Ville Park Hotel

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We stayed at Vile Park Hotel in Porteroz (Porterose) from 30th May 2007 to 13th June 2007.
On our arrival we were offered a room in one of the villas which surround the main hotel. This room did not have a balcony and had restricted storage space. We did not think it was up to 3 star standards.
We asked if we could be moved and were immediately given a room in the main hotel building (which had been completely modernised and reopened in May 2007). This room was better in every way, ample storage space, nice balcony and a sea view. It was amply furnished.
The reception staff were excellent, very welcoming, and efficient.
Vile Hotel is part of the Bernadin Complex, which has four hotels. The hotels shared some facilities and meals were taken in the Hotel Histrion - a two minute walk from our hotel room.
The meals were excellent, with a very good choice and plenty of variety every evening. If we were to nitpick the sweets could have been a bit better. However they were still tasty.
The waiting staff were very polite and helpful and we were made to feel welcome here as well as in the Vile Park Hotel. The dining room manager was very friendly.
There was some entertainment in the Taverna Med., (below the dining room in the Histrion hotel. This was music for dancing although the area delegated for dancing was in our opinion as ballroom dancers, inadequate for its purpose.
We spent most evenings in the Taverna Veduka which was next door to our hotel. Here an accordionist played every evening. His music was mainly dance music, consisting of polkas, Viennese waltzes, modern waltzes, foxtrots, lots of tangos and some Austrian. And German folk dances.
Porterose is upmarket and there are few gift and souvenir shops with goods to meet the expected prices for holiday mementos.
There are excellent pool areas within the complex housed in the Hotel Laguna Park. There were 2 indoor heated pools, and outside a children’s pool. There were several whirlpools around the pool sides. There is also a "wellness and fitness centre" offering usual types of massage and treatments. Changing, showering, and storage facilities here were excellent. They even provided hair dryers!
The people is Slovenia were extremely nice, and very helpful. There were few English people on holiday there, but lots of Germans and Italians, as well as some people from Iceland.
All the Slovenians we came into contact with in the shops, on the buses and restaurants could speak English, albeit to varying extents. We were always able to make ourselves understood.
Buses were well-run, but the timetables were not easy to understand. We went by train from Koper (a resort further up the coast) to Ljubljana (the Capital City of Slovenia). The trains were exactly on time (up to the last second), but travelled slowly (due to the gradients on the hills). Ljubljana is well worth a visit. Taxis everywhere we went in Slovenia were expensive (extremely so).
The neighbouring resorts to Porterose - Piran, Izola and Koper were beautiful seaside resorts with marinas and old cities with narrow paved streets. Koper also was more of a town with industrial areas, docks and residential areas.
We would recommend the Venice trip organised by Globus (Balkan Holidays representatives in Slovenia) This was operated by Venezia Lines, who provided the tour guides, arranged for the Catamaran travel, water boat travel, motor launch travel, and not forgetting the romantic gondola ride complete with champagne. This whole trip is an unforgettable experience and the gondola ride is the experience of a lifetime.
Unfortunately the weather whilst we were there was very mixed. We experienced very hot weather (even factor 30 sun cream could not prevent us from catching the sun and thunderstorms, hailstorms and heavy showers. We never felt cold as even when it is pouring down with rain it is very warm. Unlike England, once the rain stops, however the sun comes out and it is hot again.
Although the brochures advertised that the hotel had a private beach there were no sandy beaches anywhere. The so called beach consisted of grassy and rocky areas where sun loungers and umbrellas could be hired (although the beach area was private to the hotel complex).
We had considered hiring a car whilst there but as we travelled about and saw the congested parking areas and the poor drivers looking harassed as they drove round and round as they tried to park we decided against this. We have driven in several foreign countries but have never seen such poor parking facilities.
We paid for meals on the planes. Adria Airways provided a sandwich of poor quality on the outward journey and a cake on the return journey. Orange Juice, water, wine, tea and coffee were freely available. On the planes the staff were friendly and very pleasant.
We were never introduced to our in resort representative. She did not turn up for the welcome meeting (she obviously thought that as we were the only two people arriving at that time that it was a waste of her time). One of the other workers in the Globus Travel shop spent some time going through some details with us.
Overall our impression was of a very beautiful country with extremely friendly and helpful people and we really enjoyed our holiday there. We can wholeheartedly recommend Vile Park (Vile by name but not by nature) to everyone.