Lake Garda - Hotel Sirenella
 

Has anyone stayed at (or even heard of) Hotel Sirenella in Torri de Benaco? It looks great on the internet http://www.hotelsirenella.com/ but I can't find any reference to it when I search for its name in this forum.

It does look pretty and I love the town of Torri de Benaco (we stayed at the Gardesana). But realize that the Sirenella is not in town -- but 5 km away. That may or may not be an issue.

Thanks Neopolitan. The distance is not an issue as we will have a car. I am more concerned about booking hotels "sight unseen" from the Internet. I haven't done it much before so I'm a bit nervous. Any general advice?

The reason I mentioned it, is that we too had a car. But in the height of season, traffic was horrible. One day we drove to Riva. After searching for over half an hour for a place to park, and getting trapped in the entranceway to a jammed parking lot, we gave up. When the car pinning us in finally backed out, we did too and left without ever getting out of the car in Riva. Sirmione seemed to be the same way. But we ended up leaving our car parked at our hotel and took boats to Sirmione and to other spots on the lake -- so much nicer and easier than the traffic and parking. And we loved strolling the little town of Torri early in the morning and also at night after dinner.
Maybe it's just us, but we don't like having to drive everywhere from our hotel.

Oh dear - I hadn't realised that the traffic might be that bad! But it's too late now as I've booked the hotel, so I hope it's OK :-). I'll be posting a trip review when I return and I'll let you know how we managed the traffic!

We recently staid in a hotel in Torbole for three nights (next to Riva. The traffic was fine. We also found our hotel on the internet but due to lack of experience, the hotel did not have any views of the lake! So what I would do if ever needed in the future, is to find a hotel right on the lake with views.