Varenna - Which hotel?
 

Hello,
Anyone have any comments about Hotel Du Lac or Hotel Milan(Albergo Milano) in Varenna? Thanks!

Hi Mikki,

I'm pretty sure that there have been postings on both of these hotels in the past - have you tried doing a search? If not, type "Varenna Hotels" into the Search box near the top of the page & you'll get a lot of information.

Also, if you haven't seen these sites yet, you will find them useful;

http://www.varennaitaly.com/english.html

http://www.tripadvisor.com/Tourism-g...Vacations.html

For some reason, Trip Advisor has its reviews of the Albergo Milano on its Lecco pages, rather than Varenna itself & you will find them here;

http://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Rev..._Lombardy.html

Hope this helps,

Jim

We absolutely loved the Hotel Du Lac. I have heard that it is the only hotel in town that has air conditioning. Are you going in the summer? That may be a factor. The only thing about Lake Como that disappointed us was that you could not swim in the lake, so maybe the one hotel in Varenna that has a pool (Hotel Victoria???) would be a better option if it's hot.

Do not book at the Hotel Victoria. I had made a reservation for my 50th birthday, 6 months in advance, and they sent me an email cancelling my reservation 3 weeks before we were to arrive, offering me a room at their other hotel across the lake at DOUBLE the price.Without getting into the hole story, I can't say enough of bad things about that hotel...pick another one.

We also stayed at the du Lac in Varenna. Very friendly and helpful staff, but our room was only average... except for the view which was spectacular. Buffet breakfast (included) was very nice, and the breakfast room had the same view. We'd definitely stay there again.

Message to Susanna: Was your reservation, by any chance, for late October? If so, your experience is not altogether unusual. The hotels in Bellagio and Varenna have a vague idea of their closing date when the season begins. When the Serbelloni in Bellagio decides on their closing date, everyone else follows suit. Depending on weather and the level of reservations on the books, some hotels close a week or two earlier and shift their bookings to a sister or cooperating hotel. This happened to us with Bellagio's Hotel Florence followed by the Metropole in 2003. It was a bit maddening at the time (two weeks before leaving home), but we ended up at the du Lac in Varenna and had a great time.

The duLac in Varenna is a very nice hotel IMO, especially if you get one of the larger rooms with the good lake views. Varenna is a much more "typical" Italian small town than Bellagio but there aren't as many diversion options there as found across the lake in Bellagio.

And I would definitely recommend staying somewhere that is air conditioned as it is rather humid at the lake and you'll appreciate A/C a great deal if it is both HOT and humid.

Thank you everyone - I have reserved the Hotel DuLac with a lakeview!

Now I have to decide on a hotel on Lake Orta. I'll start a new post....
Thanks again.

Jean: I post this just incase others are searching this hotel, since Mikki had decided on Hotel Du Lac (good choice) No, it was not because of it being the end of the season, in fact, it was the beginning of September, still high season. My guess was that they got a better offer from a group, the grand prix was that week, and they needed my room to accomodate them all. What was the most frustrating was that they would not give me their offered room at the same price, but double the original price, $400, which was not acceptable. After many emails, in both Italian and English, we were offered a free lunch. As it turned out we had a marvelous time on Lake Maggiore in Locarno, but it took the two weeks before we were to leave to work it all out, I'm not sure what we would have done had we left the country already and just arrived there, but I am almost positive it wouldn't have worked out in my favor.

Susanna, you have every right to be peeved on many levels. I'm glad things worked out, and you had a good trip in spite of this bad experience. I'll put the Hotel Victoria on my list of hotels to avoid.

we stayed at the hotel victoria last july and it was excellent. spectacular lake views and nice pool ,good service, and we swam in the lake with the local ladies. the hotel milano and dulac also look good