It is a beautiful place to visit where you can find a real spirit of Italy. I have two years old daughter and the Barsallini hotel could offer her plenty attractions. You can find there a park with a playground and small zoo with animals such as parrots, rabbits, ducks and fish. Apart from that, there is a lovely sandy beach right at the hotel’s corner. Moreover the hotel’s staff treat people with children the most welcomed not like in other places – unwanted.

Hotel provides a great quality of fresh food every day. You can feel that the chef is passionate about what he does. We spent there 8 days and every single one we have tasted different kinds of pasta, meat and fish and everything was delicious – NO EXCEPTIONS!

We have visited Barsalini twice already. First time, we were at the hotel in September 2010 and we were so satisfied so we have decided to come back in September this year. Each time we have discovered something new and we wish to come back there again.

If you want to spend some time in a nice place with good food in amiable atmosphere, I strongly recommend to visit the Barsallini hotel.

The hotel is made by many buildings close to eachothers, on the side of a hill facing the sea. Common spaces between the buildings include pool, garden, relax area, lounge area. In every small corner all is perfect: clean, fresh, with a lot of plants and flowers.
We chose a "Il cigno" room, with balcony facing the sea. The room looks recently furbished and painted, bathroom is new and spaceful.
In general we really enjoyed our stay.
As plus we would mention: position, really on the beach; a truly excellent restaurant (and we are not easy customers), cleanliness everywhere, free wifi and free relax area (during our stay there was no fee, and only one family at the time could be there).
We would have just appreciated a bit more "transparency": as example, at the restaurant, beverages are not inclucled in the full board and you need to order at the table, but without list...so you don't know the prices. There is in fact a wine list with prices in the restaurant, but it's never brought at the table, you need to ask for it. The situation is the same at the lounge bar, where you don't have a clue of what you'll pay your drink. Prices are on average, so no bad surprises at the end, but we didn't like the feeling of "not knowing".
At the same way, you need to ask if you need to pay for wifi or for jacuzzi in the relax area, information that could be included in the leaflet present in the rooms.
These are just small things that could be easily solved. It's instead impossible to solve what could be the only real problem of this hotel: many steps everywhere. Steps to the rooms, to the pool, to the restaurant, to the entrance,...This is obviously due to the position of the hotel, but it 's a trouble if you have difficulty with your legs or if you're handlings prams or pushchairs.
Comments beside the hotel: the beach is small, very small; the place is not a village, there is nothing to do and no space to walk; there are a lot of children on the beach; most of the people (not only in the hotel) was German.

To be honest I’d never heard of Elba before I started searching on the internet for somewhere to go and just laze about on a beach for a few days after a stay in Rome but now I’ve been I’ll be recommending the island to everyone I know. That goes for Hotel Barsalini as well.

As I say we just wanted a few days of doing nothing but relaxing and that is exactly what Hotel Barsalini provides. The hotel is located an hours drive from the main port of Portoferraio so if you’re not planning on taking or hiring a car you should definitely consult the owners on how best to arrive. While you won’t need a car when you’re there unless you want to explore the island further, which is well worthwhile as some of the scenery rivals the Amalfi coast for beauty, I’m not sure how great a bus service there is.

However your mode of transport you won’t be disappointed upon arrival. Set only a few metres back from a charming little blue flag beach the hotel is in the perfect location for spending your days sunbathing, swimming, boating and even hiking and biking should you be so inclined. You have the Mediterranean to one side of you and the lush green Elba hills and countryside to the other, paradise!

The hotel itself is recently modernised with a bar terrace, swimming pool, restaurant including outdoor seating area, indoor bar, a ‘garden of wellbeing’ and even a duck pond. There’s obviously been a lot of love gone into the design here as the personal touches and features are many and really add to the ambience. It really feels more like a good 4 star boutique hotel than a 3 star and without doubt were the owners to desire this status they could, with minimal changes, attain it. I’m not complaining though as the value for a stay here really is phenomenal and when you remember that this is Italy where hotels are generally very pricey this makes what is achieved in Hotel Barsalini all the more exceptional.

