Hotel Continental - Santa Margherita Ligure

9.4

this was one of the best stays while we were in Italy. A lot of it was because of th Continental hotel. This was our first visit to the Protofino area, but will not be our last.

9.7

Fantastic, the staff were especially helpful and friendly - the only thing missing was a room service menu/limited food in room

3.8

Both of the rooms we had were in the "new" building. They were shabby and very tired. The decor was not quite what you might see in a Holiday Inn Hotel. The bed was not supportive and the 2 pillows were hard and lumpy. There was not an additional pillow or blanket in the room. The "full sea view" that we paid for was mostly a view of the pool and a couple large trees that blocked the view of the harbor. The staff did show us other rooms in the main building but they did not appear to be substantially better, though the view was superior. The common areas were well kept and very attractive. My father-in-law has trouble walking and had to take a taxi up the hill to the hotel. This cost 15 euros for each ride of about 0.5-1 km! This was one of the worst hotel values that we have had in our 4 months in Italy.

10

The day concierge, John, was stellar. He was knowledgeable and helpful. Especially in regard to train schedules and a beautiful walk. He is the hidden gem at that hotel, which was one of the nicest places we have ever stayed.

6.6

Chambre tres petite mais tres jolie, superbe terrasse. Acceuil un peu froid mais qui s'ameliore avec les jours passes sur place. Par contre climatisation dans la chambre deja arretee alors qu'il faisait 25 degres. La poubelle de la salle de bain n'etait pas videe a notre arrivee !! Dans l'ensemble sejour agreable.

9.8

Wow, what a beautiful spot in Italy, we had a seaview with a balcony that opened to palm trees and sea, breakfast area is absolutely wonderful with views all around, swimming area was very good, we were able to swim out to a floating dock (maybe only available in summer). The ferry to Portofino was close and easy to do. Rail station is close, a little downhill and uphill walk to hotel.

8.7

We absolutley loved this hotel! Our room was extremely loud. We are on the front of the hotel. We could hear everything that was said in the surrounding rooms and cars driving on the road in front of the hotel were very loud as well!

7.5

Our first time in this part of Italy. We looked at all the nearby resorts - Portofino (very pretty but small and expensive) & Rapallo (too big and busy) - and we are glad we chose to be at Santa Margherita, which for us was the right combination of size and attractiveness with lots of restaurants (Da Michele was the best we found. The Continental proved to be a very pleasant hotel, with friendly, helpful staff. It is in lovely surroundings with no road between the hotel and the sea making it much quieter. We had a sea view room which also gave us a small balcony. Rooms at the other side of the building overlook the car park. An easy walk into the main part of this delightful town though uphill on the way back. We ate in the hotel one night but thought it less good than the town resturants. The breakfast buffet was fairly ordinary. Info in the rooms on the hotel and town would have been helpful - we asked and they do not provide this so you need to always ask at reception.

2.7

Room as booked was not available! Room tiny and much too small for a double room. Too expensive for such a small room.We booked the room for 240€. Hotel is directly on the main street. If you walk into the center the traffic is awful and dangerous. We had booked for 4 nights but we went after the second night. Not recommended!

8.7

Wonderful and well kept spacious garden. Beautiful view and easy to get to the private shore.

8.9

Super property. We were extremely happy with our accomodations. I would recommend this hotel to anyone looking for an wonderful hotel reasonably priced. Now the taxi drivers from the rail station are another thing. A complete rip off.

8.2

struttura molto bella, girdino degradante verso il mare,posizione straordinaria..unico neo le stanze sono poco spaziose, ma con vista indimenticabile su santa margherita!

8.7

We stayed two nights here with view overlooking garden and sea. Perhaps the most delightful ever experienced. The hotel has been recently modernized and everything functioned perfectly, but the French window difficult to operate.Not very spacious room, but comfortable and elegant.Staff friendly and efficient, buffet breakfast plentiful, carte d'hôte dinners satisfactory, not cordon bleu.Fair value for money - highly recommended.

