Can't fault this hotel at all. Staff were friendly and very approachable. Hotel was immaculate and the rooms were too. Hotel provided us with a room with a balcony at no extra cost and didnt even ask for it! Breakfast was provided on the roof terrace with excellant views. Would highly recommend this hotel and may go back again and spend longer there. Well done Hotel De Russie!

Opened in 1871, this traditional hotel is the oldest in Viareggio and is named after Russian nobility that frequented the Italian Riviera in 19th century.

As the hotel is conveniently located on the main seaside shopping street of the city some rooms offer sea view, though the row of smaller building opposite annoyingly block part of the panorama.

The standard rooms are not among the largest I’ve seen, though there is certainly enough space for one or two people not to feel cramped. I found the furnishing and décor slightly basic for a historic hotel, though judging by their recent website pictures they may have renovated, or maybe my room just wasn’t one of their best.

They have a rooftop restaurant that offers good views towards the sea. The food is certainly not bad, but I think they represented themselves slightly better than they actually were. I had a few nicer meals in other upscale restaurants nearby.

There hotel also possesses a private section of the beach and an outdoor swimming pool across the road.

Overall, a good hotel, but could use some updating. One word of warning though: if coming by own car, ask the hotel to reserve the parking for you nearby in advance. The hotel doesn’t have its own garage and parking in central Viareggio is very difficult.

I have been booked a single room in Plaza e De Russie hotel.. it is a small but charming hotel, placed near the sea (in reality there are about 300 mm to the sand..).

I have been given a single room on the second floor.. the room was very small, but it was sold as "single", so I did not expect a 60 sq.m! Bed was queen size, comfortable. Bathroom was clean, with almost everything you may need.
Wifi available, for free.. just need a pre-registration at the check-in desk. Not the quickest, but enough to check your mail before going to sleep.

Now, as usual, my special comments:

The Good,
1) The reception - VERY useful and helpfully following my request. They suggested me a very good restaurant, one of the best of my trip. Not a tourist-trap, but the restaurant full of locals which you are always looking for when you travel.
2) Location - cannot be better!! I went for a walk, and it was very relaxing to be a few meters from the sea
3) Price - paid a little bill thanks to on-line booking

The Bad
1) The restaurant was closed due to renovation. This can be a problem if you were expecting not to go out.
2) Room was small but ok.. the main problem was the temperature: I think I had about 25 degrees in my room. I had to keep my windows opened, since it seemed the control does not work properly.

The Ugly
1) Parking places - just a few parking places reserved to the hotel... all the big square right in front of it is "paying area".. so you have to be prepared to pay to leave your car there.. Hotel has a special fixed price for the 24 hours, but, at the end, can be very expensive.
2) Room TV - ok, it was a single room.. ok, it was a cheap room.. but an old-fashion TV, maybe 23 inch, with a remote control not working properly, 5 seconds during channel changes.. it gave me the idea of an old soviet-style hotel in Moscow.. maybe they should think to invest a few moneys into a new television set.. it would change the room appearance.

At the end, I'd suggest thi hotel to all you reader.. at least, if you are available to spend some more money to get a bigger room... In summer this hotel can be VERY expensive. so double pay attention to what room you get!!

We stayed at this hotel a week ago for a family wedding. The hotel is elegant and slightly decadent, with spacious rooms, modern bathrooms and the usual amenities you would expect. The staff is very friendly and children are welcome (we had three young ones with us and noticed many more couples with small children). Breakfast buffet is very satisfying with plenty of choice and a very large tray of excellent Italian "cornetti" (croissants).The location is superb, although parking is not the easiest and you need to get daily parking tickets from the hotel reception (for about 5 euros a day) as well as move your car on sunday nights for regular street cleaning. On the downside, what let us down a bit was the air con in the room, which would suddenly start in the middle of the night and would be impossible to switch off (in all fairness we did not ask for help with the hotel staff), the shower screen on top of the bath, which opened in a very awkward manner, and the hot water from the bathroom taps, which took a long time to come (apparently due to the fact that the hotel was not very busy and hot water had to come all the way from the boiler...). Regardless of our opinion on Viareggio, we found that bathing in the sea was near to impossible because of the algae near the shore and had to resort to swimming in the pool. A big shame for a seaside town!