Review: Hotel Indigo Venice Sant’Elena, Italy
On the outskirts of the buzzing city of Venice, hotel Indigo Venice Sant’Elena is located in a quiet neighbourhood. Sounds great, but it wasn’t.
So where to stay in a buzzing city such as Venice?
You find all types of hotels here.
From cheap stays to ‘George Clooney’ posh palaces.
We once stayed in the middle of Venice in an Airbnb apartment.
This time we decided to book a hotel in another neighbourhood, a bit at the outskirts of town.
Location
Hotel Indigo Venice Sant’Elena is located near the Biennale gardens.
The hotel has no parking lot.
We are in Venice, cars are not allowed here.
So how to get from one place to another here?
You can hop on the vaporetto water bus, or take a private water taxi.
The nearest vaporetto stop to hotel Indigo Venice Sant’Elena is right around the corner, a minute walk away. It is called S. Elena.
You can buy tickets for the vaporetto at the newspaper stand right across from the vaporetto stop.
We booked a private transfer with a water taxi that brought us as close to the hotel as possible. Right next to the hotel is a canal (you can see the bridge crossing it on the left side in the picture below).
There we were dropped off, just a couple of steps away from the hotel entrance.
Reception
Our private water taxi dropped us off at 11am.
Checkin in Hotel Indigo Venice Sant’Elena starts at 2pm, so we leave our luggage at the reception to pick it up later in the afternoon.
The receptionist looks at our reservation and asks if one of us has a wheelchair, because the room that is booked is a room on the ground floor for disabled guests. We tell her that we never asked for such room and that our travel agency made the booking. The only explanation she says is perhaps this this room was the last one that was still free during our stay.
The Venetian Biennale has just started and hotels are quite full. We ask if she would still be able to give us a better room, but she says that all the rooms hee in Hotel Indigo Venice Sant’Elena are taken and there is nothing she can do.
She gives us some information about how to get to the nearest vaporetto stop, and some general information about the neighbourhood and hotel.
Off we go, for a walk and grab lunch in the city.
Room
As we get back, we get the keycards for room 005 on the ground floor.
This room is located in the hallway on the right from the reception.
The windows are facing the street side.
As we walk in, the room looks nice.
The beige and grey wall colors, wooden floor, rug and soft yellow lights seem cozy.
The mattress is very comfortable, the pillows are a bit thin though. On both sides of the bed are bed side tables, and sockets to charge phones and such.
On the right in a desk with chair, a fridge in the cupboard, a rack to place luggage on and a TV.
Next to the desk is a wardrobe with safe.
This room has all the potential to be a great hotel room.
Unfortunately its location was so bad, we felt like sleeping in a service corridor.
Staff would be walking in and out all day long, slamming doors, talking loudly. The door to the kitchen was also located here, and you would hear cutlery and plates rattle from early on in the morning until midnight, music practically all day long.
Laundry was being sorted here as well, in the middle of the hallway. The public hotel bathrooms are at the end on the right, so plenty of people would walk past all the time for that reason as well.
We asked for another room the day after but were told that there was no solution.
For 300 euros per night you would expect something better from a IHG hotel.
Bathroom
The bathroom is located right across from the wardrobe and hotel room door.
In it are a sink, toilet, bidet and shower.
The bath products were good, nothing more.
Bath towels were a bit thin and rough, time to invest in some new ones.
The shower is adapted for disabled guests of course. So the shower screens can be folded in different ways. Only the screens would either get stuck and be hard to move, or they would open on their own while taking a shower.
Anyway, in the end the entire bathroom would be wet and slippery.
Not the greatest experience.
We were glad to leave this room to be honest.
Other facilities
In the room on top of the desk is a kettle, instant coffee, tea bags, instant hot chocolate and sugar.
The bottles of water are complimentary are restocked daily.
Bar and restaurant
Right behind the reception area is the restaurant and bar area.
Here you can enjoy breakfast in the morning, a drink, a lunch or afternoon snack and dinner.
Breakfast
Breakfast at hotel Indigo Venice Sant’Elena is self service, staff bring hot drinks to your table.
At first side the breakfast buffet looks nice, lots of choice.
In the middle of the room you can find cold breakfast items such as cheese, charcuterie, smoked salmon, cakes, pastries, donuts, pancakes waffles, yogurt, fruits, bread cereal.
On a table next to the bar sits the hot breakfast: baked beans, eggs, vegetables, bacon and sausages.
Breakfast was good, nothing more.
Garden
Hotel Indigo Venice Sant’Elena has a garden where you can enjoy the sun on a sun bed, have a drink or eat breakfast when the weather is good in the morning.
Wifi
Wifi reception was very good and fast everywhere in hotel Indigo Venice Sant’Elena.
Would we go back to Hotel Indigo Venice Sant’Elena?
No, we would not.
That the hotel was fully booked and we got the very last room that was available, that is highly possible.
But the room we were in was far from comfortable. Your hotel room should be a place where you can rest and relax but we were glad to go home actually.
Would we recommend Hotel Indigo Venice Sant’Elena?
If you want to visit Venice and stay away from the busy inner city, hotel Indigo Venice Sant’Elena is located in a quiet neighbourhood with vaporetto connection nearby.
Just make sure to get a far better room than we did.
Pros
- good location
- quiet garden
- decent breakfast
- very friendly reception staff
Cons
- location of our room
- impractical shower
Address
Hotel Indigo Venice Sant’Elena
Calle Buccari, 10
30132 Sant’Elena, VE
Italy
You can book here: Hotel Indigo Venice Sant’Elena
We paid for our stay at hotel Indigo Venice Sant’Elena and didn’t get or ask anything in return for this review.
It looks like a cinema, reminds me of the Odeon in my home town.. 😁