Hotel Sole Malcesine

We do not recommend this hotel and will write to the owner. We hope nobody else gets treated this way. The receptionist physically and verbally attacked my friend, so we called the police. They came to the hotel and wrote a report. The rooms are old, the bathroom was dirty, and the breakfast room was dirty too. The food quality wasn’t good. There’s a busy, noisy road in front of the hotel. Parking inside is very small and tight, and you have to take your car in a lift to reach the parking space. It was also very expensive for this quality. This is not a four-star hotel.

The public areas are clean and well maintained, and the food was okay with some variety. The portions are huge! Staff seem geared toward German guests, who are the majority here. The hotel has a private tunnel under the road to the pebble beach, where the kite and sailing clubs are. There’s also a lakeside promenade stretching a few kilometers for walking or cycling. The garage space is assigned to your room, and you may have to use a huge car lift to get there. Room 200 smelled musty, and perhaps should have been aired out before we arrived. One of the beds smelled as if the sheets hadn’t been changed. The hotel is set back from the road, which can be annoying if you spend all day sunbathing by the pool. The beautifully designed sunshades help only a bit.

I wouldn’t come back, though the hotel does serve its purpose and isn’t too bad. A solid three stars. The location is good, right across from the lake, with easy access to the beach. The newly renovated rooms could be cleaner. The buffet was good enough for a three-star hotel, but nothing fancy and with limited choice. The service was disappointing. When we booked, we were promised a sea-view room, but ours faced a concrete wall on another building. We complained and were told the reservation company had mistakenly labeled it as a sea view. I wasn’t told about that mistake when booking or afterward, so it wasn’t my problem to sort out.

There are watersports right on the doorstep, including kitesurfing, windsurfing, paddle boarding, canoeing, and kayaking, or you can just swim in the lake. The rooms are simple, clean, and comfortable. The hotel is small, so the all-inclusive plan doesn’t offer many options, but the lunches and dinners we tried were tasty and enjoyable. It’s easy to reach if you have your own transport, about a 5-10 minute drive from the picturesque town of Malescine. You can also get to Riva Del Garda, with its many shops and quirky bars and restaurants. It costs a bit more than Malescine, but it’s beautifully surrounded by mountains.