9 of the best hotels for Venice Biennale 2022, from budget to blow-out luxury

Hidden within the San Polo district yet in the centre of everything, the Aman Venice is a short stroll to the Rialto Bridge and is arguably one of the best hotels for Venice Biennale. It’s ideal for visiting the main site at Giardini (15 mins on foot along the water front). This is a serious blow-the-budget stay (with rooms often costing upwards of £1,000 a night) so there are no bargains here, but the least expensive rooms are the palazzo bedrooms, which have views of the hotel’s lush back garden. All rooms are spacious with enormous bathrooms and luxurious soaking tubs. The most impressive is the Alcova Tiepolo suite, with a separate living room and gorgeous bedroom ceiling frescoes by 18th-century Venetian painter Giovanni Battista Tiepolo.

Located on the Grand Canal, the hotel’s main entrance gives onto a peaceful campo, a stone’s throw away from Strada Nova, one of the main arteries of the city (the nearest vaporetto stop is Ca’ D’Oro – it’s 12 stops on line 1 to the Arsenale; 13 to the Giardini). The palazzo’s sumptuous interiors feature spectacular frescoes, paintings and artefacts. Masterpieces by Venetian painters including Nicolò Bambini and Giambattista Tiepolo decorate the walls and ceilings so art lovers will be suitably impressed from the get-go. A particular mention goes to the wonderful library suite, dating back to circa 1720, it has a collection of over 10,000 books, and drawings that to this day cover its walls.

Sina Centurion Palace is a five-star boutique hotel in the artistic centre of the island. Inside, visitors will find a stylish, contemporary approach to Venetian elegance with design inspiration taken from the artistic surrounds: an ever-changing exhibition of contemporary artists from around the world graces the relaxing internal courtyard and the reception lounge which makes for a wonderful backdrop to the Biennale. All of the 50 rooms and suites are modern, plush and intelligently designed to capitalise on space with high ceilings and plenty of natural light. The restaurant is a great example of fine-dining on the canal with specialties such as soar (mackerel or sardines with onion and pine nuts), risotto with fresh cod, and delicate sea bass or fried eel.

Back-to-back with the Accademia gallery and just a few bridge-free steps from the vaporetto stop of the same name, Ca’ Pisani is on the main drag of the pretty Dorsoduro district – lively during the day but pleasantly calm in the evenings. Until the 2000s, Venice’s hotels were all dusty chandeliers and faded brocade. Ca’ Pisani broke the mould, with its sharp art-deco design, including some fantastic original pieces and striking soft furnishings. Each room is individual, with some wonderful pieces of period furniture from the 1920s to 1940s blending warmly with exposed beams, eye-catching rugs and some striking contemporary metal-and-glass fixtures.

Residenza De L’Osmarin is located a five-minute walk to the Arsenale and 10 minutes to Giardini. East of St Mark’s Square, it is also close to Venice’s main thoroughfares but set just far enough off them to feel secluded and quiet. This three-room b&b wins guests’ hearts with its simple elegant décor, wonderfully welcoming and well-informed hosts, and its great location. A wood-beamed top-floor suite has its own private roof terrace, from where the view across the city is quite wonderful. The second-floor Flower Room also has its own little courtyard-facing terrace. With service and warmth like this, few travellers would ever feel like they were getting a bad deal. But prices here are extremely good for the standard of the place.

Small, intimate DD724 was a contemporary-minimalist design trailblazer in 2003 on a Venice hotel scene swamped with twiddly Murano glass and busy brocade. There are just nine extremely stylish rooms spread across DD724 and its DD694 annexe (the names are taken from the addresses of the two sites), ranging from an extensive four-person Deluxe suite to the much tighter Essential room. 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. It’s a short hop across the Grand Canal to San Marco.

Located in a quiet residential area, it’s hard to believe that it’s just a five-minute walk from here to San Marco. There are two equally convenient vaporetto stops about a 10-minute walk away, at San Zaccaria and Ospedale so easy to zip around the various exhibitions. Each room is beautifully furnished with period armoires, wardrobes and desks that have been part of the family home for almost a century. All are pleasantly large, even for the standard in Venice, with high ceilings, air-conditioning and wonderful views of the canal and the rooftops of the city. A true highlight here though is breakfast with owners Marco and Alice who are great ones for lively (genuinely interesting) conversation.

This super pretty b&b has six large rooms, all of them light and airy, with decent sized bathrooms and views of the nearby canal and garden. Each room has its own character but all have a sober and distinguished feel with muted colours and elegant decorative touches, such as oil portraits and modernist prints. Owner Lorenzo Muner and his small staff are welcoming and helpful, providing valuable local knowledge and breakfast is a real pleasure; wake up to the smell of warm croissants, homemade cake, cappuccinos and a range of fresh fruits, yogurt, and eggs cooked to order. For those who want an after-dinner tipple a small drinks trolley is located downstairs in the lobby which is a lovely touch.

Yes, it’s part of a hostel chain but it’s quirky, cosy and stylish. Located in a converted grain warehouse, Generator has got an industrial-shabby-chic feel nailed: bare brick walls, exposed pipes and beams, dark interiors, with leather sofas, velvet armchairs, heavy burgundy drapes and the odd patch of jungle leaf wallpaper. Furnishings are made up of an eclectic mix of pieces from flea markets around the country; a colourful ceramic lamp with playful clowns here, a vintage apothecary cabinet there. Dorms sleeping four to 16 can be cramped with beds squeezed in close to each other – take a look at a couple before settling in as some are substantially more spacious than others.