ones above, the seasonal closure, the boat-dependent logistics and the price. Couples who came for a garden-and-pool retreat with Venice on tap left thrilled; the rare disappointments were travelers who wanted to be on the main island. Matched to the right expectation, it is one of the most memorable anniversary stays in Italy.
It sits on the tip of Giudecca with private gardens and a rare Olympic-sized heated saltwater pool, an almost unique amenity in Venice. Add the Michelin-starred Oro, private launches to St Mark's and Belmond service, and it is one of Venice's definitive luxury stays.
No. It operates seasonally, typically early spring to autumn, and closes over winter. For 2026 it reopened on 1 April. Always confirm the exact opening dates before a shoulder-season trip.
It is on Giudecca, across the water from San Marco, reached by boat. The hotel runs complimentary private launches on the short crossing to St Mark's around the clock, and the airport is roughly a 30-minute water transfer away.
Around 95 rooms and suites across the main building and the 15th-century Palazzo Vendramin, most with a balcony or terrace and a choice of garden or lagoon views.
The hotel's Michelin-starred restaurant, redesigned in 2014 by architect Adam Tihany, serving creative contemporary Italian cuisine. The relaxed Cip's Club offers over-water tables with lagoon and San Marco views.
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