Hotel Excelsior Venice
Venice-Lido - Lungomare Marconi 41
Set right on the beach on Venice Lido, this 5-star hotel offers a peaceful location and a large heated outdoor pool.
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The Venice Lido is an ideal destination for an unusual and fascinating beach holiday. Where else can you go in a few minutes from billionaire glitz to a lonely, wild landscape that has nothing to do with glamour? All just a 15-minute vaporetto ride from St. Mark, one of the most beautiful squares in the world!
The Lido is the most famous of the islands in the Venice lagoon and one of the most unique. For a start, it is the only one (together with neighbouring Pellestrina) that allows cars and bicycles.
With a coastline of over 10 km, it is the favourite beach of Venetians , who take advantage of the efficient vaporetto connections in summer to escape the stifling heat of the city.
It is also the island of VIPs, or at least it is in September when the spotlight is shone on the Venice Film Festival, one of the most important film festivals in Europe.
Its main attractions are linked to this internationally renowned event, which transforms Venice into a nerve centre of the international jet-set, complete with red carpet and crazed photographers. But you only have to walk a little, or take a bus, to get to Malamocco, a village that derives from one of the first permanent settlements in the lagoon area in pre-Roman times, and further on to Alberoni, where the stars of the scene are no longer VIPs in designer clothes but endangered birds and turtles looking for a way to the sea.
Fortunately, nowadays staying on the Lido is no longer just the stuff of the rich. For over a century, the Lido has been synonymous with cultured and wealthy tourism, the favourite destination of writers, poets, nobles, politicians and actors. We are reminded of this by the elegant Art Nouveau villas scattered around its historic centre and even more so by the exquisitely retro-style beach huts.
Once the spotlights of the film festival have been turned off, the atmosphere here still becomes nostalgic, almost Fellini-like. Bathing establishments close, beaches and hotels empty. But the Lido continues to exert its unique charm given by a mix of Venetian elegance, memories of a glorious past, distinctive landscape and the daily life of Venetian residents.
Give it a thought if you want to experience a Venice other than mass tourism. In the summer, the Lido allows you to spend a few days at the seaside, making a detour to Venice to visit the main attractions; you can also do the opposite: use the island as a base to explore Venice and treat yourself to a quick dip in the sea on your way back from cultural visits.
In other seasons, you can fully appreciate the peculiar nature of this tongue of land squeezed between the sea and the lagoon by strolling through lonely beaches and pine forests.
Not all tourists come to the Venice Lido to bathe in the sea: some come here to experience the myth of the cinema, others to immerse themselves in wild nature.
Here are the must-see attractions on the Lido recommended to one and all.
The Palazzo del Cinema on the Venice Lido is as close to Hollywood as we can get in Italy. The main venue of the Venice Film Festival, it consists of an imposing hall and four screening rooms (the smallest seating 48, the largest more than a thousand) where the festival’s most important events are held, including the final award ceremony.
Between the square and the entrance to the palace is the catwalk where the stars of the festival parade in their evening gowns, while photojournalists at work and fans try to get as close as possible to their favourite star.
The original palace was inaugurated on 10 August 1937 on the occasion of the opening of the fifth edition of the festival; it was enlarged and renovated several times.
The second historical venue of the Venice Film Festival is the Palazzo del Casinò, built in record time in only eight months in 1938. The exterior of the palace still shows the influence of the regime architecture typical of those years; the interior was instead richly decorated with marble, Murano glass and mosaics and characterised by a monumental staircase leading to the gaming rooms.
The building retained its function as an elegant casino until the late 1990s; almost all festival screenings reserved for the press are held in its halls today. It is not to be confused with the Venice Casino, which is still active and located in the historic city centre.
The two historical venues of the Venice Film Festival have been joined in recent years by the Sala Giardino and the Palabiennale; the latter is the only venue that is not located on the Marconi waterfront but on the opposite side of the island.
An iconic building on the Venice Lido is the historic Hotel Excelsior, a five-star hotel housed in an extraordinary Venetian-style palace directly overlooking the beach: here the splendour of the Roaring Twenties seems never to have ended.
Commissioned by visionary entrepreneur Nicolò Spada and designed by architect Giovanni Sardi, it was inaugurated in 1908 with a Great Gatsby-style party attended by over 3000 guests.
In the 1930s it hosted the first editions of the Venice Film Festival, and to this day it is still one of the festival’s key venues, a venue for insider meetings and a favourite hotel of the stars.
Don’t hope to sneak inside on the hunt for an autograph: guests’ privacy is absolutely guaranteed. However, you too can sleep in one of the princely bedrooms of this super-luxury hotel and feel like a star for a night, as long as you are willing to spend between 400 and 3000 euros per night. Prices are indicative and refer to the low season.
