Gallia Palace Hotel in Punta Ala

Hi We are a family of five and recently stayed at Gallia Palace Hotel in Punta Ala. Maybe first our idea of Punta Ala. It is what one calls ‘past glory’. One could describe it as a development from the sixties with weird concrete architecture. If you are looking for authentic Italian borgos, this is no place for you. Some buildings are Bauhaus, some are … not worth being there. A desolate and shabby shopping mall from the seventies (with some fancy boutiques however)…i don’t think so. When it comes to the hotel, it has the flair of a well maintained building from the sixties or seventies. But it is not pretty, it is an uninviting concrete block with pigeonhole room divisions and dreadful terraces. It gets partly compensated by a very lush and pretty garden and pool area. I suppose this is why you hardly find pictures of the building itself on the official website. There is no sea view since the hotel is located too far from the sea. This however we knew beforehand so this was no issue. Where it goes very wrong is that the official site and *********** mention rooms with park view whereas they are in fact parking view rooms! At a hefty 700€ per room per night it is a definite no go! The rooms with poolview are more costly and have the same dated furniture. So the hotel urgently needs to renovate the rooms if they want to keep attracting clients with deep pockets. For us they were not up for five star expectations. The breakfast buffet is perfect i must admit. All you can wish for is available, the bread is…. Italian and therefore less tasty than French or Northern European breads. In the evening the same restaurant serves as the dining area but that is ok. Waiters are all old-school trained and therefore very attentive, multilingual and polite. The food is top notch and was certainly a plus for us. The shuttle that takes you to the beach is a cute FIAT 850 transformed to a Club car like vehicle. The beach itself is public but the hotel has a reserved area and has enough lounge chairs so no queuing there. The hotel’s beach facilities comprise cute spacious changing cabins set like little round bungalows amidst nature. However, the beach restaurant is like a seventies Club Med circular wooden barn like space. Weird and not cosy at all. There are more restaurants around, so plenty of choice. If you want a lunch at the hotel’s beach restaurant, make sure you reserve a table in the weekend. Otherwise you only get seats away from the sea (compare it to the worst seats in a shopping mall restaurant) where the air is very sticky! So if your budget is unlimited, you mentally got stuck in the late sixties or seventies and you have seen all other coastal areas in Italy, Punta Ala and Gallia Palace Hotel are maybe right for you. For us however, there are nicer places to visit that tick more boxes for the same budget. If you like Italian seaside, go to Forte dei Marmi for instace, it has it all and is no sixties development. Greetz Manu