Residence Costa Del Sole

The hotel and surrounding area are beautiful, but the service was very poor. At breakfast, bowls of salami, cheese, tomatoes and other food were often empty, and room cleaning amounted to taking out our rubbish. Each apartment gets one beach umbrella and two loungers for four people, which is really inadequate. I didn't like the hotel and won't return.

I expected less after reading the reviews, but the hotel turned out to be good and clean, with air conditioning and fridges. The beach is literally 20 meters away, and the beach service is included. There was a nice choice of starters and main courses, and the staff were helpful and attentive to guests. Thanks, everyone.

The main draw is the long, wide sandy beach, just a five-minute walk from our room. The water stays shallow for several meters, which is great for small children, and hotel guests get free loungers and umbrellas. The hotel itself is disappointing. Photos give a misleading impression: rooms are adequate, but the bathrooms need attention, sofa beds are small and uncomfortable, and other facilities are basic, with some areas needing a tidy-up. Getting around is a major problem. The hotel is in an isolated residential village, 18 km from the airport and 22 km from central Catania. There’s one small shop and a pizzeria at the neighboring lido, and no convenient public transport to town or the airport. Taxis are expensive and hard to arrange, though the hotel can help organize airport transfers. It’s also hard to relax here because of the constant noise. A DJ plays loudly on the beach in the morning and by the pool in the afternoon, and there’s evening entertainment too. On one night, the disco carried on at full volume until 3 a.m. Meals were underwhelming. Breakfast is a basic Mediterranean buffet with cake, machine coffee, carton juice poured into jugs, and no black tea. The restaurant’s cold buffet is good, but the pasta is never al dente, meat choices are very limited, we didn’t see any fish, and there was only ever one kind of fresh fruit. The pool is tiny and not somewhere to relax, mostly used by children. The small bar has good equipment, but is often unattended or run by inexperienced friends of the hotel. Service felt impersonal. Nobody was unfriendly, but it didn’t feel welcoming either. We were the only non-Italian guests and felt little effort was made to include foreigners, which left us feeling like an inconvenience.

This place was a joke as a holiday destination. The hotel felt rough, the dark sand beach looked dirty and was nothing special, and the sky was gloomy. Guests seemed undemanding and lost, as if they had never been on holiday before, and there was very little care for people staying there. Staff had a bad attitude and no customer service training, and nobody spoke English. The receptionist didn't know prices in advance. The bathrooms need renovating, the electricity kept playing up, and the TV and internet rarely worked. Rooms were basic. The food didn't feel Italian at all, but Polish, and completely wrong for the setting and climate. Hard-boiled eggs with mayonnaise were served every day. Dishes seemed to come straight from jars bought at a local supermarket, put onto large plates with no preparation. There wasn't fresh coffee at an Italian hotel, and the machine coffee tasted like water. The staff were about 90% Polish and seemed to have no hospitality or bar and restaurant experience. I don't know how this hotel operates. Food ran out halfway through service, apparently because, staff said, Polish guests ate too much. It was all put out at once with an 'eat as much as you want' approach, rather than served to guests as they arrived. Breakfast was out at 7 a.m. and gone by 7:30, so at 9 there wasn't even bread. In my view, the hotel didn't buy enough food or enough nutritious variety. People were queuing outside the main entrance to get something to eat. I couldn't sleep in because I had to worry about finding food. We went to the local shops to buy food, and the experience was uncomfortable, with everyone looking at us. My partner, who is Italian, held my hand and said the area looked dodgy and unsafe, and asked me never to leave the hotel gates alone. The hotel felt like one from communist times in former Soviet countries. It's in the middle of nowhere, and even locals couldn't tell us where to buy food. For the price of one night here, you could get a week at one of the best hotels in central Catania, with breakfast and good coffee. Restaurants in central Catania are cheap and serve fresh food. Ridiculous place, not worth my time, and it doesn't deserve a star. Strongly not recommended.