Hotel Olympic Reviews

Diano Marina a beautiful seaside resort in Northern Italy, which we have been lucky enough to recently visit. However, while the resort was delightful enough the hotel was far from luxurious.

The brochure tells you: A FAMILY RUN HOTEL IN THE FAMILY FOR FIFTY (+) YEARS:

The brochure means; a fifty-three bed roomed hotel with just a handful of staff, who are family related. Staff were not particularly friendly or did they go out of their way to help in anyway. For example I enquired where the nearest bank machine was to which I got 'I don't know'. Eventually finding a small English run shop I enquired and was pointed in the direction of the cash machine (a two minute walk from the hotel). The hotel is fairly clean, and décor is acceptable though far from fashionable or ideal. The lift is tiny, and the bar usually unattended (unless you get the receptionist to serve you).

The brochure tells you: COMFORTABLE BEDROOMS ALL EN-SUITE AND ALL WITH BALCONIES:

The brochure means; each room has a toilet and shower, however whether you can actually fit into the shower is a different thing. The shower is immensely small, allowing no room for any disabled or larger person to move. The bedrooms and bath rooms are totally floored in tiles, which in turn get very slippery when they get wet (from shower), thus making them quite dangerous. Each bedroom had a balcony with two chairs on; our room was overlooking some mountainous scenes and the railway station. The brochure also fails to inform you that the hotel has no air conditioning except in the restaurant (partly), and absolutely no way of cooling down in the somewhat hot weather.

The brochure tells you: ALL FOOD COOKED BY OUR RESIDENT CHEF MARIO, COMBINING THINGS LIKE RAW SWORDFISH, WARM OCTOPUS, AND A CHILDREN'S MENU WITH THINGS LIKE PIZZA AND CHIPS.

The brochure means; you will have pork in some shape or form everyday but two. No children's menu will be available, and chips will be cooked upon Mario's say so. Our meal times were breakfast (between 8 and 9.30 am) which included pre-cooked-packed toast (ultra small slices), cereal with warm milk, croissant, and yoghurt. Dinners were slightly better and included: salad (everyday), then followed by soup or some pasta, then followed by your meal (usually pork), then complimented by a choice of deserts (Ice cream, cake, or fruit (never changing)) the days pork wasn't served we had an option of Hake or Chicken. However, despite the lack of variety the food was of a good standard and quite tasty.

The brochure tells you: CLOSE TO THE RAILWAY

The brochure means: Dead opposite the trains station with trains running every ten minutes or so from 5 am until midnight. The brochure also fails to tell you that next door is a pizza bar, in front of the hotel is a busy road, and the noise from the people alone is enough to keep anyone awake until 2 am!

What the brochures should say:

A family run hotel with minimal staff. Rooms are extremely hot and have no fan or air conditioning, they are also very noisy. Noise eventually subsides around 2 am, and begins with a very loud wake up call from the dustbin men emptying the rubbish EVERYDAY between 4 and 5am. Table decoration, napkins, and bed linen is only changed once weekly. Shower gel provided is similar in formulation to water. Towels are provided but resemble tea towels rather than actual towels. Staff are not trained, rather simply fall into the business. The roof top terrace is open when felt applicable, and is very very hot, and the green grass effect on the floor is bumpy and in places not so safe. When sending an e-mail to the hotel-don't expect a reply - I never got one at all - not even an acknowledgment of receiving the mail. The hotel also lacks a swimming pool or entertainment, unless you class the proprietor singing on the roof one evening in 10 as entertainment. Children's menu will not be available even though promised and pork will be a major meal time treat. There is no air conditioning which in turn means leaving the window/door open on the balcony. This of course results in disturbance due to the noise from the street below PLUS the train station opposite.

DISABLED:

I was informed this hotel would be suitable. However, when I arrived it was totally unsuitable, there were about eight steps at the front - with no hand rails. The lift available was not large enough to accommodate an open wheelchair. It did accommodate wheelchair (collapsed) and two persons ONLY. The hotel is totally unsuitable for those who are totally reliant upon their wheelchairs. Which in a way baffles me, as in the UK we are having to make places more accommodating for wheelchair users - but Diano Marina seemed to be doing nothing. Someone please explain if they can?

Overall:

Diano Marina is somewhere I could highly recommend as a holiday resort, however I would strongly advise against staying in the hotel Olympic as it is far from a good hotel. The food is of good quality (if you like pork and salad), and the hotel is clean. But there is a lot that could be done to improve the hotel. Namely: Improve the menu, enlarged showers or install baths into some rooms for less mobile, Make the lift a size which can accept more than two/three people, employ more staff, change linen/table cloth daily, install air conditioning or fans, warn people about the noise. Main complaints~ Noise, dirty linen table cloth/napkins, small shower/toilet (one couple had to change room as their shower was simply too small to use) and no air conditioning at all!!

Diano Marina is the best resort I have been to so far. Lots to do, lovely shops, and prices are very good. As it's a resort that Italians like to go for their holidays, there are very few inflated tourist prices, so you always get a good deal whether in restaurants or shops. The beach is lovely, no charge to go on, but the usual charge for sunbeds and umbrellas. People are very friendly and helpful everywhere. There are many places to visit from there - good bus service and train station which takes you all over the Riviera at a reasonable cost. We went to see San Remo, Monte Carlo, Nice, and a beautiful medieval village called Dolceaqua. Travelsphere organised these trips, and they were excellent.

The only snag with this trip was the hotel we were staying in. We had travelled for 2 days by coach, and arrived at the hotel pretty exhausted. Imagine our horror to find that this hotel is a opposite the train station, and railtrack and trains only a few yards away from the rooms! We could get very little sleep all holiday, and had to buy earplugs to get any sleep at all.

The weather was very hot, and there was no air conditioning, so we had to sleep with the windows open, or we would have suffocated. I do think that the tour operater should have mentioned this in their brochure, but there was not a hint of it, nor was it mentioned on the hotels' website.

On the plus side, the hotel was clean, and the food was simple but well cooked and adequate. There was also free internet access at any time, as long as you restricted it to 30 mins. The Travelsphere rep, Lisa was the most helpful and considerate person imaginable. She was so charming and couldn't do enough for all of us day or night. Having her ";look after"; us made up for a lot of the hotels' inadequacies.

I will definitely visit Diano Marina again, but will pick a hotel away from the trains in future!