Doric Eco Boutique Resort & Spa - Sicily

This is a very nice Hotel…the rooms and bathrooms were well equipped and nicely decorated. Breakfast was good, huge selection of gluten free rolls , crackers and croissants. Chef making eggs to order and fresh orange juice (my measure of a good breakfast!) Lunch was surprisingly pretentious and very overpriced. I think someone should re-think the Menu! Otherwise no complaints and of course the views were spectacular.

Something positive to start with, we were allowed to check in despite arriving 2 hours early. The Doric Boutique Hotel calls itself an ECO Hotel, but is made of 100% plastic. Charging at the charging station costs 60ct per kWh, even though the electricity is generated by solar cells. If the issue of sustainability was really lived, the electricity that is generated free of charge would also be passed on to the guests free of charge, as was the case in some of my previous hotels in Sicily, even though they were not explicitly committed to sustainability. The bath towels cost 5 euros if you need more than one. If one of the plastic cups, which you can buy for 50 cents at 1 euro stores, gets lost, you pay 20 euros. The plastic board on which the cups or "glasses" are placed costs 150 euros. It is forbidden to bring your own food such as snacks or drinks into the hotel. They sell this flimsily under EU Regulation 852/2004, which clearly only applies to food production and retailers. They probably use this to sell their overpriced products in the restaurant and mini bar. In the restaurant, you pay 90 euros per person for a small tasting menu with four courses, excluding drinks. The previous guest's leftovers could be found on the toilet seat. Hair and dirt could be found in the bathroom drawer, where some hygiene products were also stored. "Room/container" with private pool: This is an extremely small room in which everything is made of plastic. The rooms are also very unkindly furnished. There is cold light throughout the room, everything is white, the beds are fitted with castors, which all in all creates an atmosphere like a hospital room. The only good thing about this room is the view of Valle dei Templi from the pool. The pool switches off regularly, although the heating was paid for separately and we were told at reception that the pool is constantly set to 32 degrees. However, an early morning swim was not possible due to the water temperature, as the heating only switches on at 7:00 am. Even the pool light often cannot be used because it is switched off centrally. For example, a call to reception resulted in a man appearing who checked the remote control for the light and found the same thing as us, he then called reception who switched the light back on centrally, after about 1 hour's absence the light was not working again. A call to reception and only 10 minutes later the light worked again, but for no less than 2 minutes, then it was switched off again. I saved myself another phone call. There are very few shelves in the bathroom and you can hardly turn around in the bathroom. The bathroom mirror beeps in an intrusive tone. There is not even a coffee machine in the bedroom, although these are available in cheaper rooms. The mini bar fridge hums very loudly and the TV hangs askew. There are only a limited number of toiletries and the cheaper rooms have the more expensive Ortigia brand products, which I found woefully lacking. The ro

Fantastic location - view of the temple from our window. Room was very spacious, super functional , modern and clean. Extremely friendly staff - they love what they do, they love Sicily and it shows. Restaurant was superb - both dinner and breakfast. Highly recommend this place.