Aqualux Hotel Spa Suite & Terme

Hotel Lovely modern hotel with a spa and wellbeing theme. Located in a quiet area just a 10-minute walk from Bardolino’s centre. Very friendly, helpful, efficient and multilingual staff. Several indoor/outdoor pools and Jacuzzis, set in nice grounds, with plenty of sun beds. The hotel provides evening entertainment/live music a couple of nights and it doesn’t go on late so your sleep won’t be interrupted. The hotel send emails/WhatsApp messages throughout your stay with event etc. updates. Tip – the hotel luggage storage is in an unsecure area out of view of staff, so take a cable lock. Room Rooms are big and spacious with circular (very firm) beds, modern bathroom and big private balcony. It’s worth upgrading to a pool view room. The aircon and fridge run quiet but it’s a drinks fridge, so not very cold. There was an annoying emergency ceiling light that kept flashing red/green every second, which was very bright in the dark and the shower temperature was a bit temperamental. Tip - ensure the balcony door is closed properly otherwise the aircon won’t work. Food Amazing breakfast, they have everything you could want. The food is spread around the whole room, and at both ends, so walk around to find everything. There are 100s of places to eat outside the hotel too. Tip - Recommend the locally sourced honey/comb near the yoghurts at breakfast (see photo) 🍯. Transport Local buses are frequent, cheap and easy to use (it was only €9 euro return for the 2-hour round trip to Verona). Timetable is available online. Tip - you could easily get the bus from Verona airport to the hotel to save on transfer fees. Local ferries are also frequent and easy to use - great for visiting other towns around the lake. Timetable and prices are available online. Keep an eye on the outbound and inbound times as there are several gaps in the timetable, which might catch you out. The ferry queues are sometimes quite long but everyone seems to get on the boat. Tip - each town has a ferry dock, which is easily found by the several colourful (20ft?) high European flags (see photo). There are a lot of cyclists and places to rent bikes. Or if you fancy a walk, there is a wide promenade all around the lake with many public toilets. Excursions There are a couple of pocket beaches, but most of the lakeside is grass and stone. Bardolino is very beautiful. Seemed to be the quietest of the towns I visited. Lazsie always seemed to have a huge market. Sirmione is very nice, lots of shops, beach, a castle and historical ruins – so it is very popular/busy. Recommend the Dolomites trip, which at the time of writing runs Monday and Friday. The tour guide can bulk buy the cable car tickets for a discount price (€28) if you have the cash, or you can queue and pay full price (€32) on arrival by card. The cable car journey was a few minutes. It’s usually very windy and a bit chilly at the top of the Dolomites, and sometimes the rain comes in fast, so take a coat. There are cafes and toilets at the top and bottom, plus a few souvenir shops. Tip - on the last stop of the day, which is in one of the mountain towns, use the toilet as there are no more stops until your drop-off several hours later. General The local birds and cicadas are very noisy 😂. There is a big EuroSpar about a 10-minute walk from the hotel in the direction of Bardolino centre. The cars around Lake Garda are amazing, sometimes it was like being in The Fast and The Furious 🚗. Tip - don't assume you have right of way at road crossings, vehicles don’t always stop! Summary Really enjoyed Lake Garda and the Aqualux hotel – don’t hesitate to go!

We stayed at this hotel at the end of June, for 7 days. We are a family of 4, including 2 older teens and we booked 2 pool view rooms for 7 nights. We arrived at lunch time, not expecting either room to be ready as check in is from 3pm. But 1 room was ready, so we were able to use that to change and enjoy the pool whilst waiting for the other room. We had requested 2 rooms together, via email, a couple of weeks before and we were given 123 and 125. The rooms are a lovely size, with robes and slippers provided. We had a few problems with 123 during our stay, it stank terribly of cigarettes. A man was sent up twice to detox it, but it didn't help. Also the air conditioning didn't work if you opened the balcony door. It didn't matter what we did when we shut the door after coming back into the room, it just wouldn't re start. 4 times maintenance came up and got it to work again, but if you went out on the balcony, it would not come back on. We stopped using the balcony after day 4. Room 125 was fine though. Breakfast was plentiful and there was always a table available. We also ate lunch at the pool bar a couple of times and the food and service were very good. We didn't eat dinner in the hotel, as there were so many restaurants in Bardolino we wanted to try. The only thing that let's this hotel down is the lack of a nice bar area to relax in at nighttime. It felt oddly quiet at night, with no atmosphere at all. The indoor bar only opens if it rains and the pool bar was open but very quiet. The whole place seemed lacking in atmosphere. We had a nice week here, bar the teething problems. Pool view is an absolute must if you're booking.

Very disappointing loss of quality in both the reception and restaurant area compared to previous years. Reception staff are sometimes overwhelmed, incompetent, and arrogant. Among other things, unconsumed half-board meals were charged despite early cancellation, and there was even a double charge for half-board and barbecue on the same evening despite a complaint. In the restaurant area, "stinginess" and a decline in quality are the top priorities of the new management. The salad, appetizer, and dessert buffet that was customary in previous years has been completely eliminated. The food selection is extremely meager and almost unchanged every evening, and is obviously designed only for a short stay. Corners are being cut everywhere, and a rip-off mentality dominates. From the thawed bread (sometimes still damp) to the industrial scrambled eggs, the loss of quality is evident not only at the breakfast buffet but also at dinner. The previously very friendly, highly qualified, and attentive staff has also obviously been almost entirely replaced by predominantly unfriendly and less competent personnel. The stay of several days was therefore unfortunately a disappointment.