Grand Hotel Villa Castagnola

In love with the hotel! Amazing place!

If you are booking a luxury hotel in Lugano, there is no other option for me. While it’s not right in the middle of the City, it’s in a nice and quiet area and the 10-15 minute walk to the city is great for settling the stomach after eating to much pizza. The grounds are simply stunning, the views are amazing, the breakfast buffet is not amazing but very good (Although the woman who seat you could smile a bit more, all the other staff at breakfast are great). The private Lido is awesome. I will never stay at another hotel in Lugano for our annual summer trip, it has won my loyalty for life.

We only had one night in Lugano and decided to stay at Villa Castagnola. The staff were friendly all the way through! Everyone had a smile and a nice greeting. This is how it should be, but so seldom is. The location is perfect. It is close to the part of Lugano you want to experience and walk around in. on our departure day we walked up Mount Bré. It is quite a walk and we were late getting back. Before travelling home we asked to use the spa for a shower and to change clothes and this was no problem at all. Thank you for a great stay!

Horrible experience so far. THIS IS NOT A LUXURY HOTEL. The driveway was under construction. we were forced to be dropped off 80 yards from the entrance. My husband, with a foot injury and broken toe, was forced to drag our bags up the hill to the entrance with no help from any bag porters. The room has no central AC and is outdated. The hallways are not clean and the main living areas of the hotel have no air conditioning. Avoid at all costs. This place is outdated and old. Stains, chips on the door, etc.

What a fabulous place to stay. My niece and I started our vacation with two nights in Lugano at this fabulous gem of a hotel! The bar was set high after our experience here! Wonderful lake front suite! The staff from the reception(Alessio, Ricardo and Laura) to Stefano and Marko in the restaurant and Carmen in housekeeping were exceptional ! We did not want to leave and will return for a longer stay! Be sure to make reservations for dinner at L’Arte a true treasure of a dining experience! Thank you to all for making us feel so happy!

My son had researched this hotel and really wanted to stay here. We had a reservation for a double room and when we got to the hotel, they said that we had 2 people so they had to charge us an extra 100 CHF per night. Ridiculous! I could see if we'd booked a single room but a double room with a king bed means 2 people. The hotel was lovely and being Hyatt Globalist members, we were upgraded to a nice room with a view of lake and balcony. The room was lovely. The location and view can't be beat-right on lake Lugano. We went to the beach club and swam in Lake Lugano. Don't let that fool you. We never saw and employee at the Beach Club which was sad because supposedly you can order food and drinks which we'd planned to do for lunch. We had drinks on the patio and 2 glasses of prosecco was $40 euros. Crazy! We wanted to eat dinner in the hotel but the prices were outrageous in all the restaurants so we found something off property just across the street. Mind you we came from expensive places like Santorini, Milan and Lake Como so we eat at nice restaurants but this hotel is rip off. Breakfast was a disaster. There's a tiny buffet in 1 small area (smallest of any breakfast buffet we ate at on trip) and they kept running out of everything. Not much variety at all. We had complimentary breakfast with our globalist status but had to pay extra for anything extra that was hot so hard boiled, soft boiled eggs etc. Never heard of this in my life. They never replenished water in the room. Charged extra if you used up all the tea bags in the room. The ultimate rip off was when my son and I were both on our computers working and we got kicked off because only allowed a couple of devices. There were only 2 of us in the room. We were supposed to stay for 2 nights but at $600 CHF plus taxes per night, the value for what we were getting wasn't there. I've read this on tons of reviews on this site. The front desk manager didn't want to let us out of our reservation for the 2nd night but when I pushed it saying we can't work in a place that kicks us out of internet, she agreed. We ended up taking the train to Lake Como and stayed at a lovely hotel. I'd like to shout out to the front desk gentleman who was very helpful. When we came down to check out after 1 night, he tried to get us to stay and felt terrible. We generally stay at 4.5-5 star hotels all over the world and expect the prices to be high but this place just squeezed every cent out of you.

First the good news. The Hotel is elegant and ostentatious in its appearance. Our room was spacious and immaculate throughout with a wonderful view of the Lake. Praise goes the Housekeeping team throughout our stay. The reception staff were helpful and courteous at all times. My main gripe was our experience of the breakfast restaurant. I did not expect such limited selection and of poor hot buffet quality for a 5star hotel. The food kept running out and had to be replenished by surly waiters. The pastries are laid out on a table uncovered so flies can help themselves. But worst of all you have to pay for certain items (see photo) if requested. Never in 50 years have I had to pay extra for breakfast items - poached eggs, porridge etc.- not even in 3star!

The hotel is great and grounds are pretty it is a bit of a walk into town and it is very expendive