Christina at the front desk was an absolute gem ever helpful ! We had a ground floor room straight out for a swim in the lake ever morning Fab !!! The location is great if you are driving you don't have to go through the castle gates (Nightmare in a car).....Its a 12 to 15 min walk to center of the town. Check out the green colored wine store on the right hand side as you walk in by the car park. I have no Italian the people generally could not have been any more helpful !
Only downside is the walls seem very thin I didn't have a major problem with it. I would definitely recommend staying here and will again if I come back !!!

Aurora is a very modern hotel, smart design, excellent new materials in soundproofing, bathrooms, windows, a/c. The location is not perfect, because it is on the main street from Sirmione, but then, it is within a walking distance to Sirmione, has its own private lakefront, and nice restaurants in the vicinity. It is very well maintained - garden, parking, rooms and public areas.

That being said, it remains Italian in the size of the rooms and bathrooms (small), the receptionist is oftentimes away, the bar closes early. The breakfast is also basic, and the breakfast girl is not very friendly. Internet is only available from TV, very clumsy and very expensive.

We were a party of three families with young children (~11yrs), and we had excellent time in Sirmione and the surrounding area - Gardaland, safari/zoo, Aqualand, and the small towns... The children were swimming in the lake behind the hotel, the water is 25-27C in summer. Also, a one-day trip to Milan, Verona or Venice is a good idea.

I would stay there again, and I would insist on one of the renovated lake view rooms.

Hotel Aurora has left a very inconsistent impression on us.
On one hand it is very nice-looking on the outside, and ultra-modern on the inside.
We really liked the interior design - hi-tech, but warm and cozy.
The materials used were obviouly of high quality. The lighting solutions in the room are ample, but this also makes
them hard to control (pressing 4 different buttons until you get the light you want).

On the other hand, there are several, if not very big, issues that make the stay annoying.

The rooms are quite small, with little room left for your suitcases.
There were no blankets in the room, and the request to get one took quite a lot of effort.

The aircondition (the most weird part!) is controlled from the reception!! You cannot control it from your room.
You get 4 options (1,2,3 and off). So say, if you are feeling cold (hot) in the middle of the night, you have to call the reception (huh?)

OK, that might be manageable, if there was actually someone at the reception.
But because they are cutting on stuff, the receptionist also doubles up as a bartender
(and apparently spends his/her time elsewhere but the reception),
you cannot reach them by phone and you have to get down to the lobby, search for the receptionist on the ground floor, and make your requests.
That is very tiresome experience. 90% of the time I was calling the reception during the afternoon/evening I have got no answer.
The staff is friendly and eager to help, but two of the four receptionists speak very limited English.

The windows are soundproofed, and you get very little noise from the outside
(although we stayed in the lakeside room, and the hotel is on a busy main street of Sirmione), but...
The walls are P-A-P-E-R thin! I kid you not! Dont discuss any state secrets while you are in the room.
You can hear ANYTHING your neighbours do.
Including the smallest details of the conversation.
Add to that the sound of the water in the toilet and the shower
from the neighbouring room and you will get the approximate picture on the level of noise.

The room doors are squeaking and slammed hard.
You enter a room by passing a card against a card-reader next to the door
(by the way very unsecure since it indicates if you are in the room or not - nice feature for possible thieves,
in view of the reception situation I have described above), and it sounds a very loud buzz.
The doors are not soundproof by the way:)
The toilet seat is squeaking underneath (no, I am not that fat:)),
giving you an unpleasant feeling that you will find yourself on the floor any second.
We had ants in our bathroom, and bathroom cleanliness could be better.

The breakfast was quite simple , but OK overall, but the choice/selection could be wider.
We have not seen any vegetables or eggs during our 3-night stay.
There is a very nice deck on the water where you can have your breakfast, but no sun umbrellas - we got sunburnt after half an hour while eating our breakfast at 10 AM.
Expect to be attacked by annoying bees halfway through your meal.

The location is indeed quite far from the historic center - it will take you about 20 minutes by foot, or 2 minutes by car.
There are several restaurants in close vicinity of the hotel, bear in mind they are closed from 14 to 18-19.The hotel restaurant is not operating.

The parking is free.

Having said ALL that...the lakeside location is excellent, and lake views are unbeatable (provided your room has lakeview:)).
You can have a room with balcony or a garden,
and you are 1 meter from the water.
You can have more privacy in the room with balcony,
as you can open the balcony door and get addicted to the rustling of the water beneath the window.

On the other hand, there are no screens on the balcony doors/windows,
and you get tons of moscitoes entering your room - you will have to fight with them later.

So overall - the lakeview is excellent - everything else is quite annoying.
Perhaps that is what you get for the price you pay.
As somebody commented previously - this hotel can be a real gem, if some of the issues above can be fixed.

The "recommendation to a friend" below would be a "yes", but with a lot of reservations.

We had deluxe lakeside view, not cheap but very nice modern room with view from the toilet :) however no balcony - maybe because we only stayed one night. Only drawback was we did not realise was 20 min walk to old town centre and was hot. Staff was friendly, parking ok (hotel internal garage requested beforehand), breakfast ok.