having booked this hotel we were concerened by the poor reviews about the food.our experience was totally contrary to what we had read as it was both varied an cooked to an excellent standard, each menu offered a choice of four starters four main courses and a full sweet trolly. during our seven night stay we did not have a bad course and would deacribe the hotel dining experience as being one of the highlights of a memorable holiday in the lakes we would also comment on the frindly and helpful attitude of both the dining and reception staff which was in complete contrast to the bar staff who displayed indiffernce to the paying guest tending to concentrate their efforts more on the considerable number of conferance guests. room was great with wonderful views of the lake.

Room was small but very clean and neat. Very nice furnihings. Certainly was the best of seven hotels that we stayed at on a terrible Globus tour.

It was my first hotel stay of my 2007 tour as Stresa was our first stop and I must admit I was a bit nervous to see what king of room I would get as when you are travelling alone you always end up in the worst room ever of an hotel although you are paying for a surcharge. That said my trip started very well as I was pleasantly surprise with my room. Although I did not have a view on the lake my room was clean and large enough. The entry of the hotel is very impressive and very nice. The outdoor set up very beautiful as well except that we were there at the beginning of May and the pool was not ready. The hotel is well located and at a walk able distance to town. As for the service I do not have any particular comments either positive or negative I guess it was Ok As for the food at dinner it was terrible….. Kind of Italian fast food cuisine with pasta way to cooked and meat not necessarily well prepared. You would expect that in a nice hotel like this one you would end up eating well but I am sorry to say it was not the case. I would recommend this hotel for you to stay and enjoy the outdoor and the view on the lake. Don’t consider eating there at night as there are few little restaurants in town that are more typical and that offer real Italian specialities. I would also recommend going to Stresa later one in the year and certainly not before June as in May it is obvious that they are getting ready for the tourist season and they still have some preparation to complete.

We visited this hotel as part of an Insight Vacations tour group and were told that most of the hotels had closed for the season and that the Bristol would close at the end of the week after our visit. Management may have accepted the booking of the tour groups (Trafalgar and Globus were there at the same time as we were) but they forgot to train their staff in customer service. We found the staff to be patronising and condescending and the food service staff to be downright rude. The staff all treated the group as very second class citizens and we would never return to this hotel. The hotel has beautiful rooms overlooking the lake and we were all put in rooms overlooking the service area with no views at all. The dining room staff were the rudest we have ever encountered and virtually threw the unappetising food at us and treated any request with virtual ignore. When we went to bed we were subjected to the kitchen staff taking the wine bottles from the kitchen by trolley and then placement one by one in the recycle tank. This noise went on for 30-45 minutes and we could not understand why it could not have been done in the morning when the noise would not have intruded. The staff then gathered for drinks, cigarettes and loud chat outside the kitchen until after 30 minutes we had to ring reception and ask for them to leave. What is a great shame is that this is a lovely area but an experience like this puts people off returning and that then affects the whole region. The members of our group came from all over the world and from what we could tell all felt the same as we did.

I took my elderly mother for what she described as her final swan song.(my mother is 87) It should have been a holiday filled with wonderful memories, unfortunately all we seem to recount is how terrible the evening meal was. If it hadnt been for the exellent cheese board I think iI would have been the first holiday I have taken where I lost half a stone instead of gaining half a stone! The room was clean and we had a wonderful view of the lake. Lake Maggiore is beautiful but I just cannot recommend this hotel.