7.8

Buen hotel y servicios

5.5

A great location looking down on to Santa Margharita which is a short walk. The private bathing area is great the only complaint I have is the additional daily charge (around 15 euro each per day). Although this charging policy is flagged and not out of line with other hotels in Italy, I object to being charged to use this facility when I am a hotel guest paying an already substantial room rate. Other than this minor gripe we enjoyed our stay here. It is also easy to walk to Rapallo which is bigger and has more shops/bars/restaurants. There is also a local train station for trips to the cinque terra.

7.4

Beautiful hotel and beautiful surroundings. But this time my room was in the lower part of the hotel. And I could hear everything from the room next door (there is a door between the rooms) , even breathing... But I will 100% return to this hotel, and hope that I am more lucky next time with the type of room.

8.2

We were delighted with the facilities and the surroundings of the hotel. The room was lovely with a beautiful view as well. We were taken by surprise by the rather exorbitant charge for the use of the chairs and umbrella at the swimming area, though.

9.5

We're already planning our trip back and would definitely stay here. The staff was very helpful and eveyrone was so nice. The hotel is beautiful and walking distance to eveyrthing. We absolutely loved it and have recommended it already!!

6.5

Had a lovely 3 night stay at the Continental with our family and booked 3 rooms. The hotel is situated in a beautiful spot overlooking the Santa Margherita harbor. Easy walking to town and activities. Rooms are spartan and can be very small. We complained about our room and were offered a larger more comfortable room although still sparsley furnished. Front desk is well managed and the staff is very helpful. Adequate breakfast included with room. The hotel has beautiful grounds. We would return but know to ask for larger rooms. When we departed we inadvertently left a 11"x18" souvenir painting behind in our room and it was not turned into the hotel management. That was disappointing.

10

Great location, beautiful setting, fabulous property. I LOVED IT!!

8.4

I had a wonderful stay at the Continental. So good in fact, that I returend for another 3 days before my departure from Italy. I had a room with a balcony, and enjoyed the sun and views of the Ligurian Sea, the hotel's lovely gardens, and the village while reading, relaxing, sunbathing in the privacy of a roomy balcony. The staff was accomodating and helpful. Just one suggestion: the room where I stayed would have benefited from a coat of fresh paint.

9.8

We walked up the hill from the train station with our luggage (with my parents, who are in their 60's). There is a wonderful walkway to the sea - worth spending time there. The views from the sea/harbour are great, the hotel is one of the highest in town. We paid 140 E per night for room and breakfast (per couple). Contrary to a previous comment, we enjoyed the breakfast, except for the coffee (ask for espresso or cappuccino specifically). My parents loved their harbour view on the balcony just under the hotel sign (the balcony adjoins that of the neighbor, not so good when not your relatives or friends) and we appreciated the privacy of our sea view balcony. The bathrooms were tight but the room was fine. Well stocked mini-fridge, with beer. Service at the restaurant is five star, dinner there was good, but our fave resto was il Faro, a 20 minute walk.

9.8

L'offerta è stata superiore sulla base delle mie aspettative. Un'indirizzo da tenere come punto di riferimento per il futuro!!

8.8

A delightful location with friendly, most helpful staff, and excellent food and wine.

6.2

I paid EUR 70,- for the room. However, they charged 12,- extra for parking outside, and a visit to the restaurant set me back another 45,-, even though I only had main course, desert and one beer.

9.7

My wife and I have spent many years staying in the Santa Margherita area and have stayed at hotels rated at 4 stars - I will admit that we were both very pleased with our room and the overall service - from everyone on the staff. We will certainly come back for future visits.

3.7

Really expensive for what is offering. Room old and really small.Is all appearence.

