Baia Taormina Hotel

When I say above average for overall experience, it should be remembered that I had recently moved from Hotel Kaos, courtesy of Riviera Travel - the change was such that I might have considered this 5* + in comparison, although truly it only just merits the 4* allocated. We were there out of season so the pool was not yet opened, but it looked good. Public rooms good, reception staff welcoming, as were bar staff. Restaurant staff not quite so helpful (until tipped!), although what I took to be the "temporary" staff were far more helpful than the old hands. Room fine and clean - lovely balcony, bathroom worked well. Food not great, but in comparison to previous Hotel Kaos - absolutely fabulous! Would stay again if going to Sicily, but be aware - it is isolated.

Visted for three days via Riviera Travel. I was so relieved to have found a decent hotel after the last disaster - The Kaos where we stayed for three days was so awful that anything would be better. However This hotel was fine, lovely food, and we felt welcome even though we were in a group.which usually ensures awful food just for you! This time we were not treated any differently to the other customers. The hotel was in a difficult position in that once you were in there you couldn't get out - except by taxi or their courtesy bus. Therefore if you needed anything urgently, or even maybe a postcard or stamp you had to get their bus or be run over on the road - however I believe the nearest shop was miles away anyhow. We had a lovely room with a fantastic view. Clean and spacious with working lights! Pools (two) clean and really nice with a view over the sea. No problems here. Wish that our holiday company had both hotels in the itinery like this one. Bit expensive in the wine area though, and no nipping out to get a bottle in. Also, embarrassed to say, I smoke, and ran out of cigarettes - I had to do without for 24 hours as no waiter would get me any, and the reception certainly would'nt. In this politically correct world today you just have to suffer I am afraid!

Baia Taormina is not in Taormina. It is impossible to find. It is still under construction. The staff were unfriendly, the "restaurant" was a buffet with bad musicians, the architectural plan was a disaster, and the construction was shoddy. All in all, an experience not to be repeated ever again!

We just returned from a tour around Sicily and out of the 5 4-star hotels we stayed at only one was disappointing which is....you guessed it, Hotel Baia Taormina. The breakfast was average, quality of dinner poor. It's common knowledge that most restaurants put some heavy margins on a bottle of wine but I couldn't help but notice a bottle of wine at the local supermarket that we had the night before at Hotel Baia Taormina and for which we had paid 8x times the price. They could have doubled or tripled the price but 8-times the price??!! That's a rip-off. Although you had a choice between buffet or a la carte there was a clear preference for the personnel for us to choose the buffet. For any request, the first answer was always "have you seen the buffet?". After a while this gets rather annoying. As they managed to get about 80% to the buffet it turned out a giant table dance with constant back an forth movement to the buffet table. The pools are ok and the room was clean and not that bad. The bathroom mediocre with one of the shower doors that kept coming off and a clogged drain. I read the reviews before we went on our tour and was sceptic about the criticism posted. Now I can only agree with the previous statements that this is not a 4-star hotel!!

We were slightly worried about this hotel after reading some of the reviews posted on this site. We arrived at Taormina town which is beautiful and enjoyed driving around it. We then left the town in search of the hotel, we were pleased to find it up on a quiet cliff side away from the road and the railway. We had a very warm welcome from the staff of the hotel who insisted on collecting our luggage and taking it to our room. We were shown the room and how to use the air conditioning and other features. The room was lovely. A beautiful sunny balcony with a view over the sun terrace to the sea. Lovely furniture and an excellent bathroom with excellent facilities. Please note that this was a STANDARD double/twin room not a superior. The air conditioning worked well and was just what was needed on the hotter days. We were equally pleased with the restaurant. The breakfast buffet offered lots of choice: rolls, croissants, cereals, yoghurt, ham, cheese, bacon, scrambled egg, fruit (no horrible greasy english breakfast which was great!) For dinner you can choose buffet or al a carte, the food on both menus changes each day. I have a wheat intolerance and even I managed to find things that I could eat.. but was very jealous watching everyone else tucking into pasta. The two pools are very good, clean and well attended. There is a convenient lift to take you to the pool of your choice. There was a really friendly pool attendant who helps you get comfortable, brings you towels, puts the parasoles up for you etc. It wasn't very crowded as we weren't quite in the tourist season so it was great not having children running around (I'm a teacher so it was a nice break!) and having the pool almost to ourselves. It got busier towards the end of the week but still didn't feel overcrowded. The hotel bar wasn't too expensive and was run by yet another friendly member of staff. In the evenings a pianist and singer played all night, not really our kind of thing but it was actually quite nice. Taormina itself is lovely. I can imagine it can become unbearably crowded in tourist season, so I'd advise you come off peak. Lots of shops and interesting streets, loads of places to eat- some reasonably priced some pretty expensive. A tip if you are going into the town in a car- park in the multi-storey at the end (Porta Catania). There are some interesting little towns nearby and we went up Mount Etna which you really should do. There are various excersions that leave from the town. You really should hire a car if you want to get the most from this area, and I think that that is probably true of the most of Sicily. I am amazed to read bad reviews of this hotel but can only say that our experience was brilliant.

First of all, Taormina is beautiful, if you can find a good hotel! We will return. great weather and food too. Anyway. re Baia Hotel, all the rooms on the top floor have no air conditioning, a nightmare as our room was on the top floor. great view, nice pools and service was fine. Food, way below average, 2 star I would say, infact we skipped breakfast 3 times to eat in taormina! which is at least 25 minutes drive away incidentally, and there are no other restaurants around. We only booked B & B, so we didnt have to suffer a poor dinner too. The room was ok, too hot though with no air con, no bath and the window was to high to open for air. overall the staff were friendly, but I have stayed in thousands of hotels and would class this as a 2 and half to 3 star. Please take note of this review, I dont have time to write reviews! but... Taormina is great, get a 5 star in the city, read the reviews first! Good luck.

When we arrived at the Hotel Baia Taormina in late September I was reminded that it can be problematic to book a hotel room online. The room they show you on their web page is spacious, with very nice furniture and a great view. So we were very disappointed when we got this tiny little room. The bathroom is below average, no bath tub just a shower head, a curtain and a hole in the floor. For 220 Euros per night a rip-off! They told us that they had no other rooms and that the fotos on their web page show the only suite they have. We will go back to Taormina as it is so beautiful but this time to a different hotel!

What to say...this hotel is simply great, very elegant with an amazing view of the bay of Taormina. The service, the food, the room were excellent, above all everything was so clean and fresh. My best compliment, I'll come back on September!!!

Recently returned from the Baia and it is certainly a 4 star hotel. Excellent food, friendly, but courteous staff and the setting is superb. Only downside is the distance from Taormina (6 miles?)and the courtesy coach seats only 8 people and is not frequent enough. For a restful stay- put holiday, or with a hire car, it is excellent.

We were disappointed with this hotel and I'm amazed it's a four star hotel. Our first problem was the location. It's to the north of Taormina, past Letojanni. The private beach is back in Letojanni -- it's nice, but there was never a lifeguard while we were there. The room was stuffy but the terrace was lovely. The bathroom had no tub, but was a showerroom -- it didn't have a shower, it was a shower. It also wasn't the cleaniest. There are two swimming pools -- a fresh water deep pool and a salt water children's pool. They were okay. Overall, I gave an okay rating because the people were very friendly.