Too expensive for you? Do as most tourists do: admire the Excelsior’s monumental façade adorned with triple lancet windows, Moorish arches and other sumptuous decorative elements from the outside. No one forbids you from daydreaming about a life as a billionaire.
From the height of glamour to the height of simplicity: after the customary photos at the cinema exhibition venues, the scenery changes completely with a visit to the Dune degli Alberoni Oasis. It is a naturalistic oasis managed by the WWF located in the southern part of the Lido island, on an area of about 160 hectares.
The landscape is characterised by a system of white and grey dunes on which vegetation typical of the upper Adriatic coastline grows; rare and endangered species of birds live or nest here, including the fractinus. Behind Alberoni beach lies a vast pine forest criss-crossed by paths.
The murazzi (murassi in Venetian) are a defensive fortification made of Istrian stone boulders built at the time of the Venetian Republic to stem the sea. They can be found on Lido, on the island of Pellestrina and in the seaside resort of Sottomarina on the mainland; the section of the lido is about 5 km long and stretches between Ca’ Bianca and Alberoni.
In the summer, there are quite a few people who prefer to lie in the sun on the murazzi rather than on the beach; it is not forbidden but a little caution is necessary.
From Venice Lido you can reach the neighbouring island of Pellestrina by vaporetto or bus (by ferry). It is a narrow, long strip of land with a peculiar shape, which, like the lido, is washed on one side by the Adriatic Sea and on the other by the Venetian lagoon.
It is the ideal destination for a slow-paced day: vehicles are allowed here too, but it is best not to bring a car because the beauty of this timeless place is best appreciated on foot or by bicycle (if you do not have one, you can rent one on the island).
Stop until the sun sets for a romantic sunset overlooking the lagoon, or better still treat yourself to dinner in one of the island’s typical restaurants. Pellestrina is not very touristy, so you will find yourself dining with the locals.
In the southern part of the island you can see a section of murazzi and the Ca’ Roman nature reserve (the latter managed not by the WWF, as at the Alberoni, but by LIPU-Lega Protezione Uccelli).
Along the Venice Lido coastline, there is a succession of bathing establishments, some very exclusive, and free beaches, equipped or not. All beaches on the Lido are sandy, with gently sloping shallows and calm waters: they are perfect for safe swimming and playing in the water.
The characteristic element of private Venetian beaches is the capannina: a large cabin with a veranda that evokes the elite seaside tourism of the early 20th century. The rental of a hut has a very high cost, while a beach umbrella with sunbed is affordable.
One of the best known and busiest beaches is Bluemoon Beach7, the closest to the vaporetto stop; quieter, but still full of services, is San Nicoletto Beach8.
At the southern end of the island, close to the WWF oasis, is Alberoni Beach9: here too you can find free areas and bathing establishments, but it is a much wilder-looking beach, far from social life and celebrities.
In the following map you can see the location of the main places of interest mentioned in this article.
The choice of hotels on the Venice Lido is very wide, thanks to a long hotel tradition that began in the late 19th century.
There are facilities to suit all budgets, from luxurious 4- or 5-star hotels to simple family-run hotels; you will also find delightful b&b’s, villas furnished with period furniture and modern flats, the latter perhaps less charming but very comfortable.
The best area to stay on Venice Lido is simply called ‘Lido’, near the Santa Maria Elisabetta vaporetto stop: the easiest to reach, it is also the area where you will find the most accommodation, bars, restaurants and shops.
The Malamocco area is less charming; the Alberoni is a good choice for those who love wild landscapes, but the choice of accommodation and clubs is very limited.
Although it is necessary to travel by boat, getting to the Lido from the centre of Venice is very easy.
The majority of tourists arrive by vaporetto, and it is indeed the most comfortable and cheapest solution. There are several lines connecting the centre of Venice to the Lido (Santa Maria Elisabetta stop), with stops close to all the main tourist attractions including the railway station, Piazzale Roma, Rialto and San Marco.
The journey time from the centre of Venice to the Lido varies depending on the line and the stop of departure, from a minimum of 15 minutes to more than an hour; there are also night runs.
You can also reach the Lido by vaporetto from the city of Chioggia and the island of Pellestrina, which are connected by line no. 11 running 24 hours a day.
Once you arrive on the island, you can easily tour it on foot, by bike or with the local buses.
If, on the other hand, you want to take your car to Lido, you can take the ferry (ferry boat) departing from the island of Tronchetto, located a short distance from Piazzale Roma, or from the island of Pellestrina; there is also a line departing from the mainland, at Punta Sabbioni and Cavallino.
Ferries to Venice Lido operate daily from early morning until evening, with one run every hour or so; timetables vary depending on the line and the season.
There is an airport on the island but it is not served by commercial flights.
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