Inside the quiet luxury revival of the Venice Lido – home to the glittering film festival

Venice’s Lido Island Is Shedding Its Beach-Resort Image for a New Era of High-End Hospitality

Poinews.com – Every September, the narrow sandbar known as the Lido transforms from a sleepy Venetian getaway into the beating heart of global cinema. The 83rd Venice International Film Festival draws directors, producers, and A-list talent onto the island’s promenades and hotel terraces for eleven days of premieres and red-carpet spectacle. Yet between those brief annual surges, the Lido reverts to something quieter: a stretch of pine-lined coastline, modest campsites, and Belle Époque façades that most international visitors sail past without a second glance.

That pattern of seasonal fame followed by long stretches of relative obscurity is now shifting. A wave of capital is flowing into the island’s storied hospitality infrastructure, signalling a deliberate pivot toward year-round luxury positioning. Three properties in particular illustrate the trajectory: one century-old icon just completed a full-scale overhaul, a newer entrant opened its doors the previous year, and a landmark Liberty-style palace is preparing for a €200 million resurrection.

The Excelsior: A Century of Stars, Reborn

No address on the Lido carries more cinematic weight than the Hotel Excelsior Venice Lido. When the festival’s very first edition took place in 1932, its opening ceremony unfolded on the sea-facing terrace of this Moorish-inspired palace, complete with domes, arches, and slender minarets. The property itself dates to 1908, and over the following decades it accumulated a guest list that reads like a who’s who of twentieth-century power and glamour. Greta Garbo, Audrey Hepburn, and Elizabeth Taylor all spent festival weeks within its walls; today, figures such as George Clooney and Nicole Kidman still treat the Excelsior as their base during the September run.

The hotel reopened in May of this year after a comprehensive renovation programme. Among the most visible changes is the restoration of the Palm Court, an interior lobby once defined by dense tropical planting. Now returned to its role as the property’s social nucleus, the space displays archival photographs documenting a century of royal visitors, celebrated directors, and Hollywood luminaries who passed through its doors. On the accommodation side, more than half of the 198 rooms and suites have been refreshed, introducing soft Mediterranean palettes and bespoke Murano glass detailing.

A new signature terrace restaurant, a pool bar, and a beach club called Amù Venice round out the refreshed offering. Amù Venice operates 299 cabanas along the shoreline and blends the Riviera sensibility of its birthplace — the rooftop of the Fairmont Monte Carlo on the Côte d’Azur — with the gastronomic vocabulary of the Veneto. The result positions the Excelsior not merely as a festival stopover but as a destination in its own right.

Meliá Venezia Lido: Elegant, Accessible, and New

The island’s luxury pipeline is not limited to ultra-premium properties. Last year, Meliá Venezia Lido opened as a four-star superior resort, reviving the aesthetic language of the Lido’s 1920s architectural vocabulary in a more restrained, affordable register. Its communal areas are washed in the pale, diffused light that bounces off the Adriatic, and several of the 60 guest rooms command unobstructed sightlines across the lagoon toward the historic centre of Venice.

Dining at the property centres on AcquaRiva, a restaurant whose interior draws on Art Deco motifs while its menu fuses Mediterranean and Venetian culinary traditions. For visitors who find the Excelsior’s price point prohibitive, Meliá offers a credible alternative without sacrificing the architectural character that makes the Lido’s built environment distinctive.

Grand Hôtel des Bains: A €200 Million Comeback

The most ambitious project on the island’s horizon belongs to the Grand Hôtel des Bains, a sprawling Liberty-style palace that once hosted cultural icons and film greats in equal measure. In 1911, the German author Thomas Mann lodged here and drew inspiration for his novella Death in Venice, lending the building a literary aura that outlasts its hospitality function. The hotel closed in 2010, and for more than a decade its façade stood as a monument to what the Lido once was.

Last year, plans were formally announced for its reopening. A €200 million investment will restore and modernise both the palace and its beachfront, repositioning the property as a high-end resort. The financing comes from Eagle Hills, an Abu Dhabi-based real estate development firm, in partnership with the urban regeneration vehicle COIMA ESG City Impact Fund.

“This is more than a restoration – it is a revival of European legacy through modern excellence,” said Mohamed Alabbar, Chairman and founder of Eagle Hills. “Venice has always been a bridge between worlds, and we are proud to be part of its future, bringing our experience in luxury hospitality to one of the most symbolic hotels on the continent.”

Why the Lido’s Pivot Matters

The island’s geographic position — a short water-bus ride from Venice’s historic centre yet distinct enough to maintain its own identity — makes it an ideal canvas for hospitality investment that does not compete directly with the city’s dense, heritage-constrained hotel stock. The Lido’s existing beach infrastructure, pine woodland, and open coastline offer amenities that the compact historic centre simply cannot provide. By layering luxury service onto that natural endowment, the new and renovated properties aim to extend visitor stays beyond the festival’s eleven-day window, smoothing the seasonal trough that has long characterised the island’s economy.

For Venetians who have treated the Lido as a weekend escape from the city’s crowds, the transformation carries both promise and tension. The beach clubs, pine walks, and quiet mornings that define local summer life remain, but the scale of investment now flowing into the island’s hospitality sector suggests that the Lido’s future will be shaped as much by international luxury demand as by the rhythms of Venetian daily life. The film festival will continue to arrive each September. What changes is what waits on the island in the months between.