Venice is one of those must-see, otherworldly places.

As touristy as it is, I don’t think there is any place like it.

I posted a photo story here if you’re interested.

Like the city it’s in, the Hilton Garden Inn Venice seems to get stampeded year-around by visitors.

The hotel sits on the mainland part of Venice, across the bridge from the historic downtown crisscrossed by water.

How much does it cost?

Anywhere from 60-300 Euros or 18-40k Hilton Honors points.

I paid about 25k Hilton Honors points.

The cash price more than doubles when the summer kicks in:

It looks like Hilton’s new award pricing system has kicked in, because the current points price is way below the 30-40k point range of its category 5 status:

How’s the proximity to downtown Venice?

It’s very close, just a 10-minute bus ride across the bridge.

There’s a bus stop at the hotel, and you can buy bus tickets from the front desk at the hotel for a few Euros.

How was the room?

The room felt pretty well-worn as you might expect, but it was nice enough.

Did you get a room upgrade?

I think so?

It wasn’t a suite, but it was the only room with a ridiculously large pool-front deck attached to it.

My Hilton Silver status from my Hilton credit card may have been responsible for the room choice.

Any good food in the area?

We GPSed to a nearby restaurant that got rave reviews, but it was inexplicably closed, so we returned to the hotel restaurant.

The hotel is in a residential area, so there didn’t seem to be many restaurants nearby.

The hotel restaurant was nice, but they forgot to put in our food order, so we sat there for a long time pretty hungry.

A manager asked me if I wanted to order what I thought was a compensatory beverage, which I did, but the drink ended up on my bill anyway. Oh well.

When my pizza finally arrived, it was delicious.

Parking and Wi-Fi?

The Wi-Fi worked well, and the hotel parking is free.

Here are some photos of the rest of the hotel:

Please let me know if I missed anything!