Five of us , 4 adults & one child stayed at Antares for 2 weeks in August. The hotel was not what we were expecting, & does not live up to the brochure. The rooms were clean & tidy, but the buffet food was not of a very high standard. It was very repetitive & uninspiring! The staff & reception were far from helpfull, verging on rude & ignorant. My friend had a very expensive shoe mysteriously disappear from her room , & the ensuing communication with the rep & hotel staff was a total nightmare. If you are an Italian tourist you're fine. The hotel is not geared up for British tourists. As a group we are well travelled, & have travelled to Italy many times, but the atmosphere & reception on Sicily is quite different.
The inconsistant transport to Taormina was a bind, as buses were often full or didn't turn up! We did hire a car which was well worth it. Letojanni does not have much going for it, bars & cafes are minimal.
It was nice to visit Sicily , but I would not recommend it, & would be unlikely to return.

Hotel clean and staff brilliant food was good but if you are staying in the antares the broucher forgot to tell you about the views they are realy good apart from the M6 that is between the hotel and the beach you don't have to cross it but you can see it and hear it.
The lift down to the bottom of the hill is through the rock, makes a lot of noise and is quite scarry but better than walking. Chris Bonnington has base camp half way up the hill to the hotel!!!!! There is nothing on the sea front but go to Toamina its brilliant during the day and night. BE CAREFUL don't have a drink in the Wunderbar (4 Large beers 2 small beers and 4 lemonade 66euros) Overall a nice holiday but a bit quite and not a lot of English people. Not very suitable if you teenagers and they would be very bored. The Mount Etna trip was brilliant.

We spent a week in Sicily in June 2003. We booked a package tour through a travel agency in Hungary.
The reason of booking Antares Hotel was the closeness of the picturesque town of Taormina without being overpriced as all hotels in Taormina are. This hotel is placed on a hill together with other hotels (Olympico, La Terazze).
Antares is situated at the lowest terrace of the hill, but still has wonderful views over the coastline.
We booked the package tour with half board, breakfast and dinner: the food was provided in form of a very good and varied buffet.
The room and bathroom was very spacious, clean and from our balcony we had a wonderful view over the Bay of Taormina.
Since we made all-day excursions, we spent very little time at the hotel (therefore we did not used the great services of the hotel (fitness center, swimming pool etc.).
In the vicinity there are a lot of itineraries: first of all Taormina, Castelmola (magnificent view over Taormina!!!!) Valley of Alcantara, Catania, Giardini Naxos. Among the more distant destinations do not miss Cathedral of Monreale, little town of Cefalu (fantastic fish-restaurants), Lipari Islands (boat tour among the rocks), Siracusa (the Greek theatre), Piazza Armerina (mosaics), Enna (the churches), Agrigento (greek temples) etc etc etc...
The only drawback is that you need to rent a car anyway if you do not want to stay at the hotel for the whole time of your stay (bus service is not too frequent).
My only one negative impression was at arriving: we booked a sea-view room but received a room with only partial side views. The receptionist seemed not to be willing to change our room, but we insisted and after a 20 minutes arguing we received a 'normal' sea-view room with wonderful view over Bay of Taormina. Despite this negative experience our all stay was wonderful and we would stay here again if we return to Sicily.

We stayed at this hotel for a week between 28th October and 5th November. As with other guests we found the service distinctly lacking, and some staff rude (not all), but you could never trust that what you had asked for would be delivered. For example it took two days to get sunbed mats for all the guests who wanted to lie by the pool. I was told by the attendant that we weren't allowed to have them as it was the end of the season despite the fact that the hotel was almost full, and there were 15-20 guests wishing to stay by the pool. But I was told by the receptionist that we could of course have mats, and she made me feel stupid for even asking. One day, the pool attendant appeared with an armful of mats! We were amazed having resigned ourselves to enduring hard plastic sunbeds and sore behinds. Somebody had got through to him, and he received a round of applause from everyone by the pool.

Our first allocated room was run-down, dark and located above the kitchens, so noisy. The bathroom flooded everytime we had a shower, so eventually we requested a room change. The second room was much better, but stank of rancid drains. I poured boiling water down them to try to kill-off whatever bacteria was festering in there. It seemed to work, but I had to do it every night!

The famous lifts mentioned in other reviews stopped working entirely mid-week, and remained broken until we departed. Luckily we had hired a car by then so could drive up and down the steep road. I don't know how other guests managed, especially the older ones amongst them.

I truly cannot believe that the hotel Olimpo has four stars. It is quite incredible.

Anyway, to cut a long story short, don't stay at this hotel. Don't be tempted by talk of fine views, there are other hotels with views that are probably much better than this one.

Oh, one last thing, the food wasn't too bad.