Talk about kid freindly, this hotel caters on every angle. They have a dedicated kinder centre on level 1 for Children with two large rooms dedicated to fun.

We stayed with our 2.5 yr old and 8 week old baby, and stayed in a 80sm apartment style room with a small kitchette. A spacious living room and dining table and huge balcony (Accessable from the bedroom and living area) overlooking Lake Maggiorre.

The restaurant offered a half board option that was value for money with Breakfast and dinner, and enable the hasle free aspect of not having to find a restaurant to eat in that allowed chilren to be themselves. The staff were friendly from the reception, to the wait staff in the restaurant and the housekeeper was always greeting us with a smile.

The only downside is the decor, which is a throwback from the 70s in mustard yellow lounge and brown 70s dining table and chairs, but very comfortable for its age without any sag. I understand that this is due for a makeover this year, so this should lift it to the 2010 era.

At 350 chf a night, its a bit on the high side, but given the room size, meals and location, it is good value, and we would definately stay there again.

The location is great (if you don't mind the noise of the street and construction going on next to the hotel!) and the hotel offers some rooms with lake view. Despite the fact that the nice hotel staff gave us a warm welcome and even gave us an upgrade to one of these lake view rooms, I would not recommend the hotel, mainly because of the poor and worn out furniture in the rooms. However, the breakfast buffet was very good. Ideal for kids, small pool.

We stayed at the Locarno Ramada Arcadia in early August 2008. As others stated, the rooms are very spacious and include a small kitchen area with a table as well as a sitting area. They are quite comfortably furnished. The other big plus is the location, as the hotel is very central, across the road from the lakeside and close to the old town area as well. The staff is incredibly helpful and friendly, too. The negatives that we found might not matter to many travelers, but we found the pool to be fairly small, and the "exercise room" to be downright scary. The fitness room is located in the basement next to the garage, and appears to have been a safe or a meat locker in a previous life. You enter it by stepping over a threshold via a large heavy vault-like door; moreover it contains only a small assortment of old and poorly maintained equipment. The internet use charges were outrageous at about 5CHF for 30 minutes and 60CHF for 24 hours. While the room rate that we got was very reasonable, breakfast is not included as it is in most Swiss hotels