They were NOT able to honor the reservation me and my wife had for the night after our wedding party on June 21st. One of the suites was reserved and confirmed the night before by our aunts as a wedding gift, they use the facility often with some association. We still don't know what went wrong (we had to listen to a lot of silly stories from the staff) but here are the facts: we arrived at the hotel at 4AM after the party and the night concierge told us that the only reservation he had under our name was for a twin bed room. Obviously not ours, still all dressed up after the wedding! He said the only room available was that, and did not offer any help of looking for another room somewhere else as you would expect from any decent hotel concierge. He was even rude with us and our only choice was walk out, and drive an hour or so to my hometown. The following morning they called our aunts (too early for a Sunday morning) saying that they looked for us in other hotels close-by offering to pay the night for us. No comment to that! We're still waiting for formal excuses from them, while the only thing they're offering is a free stay... but they cannot give us our wedding night back!

we went on a 'girly' week away to Tuscany and used the palace hotel, in viareggio as our base. the hotel is very very clean and we had half board, although we did not necessarily want it, we were surprisingly amazed at the spread for breakfast and the three course dinner in the evenings was wonderful. we had a three bedded large room and a single room which were fine and the sheets changed almost every day. The palace hotel is a more traditional style hotel with a beach opposite and a sea view, the beach/changing rooms/pool near the beach and facilities were immaculate, the beach looked like it had been ironed each day and we were pleasantly surprised. lovely shops in the resort, and we visted Florence, Lucca, Pisa, Forte de Marni , Santa Margarita and Porto Fino all by train which was very reasonab le and very efficient. the weather was great while we were there and rained the day we left., but we had a great time and did not stop laughing the whole time. The only aggravating part was the hassle from the street vendors with handbags for sale, which was very annoying and you can be fined in Italy if you are caught with a 'fake' by ?1000 by the police so beware if you fancy one. It was a great trip and we loved Lucca and Santya Margarita and would probably stay there next time. Porto fino was gorgeous but you would have to take our a mortgage to stay in their hotels.

Had a superb couple of weeks here, the hotel is excellent and in a great location overlooking the sea. Viareggio is a fantastic place to unwind, it's a bit of an old-fashioned seaside resort but modern in that everything works fine.

The Palace is really a solid choice, in particularly in the post season. Our room (210) was clean and not too small. It had a big and nice bathroom with tub + shower and the usual additions (hair dryer, shampoo ..) There were only a few guests in the end of October and the staff evenly spread them through the house so it was kind of quite. Yes, it may be a bit rundown and is for sure no palace, but I have seen much more rundown hotels in the past so it's absolutely o.k. even if you are a bit fussy. The windows seemed to be quite new, at least they kept the street noise outside if closed. There was a new flatscreen t.v. on the room (which I didn't use too much). Breakfast was good. The staff is not extremely friendly but not rude or arrogant at all. Overall, the hotel has a certain charm and I would choose it again in the early or post season for a good rate. I suppose that it's not a so good choice and way too expensive in the high season.

We had a 3 night stay at the Palace. We stayed in room 307 which has a sea view. The room was comfortable enough although very dated with old wooden furniture. The bed was comfortable. The ensuite bathroom was in desperate need of a refit; no shower just a bath. Breakfast was good; a good standard buffet in a beautiful old room with crystal chandeliers. Beware of the charges the hotel makes for the beach club: they charged us 32 euros for 2 chairs and 2 beds (inc towels) when we could get the same (without towels) for 10!!! Reception gave us a free parking permit to park anywhere in the blue zoned areas on the front or side streets. The downstairs bar was never open; the roof-top terrace bar was open but often unmanned. Ask at reception to use the PC in the lounge area, again free of charge. This hotel does not warrent a 4* rating but it is clean and comfortable and if you are into 'la belle epoque' you would be happy here. We moved to the Grand Hotel Royal a little further up for the rest of our stay; it was cheaper and much more comfortable.