3.2

During August and September 2005, my wife and and I took an extended marketing trip to Europe. Since our 40th wedding anniversary is coming up, we decided to treat ourselves with a short stay at one of our favorite hotels, the Hotel Continental located in Santa Margherita Liguire in Italy. We have stayed in this hotels many times in the past and have always found it to be of outstanding quality. Therefore, even though we found the prices this time to be extremely high, we decided to skimp on other hotels so that we could enjoy these few days. From the moment of our arrival, we realized that things had changed. We had booked a superior double ocean front non-smoking room. When I had called to make the reservation, the person I spoke with suggested that we reserve a room costing an additional 30 Euros per night since it was so much more spacious and comfortable. The room we were given was anything but! First of all, it was small, dark and dreary and in deplorable state. Walls were dirty and patched; furniture was old and beat up and the floors were dirty. However, the terrace facing the ocean was wonderful so we decided to make the best of the situation rather than complain. That was until we found that 1. The room smelled of smoke and 2. The air conditioning did not work. When we called reception, we were informed that “they had no non smoking rooms at the hotel” though I had been assured at the time I made the reservation that we would have a non-smoking room. We were also told to wait for a while since the air would take some time because it hadn’t been turned on. So, we decided to get some lunch and make the best of the smell of smoke in the room hoping that once the air kicked in it would improve. When we returned, there was no improvement in the air conditioning and we were treated as though we were bothering the staff who repeatedly reminded us that “they were busy.” I then tried to plug my laptop computer in to charge it up so that I could catch up on bus

9.7

We had an sea-view room and the view was spectacular. The room was comfortable, but old. The bathroom had all the amenties, but was a bit old. The desk staff was wonderful and the hotel itself is grand. My only complaint was the breakfast buffet. The steam table eggs tasted terrible and the selection of pastries was very limited. I had ham and cheese with a roll each day. The juice was also terrible. We ordered black coffee our first day and it was several hours old. For this reason, we did not eat any other meals in the hotel restaurant. If they can't make a good breakfast, how could the dinners be good?

4.9

The hotel is old and ill-kept. Our very expensive room was very small and the bathroom even smaller. When we arrived, a light switch was broken and dangling, molding falling off, and the minibar broken. However, we did have a balcony that overlooked the hotel's beautiful grounds and entire Ligurian Coast, which made up for the awful room and snotty front desk staff. Be careful if you stay here...they charged us 18 euros a piece to sit near the sea for an hour. Santa Marghertia is absolutely heaven but this hotel is sad. Perhaps someone will buy it, repair it, and teach the employees about hospitality.

6.4

Good location. You can go on foot to santa margherita. 5klm from Portofino. But it doesn't deserve to stay in santa margherita, Portofino is more elegant, pittoresque and beautiful.It's much much better to stay in portofino.HOTEL PICCOLO 4stars is a good and not expensive solution for portofino choice. Restaurants are not so expensive as expected. We recommend O MAGAZIN and a wine bar next to it, da u batti restaurant and da mario. all of them in portofino. Parking expensive( 1-5hours approx. 16euros). ROOM at the continental hotel too small, but nice view overlooking the bay. Terrace with beautiful view for the breakfast.

5.7

In a 4 Stars Hotel I expect rooms in an adequate spacious way for the money I paid - even in Santa Margaritha Ligure. Additionally the rooms were in an extension to the real hotel which was not visible on the web appearance of the Hotel. This extension had not had 4 Stars quality.

6.4

The hotel staff was not very friendly or helpful. The rooms were spacious but very noisy and tidy but not clean. The location was excellent, though and the surroundings beautiful.

9.4

The stay at the Continental was wonderfull. Very friendly and attentive staff and a wonderfull setting. Santa Margherita is a gem.

4.0

With respect to the pitcures on internet there was no correspondence between the photographs of the rooms and the room available for us. Price/quality of the room (190 euros!)was unreasonable even if it is high season. You do not expect such an old, tiny and noisy room and bathroom in a 4 stars hotel! The hotel itself, however, is nice. I do not know whether the other rooms are better. On the web pages the photographs and the characteristics of the different kind of rooms should be specified in order to allow you to know what you buy. I did not not complain because I did not want to get angry on holidays! We will never go there again.

