Where should you look for hotels in Florence? One of the first questions we ask ourselves and one of the first things to book when we decide to go for a trip to Florence is definitely where to stay. Whether you prefer luxurious hotels or authentic B&Bs, Florence certainly offers a huge choice, but you will have to pay attention to the neighborhood if you want to be sure to fully enjoy your vacation.
All cities are made up of different neighborhoods that have different characteristics and often, when passing from one neighborhood to another, you have the impression to have changed city. Precisely for this reason, when we decide to look for hotels in Florence, in addition to choosing the type of facility and the type of room, we must also spend some time understanding what neighborhood we want to stay in.
If you don’t know a city, it is very difficult to choose where to stay, because you could end up in a very lively neighborhood at night, while you just wanted to rest, or, vice versa, you could have found the B&B of our dreams in an area of the city that turns off completely at night becoming even a bit dangerous, and instead you would have liked to venture out on the streets alone.
If you are trying to locate the best hotels in Florence and choose one to book, you are in the right place. With this article I will list the characteristics of the main neighborhoods of Florence, so that you will be able to orientate yourself and choose the hotel in Florence that best suits your needs.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
- HOTELS IN FLORENCE: SAN GIOVANNI NEIGHBORHOOD
- HOTELS IN FLORENCE: SANTA MARIA NOVELLA
- HOTELS IN FLORENCE: SANTA CROCE
- HOTELS IN FLORENCE: LUNGARNO
- HOTELS IN FLORENCE: OLTRARNO / SANTO SPIRITO
- HOTELS IN FLORENCE: SAN MINIATO
If this is your first time in Florence, and you want to visit the city, the museums and see as many things as possible, of course my advice is to stay in the downtown area. Obviously, the prices will be higher, and you will have to book well in advance to find a place, but it will be worth in terms of tiredness and time spent to move from one place to another.
HOTELS IN FLORENCE: SAN GIOVANNI NEIGHBORHOOD
The most central district is the San Giovanni district. If it is your first time in Florence, it is in this neighborhood that you will spend most of your time for visits. Here you will find the Duomo of Santa Maria del Fiore, the Baptistery and Giotto’s Bell Tower, Palazzo Vecchio, Piazza della Signoria and the Uffizi Gallery, the Palazzo Medici Riccardi and the Basilica of San Lorenzo, the Accademia Gallery, and the Loggiato degli Innocenti.
In short, if you choose to stay here, every minute you will spend outside your accommodation will be dedicated to discovering something wonderful. Having everything at your fingertips, you won’t have to worry about looking for means of transportation (buses, taxis, etc.), and you can easily walk to every point of interest.
The downside, in addition to the prohibitive prices of these hotels in Florence and the difficulty of finding availability (you will have to book months in advance, sometimes even a year in advance for the high season, to be able to pick the right accommodation for you) is certainly the crowd of people and the noise given by the multitude of tourists, from morning to evening and even at night.
Furthermore, in this area, unfortunately, the overtourism that has been going on for decades has caused that the catering offer has levelled down and towards the target of tourists coming from the United States, who are high spenders and massively fly to Florence. So, the downside is that I challenge you to find a single place, restaurant or bar that still does everything exactly the Italian way and using the high-quality raw material to which we Italians are accustomed.
I personally have also been treated with less respect, as I have no American accent, even though I am, in fact, American. On that occasion I went to Florence specifically to choose the best clubs, restaurants and bars to include in my guide (click here to access my guide to Florence) and I was very disappointed. I had to try a lot of them in order to have a small list of approved places to include in my guide.
HOTELS IN FLORENCE: SANTA MARIA NOVELLA
If you arrive in Florence by train and plan to visit other Tuscan cities with Florence as a base (I recommend Lucca, Pisa and Siena: here to access the guide), the Santa Maria Novella district is absolutely the area to stay in Florence.
Being part of the historic center, Santa Maria Novella is also an ideal neighborhood if you want to visit the downtown. You will only have to walk a few more steps, but you will gain in relaxation and serenity: you will be, in fact, in a slightly secluded position and therefore a little less overcrowded with tourists and a little less noisy in the evening and at night.
Here too, the prices of accommodation are very high, but a little reduced compared to San Giovanni. Unfortunately, the catering offer is also denatured here, so no improvement compared to San Giovanni.
HOTELS IN FLORENCE: SANTA CROCE
The Santa Croce district is particularly recommended if you like to walk and get lost in narrow and twisted medieval streets. This neighborhood is very lively, very popular and overcrowded at any time. So, if you are in Florence to have fun, to do club crawling, and visit restaurants, bars, but also if you love street food, look for hotels in Florence in this neighborhood, and you will feel at the top.
Prices will be a little lower than in San Giovanni, but accommodations will also generally be smaller.
HOTELS IN FLORENCE: LUNGARNO
A category aside are the hotels in Florence on the Lungarno, which offer spectacular views. They are often 4 or 5 star hotels of American chains that feature the “very American rooftop bar”. If you choose this type of experience, you will have the advantage to be in the city center, therefore close to everything, but in a slightly less chaotic setting than the downtown.
HOTELS IN FLORENCE: OLTRARNO / SANTO SPIRITO
The Oltrarno district, called “Diladdarno” by the Florentines, is the district that developed on the other side of the river Arno, around the square and the church of Santo Sprito. This neighborhood is the ancient district of artisan shops, where there is Palazzo Pitti and the Boboli Gardens.
Today it is considered the most authentic of the central districts, because in some way it has preserved something Florentine, although Santo Spirito is also invaded by mostly American tourists at any time of the day or night. If I had to choose where to look for hotels in Florence, I would probably choose this neighborhood, for the wealth of clubs, some of which offer an authentic Florentine experience.
Of course, if you choose to stay here, you will have to walk quite a bit to get to the main points of interest. But if, on the other hand, you have already been to Florence other times, this is an excellent point to discover a lesser-known Florence.
HOTELS IN FLORENCE: SAN MINIATO
If, on the other hand, you are in Florence simply to enjoy the beauty of the city and Florentine life, because perhaps you have already been there other times and you do not need to visit the points of interest in the downtown, I recommend that you look for accommodation in that area of the Oltrarno that goes from the river to Piazzale Michelangelo and the Abbey of San Miniato al Monte.
This area that was designed by the architect Poggi on the occasion of Firenze Capitale (when in 1864 Florence became the capital of the United Kingdom on Italy) is a very green area, which offers spectacular views of the city and a totally different dimension from the tourist chaos of the city center. I recommend it, of course, if you have a car to get around, since the descent on foot to the historic center would take you more than half an hour, and the ascent, even more.
