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Hotels on the Grand Canal
Hotels, B&Bs, and apartments overlooking the Canale Grande of Venice
I'd like a hotel near...
• Piazza San Marco
• The Accademia
• The Peggy Guggenheim
• Ca' D'Oro
• Rialto Bridge
• Santa Maria della Salute
• Ca' Rezzonico
• The train station
• San Simeone Piccolo
• Piazzale Roma (parking lot)
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Hotels in Venice.On the price catgories
The rate categories below are ballpark figures, meant to give you an idea of how relatively expensive a hotel will be, not the actual rates you might get upon booking. Depending on the time of year—or if you decide on a fancier room—the price might be higher. In fact, given Venice's notoriously fluctuating room rates, the cost can as much as double in high season—triple during Carnevale. That said, there's also a chance you will find the room a tad cheaper. Sometimes you don't care which neighborhood you're in. All you want is a room overlooking the Grand Canal itself. Sure, you could find them by scanning the ReidsItaly.com map of Venice, but I figured gathering them all together on one page wouldn't hurt, either.
The amazing thing you'll notice is that, while not the biggest bargains in town, Grand Canal hotels really do come at rates to fit nearly any budget.
Sure, the selection is a bit weighted toward the upper end of the price range—you do have to pay for such a prime location, after all—but there are actually a couple of places where you can get that million-dollar view for under $200.
Oh, and I'm going to include hotels that open onto the Bacino di San Marco, the large basin (or small lagoon) into which the Grand Canal opens up as it passes Piazza San Marco, since it is rightly considerd an extension of Venice's storied Canale Grande.
Hotels along the Grand Canal
Gritti Palace (San Marco) - You could argue that there are more flash five-star hotels (largely those lining the bacino San Marco), but if you're looking for old school glamour and the classic luxury address on the Grand Canal, it's got to be the Gritti. In the 16th century, this was the palace of Doge Andrea Gritti, who set the precedent for the caliber of guests to come over the centuries: from international royalty and captains of industry to literary gaints and rock stars. So long as you're going all out, plump for a room on the piano nobile (the old "nobles' floor") with its high stuccoed ceilings and overwrought chandeliers; three of its suites have balconies hung over the Grand Canal itself. 
Antica Locanda Sturion (San Polo) - This wonderful little inn has been taking in paying guests since 1290, making it one of the oldest hotels in Venice. Thoroughly renovated with modern amenities and furnishing in the ever-popular 18th century Venetian style by Scottish-born Helen and co-owner Flavia. Though it is right on the Grand Canal, sadly only a pair of the 11 rooms actually offer views over the canal to the Rialto Bridge (on the left). The rest of the guests can be satisfied with rooftop panoramas from their bedroom, and the Grand Canal view from the breafkast room...
Hotel San Cassiano Ca'Favretto (Santa Croce) - Call this red palazzo on the Grand Canal the working-man's splurge. About half the rooms here look across the Grand Canal to the gorgeous Ca d'Oro. The consolation prize for most of the other rooms is that they at least open onto a side canal. Built into a 14th-century palace and steeped in dusty Old World elegance, the rooms are outfitted with antiques and reproductions, some under gorgeous wood-beamed ceilings. There's also a dining room porch overlooking the Grand Canal...
Hotel Galleria (Dorsoduro) - The Hotel Galleria has one huge plus going for it: You can fling open your window and look right out onto the Grand Canal and still pay only around $200 for the privilege. (I know: seems like a lot—but not in Venice). That's what you get—along with antique Venetian styling and breakfast served in your room—at Luciano Benedetti and Stefano Franceschini's 17th-century palazzo at the foot of the Accademia bridge, across a square from the Galleria Accademia. Seriously: cross the Accademia bridge, turn to your left, and it's right there in front of you, the door justto the right of the cafe with all the outdoor tables...
Hotels along the Bacino San Marco
Hotel Danieli (Castello) -In the 14th century, just a few doors down from the Palazzo Ducale (Doge's Palace) , Doge Dandolo built one of the prettiest palazzi overlooking the bacino San Marco. It has been serving elite visitors to Venice since 1822 in posh, Oriental-tinged splendor. The Danieli's best attribute—other than its prime location and those killer water views from rooms along the front—is its centerpiece: a four-story central atrium of Gothic arches and elegant balustrades, skylit and dripping with greenery and palm fronds. When it comes to choosing a room—tastefully fitted with a restrained decor of antiques, Oriental rugs, and oil paintings—those in the original wing have more amotpshere and old fashioned style but are smaller than accommodations in the 19th century wing next-door. (Avoid getting stuck in the bland 1940s addition)...
Hotel Metropole (Castello) - It just doesn't get more Romantic 18th century Venetian than this: the former chapter house of La Pieta church where Vivaldi lived 1704–38 while he was the church's concert master. It has since become part quirky hotel, part top restaurant (with two Michelin stars), and part Victorian museum of the owner's curious collections and lavish furnishings. Plump an extra €100 for a room with a view over Bacino San Marco (and free parking). You can still get a water view—over side canal where the water taxis pull up—at the regular rate, but ask for it or you might get stuck with one on the garden courtyard...
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This material was last updated February 2009. All information was accurate at the time.
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