Hotels near Piccole Pesti, Giardini Naxos

We found this hotel via Jet2 and thought it sounded nice. The hotel was stunning and we loved it (we are quite fussy) The lobby area is modern, the pool is beautiful and the breakfast setting and food is excellent. The pool food was ok (our children age 8 and 9 loved it) and the setting again is beautiful. We often went across the road to the restaurant Valentino's and bought pizza to eat at the pool or in the hotel garden. The pool does get busy so get a sun bed early (we had enough space every day). The sea is stunning and very easily accessible. The beach is pebbly but if you get shoes it's fine. Further down the beach is a lovely restaurant for lunch called Valentina (owned by Valentino's daughter). The rooms are dated but clean and spacious, the beds were very comfy and one large room was big enough for a family of 4. The location is great the beach, restaurants, shops and the boats are easy to walk to. Taormina is only 25 mins on the bus and it costs 2 euro pp. we did a fantastic boat trip to see the caves with Poseidon from Giardini Naxos and visited Taormina and Castelmola. Would go back tomorrow! Giving it 5 stars because it has everything you need for a lovely Italian holiday. For context our flight was cancelled and we were moved to another hotel free of charge (inc all food and drink for our last night). We checked in looked around decided the Marriott was far nicer and returned immediately (at our own expense). It was worth it!

I reviewed many you tube videos on packing for Sicily in October, forget them they are woefully incorrect. Everyone wears sneakers, Italians are still wearing white and yes they wear flip flops. Women were in shorts, tank tops and sun dresses as well as jeans. Casual attire in the most expensive restaurants in Taormina was the norm. We traveled all around Sicily from Palermo to Taormina to hill towns in Gangi. My advice wear what is comfortable for you and be respectful and polite, you will have a fabulous time.

Sadly, excluding a wonderful lady behind reception & a lovely cleaner, this hotel at best is a 2 star hotel. Our experience has just been horrific, and I feel it only fair to share our true honest happenings. We arrived and were upgraded to a larger room. Greatly appreciated. We asked for directions to the pool, which may I point out is NOT part of the hotel, it’s a lido on the beach only reachable by a 15/20 minute shuttle bus. So the advertising of this hotel having a pool onsite is very far from the truth. I filtered swimming pool & free cancellation & there is NO swimming pool. So please do not expect one. The hotel room was warn out & needed some tlc. The curtain rail fell and landed on my head on the first afternoon, and was left on the floor for our entire stay. No attempt to fix it for us. The shower cubicle doors would not open or close easily. In fact I’d shower with them open and put towels all over the floor so I didn’t create a huge mess. Sadly on our third day in the hotel, my partner showered & the cubicle door shattered all over him. Glass absolutely everywhere. In his feet on his legs and he was bleeding too. He has scratches left on his legs and glass was still in his feet. The cleaner in shock rushed in, and a gave my partner flip flops as you could barely see any floor without shattered glass. Between the cleaner and a staff member, they cleaned the mess as if it had never happened. And we were expected to continue our day. A lady behind reception offered us a small room which we declined, as worryingly it felt also in need of some help. We continued our stay, as Taormina is full right now and left the hotel today at 12pm. Our departure was nothing short of horrifying, we arrived at reception greeted by the grandson of the owner rudely & aggressively pointing at us, surrounding us by three further Italian men, we have been told are police to ensure we pay for our damages. We did immediately as felt somewhat threatened & forced, and it wasn’t until the police heard the whole story, that they agreed this was unacceptable behaviour from the hotel & an extremely aggressive way to treat two individuals. They apologised repeatedly but we had paid the hotel & were left without any choice. The police did all they could and eventually got us a 50% refund in the damages cost. Sadly it hasn’t actually been refunded.