Hellenia Yachting Hotel

The hotel is very deceiving upon arrival. Very nice entry way. The hotel is extremely filthy. Rugs and walls have not been cleaned for years. Pool was dirty as was beach. Rooms were not clean. We were given rooms overlooking the back of the kitchen. Garbage and standing water and the smell of the room was very bad (musty) and some of the rooms smelled of bad plumbing to put it mildly. The tour group leaders room had a toilet that did not flush. Ruined the end of the trip.

Second visit to Sicily and we stayed at the Hellenia for two weeks in September with Cosmos. Good Points: Beautiful decoration and rooms are lovely with air/con and large luxury bathrooms. Sat TV with 5 English channels. Dinner is superb if you book half board. We payed £8 per night for dinner before we arrived and it was most definately worth it. Not buffet style but waiter served with a new menu every evening..starters include risotto, pasta, soup etc and main courses are usually meat and fish based. Breakfast is continental so no fry ups! If you want you can have lunch instead of dinner. The hotel is in an excellent location in Giardini Naxos (20 min bus ride to stunning Taormina) and it is right on the beach. It has it's own private beach but you have to pay 9€ for 2 sunbeds and a parasol. Beds at the pool are free but you have to be up at 7am to secure a bed. Staff could not do enough and every request was granted. Bed linen changed 3 times a week and hotel is spotless. Bad points: Bar prices are incredible (although wine at dinner is reasonable) but there are a lot of bars nearby were you can enjoy a drink outside. The pool needed a bit of updating as you could see chipped tiles at the bottom but this may be redone over the winter. Overall this is an excellent hotel and definately the nicest in Giardini.

We stayed at the Hellenia Yachting Hotel for one week in early June 2006. It is rated as a 4 star hotel and it certainly exceeded our expectations. The staff were very friendly and helpful. We didn't eat lunch or dinner in the hotel but breakfast is buffet-style catering for all appetites. The setting is beautiful with views of the sea and the mountains Inc Mount Etna. Our room was a standard one but we had side sea views and a balcony with panoramic views of the mountains. The hotel has a private beach and a great pool but it is also worth walking up the beach a short distance to the other lidos with beach bars. Giardini itself is quiet, not too busy with some lovely restaurants, a friendly laidback Sicilian atmosphere. The food is fabulous and the ice creams are amazing!

We stayed at the Hellenia Yachting Hotel late September 2005. Hotel staff very helpful, clean rooms. Would go back and stay there again. Good Resturants across the street to eat if you don't want hotel food.

We stayed at this hotel for a forthnight in late August this year. The hotel is frequented by many nationalities. It is a lovely hotel with pleasant staff and is very well set out. It is clean. There is a dining room where breakfast, lunch and dinner are served. Breakfast is good with plenty of choice. Dinner is somewhat the same each evening but nonetheless good as is the service. The position of the hotel is beautiful with a sun terrace overlooking the sea. The beach is just below and there is a charge of 14 euro for two sun beds and a brolly but the hotel terrace can be used without charge. There is a good swimming pool with sun beds around it. I would give top marks to this hotel except for one - serious - fault: there are not enough sun beds and brollies available in the hotel area. If this problem is corrected then this hotel will be tops. They do a lovely Sicilian evening once a week which is very enjoyable and for which they more than deserve top marks. Giardini Naxos is in many respects a better place to stay than Taormina. There is a good and frequent bus service to Taormina but if you want a relaxing sun filled holiday stay here! Taormina has the shops if that is what you like to do on holiday!

The beach was really pathetic and the charge for an umbrella and two sun beds was 14 euros PER DAY!!!! Absolutely disgusting - never used them. Around the pool was pleasant and the sun bed and towels were FREE. Eating out was expensive and certainly not worth the money - its back to Greece for me. If you can choose a room dont accept No. 2 - its very small compared to the others.