Which brings me to the food. We’ve never stayed anywhere on a half board basis mainly because we anticipate that the quality of the food won’t be up to scratch and also because we like to try local restaurants rather than staying in the hotel. But half board is the norm on Elba so we reluctantly went with the flow and thank goodness we did as the meals here are of a seriously high standard. Every night we were offered a completely different menu comprising of 4 (I think, maybe 3) starters, mains and deserts all comprising of some of the most fantastic local ingredients I’ve come across in Italy. It really was that good and for the price we were paying again makes this a fantastic achievement. I hope the owners read this and pass my compliments on to the chef as he/she is a real asset.

Another member of staff who deserves a mention is the bar man Daniellie (apologies for the spelling). Before dinner he runs a cocktail hour on the terrace complete with complimentary antipasti along with a (not complimentary) cocktail of the day, which my wife reliably informs me were all delicious. Again this is a touch which there is no need for the hotel to provide but really goes a long way to making the place really special.

So, what did I not like I hear you ask. Well not much is the answer but I’ll there are a couple of small things that keep this at the 3 star level rather than 4 (and even 5 if they really went for it).

The service while being excellent is slightly thinly spread so you can sometimes find yourself waiting at reception or the bar looking out for someone to serve you. This is particularly notable just before cocktail hour when the staff have their own dinner. The bar also closes at 11pm, slightly early for us Scots but they will prepare you something just before the shutters come down and there’s a late bar just across the street.

The free wi-fi while appreciated does not extend to the rooms. This seems a bit odd nowadays and I don’t think it would take much or any great expense to sort this out.

My last point can be taken as either a positive or a negative I suppose depending on your situation. You should note that the hotel is very much ‘family friendly’ which you can take to mean that children are allowed to run wild everywhere. When we were staying this meant that the pool area was rendered pretty much out of bounds for us as kids would always be playing there. They’re also allowed in the bar area at all times which for us, not having children, was annoying especially after dinner when I personally think they should be kept away. But this is as much the parents fault as the hotel and like I say I’m sure they’d have a very different view on this than we do.

Finally on this point the Garden of Wellbeing is supposed to be paying adults only but this doesn’t seem to be policed very effectively. On one occasion one small child stood at the gate for about 15 minutes crying and begging it’s father to let her go in the hot tub with us, serene it was not!
Anyway I’m not going to finish on a low note as I’m just nitpicking now. Overall this is a fantastic hotel in a fantastic location at a fantastic price. Credit should also go to the staff, in particular the lady owner, who made every effort to help us with translating the Italian into English on an island dominated by Italian and German tourists.

Lastly I would also recommend the local men’s and woman’s fragrances by Acqua dell’elba which you can purchase at reception just to take a bit of this beautiful island home with you.

I wanted to recommend this hotel, I really did! But the owner of this hotel actually *yelled* at me in both Italian and broken English b/c I had forgotten my luggage there ("abandoned it" as she said) and she threatened to leave it at some police station on this Island for me to 'go pick up' while I was standing, luggage-less, in a Rome hotel some 4 hours away. Yikes. So that sums up the service at this hotel. :(

I DO however wish to thank BIANCA for getting my luggage back to me, even if it did take over a month, and I alone had to figure out where and how it should be shipped back, after many dozens of phone calls and emails. Unlike US, where if you forget luggage, you get it very next day at your next hotel, "no charge and no complaints", in Italy if you leave luggage behind by accident, it can easily ruin your entire vacation and you will think Federal charges will soon be filed against you - so learn this lesson well! Yikes.

Bianca who thank God knew enough English to communicate with us, went the 'extra mile' to get my things back and without yelling at me even once. Yah Bianca! Many thanks again. :)

So with that aside, here is my review...

