Five-star Lido, about 15 minutes by boat, Venice
Hotel Excelsior Venice Lido Resort
Moorish arches on the Adriatic, a private beach lined with cabanas, and a hotel boat that reaches Venice in about fifteen minutes.
Opens the hotel's own website. We have no arrangement with the hotel.
- Opened
- 21 July 1908
- Rooms
- 196 rooms and suites
- Beach
- Private, with cabanas from late May
- To Venice
- About 15 minutes by the hotel's boat
The hotel
A Moorish palace on the Lido.
Nicolò Spada wanted a grand hotel on the Lido, the long sandbar between the lagoon and the Adriatic, and Giovanni Sardi designed it for him with Moorish arches and Venetian detail. It opened on 21 July 1908 with a party on the beach for about three thousand guests. The building has the look of the Belle Époque, and it still faces straight onto the sand.
In 1932 the Venice Film Festival began on the Lido, and the Excelsior has housed its stars ever since. The Blue Bar is known for them. Sergio Leone filmed scenes of Once Upon a Time in America in the Sala degli Stucchi on the third floor. Out front, a long jetty runs into the sea past rows of beach cabanas.
- The beach A private stretch of Adriatic sand. From late May to mid-September the cabanas come with a sunbed, deck chairs and a shaded table.
- The pool A heated outdoor pool, about 32 metres long, in front of the Moorish facade.
- The boat to Venice A free hotel boat crosses the lagoon to the city in about fifteen minutes.
Dining
From the terrace to the sand.
Venues as listed by Forbes Travel Guide. Shown for information.
- Adriatico Terrace Local and seasonal Fine dining on the terrace
- Elimar Beach Bar Venetian dishes On the sand, breakfast to dinner
- Blue Bar Cocktails The festival crowd's bar
Good to know
Before you go.
- Season The hotel opens for the summer season and closes in winter. We confirm the dates with the hotel before booking.
- Arrival Check-in from 3 pm, check-out by noon.
- Pets Not accepted, except service animals.
Getting there
Flying to Venice.
Marco Polo airport handles both scheduled flights and private jets, and its general aviation terminal has its own water-taxi docks. A water taxi across the lagoon to the Lido takes about 30 to 40 minutes, our estimate.
- Nice 55 min
- Geneva 1 h 00
- Paris 1 h 25
- London 1 h 50
- New York 9 h 05 long-range jet
Questions
What guests ask first.
- Is Hotel Excelsior on the beach?
- Yes. It sits on its own stretch of Adriatic beach on the Lido, with cabanas from late May to mid-September.
- How do you get from the Excelsior to Venice?
- By the hotel's free boat, which takes about fifteen minutes.
- Is Hotel Excelsior open all year?
- No. It is a seasonal hotel, open through the summer and closed in winter.
- Can SkyCourtage arrange the flight to Venice?
- Yes. We arrange Business and First Class seats on scheduled airlines and private jet charter to Venice, with one final price, our margin included. The hotel is booked with the hotel or through our booking partner.
Also in Venice
Other hotels worth the trip.
- Aman Venice Twenty-four rooms in a restored Renaissance palazzo on the Grand Canal, with the spa in the building next door.
- Hotel Cipriani, A Belmond Hotel Gardens on Giudecca, a heated saltwater pool and the starred Oro; a seasonal hotel, reopening on 1 June 2027.
- Airelles Palladio, Venezia The first Airelles outside France, facing St Mark's across the water, with an indoor pool and a Guerlain spa.
- The Gritti Palace The fifteenth-century home of Doge Gritti on the Grand Canal, looking across to the Salute.
- Nolinski Venezia The old Chamber of Commerce near La Fenice, dressed in Venetian glass and Art Deco lines.
- Hotel Metropole Once an orphanage where Vivaldi taught music, now family-run, with a bar in the old chapel.
- Palazzo Venart A sixteenth-century palace a few steps from the Grand Canal, home to the two-star Glam.
- Londra Palace Rooms over the lagoon and San Giorgio, the view the hotel credits with Tchaikovsky's Fourth Symphony.
- Orient Express Venezia Forty-seven rooms, suites and apartments in a fifteenth-century palace on the Strada Nova, with Heinz Beck in charge of the kitchen.
- Ca' di Dio A compound founded in 1272 to lodge pilgrims and Crusaders, refitted by Patricia Urquiola's studio as 66 rooms, most of them suites.
- Violino d'Oro Three historic palaces joined above Rio San Moisè and furnished by Rubelli and Venini; Il Piccolo has eight tables.
- The St. Regis Venice A hundred and twenty-four rooms and thirty-nine suites on the Grand Canal, and a bar whose drinks can be taken out into the garden.
- Baglioni Hotel Luna Newly renovated, on Calle Larga de l'Ascension, a minute on foot from Piazza San Marco.
- Ca' Sagredo Hotel A fifteenth-century palace, now a national monument, with a frescoed ballroom and a terrace restaurant, L'Alcova, looking across to the Rialto Market.
- Palazzina Grassi Philippe Starck designed all twenty-five rooms and suites, and the Krug lounge looks out over the Grand Canal.
- Sina Centurion Palace Fifty rooms near the Salute and Punta della Dogana, with tables for Antinoo's set out on the Grand Canal decking.
- JW Marriott Venice Resort & Spa Nineteen buildings spread over a private island of about forty acres, with a rooftop pool and a shuttle boat to the Giardini Reali pier.
- San Clemente Palace Venice A private island of eight hectares a few minutes by boat from San Marco, in the Legend Collection of Preferred Hotels since 2026.
Staying at Hotel Excelsior Venice Lido Resort?
Book the room, then the flight.
Rates and availability come from the hotel itself. For the journey to Venice, a Business or First Class seat or an aircraft of your own: tell us the date and we come back with one final price, our margin included.
Opens the hotel's own website. We have no arrangement with the hotel.