Hotel La Playa

Just returned with our 2 young daughters after a fantatstic time here. The hotel is very friendly, clean and comfortable. The pool area is beautiful. Our rooms (209 and 210) were spacious but will be amongst the last to have the bathrooms updated but for a 2 and 4 year old the hip bath was perfect. Saturday night was noisy and hot so we opted for the air conditioning (20 euro per week) which was well worth it. All the staff were great and the food in the restaurant was excellent. We were able to take the girls down for dinner a bit earlier than the advertised time and the chef willingly cooked them pasta bolognese when it wasn't on the menu. Bombarde beach was our favourite, which we cycled to after hiring bikes from the shop less than 100m from hotel, Lazzaretto second and somehow we never quite managed any time on Alghero beach although it is only 2 minutes a walk away.

The La Playa is a small family run hotel, the owner and his sisters appear to work 24 hours a day! The hotel grounds are small but very clean and tidy with a very nice pool,alongside if the weather is warm you eat your evening meal. The owners like cats and they walk around the tables so if you dont like cats you are are warned!

Our room was basic but very clean and tidy and fairly quiet but was on the road side of the hotel. Towels and bed linen were changed every day.If you want to watch television in your room you have to hire a remote control ,as with room air con, we were told it was to cold to use air con at first but in the end they let us have it.

Evenings are very quiet so you get to talk to other guests, nice little bar , run by one of the sisters. Most of the guests are british and over 50, it is not a hotel for teenagers which suited us.

Meals are ok except for veg boiled to within a inch of its life and out of a can, or so we thought.

If we return to Alghero we will stay here again.

Booked this hotel through Travel Options. We wanted somewhere quiet an relaxing and that is exactly what we got. The owners, Salvatore and his two elderly sisters obviously adore their hotel and will do everything possible to ensure you have a comfortable stay. He built it himself in 1974 and has been there ever since. It seems to be used mainly by British.

Whole place was spotless - Salvatore works tirelessly, from cutting the grass and tending his lovely gardens to serving you wine very flambuoyantly in the restaurant at night.

Our room was big compared to some of the others, on third floor overlooking the back (nice as you don't get the piano man playing constantly every night fromthe neighbouring hotel, and you also get the sunin the morning on the balcony, and it is cooler and shady in the afternoon. Very comfortable beds and big shower room with bidet - all kept spotless by our maid.

Downsides? No hairdryer, so lugging one in suitcase a pain! Also, extra charge for aircon and TV remote. Walls a bit paper thin, can hear all around you as floors all tiles, but as guests seemed mostly middle aged upwards, not usually a problem!! Wouldn't recommnd this hotel to families with teenagers as bvery little for them to do.

pool was very inviting but too cold for me at this time of year!

Breakfast was typical continental with range of cold hams, cheese, sardines, hard boiled eggs, yoghurt, bread rolls, croissants (delish!), fruit, cereals.

Dinner, now here the place came into its own. WE were staying on "Bon apetit" i.e. 4 nights in restaurant. if you want to go half board, tell reception and you pay an extra 22 euro pp per meal. It is well worth it for what you get. Appetiser from a choice of interesting salads, followed by antipasti, followed by a meat dish with accompanyig veg (that you don't have to pay extra for as in other restaurants!) and a sweet. Good wine list too, Salvaltore knows his stuff. WE never had a duff meal. We ate outside some of the time, dependent on weather, which is very romantic.

Pool area is quite small but plenty of sunbeds and garden areas to go. The hotel operates a no- smoking policy throughout, which is also the case all over the island, so you get a taste of what it will be like in England come July! This really wasn't a hassle, as ashtrays provided on tables outside.

We ate in a couple of places - very nice meal at the bar just at the end of the road, on the beach - cant remember its name but it is yellow and straight ahead of you as you turn right out of the hotel gate. It gets busy! Also ate in DAPs in the next road, lovely atmosphere on terrace where there are huge fish tanks lining the walls and a fountain to add ambience. A bit pricey we felt, compared to the hotel but good food.

Stroll into town is quite long but the promenade is largely finished now so good going. Be prepared for it to be WINDY! no-one ever tells you on these reviews about the "mistral" that can blow for days at a time, usually on this stretch of coast! We has 2 days when you could hardly stand up and going on the beach was impossible!!

The old town is great to stroll around - a proliferation of jewellery shops all selling the same coral stuff - it is quite pricey. Go into the deli's ,they have some lovely food items. On the subject of jewellery, i wanted to buy a piece, and wandered round and round, but came to the conclusion that the shop on the end of the hote's road, by the beach, had the nicest stuff, so bought a ring there.

We hired a car whilst there. Use Enrico Farris' company - he is so nice and helpful, his cars belong to him so he looks after them properly. He will pick you up from your hotel and take you to the car. Driving we found easy, there is very little traffic outside the towns. The road quality is very good (puts parts of England to shame) and signposts generally good. Beware locals driving like loonies and overtaking on blind bends...

We visited Castelsardo beautiful but ver steep, and the caves, by car. It wa a relatively calm day when we were there, but watching the boats trying to moor up at the bottom to let passengers on and off, i dread to think what its like when the sea is very choppy! I spoke to some girls who took the boat and said they felt very sick whilst waiting half an hour to dock. Me, i prefer the hard work and lovely views afforded by the 654 steps! Tip. Go to the loo before going down - only onw very smelly hole in the ground type once you are at the bottom. tours are on the hour and get very busy, but the caves are spectacular.

We found some lovely beaches, speacially Lazarretto, just outside Fertilia - small, quiet, picturesque (see piccie) and popular with the locals.

All in all we had a really nice, laid back holiday without all the lager louts!!

