Spent 3 nights at the Carrubella Park Hotel which is a great base to visit Palermo while avoiding the traffic and hassle of driving in Palermo. Bus 389 which leaves from town square is only a 30 minute ride to the center of Palermo. We were able to do other day excursions from Monreale which were very enjoyable as well (Erice and Marsala).

The hotel is good value, has free parking and friendly, helpful staff! It was also one of the largest guest rooms we found in our travels across Sicily.

We booked through booking.com and got some discount - turned out to be good value for money. I would recommend this hotel as a base to visit Palermo without entering the city by car (as the traffic is v.hectic). Monreale is a cosy and pleasant town (esp. in the evenings when all the coach tours leave) and is only 30min bus ride away from Palermo city center. The hotel itself is very nicely located - 10 mins walk from Monreale's piazza and the views are unbeatable! Rooms are clean, spacious and with proper air-con. Car park outside. On the minus side: quite difficult to find, a bit old-fashioned, modest breakfast.

My wife and I had a delightful 3-day stay. The staff was very helpful, warm, and congenial. Our decent-size and meticulously clean room had a spectacular view over the Palermo area, as does the breakfast room and hotel patio. The publc rooms are a very attractive blend of old and new appointments. However, if you are driving, you should already be experienced in Italian hill towns. Once you arrive at the entrance to old town Monreale, the route to the hotel is reasonably well-marked by their signs, but the streets are very narrow, steep, and lined with parked cars reducing two-way road to single lane. We always made it without incident, but we sure were focused. Once at the hotel, plenty of safe, level, private parking. A 10-12 minute stroll down to the wonderfully lively main square (we have traveled extensively in Italy; Monreale's piazza seemed most like an Italian movie set!) does become a 15-20 minute hike back - but worth it. The #389 bus leaves frequently from that piazza to Palermo, which definitely beats driving in that city!

We booked this hotel through venere.com after reading the Tripadvisor reviews. It was hard to believe this was the same hotel we had read about. True, the views are magnificent, and Monreale is definitely a good base for a visit to Palermo (by bus). The wonderful cathedral and cloisters in Monreale itself are worth the stay as well, and the hotel is within easy walking distance of the center of town. However, the bathroom in one of our rooms had a drain that backed up and smelled of sewage every time the sink emptied, and the hotel was generally run down. We heard noise from adjacent rooms: high heels walking back and forth late at night, and snoring. The breakfast was minimal. Although the receptionist who welcomed us to the hotel offered us the use of his computer, he was never actually able to get it online; and apparently there is only one internet point (with one computer) in Monreale, and not many more than that in Palermo. This was the worst of the hotels we encountered during our two week trip in Italy. The hotel is, however, being renovated, so perhaps it will improve.