Location & Beauty: Truly unbelievable. I agree with the reviewer who said "probably you never forget this hotel" as the location was BEYOND gorgeous. We had a lovely balcony with view of pool and sea. The sea sparkled from just over the red clay tiles of the hotel and there were tons of lovely vistas and tiny beachy paths to walk down to get to the sand, which is literally RIGHT below your hotel room. Very convenient! Yes there are lots of kids but they were well behaved and it was overall a very good mix of young, old, and everything in between. I think everyone would feel comfortable on that beach as it is so inclusive and Europeans have such a "whatever" attitude anyway. Nice!

Beach: Absolutely gorgeous. We rented a boat from Daniel's Boat Rental, which is just a shaky card table + chair propped up on the beach. :) BEST BOATING EXPERIENCE EVER!!! We felt like rock stars cruising around the Mediterranean in that FAST little boat and getting out to swim up to the various caves!! If you look down you'll see ship wrecks, fish of all kinds (eel, sharks, etc) so be careful! I'm sure snorkeling would have been great but we were just wanting to buzz around and lay out for sun. PERFECT. Boating here was THE BEST experience we had in Italy, hands down! We will never forget it!

Food: Always there is something open! This is key if, like us, you like to eat! Most of Italy "closes up shop" at various (highly unpredictable) times of day and then you will be stuck with noplace to get a meal for literally hours at a time. By US standards this is definitely strange so it was great to find this particular beach area where always there is SOME place to nosh - either in hotel or at one of the little kick back, feet in the sand, beach restaurants. Gelato choices were endless on the beach too - big plus! Had breakfast at hotel's restaurant (included in fee) and there was plenty to eat though nothing different from other hotels across Italy.

Lanuage Barrier: BIG problem here. We went in September and 95% of visitors were German. No English speakers whatsoever. Nice to be in a completely non English speaking area for a bit, b/c you feel as tho you are TRULY "away from it all"! But owners speak ONLY Italian. I do wish they knew some English so we could have talked easily. I love both languages but speak neither so communicating was truly impossible. You would be surprised how stressful this can get after a couple of days (and esp if you leave your luggage behind! Forget it!). Also all 3 of us got the feeling that Americans are not exactly "welcome" here, as in all of Italy, so if you are from US prepare yourself for that.

Spa: Didn't work as advertised. You pay $10 to use it for the hour. The "hyrdrotherapy tub" is NOT a hot tub whirlpool as you would assume. It is just BARELY lukewarm water, kind of chilly actually, and it has bubbles - that's all. We used it anyway and the view was pretty but it was COLD! The sauna did NOT work at all. It was not even plugged in. No apologies or refunds for that either. When we asked about it they said "oh well, the main tourist season is over". Ohhh-kay. But I paid $10 to use it? Not their problem. Right after we left, a group "ran in" behind us without paying their $10 and nobody busted them, even though we told the Front Desk about it. An hour later, they were still in there partying it up. :^o So apparently the $10 per hour 'fee' is pretty random. If you are dumb enough to go to the front desk like we did and tell them you are using the Hot Tub Area, then you WILL be charged but if you SNEAK in, apparently it is FREE. That's Italy tho in general. You have to shrug off a lot of things you see there.

Rooms: NO English channels on TV! Bummer. Tons of German & Italian stations tho. Even one station in English such as CNN would have been VERY very welcome as after 2 weeks in Italy we were wondering what is going on at home. Rooms were clean tho which is all we actually expected. Loved the balcony with the swimsuit 'dryers' and fantastic view, which is where we spent all out time, while not on the beach!

Friendliness: NOT friendly. By American standards, our group found them quite unfriendly and not at all 'welcoming'. I know in US we have much higher standards and in general "the customer is always right" does NOT exist in Italy whatsoever. So be forewarned!

In general, we LOVED the location so much that everything else was eclipsed by that. This is truly a one of a kind spot!