Astarea Hotel

We stayed in October 2006 in the annex to the main hotel. The Astarea is in Mlini, a small town on the beach and a short boat/bus ride to Dubrovnik or other islands. The town has a few restaurants and bars, a couple of touristy shops and was pretty quiet (I'm sure it gets busier in season). The hotel itself is quite large, obviously popular with package holiday companies and generally older people. We had a good room in the annex, fairly small but clean and quiet, with a balcony and nice view over the bay. Overall we had a god stay here, I wouldn't call it lively, but we had everything we needed and a nice location.

I stayed at this hotel for a week with my partner in the annex part of the hotel. All the rooms have a sea view and are basic but very good with a maid service every day. The staff are very friendly and will do anything they can to help. The clientele were made up mainly of French persons, Germans and English being in the majority for a change and the average age was over 50. We were half board and the food is buffet style and we found, excellent. A wide choice of food was on offer and a couple of vegetarian options with plenty of soup, salads etc. The only reason this hotel is a 3 star and not a 4 or 5 is because it can be a little tatty in places, ie the carpets in the main corridor needs replacing, the indoor pool ceiling needs repairing etc.. although they were doing at lot of maintenance whilst we were there (nothing that interfered with the enjoyment of our stay though). It may be that they have not been open for very long since the civil war, bearing in mind that a lot of refugees were evacuated to hotels in safer areas. It is ideally located to get to Dubrovnik. The hotel runs a shuttle bus (which u need to book) for approx £2.50 one way, taxi is about £12 one way and water bus about £10 return. Takes about 20 mins by road and half an hour to an hour by water depending on the speed and type of the boat! A short walk from the hotel there are various little shops,cafes, bars and restuarants. It's was fairly quiet when we went in early May and most places close about midnight. Its a pleasant stroll down the to front through the lovely gardens, the only problem here is that is should be pedestrianised, unfortunately its not. There are a couple of small beaches in front of the hotel which were clean and quiet. I would definitely stay there again, it was a great holiday and having a nice hotel made all the difference.