Hotel Venere Azzurra in Lerici

Not very service minded

If you're a family looking to book the two-bedroom apartment, I would suggest to avoid it and book the regular double/ triple room instead as those are newer, larger and nicer. The apartment is old and dinghy with a tiny toilet with no space to place your clothes and knees will touch the shower while on the bowl. More importantly there is no lift access but a long flight of stairs to the apartment. The hotel does not have a proper driveway and you will have to stop your car across the road and unload luggage and roll them cross the busy road (with kids in tow it's not so simple). Although there is a lift, there is still a flight of stairs to the lift. There is no one to help with the luggage. Parking is only at the public carpark down the street. All in all, not very accessible for families with young kids and lots of luggage in tow. Breakfast was alright, location was good in front of the beach, beach towels were provided.

We stayed in the 2 bedroom suite on the very top floor. Our room was clean, double pillows, clean bedding and comfortable beds, but the facilities were worn (tiles cracked), but overall OK. However...we had NO hot water. We had hiked the Cinque Terre trail all day and showers were pretty important! We notified the front desk and Elisa did come up and check. But unfortunately she wasn't in a position to be able to fix it(not her fault). We were hoping by morning to have hot water, but no luck. Very disappointing. Lastly, be aware that there are "bugs" in this climate and no screens, as well as being older buildings, so we encountered multiple large centipedes. Being campers we were not alarmed but others could be quite startled. On a brighter note the breakfast was AMAZING! One of the best breakfasts we have had in over 2 weeks of traveling Italy. Many great and delicious choices! Both hot and cold. This is NOT a continental breakfast but a breakfast buffet! If we would have dined in a local restaurant our breakfast would have easily cost €20/person! I wish I could rate this hotel a 4/5 but not having hot water is unexcusable. Therefore I cannot. I should add that when we mentioned our lack of hot water upon checkout the desk attendant was apologetic and offered us a discount, but when he realized we had paid in full upon check-in he said he was unable to adjust our fee. Again, very unfortunate.