Palermo hotel/b&b help please
 

We are staying overnight in Palermo before we take off on vacation. Thanks to GAC and oters we were able to understand the different modes of transport to the airport and know there are cheaper options available. We have now narrowed it down to three hotels, all offering rooms (four of us, two adults, one child, one infant) for 135 euro. I would really appreciate any opinions if you have stayed there!

Grande Albergo Sole
Hotel Joli

Really trying to keep it cheap, clean and easy - seeing as we will be lugging cases and small children around! Please help!

Oops I did say THREE places! We tried a few times to reach Ai Cartari without any luck. Other one was Hotel Letizia. Cheers!

I stayed at the Hotel Joli last May. The location is good and the hotel is clean. Rooms are not fancy and not very pretty but there are a few with a terrace overlooking a park (we had one of these). The people who run it/work there are very nice.

I am recommending this place but with a caveat: Like other small hotels in Palermo, and elsewhere, there is no security at the front door and this may or may not be an issue for you.

Thanks for the compliment.

Here are two more good smallish hotels in Palermo to seriously consider:

Hotel del Centro
Hotel Ambasciatori

both on the southern end of Via Roma, not far from the rail station. Via Roma has really been "cleaned up" in the past several years; it's now a perfectly acceptable area of town for overnight stays. The airport bus will drop you at the central train station, from where it's a five minute walk up Via Roma to these properties.

I highly recommend the Ambasciatori: it has a splendid roof garden where breakfast is served, and you will gaze upon the skyline of Palermo and its cupolas. Rooms are very clean and have been upgraded.

I did not stay at the del Centro, but the website seems promising.

I understand that the Grand Hotel Sole has also been upgraded. It's a large hotel (so it accepts tour groups), and its location at the Quattro Canti is near perfect.

The Hotel Joli is particularly convenient to the Port, for ferry passengers to or from Naples and Cagliari.

We stayed at Albergo Sole in October 2003 and enjoyed it very much. As GAC says, it has been renovated. It's modern and nice. They have a very large breakfast buffet. The people were friendly. No complaints here.

I had looked into Letizia but was told by local person that the area was a bit dicey and that is why I changed to Joli, which does seem to be in a better area based on my limited knowledge of the city. I am sure you have heard this all before, but do take care in Palermo.