We have stayed at Castello Belvedere 2 times. July 2007 (2w) and July 2008(1W)

Each time we have had the same apartment in the ground floor with a stunning view over the Lido del Garda. Perfect.
The apartments are very nice to the price your are paying. Service is excellent.
The pool area is quite nice but the water is not only cold but almost freezing. The olive garden is very nice to lay in.
Remember to bring everything! As the apartment isn't that well equipped,

Next door there is a very nice 'Agro Culture' where you can enjoy a good relaxing dinner´.

I will definitely recommend the place if your are visiting the Garda area for the first time. It is a very good starting point for the area.

When arriving into the city there is a huge super market. Go there as the one recommented by the hotel isn't that well equipped.

We arrived to Verona by plain and rented a car for the vecation period.

We found Castello Belvedere very relaxing and enjoyable. Mauro, the host was very helpful and almost always there. The rooms are nice. Room 20 has the largest balcony and gave us a great veiw. I could have spent the whole vacation on that balcony. The location is excellent. If I could change anything...... the pillows and the internet access. However, we found pillows at a fantastic shopping mall on the far side of A4 about two miles and we actually survived with very limited internet. Go figure.

The Castello Belverdere is a great place for many reasons. First of all the host Mauro is phantastic. Very polite and almost always available, listening and solving whatever challenges that comes up immediately.

The garden at Belvedere is secure and locked up during the night having also a portier. The garden is absolutely phantastic with a beutiaful yard and a amazing pool area due to the breathtaking view.

The apartments are ok. Most importantly - do take the ones with a balkony. Do not save that extra money - they are worth every penny. Ensure that the all have a view. Ours did not have a full view of the sea, but it was still ok. Otherwise they could be more origianal to the Italien castello and surroundings, but I guess that is a matter of taste.

Three things should have been better to have scored it excellent. Paying almost Euro 200/ night it is expected that

- the cleaning is daily (it is actually weekly)
- that garbige is removed (you have to carry it down town yourselved to containers)
- that the beds are much better
- that there is proper owen (only a microwave)

Furthermore there is a restaurant next door. AVOID it. We ate there and it was far from impressive and the service was way below what you could expect. Having said this everyone were nice, excepting the owner who denied to serve a light dish on our last day despite having us eating there the day before, because the meal was not costly enough also being extremely unpolite. Don´t waste ou time going there. There are many better andmore impressive reastaurants down town.

Would we come back. Yes defintely!!!

The apartments and grounds are truly stunning. Really clean with breathtaking views. The only problem i had was the amount of flies - you couldn't eat outside. But I guess this will happen if you are on a lake.
We took the boat a couple of times to Sirmione. Which is somewhere i would definitely love to stay. I don't think i will be returning to Desenzano. I didn't like the area, food was very expensive and Taxis stopped after midnight. So you really had to be home by then if you weren't staying local. It will be a while before i return to the lakes though. It isn't my favourite part of Italy.