Porto Rotondo is one of the most beautiful towns in Sardinia and it reflects the typical stereotype of the glamorous dolce vita.So my wife and I decided to spend 5 days here and we picked what we thought was a decent hotel.

Let me start with the only positive thing which is the location of the hotel very close to the beach.I am afraid though that is the only positive thing as for the rest this 4 star hotel is more like a 2 star is type of accommodation. When we arrived we were offered a double bedroom with see view at 250 euro b&b per night we looked at the room and it seemed fine to us however we decided to go for the ground floor room which is closer to the pool and a bit less expensive(I.e 220 euro B&B per day instead) so we decided to stay and we booked the room.Surprisingly enough we were asked to pay the 5 nights in advance which is not the standard in Italy and decently not in a 4 star hotel.We decided to go ahead considering that the room we saw was good.Unfortunately this was a naïf decision to make as when we walked in to the ground floor room we smelled mould and the room was quite dark as well.The cupboard as well was smelly so we decided to change room.I called the reception and enquired and she said that she was aware of the "little inconvenient" and that was typical of the ground floor apartments ( so why didn't you tell me before?).My wife was furious considering that we paid already the 1010 euro.So we asked to be upgraded to a side sea view room located on the 1st floor. I was surprised when I learned that we had to pay for the difference!!I We were expecting a free upgrade considering the embracing mould smell (decently not what you expect when you pay that money in a 4 star hotel).Unfortunately this was not the only disappointment..the shower has been blocked for 2 days, the rooms are not sound proof and you can hear what is going on in the room beside, the breakfast is very very basic, as extra per day you have to pay 15 euro for the beach umbrella and 2 sun beds, and 2 euro if you want a beach towel (the 2 euro are covering the dry cleaner cost)

It sounds a bit like Ryanair where you pay for everything and where everything is under a strict budget regime the problem here was that we paid a business class fare to get an economy treatment...never again in La colonna beach!!!

I was reccommended the Colonna Beach Hotel Valutur Club near Olbia by a friend who had already been in another resort of Valtur. Worst suggestion I ever had! The architecture is nice, flowers all over, the beach is beautiful but:

1 - Village is built on a steep hill abd amenities are scattered all around so you have to walk miles every day to go to restaurant, reception, get beach towels and go to the beach. Courtesy van stops at peak hours (for lunch and dinner) so when its really hot you have to climb on your own to have lunch:The other restaurant, which is closer to the beach is closed on Fridays Saturdays and Sundays and dinner there (table


service) can only be booked at night at 9.45 (long queue!) so don't plan a night out or else you won't go!

2 _ Organization is left to teenagers who do not have the slightest idea how to cope with guests. what is called 'informal' would better be referred to it as' extremely rude'. Your are seen to to your table not out of kindness but because they want to fill all tables (really crowded) as there are far more people than seats available; it's like being in the school cafeteria but with more rules!. Lunch and dinner span over two hours' time but if you get there a bit late you'll find tables dirty and rarely cleaned up so you'll have to move dishes round yourself to be able to eat on a dirt paper mat (dinner has tablecloths, dirty most of the times). Also dishes and glasses are often greasy and spotted. There is a large variety of food but quality is really poor, it is served in a huge smokey room with dirty windows and floor is so poorley cleaned that is slippery and you have to be very careful to keep you balance among the hundreds of people running around with piled up dishes in their hands (Something out of Dante's Inferno!).

3 Beach offers 140 or so umbrellas with 2 folding chairs each plus about forty more beach chairs scattered in the bushes aorund the beach for more than seven hundred guests so people go down the beach at daybreak to occupy the umbrellas and long and fatiguing fight ensue with other guests. i complained about this and they only offered their very polite standard answer: 'We cannot do a thing about it'.

4 Check-in and check-out were dreadful: long hours to wait, not enough chairs for everybody, again young, unpolite , skilless youngsters who are surely not fit for a so called four stars hotel (Even one star would be too much for such a place) We were given our room at four o'clock on the day of arrival and were made leave it before ten on the day of departure. Tehy had courtesy room for showers which people had to stand in line to use (No comment about bathroom!!)

5 During my stay there was a huge group who paid far less than we did (which was an awful lot !) but were offered the same services as we were, so we wondered why we had to pay so much and have the same service of people who had paid half the price !

6 Everything offered extra was really expensive -they said drinks were free but for breakfast the only coffe or capuccino you were offered were those from a vending machine! if you wanted the real thing you had to pay for it!!

7- When we asked for info about the area they weren't helpful at all, they didn't have bus schedules available, maps of the area and the town near by.

8 We paid more for room in the so called 'Beach Hotel' and what we got was a very smelly and damp room with mold in the bathroom. Along the corridor which lead to the elevator there were dead cockroaches, we called reception to report it and it took them four days to get rid of them, which - by the way- were growing in number each day!
So do not get fooled by their catalogue it is not a hotel it is just a summer camp ! There are far better hotels in the area at half the price with a real hotel service and deserved stars!!