Villa Del Lauro

First I will say that the staff here were excellent, polite and helpful. However, the hotel is on three levels and there is no lift. The breakfast was good but continental only. There is no restaurant and no bar, though the staff will happily serve drinks in the small lounge. The WiFi is not up to the job. The city of Ragusa is on two hills and the main street one long hill. To get to any restaurant is at least 10 minutes fast walk up hill, and 20 minutes is more realistic. The hotel is on a steep narrow street and the only parking is on-street and limited. You need to be fit! Position wise it is well positioned for access to the town or to Ragusa Ibla, the older part.

Beautiful property with lovely garden and pool area. Short walk to restaurants. Very nice breakfast in gorgeous dining area. Only downside was spotty WiFi.

Attention : the receptionist is a big liar ! The guy working at the reception is a disaster. He is dishonest and tried to charge twice the normal price for taxi that we ordered which was already over priced (130€ for 30 minutes ride vs. 60€ normal price) against huge commission from taxi company. Furthermore, they tried to charge the minibar which was free. The receptionist showed unwillingness when we left the luggage at the reception upon check out, even though it was to store for just a few hours, time to visit the old town. He put lots of pressure for check out time even it was about 11:10 and wanted to ask us to pay extra. There was no wifi nor air conditioning in the room which was literally a small cave. No fresh air in the room and impossible to get hot water for baby in the room. In addition, they forgot to put baby cot and charged additional fee for it (first time in Sicily during our 2-week trip). The only positive thing is that the servers for breakfast were very nice and helpful and there is a nice pool. It’s a pity that it’s ruined by the receptionists who were unfriendly, unhelpful and rude. The hotel’s management should alert the receptionists and give them a proper training.

Hotel itself was very good: we were given a big room/suite (although it was a little dark), breakfast was fine in a lovely elegant room leading out to the well kept garden. Staff on reception, which was always manned, were helpful. However, big negative when we left: they arranged a taxi for us to go from Ragusa to Siracuse which we knew would be expensive. They had a published list of prices on the reception desk and they told us it would be 140 euros. As it was also a public holiday, they mentioned that there might be a 15% surcharge. I enquired the night before to confirm the cost and they said it was Ok, no surcharge. Taxi arrived, was fine, taxi driver polite although did not really speak English. On arrival at Siracuse he charged us 189 euros, 49 (35%) above the expected price. As we didn't have the language skills to query it, we paid up. While I appreciate that the taxi company is not the direct responsibility of the hotel, I emailed them that night to inform them of the excessive overcharging of the taxi. The issue is for me that there was no response at all from the hotel. I didn't expect that they could do anything anyway, but a response would have been polite. Up until checking out, the staff had responded swiftly to queries, so we definitely got the impression that once you pay and they have your money, they couldn't care less. Left a bitter taste; would not want to return to this hotel

What a beautiful hotel! Getting to the hotel on the upper side of Ragusa is a driving adventure. The street it's on is very steep, curvy and cobbly. However, it's worth it. Inside an old structure is a wonderfully restored and modernized hotel. We were upgraded to a suite and it was exceptional. I could happily have stayed there for our entire vacation. Like everywhere we stayed, the rooms were spotless. The grounds are lovely and the pool looked very nice. Sadly, it was too cold to swim. The only negative was the lack of places to place anything in the bathroom - towels, robes, toilet kits, etc. The breakfast room is exceptionally beautiful but the breakfast was probably the least impressive of our stay. Nothing wrong, but nothing impressive - except that they offered large coffees, which was a treat. I would definitely stay here again, given the chance.