We stayed in a holiday weekend in Prima Galil in Tiberias, in a family suite.
Location:
In Tiberias, the hotels are divided to 2:
Hotels situated on the see shore, which have a very good access to the city center and to the beaches.
And hotels which are situated on the cliff which are either cheaper and/or have the best view on the Sea Of Gailee.
The Prima hotel supposed to belong to the second Category, hotels with view but unlike King Solomon & Club Hotel, it is not exactly on the tip of the cliff, so you can have nice views indeed , but can also see the rest of the city, not necessarily the pretty part. The down side is that the walk to the city center (which is pretty hard to park during rush hours) and to the beach can last more than 10 minutes – especially on the way back to the hotel, which requires climbing up the road.
Arrival:
For anyone which have to drive by himself to the hotel (rented/private car), the hotel is not so hard to find with a GPS, rather than arriving to its parking.
You have to turn left after passing the hotel on the road.
Had they just put a sign or two concerning the location of the parking, it would’ve make it much easier.
Parking:
On the main road it is impossible to park. However, there might be parking on the street behind it (where the entrance is located) but not always will you be able to find parking on the hotel street.
An important tip here to state: Ask the guard to help you park.
IF you don’t see him, try to call the hotel.
They tell you where to park even if you think it is prohibited, and if no parking is available, they will open the gate to an inner parking they have in an adjacent hotel (“prima too”)
Accessibility:
At the entrance to the hotel, there is an alternative to the stairs, but the slope is very steep, and I don’t believe any wheel chair handicapped will be able to climb it alone.
Also, while exiting from the dining room to the balcony to smoke or to eat in the Sukka during the Sukkot holiday, you have to pass another stair, which can be very uncomfortable since you’ll most likely go back and forth to take additional food from the buffet.
Another accessibility issue
The elevators look like old small elevators (although having an extension for a stretcher, intended for 6 people each) which were renovated with posters of the galilee maps.
You have to manually open the external door to get in to the elevator and push it to get out.
There was one elevator for odd floors and one for even.
Oddly enough, for even floors (2,4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14), you have to take the stairs (~7 stairs) to reach the elevator which is not so comfortable for wheelchairs and strollers.
Also, to reach the dining room, you have to take down the stairs from the lobby.
Mostly during rush hours during the meals, I lost my patience, since the waiting was very long, and took down the stairs, (Only 7 stairs each floor) despite suffering from a knee injury.
Luckily, my young daughter, don’t need the stroller anymore.
My advice is to take a room situated in a low odd numbered floor. You might be losing some of the landscape from the room, but will earn a lot in terms of convenience.
Facilities:
There were 2 computers in the lobby with free access to the prima Galilee trip portal, but with no internet access, which led to a lot of Solitaire played there. During my stay, one of them was broken.
As promised, there were a lot of brochures and maps scattered around the lobby, however, the books are behind glass, and I guess you’ll have to ask the stuff to take one of them, as if the hotel management is afraid someone would steal/ruin their books.
The air condition in the public area including the dining area was quite strong, sometimes too strong. I heard near me some elderly complaining about it.
Also, important to notify, the all the parts of the hotel were very clean.
Public areas:
Although there has been a renovation several years ago, still the interior is surprising.
The lobby has modern look, with shiny marble like floor, fabric sofas, tables are probably the old ones but covered with colorful new glass top.
The same and even more can be said about the very big & beautiful lounge bar, which can be accessed anytime, but especially useful during the evenings. The lounge bar can also be exited into a large balcony with nice looking olive trees, tables and chairs which have a very nice view to the sea of galilee but at night, you cannot see anything since Tiberias is not exactly Las Vegas, and during daytime it is quite hot outside.
The balcony underneath to which you exit from the dining room, is also beautiful, filled with flowers & spice plants, but the floor here is old and not renovated as it is in the lounge balcony. (Probably they were out of budget during the renovation).
The floor corridors towards the rooms were covered with carpets and were very clean and pleasant to walk. Also, the doors were covered with
The pool:
The pool is new, with beautiful wooden decked however quite disappointing.
Not only it is quite small, the hotel is shadowing it making the water quite cold.
The depth is 120 cm constant – I.E not suitable for infants, and I didn’t see another pool that does.
Also, eating around the pool is prohibited which is also a drag for children and not only for them. (I saw a lot of pools that sell snacks, and don’t have any problem with having them around it).
Service:
The stuff in the hotel is generally very helpful.
Still, I did have some occurrences whereas I was dissatisfied:
I asked for towels to the pool and they told me over the phone, I’ll be able to acquire them in the pool itself. Upon arrival I saw there weren’t any and asked the lifeguard to contact them several time but nothing.
