Неделя в Палермо Week in Palermo

The hotel was chosen on the recommendation of employees of the Todo-tour company (Moscow), they warned about its features described below. A beach holiday was planned. The hotel is ideally located - almost on the way from the airport to Palermo proper, no more than half an hour by taxi. At the time when it was built, it probably could have been given all 5 stars (a well-thought-out territory, there is a swimming pool, a conference room, a 24-hour bar, a transformable dining room), now, to be honest, for the service honest "4 *" , even with a plus, but the building itself does not pull a bit. At the reception there is usually at least one person who is familiar with English, in other cases it’s not easy to remember the number of your number in the local move. The service in the room is at the level, everything is cleaned neatly, the linen is changed daily, the missus seemed to have a low pillow, bungled the second one from the blanket, so they noticed and without asking they brought another one.
The bed is very comfortable for any purpose ; -) Equipment of the room: the air conditioner is normal, the doors-windows are wooden, a bit shabby, the taps in the bathroom are fossil (with rubber gaskets), hot water obviously comes from autonomous boilers, and the switching is not very clear (periodically hot cools at the most inopportune moment), with all sorts of shampoos there - no problem. The drain in the toilet has a frankly idiotic design - a pipe with a lever sticking out of the wall from the side of the living room. When pressed, everything merges well, but in the room the sound effect is most convincing ; -) The bathroom has a hairdryer (working) and a socket for an electric shaver. There is a feature of electrical outlets - some kind of local fossil standard with thin Soviet-style plug pins and a grounding contact in the middle (there are such ones all over Mondello, if not all over Sicily, in Palermo they are exactly the same).
What we consider to be a euro socket is available in the amount of 1 piece on the desk next to the TV. There is Wi-Fi paid, from 5 euros per hour, if the packages are larger - cheaper. If you need an Internet, then you should use it. The room is caught rather weakly, sometimes it is worth crawling out into the corridor. Mosquitoes all over Mondello to hell, so the room has a fumigator with a couple of interchangeable plates. There are only half a dozen Italian channels on TV with average quality. The room has a minibar in a small fridge (the key is tied to the room key). They did not see anything interesting, they stocked up with local creations in a store nearby. The balcony has a very comfortable table and a couple of chairs. The hotel has a laundry service, but the laundry and ironing of each item adds up to the cost of the same shirt in a company store in Palermo, so it's not very economical.

I recommend self-service, if you wash your shirt in the morning before breakfast, by 10 hours it is already drying in the sun. All the necessary detergents can be obtained from the same store nearby. Now food. Breakfasts are deadly the same type, from what is presented on the "buffet" we can recommend scrambled eggs and brisket, vegetables are not dangerous for health, but not very tasty either, but you can poison anyone with sausages (soy, boiled and fried to impossibility), pastries usually good (croissants sprinkled with powdered sugar or cream, buns like our "Lux" and hot dogs in one bottle), fruits in bulk (and not bad ones), freshly squeezed juices are very good, coffee is good, only poison enemies with tea (they don’t understand it Italians, for the life of me), the mineral water is good, but it always runs out, you have to pay the attention of the waiter to this (its level is not visible due to the thermal container).
We never got to have lunch or dinner at the hotel, we wandered around in Palermo and Montreal, and also looked after absolutely amazing gastronomy nearby. This family business (the missus said that the name translates as "Brothers of the Green Heads", i. e. Fratelli Testaverde), works all days except Monday, from 7 am to 11 pm, payment only in cash. And it's DELICIOUS! ! ! Easy to pass. We stand with our backs to the main entrance to the hotel (at the gate with our backs to the sea) and stomp wherever our eyes look on the right side of the street. First, there should be an intercepting parking lot on the right, then the "Badalamenti" store next to the cafe (the store also has great gastronomy, pastries and drinks, you can also take a mineral water block on the way back, they accept bank cards for payment). Then we continue our way to the fork, stomp in accordance with the traffic rules (not under the "brick") on the right side and look to the left, looking for this very sign with the "brotherhood".
Feeding is 2-3 times cheaper than at the hotel, I already spoke about the quality. There are also eateries on the waterfront, but they are biased towards serving tourists, therefore the quality is lower. Also on the waterfront there are sporting goods stores in 200-300 meters in any direction. Now transport. The hotel always sticks out 1-2 taxis, so there are no problems with getting there. Public transport - AMAT buses, stop of route 806 in the direction of Palermo in front of the hotel (to the left of the central gate or to the right of the side gates, cross the zebra). I recommend taking the bus to Politeama, where it will turn off Svoboda Street (near the theater) or get off at a stop earlier. We get to the border of the historical center. If you exit immediately after the turn, there will be a stall nearby with tickets for sightseeing bus tours of the city. These buses also have audio guides in Russian. On foot straight along Svoboda - to the center of the "Center", to the left - to the port.
I recommend immediately stomping to the port, from there to the right to the ruins of the fortress, from there, looking into the Church of Mary on chains, stomp through the sea gates through the entire old city to the new gates (towards Independence Square, snooping around in accordance with the guide (available at the reception in hotel). From Independence Square, you can return to Politeama by bus 108 (or 104, it also brings you quite close). Separately, be sure to go to Montreal (bus 389 from the same Independence). I don’t write anything, because it must be seen. Yes, Drivers should have AMAT bus tickets, but they usually don’t, so it’s better to buy in advance at a tobacconist (1.20 apiece, valid for an hour and a half after the mark in the validator, there are also more “long-playing ones”. It’s easy to buy - just tell the stall seller " AMAT" and the desired number of tickets (uno, due, tre, etc. ). Go back at the same bath on the embankment, because the roads are one-way.

The entrance to the hotel territory is only from the side of the main entrance, everything is closed from the embankment.
And finally, the beach. Bulk sand, there are shallow and deep places (the deep bottom is dark due to algae), so there are no problems with choosing a place. The sand is not perfectly clean, but within limits. In the first ten days of October, it was quite hot, the water was not very warm in the morning, but by noon it was just right, so they usually bathed twice a day. There were few locals there, it was a bit cold for them. In the high season, there is not the sea, but soup with meatballs. The bay is very comfortable on both sides covered by mountains, so there is no strong wind. And finally, you can walk from the hotel to the center of Palermo through the national park of Mount Pelegrino, it's about 10 km (if only to the hippodrome, then about 7), the beauty is awesome, the locals also go nuts from such a forced march "Russo Turisto" ; - )
In general, what should be a beach holiday turned out to be an interesting sightseeing trip.
At the hotel, they didn’t take a penny from us for prolonging the room until the evening (VIMs fly out at 10 pm local time), but I doubt that this option will work during the season. Taxi to the airport 50 euros (there is not very far in a straight line, the planes land in the visibility zone, but you have to go around a couple of hills).
Apparently, this is the most decent hotel for 5 miles in the area. various national and international conferences are regularly held there. In general, the impressions of the hotel are good, it can be recommended for holidays in any format, but the hotel is still inferior to the normal European four stars. I hope this review will help you make your choice.