Mangia's Torre Del Barone Resort

This is by far one of the worst experiences ever, we have been on a tour de Sicily and wanted to end here on the south coast where Mangias have an all inclusive resort, which they somehow claim is 5 star The first impression is very nice, big place close to beach, pool and nice surroundings, reception taking well care of you on arrival, and then it more or less ends being both nice and for sure HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH 5 STAR, maybe except the price for things, which is not included in all inclusive. The hotel has a very strange odor smells like problems with the plumbing, but you can avoid in the room, if you keep door closed The bar has very little selection for the all inclusive even a soda machine for self service when all inclusive, and the bar personel even try to charge you for the little they do have included, everything is overpriced e.g., a known bottle of Red like Donnafugata is 30 euros more than in a fine restaurant in Palermo, you get a very light beer if you want to explore your all inclusive and for a fairly normal G&T you pay 18 Euros, so perhaps it’s only the prices being 5 stars The food is so so, you are not thinking 5 star, maybe 3-4 and presentation is not special, you find a table, and waiters provide you with a bottle of water, and if you ask for the wine list they do not know what you mean, even when you know which wine you like to have multiple people needs to become involved for you to pay the extras and get the wine, otherwise it’s a really “basic” wine if you like to utilize you all inclusive The beach is 15 minutes away, and there are no WIFI, nor any service, if you want to be in first row, where Mangias’s sun lounges are, you have to pay, you cannot get a fresh pool towel without paying and so on Nowhere are there any service, even some times you spend 5 minutes waiting, body cares and nobody ask what they can do for you, really very strange and nothing we have ever explored before, and as you can see we have been all over the world The area is infested with mosquitos and ants, you will spend the most of the first dys killing ants in your room in bathroom, bed and furniture, and if you go outside even in the bar area you are attacked by mosquitos We are so lucky to only be here for 3 nights

My partner and I stayed at this hotel for a week during our holiday to Sicily. We selected the bed and breakfast option, not all inclusive. Our first impression of the hotel was second to none, the decor and presentation is beautiful, certainly looks like a 5 star hotel! The receptionists on arrival and throughout our stay were also exceptional, very friendly and approachable with no doubt that they would do anything for you. However, this is where our compliments end. We felt during our stay that we were not valued as other guests and we did not understand why. Things like, waiting staff not being as smiley and approachable as they were to other guests, forgetting multiple drinks orders throughout the week, cocktails coming in different forms in the same night (the Sicilian passion cocktail first arriving as a frozen daiquiri form then half an hour later another arriving as a liquid). One waiter started to take our order at the bar and whilst my partner was mid sentence the waiter walked off and started serving somebody else. We also did not feel that sweeping round our feet at the table in the bar was appropriate when we were eating our meals. Our room although lovely with a beautiful view, wasn’t cleaned every day. This is not something that would bother us ordinarily as nobody changes their sheets at home everyday but in a 5 star hotel, you expect room service every day, which did not happen and clean sheets more than 3 times in a week. For bed and breakfast we had access to the buffet in the morning which was nice if you don’t want any warm food. Multiple different types of fruit, yoghurt, pasties and cakes but the bacon, sausage and egg was disappointingly cold every morning. Coffee is exceptional though! There are restaurants within the hotel that are equally lovely in decor as the rest of the hotel and the food was very nice. However, one night in one of the restaurants we were dining with no more than 5 other tables. Whilst we were eating our main courses, one of the waiters came out with two meals and a jug to accompany, it was clear that the waiter was unsure of which table the food belonged to as he was walking around aimlessly. He then put the jug on our table and walked off. Confused and thinking that the jug was an accompaniment to our meal, I picked it up and had a look but decided to leave it. In this time the waiter came back with the same two meals, picked up the jug he had left on our table and took it to another table and gave them their meals along with the jug. Thankfully I hadn’t toughed the sauce in the jug or actually eaten any of it, little do they know I could’ve had an allergy to something in that sauce or heaven forbid I could of cross contaminated something from my meal into the sauce and then it be taken to the correct person with an allergy or intolerance. Thankfully this did not occur but we were both astounded that this had happened at a 5 star restaurant. All of these things may be small but