At the end, I even walked by myself wet to the reception, and told them that my children are freezing, and even that didn’t help!! At the end (after more than 30 min) we used some towel we found by chance near the pool. Gross!!
In my room, I asked one of the employees, to move the bed since its location blocked the access to the stroller. Instead of calling other employees to help him, he told me: Please help me, it’s quite heavy.
And in the dining room, I commented that there wasn’t any soap in the dispenser in the hand washing station just outside it, but the guy addressed just told me it’s not under his responsibility since it is not inside the dining room (Although it’s clearly intended for the dining room diners) , and did nothing.
Activities:
- During both evenings there was a different artist playing live music in the lounge bar – quite surprising initiative for a small hotel.
- There was a trip with a bus to a jewelry store and to a cruise for 20 NIS. Very cheap. But beware – I heard from some people that they were waiting after boarding in the hot weather (32 Celsius with no air conditioning) to the ship more than 30 minutes until it started moving. Probably the ship owner is trying to wait until the ship is filled. The trip lasts more than 2 hours but the cruise itself is only 30 minutes long, whoever tried to board the cruise without going to the jewelry, have to pay 30 NIS instead of 20, looks like a punishment)
- Disappointingly, there were no children activities in the hotel and not any children oriented facilities, no playground, no club room, not even a single slide in the pool or outside it. Simply Nothing!!
Meals:
The meals were quite good but can be better.
There was some variety which also varied between mornings and evenings.
And the good thing about the diner that they were always serving some McDonald’s like children food, which is not such a bad thing since it helps to keep the children quiet during the meal.
In diner I also liked the meat loaf and the chocolate and the Poppy seed cake.
In one of the breakfast, there was an on demand egg preparation by one of the stuff which was delicious and also fresh bread was made by the stuff.
Anyhow, I wouldn’t say that there were a lot of outstanding dishes out there.
In addition, oddly enough, in the evenings, only water is offered for free, and you’ll have to pay even for orange juice which is free in the breakfasts.
In breakfast it was very weird there weren’t any olives served since it is very common to be served in Israel.
Also I heard some complaints around me, about lettuce salad not being the best of its kind.
The rooms:
We took the family suite which was a disappointment for some extent.
I’ll start with the pros:
The TV was a brand new 32 inch Samsung TV with all the cable channels.
The lighting facilities looked new.
The children bed was a very good one.
The safe was convenient and very easy to use.
All the plumbing devices looked new and impressive.
There were some tasty fruits and chocolates waiting for us in the room as well as in my wife’s parents room.
BTW: My wife’s parents room was a regular one, and as such 30% cheaper, and it wasn’t as bad as I’ve expected it to be. It actually looked exactly the same as ours, except the bath, the landscape and the children’s room which were missing.
If I wouldn’t have children, I don’t think I’d want to pay the extra.
The cons:
It looked like the room wasn’t ready for children stay.
Although stating over the phone I need a bed for my baby to sleep, they forgot it.
The stuff quickly arrived to my room, but they brought a little cradle suitable for 3 months old baby although I stated my baby age was 1.3.
Trying to get into the room with a stroller was blocked by the children bed, which was only solved with my wife initiative to move it to another side of the room.
The promised landscape is quite a joke. The room has no balcony as there is in most of Tiberias hotels. From the window unlike in the Club Hotel , Golan & King Solomon’s Hotel, you see the ugly part of Tiberias between you and the natural landscape (At from the height of the 5th floor)
And the biggest downside is that the room is divided as expected to children’s room and adults room but the landscape is only from the children room.
In the main parent room – you get a painting as a compensation, and very small window looking to another direction.
There was no privacy and no noise isolation in the room since there wasn’t any linking door between the children’s rooms and ours. (even not a sliding door).
Also, since the children’s room has no TV, they tend to come to the adults room to watch it, which eliminates all the privacy at once.
There was no closet which is pretty basic, but only shelves covered with a curtain.
The adults bed was very small, looked to me like 1.90 length, I am 1.85 and my legs were almost slipping outside.
The remote control was mostly non responsive since part of the channel receiver was covered by the table, so you really to have to put some efforts to switch channels (Which is impossible from the TV itself).
Since the toilet room is small, when you open the door, it is very easily slammed into to toilet, the ceiling is very small and I swear that if I was 5 cm taller I was banging my head in the ceiling while standing inside the bath.
Also, the water pressure was very low in the bath.
Off course I could’ve called on every problem I bumped into but I was tired, and expected they would think on everything in advance.
Room Tip: Low odd floor, don't pay extra if you are a couple without children.
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This review is the subjective opinion of a TripAdvisor member and not of TripAdvisor LLC
