Rivatas

: Considering the sprawling Varanasi, it is difficult to establish whether this hotel is located on the outskirts or not; in any case, it is outside the most intensely urbanized sector, being about 5 km from the western bank of the Ganges as the crow flies. The area of ​​the hotel seems to have been recently built, as the streets are wide, with enough greenery around and with mostly modern buildings, including several high-end hotels; the Varanasi TV Tower is very close, while the Varuna River is 200 meters away and the JHV Mall is 300 meters away. Medium/large in size (68 rooms), the structure stands out externally for its abundance of windows; the hall is of adequate size and of a certain elegance, with reception, lounges, bar and restaurant; among the services there is a gym and a small swimming pool (theoretically there is also a spa, but during our stay it was not working). English: Our room was large and had a king size bed, obviously equipped with everything you need, from the safe to the manually adjustable air conditioning, but strangely there was no mini-bar, in the sense that there was only an empty fridge; a circumstance certainly not in line with a 5-star structure, just as I would have expected more refined furnishings (and certainly not dented or chipped furniture), even if I would save the sleeping area, which seemed quite elegant to me. From this point of view, the bathroom, blind but generously sized and with a large shower, appears even more "cold" and austere. The bed and pillows were comfortable but the night's rest was not disturbed by the noise from the street as the large window is not soundproofed at all: luckily our room overlooked a secondary road, but we were still woken up by the barking of stray dogs. The view was not very significant (moreover, we were on the first floor) but you could see the TV tower well, which is lit up by multicoloured lights at night. Breakfast is certainly abandoned and varied but more suited to the tastes of local people, while it is less so for a European: even in this case, given the level of the structure, a greater effort would be needed to offer a more international cuisine.