Hotel Achibea

The pool area is lovely and large, and the hotel works really well for families with young children. The beds were comfortable, the staff nice, and the food tasty, all for a very good price. You do need a swimming cap to use the pool, but the hotel sells them for €3 each.

The pool is great, with a lifeguard and two people who seemed to be refugee employees watching over it, though that didn't do much for the place's impression. It's a quiet hotel in a nice location. The staff seemed unprofessional, apart from the cleaning team. At the restaurant, the water served in a glass bottle seemed to be tap water. The wine was fine on our second try, but the first glass had some unidentified bits of bread floating in it.

We booked two nights after reading good English reviews, and wish we'd checked the Italian ones about guests being treated badly. We were told we'd been upgraded to a deluxe room for €70 a night with breakfast, but it was very basic: a wardrobe, small TV, and a noisy bar fridge that wasn't plugged in. There were no glasses, and the phone didn't work, so I went downstairs to ask. The request seemed like a nuisance. When we asked for ice, we got a tiny cup with four cubes. Breakfast on the first morning was poor by Sicilian standards: one cold cheese, one cold meat, basic pastries, and no table service for coffee. Other hotels at similar prices were much better. After a day out, we returned to a room that hadn't been serviced. We politely asked for it to be freshened up while we went out again. Hours later, we came back to a strong chemical spray that burned our throats and gave us headaches. Opening the balcony door let in mosquitoes, and we barely slept. When we asked the manager for another room, we were told to leave the bedroom door open to the public hallway, and that nothing else could be done. A large group on our floor ran around, knocked on doors, and yelled all night, with no action from the hotel. We packed up and left early without breakfast. The manager wouldn't refund the second night even though we couldn't sleep and the service hadn't been fit for purpose. They wouldn't even refund the breakfast we hadn't eaten, and laughed when we asked. We've traveled all over, including several third-world countries, and this was our worst experience.

We had a comfortable stay in a lovely hotel. The staff were great.