Just to agree with the other reviews here - a great hotel in a good location!

The only thing we would mention is the credit card problems with checking out - we ended up having to walk about 15 minutes to the nearest cash point and back for paying for check out.

Just returned from 3 nights at La Playa. What a nice place to arrive after grotty Ryanair flight! ( Lemon-lipped staff and long, long unexplained delays. And yes, I know they must work those stewards hard for not much money, but does it really make them feel better to treat a perfectly amiable planeload of passengers with such blatant comtempt? No better on return journey so I might think twice about using them in future. Then again when you're not paying much more than a bus fare perhaps it's churlish to whinge.)

Staff presence at La Playa is low key but always friendly and ready to help. Rooms and bathrooms are simply furnished with tile floors throughout, plenty of storage space and a nice little balcony. As we inevitably find in Italy, everything is beautifully clean, and the beds here are lovely and comfortable. Entrance to hotel and the pool area very pretty, with palms and flowers everywhere, and a posse of tame cats on the wander. Too cold to use the pool at this time of year (we are wusses though) but wonderfully peaceful to sunbathe around it. A lot of thought has gone in to making it a lovely area - plenty of sunbeds, deckchairs, umbrellas and tables and vines and plants all around. We didn't eat at the hotel except for breakfast - which was fine - but the lunches by the pool and evening menus looked pretty tempting and not at all expensive.

Just across the road is a very good beach, where you can hire umbrellas and sunbeds if you want, or do your own thing. White sand and gorgeous clear water. You are a good 15-20 walk into Alghero from the hotel. Fine for us as we didn't have our young daughter with us on this occasion and the weather was only pleasantly warm, not summer-scorching, but if you are taking children or old folk with you, be aware that it's a fair hike into town. Having said this, it's flat all the way and there is a bus service running along the front which we never got round to using, although we did hop in a cab one night on the way home. Another option is to do what lots of other people do and hire push-bikes from the place on the front. Even the locals seem to get around mainly by bike, particularly on the city walls which are wide and practically traffic free. What's more, if you have children with you, you could keep them perfectly happy with the pool, beach and restaurants in and around the hotel without having to in to town every day.

The old town of Alghero itself is a delight. Great shopping for such a small place, pretty winding streets and loads of great places to eat or stop for beer or coffee. We enjoyed Cafe Latino which is the first cafe you come to on the walls, for coffee in the mornings and sunset cocktails at night, Mirador restaurant further round the walls for fab seafood lunch, Lepanto, still further round for excellent seabass (specialise in lobster in season but we missed it!) and Il Solito Posto for great pasta. Locals are very friendly, very welcoming of the English, of which there were many in town. I only wish a few more of us would bother to try to speak a little Italian. Even just hello and goodbye. Or thank you.... It wouldn't hurt.

One downer. Alghero airport is rubbish! No cafe, no bar, just a fridge of sandwiches and a couple of vending machines. Not enough seats for everyone and hole in the ground loos that don't flush... Thank God our flight wasn't delayed.

Sardinia is fab and we want to go back and spend more time there. La Playa is the perfect, family run place to base yourself and we would certainly like to return her again.

With reference to my wife and I first stay in Sardinia and our stay at the Hotel La Playa we were both very dissapointed with the attitude of the Hotel owner after a serious Problem on our last night of our stay. On the night in question we had gone to bed at approx 11.30/ 12pm. infact I was asleepathe time when my wife was awakened by a noise from the bathroom and on further investigation found our bedroom awash with 3 inches of hot water.the problem was the hot water pipe to the wash basin had burst and hot water was gushing out my wife went to summon help from reception where she met the owner Salvatori who seemed totaly disinterested and asked the night porter to investigate who came to our room and managed to turn the water off and then rolled up his trousers and took of his jacket and returned with a large bucket and dust pan and began to mop up the water 3/4 hr later he had things under control and used towells to mop up as best he could this man was great.

we checked out the following morning No apology was offered or given by the owners for our problems

Excellent hotel, but our bathroom definitely needed upgrading!

One thing to be aware of, when you pay the hotel bill at the end of your holiday, they like you to pay in cash. The do accept credit cards, but add on an extra 2% to the bill, and will not accept Travellers Cheques at all.

If you are staying on the 3rd floor (best views), there is a thriving English magazine exchange on a table on the landing.

We booked this hotel after reading the reviews on TripAdvisor back in March 06. Paid a very low rate considering the time of year but got a large (albeit basic) pool view room on B&B. Used Dune Viaggi tourist office for transfers etc too.

The hotel is in a nice street off the main road, in beautiful gardens. The pool area is fairly large, well maintained and usually quiet so no shortage of free sunbeds.

The hotel downstairs is very well decorated and creates an excellent first impression. You take the lift or stairs up to the 3 floors of bedrooms - pool view was nice but some noise (one man and his electric piano) from hotel opposite at night (not a major problem for us). The rooms are a good size, ours had a balcony to sit out on too. Air con is available but at a cost (between €5 per day and €20 per week - depends who you asked!!) and TV is €5 per week.

Bathrooms are very clean but no shower curtain as stated by others; however come across this elsewhere. Overall very clean rooms attended to daily by housekeeping.

B&B option allows you to try the many great (and reasonably priced) restaurants and pizzerias along the beach road and in the old town. The walk to the old town is at least 20 minutes but along a safe and pleasant beach road.

Only had lunch at hotel which was lovely (a little expensive) but we were told the food is very good - you can still eat there if B&B.

Would definitely return to this hotel as it's small, clean and 2 minutes from the beach (which is great - beautiful sandy beach and greeny blue water). We've come back very relaxed and we'd definitely rebook.