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Great Location - Shame about the Hotel (Basil!) 20 of 20 Ciao Users found the following review helpful
Rating from klofron 2 Stars ()

Advantages Stunning views, well located.

Disadvantages Poorly run, shabby and poorly maintained

My wife and I returned on 09/09/2007, from a wonderful week in Taormina on the beautiful Island of Sicily.
A wonderful week marred by one thing - The Hotel Bristol Park!
We paid around £800 each for a weeks B & B at this establishment, provided through Thompsons. This Hotel passes itself off as a Four Star Hotel.

*** LOCATION ***
One of the greatest assets of this Hotel is its fabulous location. If you want a well located Hotel in Taormina, with great views of MountEtna (the main reason we booked this Hotel), there won't be many better in Taormina. We had a room on the third floor with a 180 degree view of the sea, the town of Guarding Naxos below Taormina, and the town of Taormina itself. By far the most imposing part of the view though was Mount Etna - the view of this 10,000 feet active Volcano was magnificent. Most of the rooms located at the front of the Bristol Park will have similar great views but those at the rear will be looking at cliffs and other buildings.
There is a steep ramp leading up to the Hotel entrance door and quite a few steps to negotiate before reaching the Hotel which would make it unsuitable for less mobile people.
Ten minutes walk from the Hotel, and you are in the centre of the beautiful town of Taormina with its many bars shops and restaurants - this review is about the Hotel, but I totally recommend the town of Taormina as a holiday destination.
Before you reach the town, almost across the road from the Bristol Park is a public garden which is well worth a visit. Nice plants and some good views.
10 minutes in the opposite direction and you reach the bus station and cable car station down to Taormina Mare (the sea).

*** PUBLIC ROOMS ***
The reception area is the first room you come across in most Hotels and this is no exception. First impressions count a lot and this one lost points immediately. We arrived at the Hotel around 1330 hrs along with eight or ten other guests. We entered last out of our group and immediately walked into an uncomfortable silence with an old man (turned out to be the owner) behind the reception desk not communicating anything to anyone. After a few minutes of silence someone at the front asked what the delay was. The man behind the reception desk simply said 'Rooms not ready'.
We then sat about for over an hour until the rooms were ready. In there slight defence they did give us all a drink, but there was no choice and if you didn't want an alcoholic drink, tough luck!
Whilst waiting around the reception area, we had chance to scrutinise the decor. We knew it was in old Italian style which we like in an Italian Hotel. We didn't realise how old the decor was though, it had all seen better days. The reception desk was badly scuffed and generally grotty. There was a fancy lamp behind the reception desk which had the bulbs taped in with electrical tape. The wall paper may have looked good 10 years ago but badly needs replacing.
One of the brass bannister rails leading upstairs had come apart so had been stuck together with selotape - obviously a long time ago by the state of the tape.

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klofron

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Previous page Next page Page 1 of 4 | 1 - 5 out of 20 comments
  • shelleyone 02/06/2008 22:54
    Rated this review as
    Very Helpful

    informative review.

  • bean372042 18/09/2007 22:32
    Rated this review as
    Very Helpful

    Shame, good review though!! Jean XX

  • marymoose99 18/09/2007 19:55
    Rated this review as
    Very Helpful
  • mightymuffin 13/09/2007 21:54
    Rated this review as
    Very Helpful

    Great review - well written too xx

  • salem_witch 13/09/2007 12:56
    Rated this review as
    Very Helpful
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