Park Hotel Silemi

Vintage family owned hotel conveniently located to Lido Letoganni and Taormina. First class service and food. Authentic Sicilian cuisine. Returned 18 months later for another seven days.

It's a 4 star hotel on paper. When you first arrive, you'll notice that the hotel was once a great hotel, but lacks investments or modernization. The room smell like old furniture (deluxe room). Luckily, the smell goes away in a couple of days (or we got used to it). Our bathroom door (probably since the hotel was built) didn't close as there was an issue with the doorknob. It took them 3 days of consecutive calls and complaints to fix it. We left in the 4th day... The noise isolation is a joke. We were woken up each morning by the cleaning lady on the hall that felt like she's shouting, but she used a normal volume. Noise isolation with the neighboring rooms is also poor. There was a family with a baby next door and we could hear the baby as it would have been in the same room. Breakfast is poor in choices but tasty. Parking is so and so. Not many places to park, but reasonable. On the positive side, the view from the room is amazing. There is this huge terrace with sunbeds that display the most spectacular view.

Hotel was very tired and in need of sprucing up. Area around pool was covered with artificial grass which was extremely hot to walk on with bare feet!!! Staff were friendly. Dining options limited. We wanted just a snack but had to sit down at bar& order a meal. It took 20 mins to place an order and 45 mins for our meal to arrive. Hotel at the quieter less scenic end of Letojanni beach. View from our seaview room was however spectacular. Breakfast was aplenty with lots of choices. Lots of cake and pastries. Hotel was clean. We had clean towels every day. Not always necessary (thinking not eco friendly). 15 mins walk into town. Not a lot going on in the town basically a walk along prom and back but not a picturesque prom. Just restaurant after restaurant.Scruffy, lots of rubbish etc. Bus to Toamina goes from piazza Cagli which right up the other end of Letojanni bay from hotel. Approx 25 mins walk. City sightseeing bus tour from Letojanni is VERY long and Italian bus driver drove very fast along very winding roads and up sides of mountain....a lot of the time on his phone too😏We couldn't wait to get off. Wasted a whole day on a bus!! Castemola worth a visit if you can stomach the bus ride! Also Alcantara Gorge is beautiful. Well worth a visit. We went early morning and much quieter.