Hotel Iva Reviews

Have travelled to Italy many,many times before. This is the first time by coach, and the first time to Liguria.
We paid a supplement to travel on ";Royal Consort";, an upgraded coach with reclining seats, more legroom etc. Our two drivers Titch, and Leon were exceptional for their dedication to their passengers and good humour, and service on- board.

Hotels at the two overnight stopovers in Paris-outbound, and Dijon-return were excellent with good rooms and food.
Diano Marina is a typical Italian resort with good beach facilities, very clean and
with good shops etc (no tourist tat).There is a pedestrianised main street
with excellant bars and restaurants, also there is a seafront esplanade, again with many bars, all reasonably priced.

The owners of the Hotel Iva were always pleasant and helpful, the food for the evening meal was plentiful, although catering for our group was slanted at the tourist.Other guests had a differnt menu.
We only had another vegetable apart from potatoes once all week.Breakfasts were boring, hard rolls, ham and cheese. The other guests were offered fresh croissants.
Our room was very small. Because the double bed was only 15 inches from the wall/window I had to climb over the bed.Also had to straddle the bidet to use the sink.!!!!Although fresh towels every day and maids kept rooms very clean.

Consorts brochure mentions that there is a climb from the town to the hotel, but does not mention that the hotel is on the main road into the resort and suffers from heavy traffic noise(including construction lorries going to building sites)from around 0600 till 0200 in the morning, you either close the windows and suffocate, or listen to the noise. Our first good nights sleep after six nights was the stopover on the journey home.
There are two excellent included excursions. recommend Monoco/Monte Carlo
but take your passport if you want to go in the Casino.The visit to the OLD town of Dolceacqua was also very interesting and included a visit to a typical restaurant,local buffet style lunch including wine.EXCELLENT!!!!

Our tour guide for the excursions was also excellent. Marisa, an italian lady, born in Italy,who lived in Australia for a while, excellant english , and lots and lots of info about the region, its history and culture etc.
The outbound journey went without a hitch taxi/feeder coach to Dover, and changeover to the ";Royal Consort"; before boarding the ferry, all made easy by Titch and Leon.

The return journey arrived at Calais early, and again as we had time before the ferry Titch and Leon took us to a wine Hypermarket. Six bottles of excellant Cote de Rhone, for £16...
Ferry was an hour late leaving Calais, and one of the coaches was delayed ariving at the interchange, so we set of nearly two hours late. We also had an extra changeover...three coaches from Dover to Bridgwater, arriving at 0230 instead of 0050. Luckily the taxi we had arranged to meet us at Bridgwater agreed to come out and collect us.
Liguria is and excellent region of Italy, with stunning views, coach travel was excellent,but hotel not up to standard.