• 1. Where to Stay
• 2. Where to Eat
• 3. What to Do
• 4. Insider’s Tip
• 5. An Oddball Day

Molino Stucky Hilton   (Photo: Courtesy of Molino Stucky Hilton)

Sleep closer to the locals at the Molino Stucky Hilton (rooms from $290), located on the blue-collar island of Giudecca. Interiors may be slightly chain-y, but the hotel’s recent $330 million renovation gave birth to Venice’s first rooftop infinity pool with stellar canal views, plus a brand-new spa—the city’s largest.

Leave behind the dark, dowdy Venetian aesthetic by booking a room at the Hotel Palazzo Barbarigo Sul Canal Grande (from $152), located in off-the-path San Polo. Hidden at the end of a quiet alley, with its own private landing dock, the hotel’s sixteenth-century exteriors are expectedly worn, but the room interiors—including four suites with views of the Grand Canal—are luminously modern.

Published on Nov 21, 2007 as a web exclusive.