We stayed at this hotel in the hamlet of Fai della Paganella for a few days this month, having booked on a very inexpensive 5/6 day trip, advertised as Lake Garda and the Dolomites. This demonstrates the need to read the small print. We were in fact staying in the winter ski resort of Fai della Paganella. All in all a good value trip with an excellent coach, driver and guide. The hotel had been changed, presumably because of problems with numbers/costs etc. The original hotel was in the village but we found ourselves about 1.5 miles from the village up or down a steep road without a footpath. Very convenient for the ski lift but this was August! The hotel was friendly but pretty basic although reasonably clean. But the food was absolutely ghastly. In a week we did not see a slice of tomato or lemon let alone a fresh vegetable. Everything was processed or bought in and sometimes it was imposible to know exactly what one was being given, although there was plenty of it. In a land where fresh produce is so readily avaiable this was quite unforgiveable, and absolutely disgusting. Plastic bread, fruit juice, cheese, ham appeared each morning all in uniform slices of yellow and pink. Our return flight was cancelled late at night and we were put up in a small but excellent city hotel. The breakfast there was by comparison a feast and both hotels were 3*. Hotel Santellina should be downgraded to 1* until it learns that the touring public has become too sophisticated to put up with their gastronomic nonsense. Oh for some decent bread, fresh cheese and an apple! After all that's where they are grown.
If you own or manage Santellina, register now for free tools to enhance your listing, attract new reviews, and respond to reviewers.
- Manage your listing
