Baia Delle Sirene Beach Resort

Comentarios destacados

• FamilyHolidayGuy

  18 junio 2006
  I expected more

  Two adults and two children aged 5 and almost 2 years, travelling for a week at the end of May 2006, booked in a family room on an 'all inclusive' basis. Holiday got off to a good start with on time flights to Lamezia Terme. The airport is under used and so transiting thru it is quite easy (although more than 1 immigration officer would help to speed the process!). Its a short distance from the airport to this resort hotel and takes no more than 15-20 mins. Check-in takes place in a reasonaby sized purpose built structure, but its chaotic if you arrive with a tour operator (as we did) with around 100 travellers converging on the place. We were at the back of the queue and it took around an hour to get registered. There are some comfortable wicker chairs around if you can get one! You're given stickers to put on your bags and these are then delivered to your room later (this took about an hour for us so if you want to get straight to the pools - take your swim gear in your hand luggage). We'd booked a family room which consisted of two large twin rooms in the Alba 'block' with an interconnecting door. Therefore we had two of everything (bathrooms, balconies, fridges, TV's) plus a cot for our youngest. The rooms are a little basic but spotlessly clean, fairly spacious with spacious bathrooms (but no bath which can be difficult if you have little ones who don't like the shower). The shower is a seperate cubicle - ours ran hot and cold but if we didn't have it at full pressure, the water temperature was more constant. Rooms were cleaned daily and towels changed whenever required (every two days officially I think but more frequently if you want it) Otherwise, we couldn't fault the accommodation. The two pools are fine and good for young children with some gently sloping shallow areas and lines marked out on the pool floor to show where the depth increases. It wasn't crowded as such and there were plenty of sunbeds and umbrellas. Towels are available daily which you need to return by 6pm so you can pick up clean ones next morning. Rooms are on one side of the two large pools, and all of the hotel facilities are on the other. This means a short walk of about 5 mins around the pools to the restaurant block. If it rains (as it did when we were there) you get regularly drenched! There is a small shop selling souvenirs and another selling newspapers, sweets etc. on site. There is also a small bar adjacent to the 'quiet' pool with free ice cream all day long. Its good stuff and not the rubbish I've had in Greece in the past. Now for the down side! There are three buffet restaurants, two small either side of the main restaurant with no pre determined seating or sittings at any stage. I could only distinguish Pizza Pasta Alfredo as being different from the other offerings. There can be a lot of queuing, the food on offer is bland and the staff are not quick to replenish exhausted stocks. Breakfast is traditional continental fayre (ham, cheese, jam, yoghurt, bread etc), plus fried eggs and bacon in the two smaller restaurants. During our stay, very few of the coffee machines worked. If I found one that did, I had to queue for ages OR had to trawl the three restaurants trying to source cups, saucers and spoons and then queue. Similarly juices were available but difficult to find glasses. Breakfast finishes at 10am but will go on till 11am in Alfredo after which this becomes the all day Pizza/Pasta restaurant. Lunch and Dinner in Alfredo never seemed to change - same pizza types on offer (but always luke warm), two bland pasta dishes (always the same) and salad. The main restaurant is a free for all and similar problems exist with regard to glasses for wine or beer. I was surprised at the surly and unaccommodating nature of the restaurant staff which I found unusual for Italy. The food appears geared for the German market (it appears Germany is the predominant client base with some Dutch and Belgian, then a few English) which would not be a criticism but it is poorly presented, cool and has little variety. What does annoy me is that I have some limited conversational Italian which I was happy to resurrect. I was most frustrated when regularly answered in German (a language of which I haven't a clue!) The pool bar is reasonable but the variety of drinks on an all inclusive basis, is disappointing. Beer, house wines, soft drinks and martini or campari seemed to be about it. You are directed elsewhere for anything more interesting and other bars (dependent on your incusive type arrangement) require you to use your card (from check-in) for which you are subsequently charged (even for lemonade 1.80) and generally theres a queue! The bar areas are bland in decor (almost working mens club standard) and not somewhere that I'd choose to spend my evenings. Entertainment in the bar area is very average but conducive with the surroundings. Walking through the pines to the beach is pleasant. The beach, however, is in my opinion, truly awful. Sand and grit it says on the website. There is no mention of glass. I picked up several chunks on my walk down to the sea and a similar amount coming back. I took the kids off it immediately as its far too dangerous in this regard. Even if it were cleaned to perfection (ie removing the junk, plastic bottles, cigarette packets, glass etc) I wouldn't allow the kids in the sea as it seems to get deep very quickly and can be very rough. On the upside, there is a bar serving free microwaved ice cream cone style pizzas (!) and limited drinks as in the pool bar if you can stop looking around at the glass glistening in the sunlight! There is a German beer garden which I was told served very good chicken at lunch time, which I only found out on the flight home, so maybe try this to get a bit more variety into meal times (and that is not easy!). Whats around the hotel? Absolutely nothing! Pizzo is a town about 8 kms south with a regular bus service but theres not as much there as the brochure would have you believe. We had a car (pre booked in the UK) and did much of the Calabrian coastline during our stay. Capo Vaticano is pleasant - but theres better to be had elsewhere. Otherwise I didn't find much of interest in this somewhat rustic area of Italy. The hotel is fine if you want to play with the kids in the pool all day, food does not interest you greatly and you like early nights. Having had some great family holidays in other parts of Italy, this holiday was a disappointment - but not a disaster by any means.