Forte Village Resort – Hotel Pineta in Santa Margherita

Please read before booking. We wish we had. The bad and reason for 2 star review is that we booked and paid 5 star prices, but the accommodation, food and ambiance is 3 star at best. The good. The range of activities. The sports academy was excellent. The u club excellent. The football academy was excellent. The staff we met were very very good. They and the customers are being let down by the resort. Why? Well, the whole resort is very tired. The worst accommodation we have stayed in. The buildings of Pineta are badly in need of renovation. Our building had flaking paint and broken/rotting wood. The interiors were utilitarian, basic, worn, out dated and cheap. Not the luxury 5 star accommodation we expected. We were so disappointed. We paid £7,000 for 7 nights. Unfortunately the room reflected pretty much the full resort. Restaurants - Pineta. Decor tired. Outside buffet restaurant. Food uncovered. Food nice. Open to flies and wasps. Staff very nice. Free wine and water. Sardo. Waiter service. Decor poor. Food not really to our taste, but nice. Staff lovely. Forte Grill. Food good. Decor poor. Staff lovely. Oasis for breakfast. Very poor experience. Buffet, open to outdoors. Food okay, but not covered. Flies everywhere. All over food. Not enough tables and we were there before the English holidays started. Often we had to sit in the sun, as all tables in shade were full. Pools - pineta. Tiny pool. Dirty glass round pool. No bar. Just fridge to buy drinks. Felt more like a decorative pond than pool. Oasis pool. Large pool with bar. However. Glass dirty. Pool not clean. Sand often round bottom. Weeds growing up round tiles and glass. Hard to get lounger in gazebo, so often no shade as no umbrellas. Drinks - extremely expensive. This would be fine if we felt the resort was 5 star. But we were paying 20 euros for a glass of whispering angel in a restaurant that didn’t support that kind of price. We found that really hard. Public toilets - the ladies were fine. Dated but staff seem to clean. The men’s were terrible. The smell of urine hit you as you walked by. I was shocked. We felt badly about our holiday. We work hard and paid a lot of money and the resort was not as it looks in the pictures. This was so disappointing. The good was the staff. They are mostly young and trying. But they are let down by the quality of the resort. Our son loved the u club. Matteo and Margarite are a credit to the company. The football academy was excellent. Staff lovely and set up very good. Bikes good and concierge at bikes very nice man. We will not return and not recommend. Wish we’d went on a cruise.