This was our second time visiting Venice, couldn't believe that it has been 24 years since we last visited. Last time we spent 2 weeks in Italy and I loved Venice. This time Hubby booked the Ruzzini Palace Hotel which has the back entrance directly accessible by boat! It was so convenient! Hubby prearranged with the hotel to have a private minivan to pick us at the airport, and then transferred to a prearranged water taxi that took us right to the back door of the hotel, where doormen were ready to help with the luggage. We felt that the convenience was well worth the €200 fee for the entire group of 3.
Every staff member was very friendly, helpful, and welcoming.
The hotel does not have a lot of guest rooms, as the "normal" deluxe rooms were all sold out when we booked, we went with 2 mini suites for the 3 of us. The mini suites were like very spacious rooms with beautiful traditional European decor and furnishings, that had a luxurious feel. It was nice that the windows overlooked the Saint Maria Formosa Square, which was not overly crowded during our stay. We were on the 4th floor which was the top floor and the windows had good insulation, it was pretty quite inside. The rooms and the bathrooms were clean and comfortable.
Interestingly, there's only 1 elevator which was very small. It could only fit in 4 people with a total weight of 320 kg. Big luggage would not fit even for 1 person. You would need a staff member to help with the luggage.
There's no restaurants inside the hotel, but why would you need one when everyone goes out to the Grand Canal and other restaurants to eat. It does provide room service, though.
When we left, Huddy had prearranged a water taxi to pick us up from the hotel to a water taxi station, where he had reserved a comfortable 7-person van to drive us to Trieste that took a coupleof hours.
It was a very good stay. However, there was a fruit fly on my peeled orange, an ant in Daughter's room, which dampened the experience a bit. Also, bear in mind that the main area of the room was 1 step lower than the bathroom and office/desk area on bothsides, these rooms are definitely not wheelchair accessible. So, 4.5 stars rounded up to 5 stars.
It's worth mentioning that the location of the hotel is very good, it's a short walk to many tourist attractions. It was about a 7 minute to the Saint Marks Square, that's like tge heart of Venice.
We would return if we go to Venice again. read more