Sunset Hotel

Let's start with the positive aspects: * Room is spacious and clean. Good view on the lake. * Very close to Lago di Varese. * Breakfast was decent. Next, the bad things: * No coffee or bar facilities in this 4-star hotel. * The service is really BAD! The lady who does the afternoon and night shift was so incredible unfriendly, unhelpful, and arrogant, I have never seen such an unprofessional service before! * Avoid rooms at the second floor if you need wifi. It doesn't work! I needed it because I stayed here for business. It became even worse! I notified the front desk that the wifi signal was weak in the room. I tried the wifi on the laptop and on my phone. I notified the front desk not to let them fix it immediately, but to ask for a lounge place to sit and work. But she completely disagreed with my findings, she even said that my room has the best wifi signal of all rooms at the second floor, she said she tested it earlier that day and everything is really fine. I couldn't convince her, she said that I should try it again. So okay, maybe I was really stupid. I went back to my room and tried again, but nope, the signal was really weak. I made a screenshot and a photo of the laptop screen. I went back to the lady to show her my proofs. Still she was not fully convinced, she followed me to the room to check. And finally she confirmed that the signal was indeed weak. She went to other rooms to check the signal over there, and it was weak too. I said: "no problem, I can just work in the lobby. Unless you have got another room available." She replied decisively: "no other rooms available." OK, no worries, so I went to the lobby to get some wifi. Then the lady said all of the sudden: "Sir, I have a room available at the first floor. OK?" So I could move to a different room. Problem finally solved. From my colleagues I also heard she was also a pain in the ass for them. She ruined the mood of many guests during their stay by her unprofessional behavior. Another strange incident was that we had to hand in our passports at arrival. The next day the frontdesk gave the wrong passport to a colleague. They messed it up! We were fortunate the two passports are from two people of the group, so it was easy to fix the issue. The frontdesk didn't apologize for any of the problems they have caused.

From my room there were potentially wonderful views across nearby Lake Varese when the clouds were not low and the rain stopped! I suppose beautiful weather is a lot to ask for in November. The reception staff were friendly, efficient and spoke good English. Strangely, when I first went to my room, the air conditioning was blasting out hot air so I had to open the huge window to make the room a sensible temperature; this wasn't a problem subsequently after I turned the aircon down from its maximum setting. When I arrived at about 9.45 pm there was no food available and no bar. My room was comfortable although it was furnished basically - it had no easy chair, just one for the desk. It was clean, had good wifi and a minibar. The bathroom was in immaculate condition and had a good shower. Breakfast was a typical selection of cold meats, cheese and pastries, plus scrambled eggs and bacon. The only thing that let it down was the lukewarm coffee. If you are not great at walking up slopes, be aware that the driveway from the road to the hotel entrance is very steep and about 100 m long. The hotel itself has lifts.

Overall experience was very very nice. Hotel Sunset staff was friendly, especially the Cuban guy that worked in the evenings. (Traveling from Miami and being Cuban myself, I didn't think I would be speaking Spanish fluently in Italy). Breakfast at the hotel was delightful, fresh fruit, eggs that tasted as if they had been picked off a chicken farm that same morning. We particularly liked the house keeping staff. They were fast, efficient and on point with what we needed. The ladies even memorized what we typically bought from the mini-bar and needed replaced. We were told by locals that from the lakes in the area, we were staying at the ugliest one of all. However, because we were there for a rowing competition, we found it to be quite pretty, convenient and serene. A variety of restaurants were located alongside the lake, all family owned, which made every experience more than just about the food, although every meal tasted is if made in a friend's mom's kitchen. Up the street from the Sunset is one the best rated Pizzerias in town They even had a gluten free menu( separate kitchen and all) including deserts. I was very impressed. At every restaurant we visited we ordered the house wine. It came in jugs or crafts, we drank abundantly with ZERO hangover consequence. That is the beauty of local wine, it contains little or no sulfites. We had quite a few cappuccinos as well, each better than the last. I don't have words to describe what indulging in Nutella Gelato meant to me. The weather was perfect, cool in the mornings and evenings, high 70s. A 10 minute walk away, was a street full of boutiques, all with clothes tailored to perfection, made in Milan and quite affordable. The pastry shop in this downtown area was out of this world. I would definitely go back to Gavirate and stay at the Sunset Hotel again.