Hotel & Residence Castelli

We spent a week here mid July and after a under whelming start quite enjoyed our stay in the end. Our initial impressions after the first days meals (all buffet style) were we were not too impressed with the lunch and evening food however we felt things improved after that and actually had a couple of really enjoyable meals. It might be that we just got into the swing of the sort of food on offer but it was all edible and, as it is a fair walk to any other restaurants, we had all our meals here. The wine was just about OK although a couple of times the white wine served was warm which did not help. The beer was drinkable and the (local) spirits on offer, if taken with mixers or in cocktails, was OK – but I would not recommend having the local brandy neat! The temperature was extremely hot (40C for a few days) and the aircon, after being on for 30 minutes, did its job and made for a comfortable night's sleep. We were glad to be offered a swim-up room for our last few days as a regular dip helped manage the very hot weather. We had a floating breakfast one morning and felt that there was far too much food and giving guests the choice of 2 or 3 options would have been better – the breakfast consisted of a plate of cooked food (scrambled egg, sausage, bacon), two plates of pastries, a plate of bread and jam, and a plate of cheese and cold meats with chutney, a plate of fruit and nuts and two large bowls of yogurt. We really hate food waste and rather than send half of it back uneaten put quite a bit into the fridge to have at lunchtime. I chose this hotel as the reviews in previous years had mostly been generally positive (other than the shower/bathrooms) and gave the impression (it had been ) a quiet family run hotel. It seems to have changed character with the hotel having just opened a new block across the road and there were now quite a few young guests which on some occasions were quite noisy, stood in the pool around the edge all day making it very difficult to use the pool for a swim, and the increase in guests put pressure on the eating area to the extent we had to wait for a table to become available a couple of times. My feeling was the reception staff and manager were surprised by the number of younger guests and saddened to hear about the noise issues. The staff were all excellent and the front office certainly listened to any issues we, and other guests, had and did all in their power to make the holiday the best it could be.