Stayed there for 5 nights.
Room was OK in terms of amenities. In terms of size it was rather small. The balcony overlooking the beautiful Portoroz bay was particularly nice.
However, as rooms face westwards they get a lot of sun all day long thus getting particularly hot in spite of the max outside temperature in early Oct reaching into the low 20's.
This brings me to one major downside, the A/C, which doesn't produce any change in the room's temperature even after having worked in full power mode for half a day.
In October you could leave the balcony door open which would help a lot making the air inside the room breathable but was wondering what options one has, -other than changing the hotel- in mid-August when the temperature goes up into 40's and the existing A/C is useless.
I can only confirm the issue with the sewage stench. It wasn't though as present and overwhelming as stated in the previous comments, nevertheless was just as annoying when crept inside the bathroom or was felt on the sea promenade in front of the hotel.
Breakast was OK.
The outdoor bar terrace on the lobby floor has magnificent views of the bay and the nearby Portoroz city centre.
Staff is OK, though sometimes struggling to understand English being spoken at them.
The only excellent service the hotel provides is free high speed (and I do mean HIGH SPEED!) internet connection. This is way ahead of many other hotels of similar category.
The location of the Hotel is ok. It's within walking distance to Piran and Portoroz city centre (15-20 mins in either direction). There are also free busses connecting with Piran from the hotel's adjoining public parking area by the sea shore.
In other words the hotel scores average in pretty much all aspects of its offering. Pondering all aspects of its offering to me it appears as a good 4-star hotel, definitely not a 5. If you look at it this way you will not be dissapointed.
However the pricing is steep related to the offering. At 200 eur per night for a double you could get a a hotel that's closer to fulfiling the 5-star ranking than Bernardin.
Other than this, the Piran area is fantastic. The nature looks are fab. One can travel by car to Italy (Trieste and some small villages down that part of the coast) or to Croatia (especially to the beautiful little towns of Rovinj and Pola) and just as well inland to Lipica the home of famous Lipizzan horse breed and to the largest cave in Europe at Postojna.
I would return there for holiday with the family but would choose a different hotel.
- Grand Hotel Portoroz