Public areas are rather grand, attractive and comfortable with baroque style décor and furnishings. The staff and service mostly friendly and obliging. Poolside had a limited number of beds and, being July, meant resorting to “towels down a dawn” to be sure of a place. The beds themselves had no covers and became uncomfortable to lie on after a while even with hotel supplied towels down. There was a great deal of wasted space on the terrace taken up by unused tables and chairs that would have been better utilised providing more beds. The alternative was a 14 euros per room per day fee for 2 beds and umbrella on the narrow strip of beach which itself quickly became full. We found this a bit hard nosed considering the overall cost of the accommodation and the reason for taking this option was because there was no room poolside. Standard room with balcony overlooking entrance (NO SEA VIEW). Room was comfortable but small. Bathroom up to standard with towels and sheets changed every day. Balcony “bijou” and shoddy. 2 uncomfortable chairs and small table. Walls paper thin, floors, being marble echoed every footfall, stage whisper, chair scrape, etc, so it was a case of get to sleep with the last room to bed and awake with the first room up. It’s understood that a hotel cannot dictate the behaviour of its clientele, but door delay hinges would compensate for the “slammers”, oiling the wardrobe hinges would help and some soundproofing WELLLLLL ! Food. We were B&B but had dinner in the hotel 4 evenings and found the meals most enjoyable with an excellent selection of Sicilian wines at a reasonable price. However a post meal coffee and brandy we took elsewhere as the bar prices in general were ridiculous. Breakfast is a buffet affair and rather limited and for 2 weeks downright monotonous. There’s no cook to provide a fresh omelette or whatever and NO TOAST machine ! Overall the hotel is a classic case of appearance over substance. 4 star for us means the “little things” and that our comfort and satisfaction is paramount and this was not the case, the hotel is overpriced. In fact this seems to be true of Italy in general. Considering the variety of alternative destinations, long haul included, within the same price range, and having holidayed in Italy a few times now, we feel it is in danger pricing itself out of the market and killing its “golden goose”

Having just returned fron Sicliy staying at Hellenia Yachting I can only say we found this hotel fine in every respect. Both food, staff, and meals we could not fault, our room was quite acceptable. We would stay there again,we found the decor very nice and a friendly atmosphere prevailed.

The Hellenia is a little gem just a ten minute taxi ride or 25 minute bus ride to Taormina. It is perfectly situated on it's own very clean beach which has ample sun-beds.(Bus terminus 3 mins walk). We had a De-Luxe Sea-View room which was delightful with very ornate and comfortable furniture. Towels were changed twice daily, all bed linen changed daily & the room was always well cleaned with the hotel very clean throughout. The decor, furniture & fittings were beautifully Italian (or Sicilian?). Lots of comfortable lounging areas around the hotel. Food & choice of was always excellent and well worth the six euros/day supplement for half board (really good value) graciously served by the waiters. You have a choice to take lunch in the restaurant instead of dinner which we took on three occasions enabling a pleasant trip into Taormina at night. The staff throughout were always very helpful and knowledgeable always giving very very good service. Every evening there was relaxed entertainment at the piano bar, music blending in with the gentle waves of the sea. I can recommend this hotel to friends, family and any couples wanting to stay close to Taormina with the pleasantries of a reasonably quite location, lots of strolling features close by, and a lovely beach. A good feature at the beach is to take on of the taxi boats along the coastline to Taormina whilst being crooned "A La Pavorotti esque" by the boatsman! So, you needn't have any concerns, you will enjoy staying at the Hellenia!

Excellent hotel - staff very friendly although the beach is very small - but once you get used to it very nice - beware of the jelly fish - three people got stung - - Pepe and his boat ride is excellent fun- The area is class - although we were stung with taxis on arrival - 130 Euros from Catania- the local bus only costs 4 per person to the Airport. Food excellent - very reasonable- wonderful weather - although we had very noisy neighbours who probably didn't realise that every word could be heard. - Great holiday - Taormina was wonderful - sitting in the main piazza watching the world go by - superb - I would highly recommend this hotel and the surrounding area.