Our next stop on our trip to Italy & France was Milan, where we spent two nights at the 58-room Bulgari Hotel Milan. This is regarded as Bulgari’s flagship property, as it was the first hotel that the Italian luxury brand opened.
Continue reading: Review: Bulgari Hotel Milan, Italy
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
Looks very nice. Looks much nicer to me than the two Venice hotels. Are you going to share your thoughts on Milan? It seems like a very rich and nice city, but not sure it's a big tourist place. I guess good for shopping and day trips to the Lake Como area, but it seems like a city that'd be nicer to live in than visit.
asking the real question
i suppose he get a 50% off.. should be around 500 euros
Looks wonderful. I nearly stayed at the Bulgari in Milan last summer but went to the tried and true Four Seasons, which was splendid.
The restaurant at the Bulgari looks excellent but it doesn't even have one Michelin star -- next time try Seta at the Mandarin Oriental or, a bit outside the city center, one of my favorite restaurants in the world, Enrico Bartolini al Mudec (which does have three Michelin stars and a unique wine pairing with wines from the 1970s).
While we don’t (unsurprisingly?) see mention of them, we can only assume Ben dines in good local restaurants, in addition to the hotel restaurants that are necessary for his reviews.
This brings back great memory of spending a few weeks working in Milan a long time ago,
1. Climb up and walk on the rooftop of Duomo is nice to visit and sat out front on the steps and people watch.
2. seeing Davinci's one and only Last Supper
3. My first thin crust pizza, risotto alla milanese, and Strawberry gelato
4. Visiting Teatro Alla Scala
Thanks for the review, everything looks nice apart from the green swimming pool! Reminds me of a dirty pond full of slime.
I’m curious: would you pay rack rate for this hotel if Ford wasn’t getting an industry discount? I don’t really get a sense of this from your review. Doesn’t quite seem as enthusiastic as your St. Regis Venice review.
Nicely appointed room, however the bedroom itself looks terribly small in the pictures.
Not going to be original here but as nice as the hotel, food and service look, I would positively never ever spend $1k+ on such a tiny room. For somewhat comparable rates I'd probably pick the Aman instead, standard rooms are much bigger.
I’m sorry….this is grim looking….leaves me cold…Give me the Four Seasons ANY day….heavenly location…silent, lovely courtyard….!!!!!
Was deciding between Bulgari and Mandarin Oriental. Ended up going with MO as not too keen on anything related to Marriott. Seta restaurant which has two Michelin stars was good while Enrico Bartolini has three and was fantastic. Milan has wonderful museums that no one bothers to go to besides seeing the Last Supper. Did you know you can see Leonardo hand drawings/ painting with zero people next to you in Milan? In UK or US you will be cramming with others with timed tickets. Can’t wait to return to Milan and Lake Como again.
I always like your hotel reviews, but it sure seems like a lot of stays recently are for exorbitantly-priced hotels on travel agent rates!
We had a lovely dinner at the Four Seasons restaurant when we stayed there a few months ago.
Most of your recent reviews seem to focus on extreme high end of luxury hotels with the "travel agent rate". Do you mind giving us a glimpse of what these travel agent rates are?
So what exactly was included in the $1000 USD rate? If you take out breakfast, I understand it to be a standard European room, a free check in drink, and an unusable terrace.
What was your travel agent rate?
And seeing “The Last Supper” is a must even for us that don’t associate with a religion.
Milan is a great city but it took me a few visits before it grew on me.
A cappuccino at that hour of the day? Every Italian in the city must have snickered.
I had to write this. NOTHING justify 950EU for such small room and relatively nice terrace with the view to yard. You can have 5* hotel for less then half the price close to the Duomo. And that breakfast not included at this price for me is surprising. But obviously i am not used on such a luxury. Oh it is a Bulgari Wow.
Hmmm, based on the photos this could pass as a better Hyatt Regency property. Not sure there is anything particularly luxurious about it.
Anyway, great detailed review! It‘s great that you are back traveling!
