where to stay for one night in Milan?

If you're departing from Milan Malpensa, Malpensa is about 30 miles from Milan. Many with early flights choose to stay at one of these hotels near the airport: http://www.ricksteves.com/graffiti/helpline/index.cfm?topic=10365. For more info, go here: http://www.ricksteves.com/graffiti/helpline/index.cfm?topic=45680

Kaqthy, what time is your flight in the morning? That might have a bearing on whether you stay in Milan, or close to the airport as Kent suggested. Given that you requested a "fun" location to stay, I'm assuming that would mean staying in Milan. It's only a short trip to the airport on the Malpensa Express, however if you're planning to use that it would be a good idea to stay close to Cadorna station. Hotel London is only one block off Via Dante, and within easy walking distance to the Duomo and Galleria Vittorio Emmanuele, as well as the extensive La Rinascente department stores & food court. Cheers!

Yes, Ken gives your other choice, sleeping in Milan. The 2nd link in my first post discusses this. If your flight is not super-early, then you have the option of staying in Milan and many do this. I don't have the current schedules but as of a couple of years ago the Malpensa Express train from Cadorna started running about 6am (maybe earlier but can't tell from schedule), scheduled time of ~40 mins. Or bus from Milan Centrale train station to Malpensa, supposedly 50 mins but could take longer in traffic, they used to start earlier than the train from Cadorna but don't know the current schedule.

I am staying in Milan for 1 evening. I had a problem finding a place that would take us for just one night. And for those that would take us in for 1 night, the prices of the rooms where quite high. So I settled with Hotel star for 108 euros. The interior is quite tacky but it was 1 of the more affordable places for just 1 night.

Hi Kathy, We had a semi-early flight and stayed near the train station, as there as shuttles that run very frequenetly. The issue we faces is although the shuttles runs often, the morning traffic was a hoot and the travel time took much longer than was anticipated. Fortunately, we caught an earlier shuttle but if we had taken the one we thought would be us there on time, we could have perhaps missed the flight. DO NOT stay at The Best Hotel - Milan. Contrary to the name, it is NOT the best hotel. Cramped, hot, hard to find. It served it's one-night-stay purpose, but would never care to stay there again. Happy travels!

According to the Malpensa Express schedule, trains run from the Cadorna station as early as 5:00 am on Sundays: http://www.malpensaexpress.it/# We really enjoyed our stay near Via Dante, which would be walkable from the Cadorna station. I would definitely stay in that area if returning to Milan. It was a pleasant 10-minute walk down to the Duomo and the Galleria. Our hotel (Antica Locanda dei Mercanti) was lovely, and pricey. But we compensated for the cost buy buying a picnic dinner to eat on our terrace. The dinner (foccacia sandwiches from the Princi bakery, some broccoli salad and a bottle of wine from the deli across the street) cost a total of 23 euros for the 4 of us, and those sandwiches were truly delicious. The guy at the deli was very helpful, too; in fact everyone we met in Milan was very nice. Another nice hotel in that area (closer to Sforza castle and the Cadorna station) is the business hotel Una Hotel Cusani. They sometimes have very good rates on weekends.