Hilton Molino Stucky

Airport and Cruise Port Transportation

Check lowest rates, reviews, and availability for the Hilton Molino Stucky:

ABOVE: Royal Caribbean's Spendour of the Seas passes the Molino Stucky Hilton on its way up the Giudecca Canal.

y Durant Imboden

We've never stayed at the Hilton Molino Stucky, but many of our readers (especially American cruise passengers) are booked into that hotel by travel agents or cruise lines. Often these readers don't know where the hotel is and how to reach it, or how to get between the Hilton Molino Stucky and the cruise port. In this article, we'll answer those questions. But first, a few words about the hotel:

The Hilton Molino Stucky occupies a wing of the former Molino Stucky, a 19th Century flour mill and grain warehouse that shut down in 1955. For years, the 13-building complex sat vacant, and its once-handsome brick façade had more broken windows than grandeur.

A number of years ago, Venice and the Hilton hotel group agreed on a plan to renovate the Stucky Mill, converting the old buildings into a hotel, a convention center, and luxury apartments.

The Hilton Molino Stucky opened in 2007, and today it's Venice's largest hotel with 380 rooms, a rooftop pool, a fitness center, and a number of bars and restaurants.

Because of its size, the Hilton Molino Stucky attracts leisure- and business-travel groups. It's also popular with tourists who are redeeming Hilton Honors points that they've accumulated on business trips.

But be aware before you book: The Hilton Molino Stucky has an out-of-the-way location on the island of Giudecca, across the main shipping canal from Venice's historic center.

A free shuttle boat runs between the hotel and two central locations (San Marco and the Zattere in Dorsoduro), but you may feel isolated when your hotel is a boat ride away from most of Venice's sights, shops, and restaurants.

Now for the good news: Travelers who have booked rooms at the Molino Stucky Hilton often assume that the only way to reach the hotel directly from the airport or the cruise terminal is by water taxi. That isn't true, and on the following pages, we'll tell you about more reasonably-priced alternatives.

Next page: Getting to or from the airport

About the author:

Durant Imboden has written about Venice, Italy since 1996. He covered Venice and European travel at About.com for 4-1/2 years before launching Europe for Visitors (including Venice for Visitors) with Cheryl Imboden in 2001.

PC Magazine has called this "the premier visitors' site for Venice, Italy." Over the years, it has helped more than 30 million travelers. For more information, see About our site, our Europe for Visitors press clippings, and our reader testimonials.