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The Hilton Molino Stucky Venice is a great luxury hotel choice in Venice. In fact, for the room price, it’s hard to beat! Book a room at the Hilton Molino Stucky (or any other luxury hotel in the world) via our luxury travel concierge, and you get brilliant extra benefits such as free breakfast for two, resort credit and room upgrade.
Venice’s magical winding waterways are famous worldwide, with tens of millions of tourists visiting the UNESCO World Heritage site annually. Visitors can discover the city’s iconic landmarks, such as the 11th-century St Mark’s Basilica while navigating the 42 kilometers of canals on elegant gondolas.
The luxury Hilton Molino Stucky Venice offers a modern escape from central Venice on the island of Giudecca. I emphasize the modernity of this hotel because it is quite unusual to find a hotel in Venice that offers newly refurbished rooms, and these rooms make the Hilton a stand-out choice in Venice.
Location
The Hilton Molino Stucky is located across the water from St. Mark’s Square on Giudecca Island, and you can walk from one end of the island to the other, as far east as the magical Belmond Cipriani, which takes around 25 minutes. St. Mark’s Square and the rest of Venice are easily reached by the hotel’s regular shuttle boat, which is free beyond an initial room charge.
Guests are charged around €10 EUR per person per room at the end of their stay for unlimited use of this shuttle, which offers a brilliant way to get around. It sails from right in front of the hotel’s entrance and takes you right to the edge of St. Mark’s Square.
The hotel is around a €150 EUR water taxi ride from the airport, which takes around 45 minutes.
Style & Character
Before the Hilton Molino Stucky became a hotel, it was once one of Europe’s largest mills. In the 1880s, the Swiss-Venetian businessman Giovanny Stucky decided to construct an industrial flour mill in Venice’s Giudecca Island neighborhood. For several years, the mill produced some of the greatest flour yields in all of Europe, making Giovanny Stucky rich, but worker strikes and a number of calamities meant the mill became derelict. In the noughties, the mill was fully restored and converted into a hotel that opened to become the charismatic Hilton Molino Stucky Venice in 2007.
While the Hilton Molino Stucky offers stylish and modern rooms, the hotel itself is steeped in history, and the exposed wooden beams, original brickwork as well as this building’s iconic warehouse design, mean that you are immersed in Venetian history while you stay here without having to miss out on any comforts or luxuries.
The style at the Hilton Molino Stucky Venice is a mix of modern with original features. As mentioned above, original brickwork and beams are revealed at every corner, and the views across the entire front of the building are spectacular.
The communal areas downstairs offer marble flooring and plenty of sofas and have an American rather than a Venetian feel. The same goes for the breakfast area, which is also downstairs and indoors and has the same marble flooring complemented by lots of plants and exposed brickwork but also offers modern tunes, such as Justin Bieber tinkling in the background.
Service & Facilities
The hotel has a gym and a spectacular rooftop pool to enjoy. The pool can get very busy, so the early morning is probably the best time for a swim. While there aren’t any gardens, you can step outside and sit on the seats placed on the cobbled waterfront and while away hours watching the boats. You can also walk or jog the length of Giudecca Island, right by the waterside.
We visited in August when the hotel was mainly full of leisure travelers, but outside the summer holidays, this hotel attracts business travelers too and has impressive conference facilities, including a ball/conference room that seats 1,000.
Rooms
The hotel is steeped in history, with beams and the old mill brickwork visible throughout. The rooms are beautifully modern hardwood floors complimented by thick rugs. There is lots of artwork and designs on the walls showcasing a modern take on the shape of the architecture and history of the hotel. Many original features, such as arched windows and original ceiling detailing, remain.
I love this mix of old and new. The modernity makes the rooms feel homely, stylish, and up-to-date, and the beds are superbly comfortable. I slept like a baby during our stay! Modern marble bathrooms have baths or showers with plenty of amenities bolted to the wall, and the rooms themselves are generous in size.
Rooms as good as these are hard to find in Venice as so many hotels have rooms in old buildings with wonky floors, and many are in dire need of refurbishment. By choosing the Hilton, you can be confident that you will enjoy a clean, modern, stylish room. Book one of the newly refurbished Deluxe room categories. These rooms are all fabulous, with a warm grey color scheme, wooden floors, and nautical murals, bringing the feeling of the Venice canals into your room. Most have panoramic views across different parts of Venice, as the Hilton Molino Stucky is one of the tallest buildings in Venice.