Ben - those named pics of the spa, gym & pool have Bulgari spelled incorrectly
The reference to 3 Michelin stars is because Niko Romito also operates Reale, which does have 3*, but is in Castel di Sangro, much nearer Rome than Milan. The text just about gets that across, but without that detail could be misinterpreted.
I agree that there are lots of actually starred choices around Milan. I'd probably opt for Joia, but then I am vegetarian...
The tableware seems to be completly from Ginori which is all produced in Italy and is often just stunning!
"In the interest of full disclosure..." implies you are fully disclosing the rate you paid. You aren't.
This is a points & miles blog. What’s the purpose of reviewing a place that offers neither points earning nor redemption? Seems like a nice enough hotel, but the review doesn’t have a good sense of place for this blog.
I agree with this comment. It's also true of the general disclaimer. Not sure what Ben could write that would be accurate and not call attention to itself. "Minimal legally required disclosure" is probably not right, "minimal ethical disclosure" is a matter of opinion. Maybe something like "you should know that. . ."
I don't expect to learn all the juicy details that I'm sure others are also curious about (how much, exactly, does each credit card sign-up earn, are there incentives at increasing numbers of sales, what are the compliance rules about what Ben is and isn't allowed to write, etc) but the use of the term "full disclosure" rankles.
Go somewhere else then, i prefer these reviews over points hotels. Points hotels are getting watered down there just arent the same deals to be had with perks like their used to be. These non points reviews are better. There are 100s of sites with paid points review ads i mean reviews.
Well maybe because he and Ford are indeed travel agents.
You lot will complain about anything. Such a joke if he stays at a hotel thats too expensive you complain, but then will also complain that he chose this hotel and not one thats twice as expensive.
Of course, they won't tell you that they only paid a hundred Euro or whatever the rate was, but at least they said they paid a "travel advisor rate" which is industry-speak for FAM rates or Familiarization rates. At least they paid something and were not completely comped. Some travel articles completely hide this fact by saying that the hotel or airline "invited them" which should be translated as equals free in exchange for a positive write-up.
The pictures didn't wow me at all and that's what I was expecting at these prices and with the Bulgari name.
You’ve missed my point. This is a points & miles blog and this hotel doesn’t participate in the points & miles world. The hotel seems lovely, but reviewing it on this site is incongruous with the point of the site.
1) Ben's not a travel agent.
2) I don't speak for "you lot". I speak for myself. I'm allowed to have an opinion. As are other people. If you can find a comment where I've complained about him not staying at a hotel twice as expensive as this one, please let me know. I don't think you will. I feel very confident you won't find people complaining that Ben didn't stay in a hotel that was twice as expensive as the Bvlgari. If you do, yell at them, not this reply, because you're inventing a strawman.
3) This is a website built around using miles and points. Not about staying at the nicest hotels you can find on travel agent rates. There was about a decade of posts that were about 98% bookable on miles and recently that's been about 50% (or more) travel advisor rates.
It all looks a bit “2004” and in need of a refresh. That worn wooden bread board /rack in the restaurant should be first on the list. I wouldn’t pay those rates in the meantime when there are others in that bracket in Milan with a superior hard product.
@lucky, I know this blog is more focused on hotels/travel, but am loving the focus on restaurants at the various destinations. Any chance you can include category or search to look directly for these?
Ben, please ignore the haters. I guess some people lack the capacity of "keep on scrolling" if you're not interested in a non points hotel.
I LOVE your non points luxury hotel & restaurant reviews. Like you said before, many people save miles to spend on airfare and splurge in hotels. There's a market and audience for everything, so don't let the naysayers bother you. I love these types of reviews, keep it up!
Then don't read the article, simple. I have no interest in credit card bonus articles or points redemption articles. Do you see me complaining in those comment sections? NO.
If it doesnt interest you, keep on scrolling. And this is Ben Schlappig's blog, not yours. He can write about whatever he wants and thinks is relevant to the travel world (which btw, is much bigger than "pOiNtS aNd MiLeS"