Upon arrival we were immediately upgraded to the ‘Sir Winston Churchill Suite” which is Lido Palace Hotel’s grandest suite...The suite, with acres of space and a separate jacuzzi room, really was impressive and it got our holiday off to a fantastic start. The hotel staff are very friendly and helpful and extremely polite, immediately making you feel at home. The hotel is olde-worlde, which is perfect as the boutique/quirky type of hotel appeals to us when travelling for pleasure – there’s nothing pretentious about this hotel!
The views of the lake from the room are magnificent and waking up to this every morning for a week felt like paradise. We had breakfast included in our rate and this was all very nice, with some very special cappuccinos! (A special thanks to Maria for not getting upset when I accidentally set fire to the toast/toaster!!!) We stayed the last week of September and the first 6 days were really warm (20-25C), with only the last day being rainy… So while we didn’t get the chance to try out the pool the rest of the hotel’s amenities were great… The town of Baveno itself is a little bit quiet at that time of year but there are a couple of nice restaurants and gelateria and, further afield in Stresa, there’s a wide choice of restaurants ranging from good value to pricey. We had a car for the duration of our stay and I’d recommend hiring a car as there are so many places to explore on lake Maggiore, which without a car would be pretty difficult – we hired a car through Hertz at Milanpese airport for £140 for the week (with a free upgrade to the next model, it must have been our lucky week!). Stresa is a €10-13 cab ride away, so on the nights that you don’t fancy driving or can’t agree on a designated driver it’s still quite reasonable to get around.
We had a fantastic week at the Lido Palace Hotel and while we were spoilt with the room upgrade it wouldn’t have been any less enjoyable with the standard lake view room we’d booked and paid for. (For UK travellers book through British Airways as there are a few extras thrown in.)
Thank you to the hotel staff for making our stay so memorable!
- Hotel Lido Palace
- Lido Palace Baveno
