Hotel Marina

This is our tenth visit to Bardolino, having first visited in 1990 arriving late at night with a heavy thunderstorm raging outside! We were welcomed to Marina with a smile and helped to carry our cases into the room. Our room faced the main road/Idania Hotel and had a sunny balcony in the morning. We preferred it as the afternoon sun got rather hot, making it difficult to sit on the balcony and watch the world go by. The room had adequate number of power points and a small safe – big enough for a tablet but not a laptop. There is no fridge in the room which is a major disadvantage but the air conditioning worked well and was vital, especially at night. Once the shutters were closed, it was not noisy at night in spite of traffic. Wifi was slow and temperamental – there was no access in the room but we could use it for free downstairs in the reception area. Most of the staff do not speak English so a few Italian phrases will come useful if you plan to stay here! The wardrobe is not deep enough nor does it have enough hangers (take some). Toiletries are rather basic but the shower itself was excellent – hot and cold water whenever needed. There are no hooks in the room to hang clothes, bags, equipment etc. Breakfast was basic and got a bit samey after a while - Two kinds of fruit juices, fresh fruit salad, plain yoghurt, boiled eggs (egg cups provided), sliced ham/salami/cheese, white/brown sliced bread, milk, basic muesli, jams/honey (no marmalade), butter, cakes, a selection of fruit teas (but no Earl Grey). Tea pots are available in the dining room. Toaster and the coffee machine are excellent – great coffee makes for a great start to the day but if you are particular, bring your own tea bags and cereal. Contrary to information in the hotel, we did not get either BBC1 or BBC2 on TV. Channel 64 was for tennis, 105 for Sky News and 106 for CNN. This was welcome as in quite a few hotels in Italy, we have had no English language TV service. The hotel has parking spaces and many visitors stayed only for a few nights before moving on, having arrived by car. The clientele was mainly German but there were some British guests. Bardolino is a very busy resort – if at all possible, book a table for your evening meals in advance. Main bus station and Tourist Information office are a five minute walk away to the right of the hotel on the main road and a large supermarket (7 days a week 0800 to 2000) is a ten minute walk from the hotel past the bus station across the road. I have mentioned this in the past but cyclists continue to be more of a danger to pedestrians here than car drivers. There is no main beach in Bardolino – the best bathing area we found was by Hotel Parc Gritti. Finally, there is a tourist tax of 1 euro pp pn which had to be paid in cash when leaving. So set the appropriate sum aside in the safe on Day 1 – in case you run out of cash on the last day.

3rd visit to Lake Garda using Bardolino as our base staying at the 2 star Hotel Marina. Our room, number 24 was clean and provided us with everything we needed to make our stay as comfortable as possible including a safe. The added bonus was our very own balcony and although it provided a street view, this was in fact better that the rear of the hotel as neighbouring buildings would have been our view. Breakfast was provided, the usual fare of bread, meats, cheeses, juice, water, tea and coffee and home made cakes. I did miss not having an italian pastry (croissant) but this didn't spoil our stay. Got to know the owners very well and they proved to be very friendly as we spent time chatting with them in the evenings, in fact all the staff were friendly and helpful. The location of the hotel was only a 5-10 minute walk from where the ferry boats departed and was next to a lovely park. I really like the fact that with the hotel being small, only 25 rooms, it provided a quiet stay with various sitting out areas.