Visited Venice on 18 & 19 September, a treat from our two daughters.

Our overall opinion is that it must be one of the best hotels in Venice, with helpful and friendly staff, but who are not overbearing or pretentious, good food and a fantastic setting, and as others have said an oasis of tranquility and well worth the extra cost over more ordinary hotels.

We will definitely return to Venice one day and would not consider staying in Venice itself as it was far too busy and hectic, and will return to the San Clemente Palace, which we would highly recommend, and provided you are not going to nitpick over minor faults or worry too much about the relatively high cost of rooms and food, you will enjoy it.

Apologies in advance for the length of this review, but I have included the things that I would have liked to know before I went.

Getting there

Although there is the vaperetto from Marco Polo airport to St Mark’s Square, which I would suspect takes at least 30 mins and gets very crowded, and then the San Clemente Palaces’ private boat to the hotel we were advised to book a private water taxi.

Looked at various on the web and many wanted to charge euros 300 for the return trip, but made an enquiry at www.motoscafivenezia.it , who are a consortium of taxi operators with more than 100 water taxis, who quoted euro 105 each way or euro 200 return, about £180, which we booked plus 20 euros for private minivan to save the 8 minute walk from the airport to the water taxi pier.

Arrived 1 hour 30 mins late due mainly to flight delay, met by Motoscafi, driven to water taxi pier, straight on to water taxi and a high speed, sometimes bumpy ride, felt like we were in a James Bond movie, direct to San Clemente Palace in about 30 minutes. Return journey picked up exactly on time.

From our experience would highly recommend Motoscafi, but if you book with them they don’t have an online payment system so I paid over the phone, don’t ring their main number on their website as no-one speaks English, but spoke to Mario tel no [--] who was very helpful and took my payment and.

San Clemente Palace Hotel

First impression on arrival very good, friendly welcome at the boat dock, luggage taken for delivery direct to the room, quick and courteous check in, escorted to room, with commentary about the hotel on the way, deluxe room no 413, a pleasant 3 minute stroll from reception, with a view straight across the lagoon to Venice and St Mark’s, couldn’t ask for more.

The hotel is on a private island and used to be a monastery and has extensive grounds, swimming pool, two tennis courts, 3 hole chip and put course and a beauty and wellness club.

Our room was elegantly furnished, comfortable bed, two armchairs, writing desk and chair, cupboard with ancient CRT tv, only one English channel, BBC World News, but watched Arsenal v Wigan as it was the live game on Sky Sports, with Italian commentary.

The air conditioning worked well and was reasonably quiet, with the ubiquitous minibar and the normal expensive drinks, but surprisingly no tea or coffee making facilities, so if you want a cup of tea or coffee first thing in the morning, you will need to take your own travel kettle, tea, coffee etc.

Good size marble bathroom, with separate shower, low water pressure, and bath, bathrobes, slippers and good quality toiletries.

Reasonable amount of hanging space and drawers, but possibly a bit tight if you were staying for a week, with a safe, no charge for use, and Wi-Fi hot spot, but surprisingly for a relatively expensive 5 star hotel you have to pay to use it, a bit mean in my view.

Housekeeping was excellent with tooms serviced twice daily and bed linen and towels changed daily.

The interior of the hotel is very elegant, see photos on various websites, with high ceilings and was relatively cool despite the outside being quite warm, with lots of chairs and sofas spread around and a number of small sitting areas, could be accused of lacking atmosphere but we found it tranquil and quiet, which after the hustle and bustle of Venice was most welcoming.

Breakfast is taken in the Gli Arazi rooms, but as the weather was warm/hot and sunny most guests had breakfast in the adjoin courtyard, no view but still very pleasant. Breakfast is typical of a high quality European hotel, with cereals, breads, cheese, meat, fruit, scrambled eggs, bacon etc with fresh orange etc and even Prosecco if you want to that early in the morning. Staff very friendly and helpful and all food good quality and plentiful.

Only ate at the hotel on one night at the Ristorante Le Meschere, booked a table and glad we did as they were full and had to turn some guests away. Our table was next to the water, in the courtyard to the small San Clemente church/chapel and was lovely setting for a meal. The main gourmet restaurant Ristorante Ca’dei Frati was closed.

Wide ranging menu, my wife had home made ravioli filled with sea bass, clams and clams sauce and zucchini, and I had fillet of beef medallions from the grill served with baked potato and vegetables, which together with one glass of Pinot Grigio, one bottle of water and one coffee, came to a bill of euros 84, about £75, which by Venice standards is not particularly expensive and which for the location and quality of food and service was excellent value, especially as it included a very nice Amuse Bouch of fried tagiatelli with mushroom sauce and a glass each of Prosecco.

The swimming pool is very pleasant, freshwater not seawater, and is quite large, with lots of sun beds, towels etc and we presume that it is heated as the pool temperature was very comfortable to get in and not at all cold, and is a most enjoyable retreat when returning from Venice, which was packed to the rafters when we were there.

The pool is next to the Ristorante La Laguna for lunch and snacks and the bar Le Conchigli for drinks, but both are relatively expensive with soft drinks, tea, coffee or a beer costing about euros 8 – 10, about £8.

When we were there the hotel’s motor launch, which I believe can carry about 30 – 40 people, ran every 20 minutes starting on the hour, both from the hotel and from St Mark’s Square, and is a 12 minute, not 5, 10 or 15 as suggested by others, enjoyable ride through the lagoon, probably not taking much longer to get to St Mark’s Square than from many Venice hotels, but a lot easier, and was very reliable always leaving exactly on time. It runs 24 hours a day, but from about 1.00 to 5.00 am it is by arrangement and not the normal day schedule.

The view of St Mark’s and Venice when arriving on the motor launch is unforgettable and probably a good enough reason in itself to stay at the San Clemente.

There was a good mix of guests when we were there, with different nationalities, a fair percentage being English and Italian, and age groups, mainly 40 plus but a nice sprinkling of younger couples, some with young children, which contributed to our most enjoyable stay.