Hellenia Yachting Hotel & Spa

Where to start….. Food, Holiday to Italy we imagined would include Al La Carte in the evening. Most certainly was not a cheap holiday. We had signed up for half board with Titan travel. Food was very poor quality, including tinned peas, canned carrots. Meat was dry and tasteless. Some of it looked as though it was reconstituted, tasted like it too. Desserts had no cream or sauces. Felt that the hotel were skimping, cutting corners where ever they could. Our room although newly decorated smelt of damp. We left our balcony doors open. Still smelt of damp. Worse though was being in the middle of a building site. We had work being done above us in the penthouse suite. An angle grinder being used next to the pool, part of the edge of the roof they were trying to remove, actually fell off, almost with one of the builders. And I’m assuming a function room that was being refurbished, again next to the pool. Paths and entrance road was a dicing with death experience. One of our group actually did fall on the broken tiles just outside the hotel. Very badly bruising her face and neck. I could go on……..

Our holiday with Titan was very disappointing and staying at this hotel was pretty bad. The food was bland and overcooked and was more like a school dinner, the hotel was literally falling apart, the frontage was roped off forcing you to use the carpark entrance which was littered with broken, dangerous and uneven floor pavers. There were no sunbeds on the beach, the umbrellas around the pool were all tied up and the sound of hammering and someone using an angle grinder made sunbathing impossible. The room was clean but there were no draws and a lack of a wardrobe or somewhere to hang your clothes was at a premium, think we had 6 hangers over the safe. When numerous people in our group, including ourselves were overcharged for bottles of wine we never had, the reception staff took the amount off the bill without an apology, they were really quite the worse we had ever come across. Needless to say we will not be revisiting and will not be travelling with Titan again.

After a tour of Italy this was our final destination, and what a disappointing end to a great trip. The 2 stars are for location which is fantastic, right on the beach, and for our room which was at the front overlooking the sea with a decent size balcony, although the furniture was dated and uncomfortable , and a parasol would have been useful. However that is where the positives end. The room was adequate but was very basically furnished with what looked like 20 year old IKEA units, the bathroom was well appointed but the shower was a little small. The aircon was useless, we couldn’t get the temperature below 25 degrees which made for uncomfortable nights, it sounded like it was on but it was very ineffective The outside area was very disappointing, the pool looked like it hadn’t been cleaned for weeks and it put us off using it, the pool surround was in dire need of a refit as the tiles were lifting and warped. There were parasols which were tied shut so the only shaded seating was under the balcony, it was as if we were there out of season and they hadn’t bothered to set everything up. Breakfasts were average at best, the so called cooked option was undercooked bacon and watery scrambled eggs. There was also some building and renovation work going on so there was a fair bit of noise and disruption, we were not forewarned nor was there any explanation or apology from the hotel. Our biggest bugbear however was the attitude of the staff, particularly the reception staff. They were not at all welcoming, never greeted us or engaged with us voluntarily and were very unhelpful whenever we asked about excursions, buses, taxis etc. When checking out the guy on the desk just took our key without a word then thrust their tourist tax bill at us, they seriously need some customer service training. All in all potentially a great hotel in a great location but let down by poor management and dismissive attitudes of most of the staff, we felt like we were in the way and weren’t made the feel at all welcome. We were expecting so much more from a four star hotel, we would not recommend it and we wouldn’t book here again, a disappointing end to a great trip.

Very fancy reception area not matched by the rooms. Paper cups for tea no coffee or milk provided. The worst pillows ever lumpy and hard. The shower and hand basin didn’t drain so there was a swimming pool in the base. They didn’t fix it after we told them the day before. Ok breakfast.

Our experience at the Hellenia was shocking. We were told that the A/C was not available yet, and were advised to open the window and slider, which had no screens. The problem…there are feral cats living on the building. The cats entered the room at will. We were forced to crack the slider and window and secure with a chair or water bottle wedged in the opening. Unfortunately, the cats perched themselves on the window sill and balcony, pushing on the glass to try to get entry. We had to close the curtains, which blocked the little airflow through the cracked door. I brought my concern up to the hotel staff at the front desk, when I requested a fan. All three associates looked at me, emotionless, when I mentioned the cat problem. And the “bonus” was early morning roof construction on our final day. An additional observation….although the climate control was off in the rooms, the lobby and common spaces were air conditioned. Thank you Globus for selecting this GEM!

Beautiful place located on the water. Rooms are nice size, love the balcony views,but had a few disappoin**ents during our stay. The AC in many hotels in Sicily do not operate until May bc of the cool weather- but the April days we were there were hot and our balcony was not facing the breeze at all. Stray cats are on the property and visit the rooms w/ windows and doors open. Cats got into our belongings and our allergies are acting up from their visit to our room at night 😫.

TROVARE UN HOTEL APERTO È STATO DAVVERO DIFFICILE MA GRAZIE A SALVO ABBIAMO SCOPERTO L'HELLENIA, LA SUA CORTESIA CI HA PERMESSO DI TRASCORRERE UNA NOTTE DI RELAX IN UNA STRUTTURA UN PÒ DATATA MA MANTENUTA MOLTO BENE.

Great interior, very nice restaurant staff (a LOT of them- we were impressed) and our room was nice and big as well. Easy to walk to the beach or to town. Downside: close to the tourist area and weekend party noises were extremely loud Friday night.