We stayed in a King Molino Executive Suite, an amazing room that captures the afternoon and evening sun. The master bed faces out toward windows that offer views from two sides of the building. An additional sitting room with a sofa bed is ideal for one or two children and is separated from the main room with double doors. You can see the photos of the room above, but I don’t think the photos do justice to how fantastic this room is to stay in.
If you’re traveling with your family, the King Molino Executive Suite is the room to book unless you want to splurge and go for the Molino Presidential Suite, which is also pictured above. This imposing suite has two separate bedrooms, views across central Venice, your own private jacuzzi, and direct access to the hotel’s rooftop pool and panoramic terrace. This exceptional suite also features a private elevator connected to the lobby and a private staircase to the Molino Stucky iconic panoramic tower for a truly exclusive experience.
One other thing worth mentioning is that you can select rooms with a view across Venice, and because of the height of the building and its position on the waterfront, these views are fabulous. We had views out of the back of the hotel, which were similarly spectacular, be it of the other side of the island and not looking over the “classic” center of Venice.
Food & Drink
Il Molino is where you take breakfast. It’s made up of a number of indoor seating areas, all with access to the extensive and fresh buffet. The buffet is self-serve and well-organized. Staff are happy to provide complimentary coffee and hot drinks. There’s a cold-cut area with hams and smoked salmon, a fruit and yogurt area with many bowls of cut and whole fruit, and a chunk of beehive for fresh honey, a cake area with a huge array of cakes (including a very good banana bread), and a sweetie area with loads of chupa chups type lollies and other goodies.
In the hot area, there is bacon, sausages, beans, mushrooms, potato croquettes, scrambled eggs, and probably some other bits that I can’t remember, all of which you can garnish with salad or with a creation from the Caesar salad station which has a massive wheel of parmesan that guests can hack into. A chef is busy in the corner cooking waffles, and all the dishes are replenished even after the 10.30 am cut-off time when breakfast is supposedly finished. Certainly, we were still picking from the buffet at 11:00 am. In the dining area, there are bottles of still and sparkling water, and the Prosecco on ice is very popular with those looking for some morning indulgence. While the setting could be more Venetian in character, you can’t argue with the gargantuan spread.
During our first evening, we enjoyed the unbelievable view from the Skyline bar. This bar is at the very top of the building, and you can sit outside above what looks like a castle’s battlements and drink in the views from probably the highest bar in Venice. The view spans across the entire of central Venice, right down to St. Mark’s Square and beyond. This is such a wow location that people come from across Venice for a photograph in front of the magnificent vista. The feel of the bar is youthful, with funky modern music playing and a young crowd all enjoying beers, Bellinis, and other cocktails as the sun goes down. The service here is excellent, too, and bar snacks of olives and nuts could keep you planted on this rooftop all evening.
We also tried the hotel’s best restaurant, Aromi Restaurant, located on the quayside on the water’s edge. There are, in fact, two restaurants in this spot, the Aromi Restaurant and the more relaxed Bacaromi Restaurant. Aromi Restaurant is the hotel’s formal restaurant and the one to try if you want a really special experience.
Interestingly, the chef here developed much of his experience of flavors in Asia, so the food is a mix of Italian with an Asian take. We chose melt-in-the-mouth risotto for the starter, Sea Bass main, which was utterly delicious, and a rum sponge dessert. Every dish was tasty and very more-ish, so I’m not surprised this restaurant has been nominated for a number of awards.
But for me, although the food was succulent and flavorsome, it was the setting that made the evening. Waterside dining is what you come to Venice for. At Aromi, you can enjoy some of Venice’s finest cuisine on the water’s edge as the dusk sets in and the lights on the passing boats start to sparkle. I don’t think life gets prettier or more romantic.
Conclusion
Hilton Molino Stucky Venice is a large hotel with over 400 fabulous rooms, yet it feels welcoming. For us, this hotel is a hidden gem, and you won’t get more bang for your buck anywhere in Venice.
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