Hotel Baia Del Capitano

Worst breakfast experience at a 4 star. Zero variation in the spread during our 5 days of stay. Beds are hard and not so comfortable but thanks to our trips to Catania, Palermo and Taormina we were so tired at the end of the day that we could fall asleep instantly. Definitely not a place for staycations. The hotel could not provide us with a wine bottle opener and they have supposedly 2 Bars! Sigh No air conditioning or atleast it was not working (we didnt complain about it at the reception ). We decided to keep the balcony doors open at night instead. The cool breeze helped. Some of the group members were attacked by mosquitoes at night. Too expensive for what it offers - and it was supposed to be off-season. The beach was not as close as it is described on the booking site.

The reception team were mostly friendly and efficient, and the bar staff were particularly friendly. I want to mention Fabrizio in reception who was there during our last few days. He was very friendly and helpful and was able to offer lots of advice about our trip to Palermo, whereas other staff were unsure when we asked about local restaurants or places to eat in the area. When we did complain about our rooms, they agreed to change us to rooms in the hotel on our final night which was their 1st availability. They upgraded us too which we appreciated; these rooms were fabulous. The showers was significantly better and the bathroom was light, as was the bedroom itself, with a beautiful terrace balcony. The pool area was peaceful to sit around. Our rating would have been higher if the relax rooms were as they indicated 'tranquil and relaxing' and also had natural light because staff were generally friendly and the rooms we had the last night made a significant difference. We may have been more forgiving with the location if the rooms measured up to 4* which they absolutely didn't.

I would absolutely question as to whether the 'Relax rooms were 4*. We were disappointed by the location and accessibility to restaurants and beaches without taxis. The shuttle into Cefalu was great, but at 10 Euros per time and nothing after 3:40, we ended up getting taxis which builds up as not much to eat in the area. We were there at the end of the season, end of Oct and therefore would have been charged 20 Euros per day if we wanted a sun lounger at the local beach. The beach in town is better, so we went there instead but again, would've been better if we had our own car. We stayed in the hotel's Relax rooms. These were anything but. Although the rooms were adequate, the windows were frosted so had no view but did have small tables outside the door but these offered no privacy. The shower however, despite having massage jets, were so small, it was hard to use with the cabinet doors closed or getting water over the floor. The rooms had no natural light. Also, each room had their own fuse box which clicked when turning anything on. That was fine, but we could also hear the boxes next door. In fact my friend's room lights turned on in the middle of the night when her neighbour turned his lights on. The reception were surprised about this though and did say they'll look into it as they'd not heard about this happening before. These rooms were advertised on the website as tranquil but the soundproofing was terrible and you could hear everything in the rooms next door. The breakfast had been heralded as excellent on the reviews I'd read but in reality, was disappointing; not much fresh fruit or choice of breads or hot food. With a car and the room we had on the last night in the hotel itself, I think our experience would have been marginally different.