KatrinGeneva
September 4, 2021
I went here with my two sons (7, 10 years) in August '21 for 5 nights. Though we overall did enjoy our time, I would not recommend this hotel, at least not to international visitors. I would have given one more star if we didn't have such a bad experience when checking out. The overall price for this 'soft all inclusive' with a 5 nights stay in a relative small double with extra bed (called 'comfort double') has been more than EUR 1,700. With the 'soft all inclusive' formula, I was ready to pay extra for drinks, ice-cream and sweets that we had at the bar when checking out. What I wasn't expecting though was another bill of EUR 120,- for 'animation & club'. We could not participate into any of the animation/kid's club as it was all only in Italian language and hardly anyone of the staff spoke English, French, or German (except for reception and one of the animators) . Apart from whether participating or not, it has been the first time ever that 'animation' had to be paid extra for. After discussing with the manager and explaining to her that we did not even understand any of the animation attempts and hence couldn't participate, she said that this extra fee also has to be paid for the use of the pool, which was again a big surprise. I previously enjoyed much nicer and bigger pools without paying any extra fee for them, including in much cheaper hotels. Having said so, now the pros: - the hotel and its bungalows are build into a nice landscape with beatiful plants and a rnice view, overall the grounds are inviting and relatively close to the beach - the quality of food has been good overall at dinner and lunch, even if not too much choice (very nice anti-pasti buffet and a choice of pasta every day, but as a main 'only' one meat, one fish, and one veggie side) - most of the staff has been friendly, particularly the cleaning lady and animation team, even if communicating wasn't easy without us speaking italian - the capucchino at the bar was REALLY good, making up for some of the drawbacks and the cons: - not really suitable for international guests, apart from not being able to participate into any animation offers or understanding anything of the evening shows, it has been even difficult to communicate at the breakfast and dinner buffets what we wanted to have - some of the staff was unfriendly when not being able to speak italian and even made fun of us (at the breakfast buffet). The same person was also quite inflexible at noon, to give an example: as a desert there was chocolate and strawberry ice-cream at the top of the cooling box and vanilla just underneath, all already open. We wanted vanilla but she said that wasn't possible. - the breakfast was quite limited in offer and not of good quality (scrambled eggs were usually given cold and sludgy and bacon still soft and cold as well). Coffee and other hot drinks were only possible in self-service from the machine. - bathing caps were mandatory at the pool and no diving/jumpin