Hotel Beau Rivage

This hotel has an excellent location, being yards from the promenade (which is very short) and the ferry terminal. Drawing up at the lovely frontage and going through the delightful, old-school public rooms made going into a cold, dark, charmless room a big let-down. It was clean but had nothing else to recommend it. I had booked a balcony with garden view, which would have had daytime sun. The room I was given had a lake view, which was lovely, but the balcony was big enough only for one small, uncomfortable chair and had I been taller my feet would literally have been hanging over the edge. Had I realised the room was north-facing, with only a narrow French window, and got no sun-light at all I would have asked to change but I was seduced by the (side) lake view. There was very little drawer space and the only mirror was in the bathroom. There were two, hard dining-style chairs in the room so it was not a welcoming place to sit. It was also cold. When reception was asked about the heating not being on, though the air-con had a facility for heat and there were radiators, the response was variously that it was "against the law", that other customers wanted the air-con (when the temperature was dropping to 10C at night?), the downstairs rooms were warm and finally that it would be warm again on Wednesday. (This was Sunday). Not good enough. The breakfast was surprisingly limited and repetitive and the evening meal, chosen at breakfast, three choices for each course, was edible but certainly the least enjoyable I have ever had in numerous holidays in Italy. The service was good. The hotel hosts numerous coach tour groups from England and Europe and seems to cater well for them. Tui customers are allocated tables in a very pleasant, and much quieter section of the dining room which overlooks the lake. All in all, I was disappointed in the hotel's quality and would not return. It may be worth noting that on the net it says that you can walk to Stresa. Apparently this is technically possible but very unsafe as the route is along a narrow, winding road with no pavements. It is easy to get there by boat or bus but I had wanted to do the walk as there is very little to do in Baveno.

We visited with Shearings. A little apprehensive due to other comments but need not have worried at all. Our room was on the side with decent size balcony. However, it did overlook the car park so initially I had a moan! But I soon settled down and realised the room was large and still had great views. Car park and front road did not bother us. The weather was a little erratic but never boiling so we only used air con once which was fine. If windows shut then didn’t hear traffic. Yes, the beds were quite hard which did not bother us. Fridge and a safe were a bonus. Cleaning standards in the room were excellent and done every day. The hotel doors and a few areas could do with a lick of paint but again, we were not bothered by it. We thought the food was good. It certainly was not cold. Pasta and fish dishes were delicious. Not masses of variety of salad but it was fine. As for breakfast and someone moaning the only thing hot was eggs, we are abroad. We have continental breakfast abroad!! Lots of choice. We liked all our waiters and Maria. Certainly no complaints there. Yes, we sat in the back part of restaurant but so what? We were all together and we had mainly a good group. Our driver, Pav was fantastic. We would be more than happy to return. And you get amazing sunrises if up early enough!

Hotel public areas clean and comfortable, with decent size bar and lounge areas to relax in. However, our room was disappointing to say the least: we booked (Tui) a garden view room with balcony but it was very small and in a corner by the fire escape which made it so dark we had to have the light on all the time. The balcony was never used because it smelled of ‘drains’ and had mosquitos everywhere (I got bitten 3 times the first time I went out on arrival). We got the impression the hotel and staff were winding down for the season, all meals were rushed, eg. waiters were bringing 1st course at dinner before we’d started eating our salad from the buffet. They appeared short staffed with waiters serving tables in 2 rooms and the bar was unmanned until they’d finished in the restaurant. Woe betide if you wanted a tea or coffee in the daytime- you had to fetch someone from reception to oblige! Our biggest gripe was the food; never hot, (nor the coffee/tea), monotonous and uninspiring. Since when can tinned peas be acceptable in a restaurant! The salad buffet consisted of small dishes of lettuce, tomatoes, cucumber, sweet corn and raw carrot, every night the same. Breakfast very basic, only white bread for toast, we weren’t allowed to put brown bread in toaster! It’s such a pity as the hotel is in a great position, just across the road from the lake, close to the ferries, buses and trains. As an aside, the trip on the Centrovalley railway to Locarno was breathtakingly beautiful.