9.3

The Hotel and city were fabulous. View and the grounds were amazing. Location to the train station, only a couple blocks, was great. There is a very nice large map on the wall at the train station with all the Hotels indicated. Nice walk to the town for meals. Never did find any store to buy beverages and snacks though, so we always stocked up on what we wanted for our room, and the day at the one at the Train Station. Staying here worked great for going to Cinque Terra for hikes, rather than staying in the touristy five land cities. After reading up, we went for the less traveled hike from Levanto to Monterosso. This leads to a view of all five lands of the Cinque Terre at once at the high point. The hike was to take 2 hours, took us 4. Of course we tended to be the nicer and look for a good spot to yield to others coming the opposite way when passing rather then fight it out on narrow path. We had to swing it getting from the train station to the start of the trail. But basically just head toward the water, there is a very nice street which heads to the sea. Near the beach is an information place, but basically once at the beach head towards Monterossp there is a Castle and up the steps. While Levanto was very pretty, I would recommended skipping this first part of the walk. I would just go to Monterosso, then head up the hill towards Levanto. At the high point, enjoy the awesome view of all the Cinque Terre, then turn around and head back down. There was nothing really to see on the first part of the hike. Second day we took the train to Monterosso and then walked to Vernazza. While most people walk this the other way, this is the better "Postcard" view way. The best view you get is looking down onto Vernazza from this direction. Take plenty, plenty of water on any of these hikes. You might have some small change with you on the Monterosso-Vernazza hike to donate to feed the cats they take care of. Nice

5.8

the location of the hotel was superb, unfortunately the size of the room was terrible and the bathroom badly needed refurbishing - even so I did love the hotel -but please just do it up a bit.

8.6

The place is really beautiful. The only thing was the low quality of the brekfast. We didn't have dinner, since the menu was not appealing

9.6

great location, view, value for the $

9.2

This hotel was recommended to us by friends who have stayed here numerous times, and have come to truly value the friendliness and helpfulness of the staff. Like them, we appreciated the genuine cordiality of everyone from the chamber maids to the people at the front desk. We are also happy we took our friends' advice to get an ocean front room. Opening our shutters to the gorgeous hotel garden and lovely view of the harbor was the perfect start to every day we spent in Santa Margherita. The setting of the hotel overlooking the village, with the palm treed gardens and swimming area (with cabanas and light snack area) was the most impressive of any hotel in the area. Because our room was at the end of the hall, where entrances to two other rooms on the side of the hotel converged, we could hear talking at times. But this was definitely not enough of a bother to make us want to change rooms. The setting was more than enough to offset that minor idiosyncracy. Though our room was not huge by American standards, it was very comfortable with many small details, like shelving in the bathroom, and coat and key hooks that impressed us as being extraordinarily well planned and organized. We stayed two weeks, and we were sad to say good bye. We would definitely return here, and greet our "friends" at the Continental with a big hug!

9.8

The staff were most friendly & helpful, we hope to return to this idyllic setting

10

We only had 2 days to explore the coast and we could not have had a better time. The hotel is beautiful and the staff was very kind. Just sit on the veranda and enjoy an afternoon cocktail and the fabulous view.

9.9

This was the second time I stayed at this hotel - the first time I was alone, and had a very reasonably priced single room. We had the ocean view room, and it was lovely. My only complaint would be that the restaurant closes very early and has a limited menu, but you can walk down to town in five minutes. I would stay here again.

8.9

Very nice location. Comfortable and gentle staff.

9.9

Attenzione alla scelta della stanza: puo' cambiare radicalmente la qualita' della vacanza. Le possibilita' sono molte e le differenze notevoli: su strada ristrutturata o non ristrutturata; vista mare ristrutturata o no, piano alto o basso, con balcone o con finestra, junior suite n. 31 (semplicemente splendida).

9.1

This hotel was in a lovely spot with great outlook to the beach. You do pay more for these rooms though. Bathroom very large with bath which is geat in Italy. Overall hotel was all that was expected. The only thing missing for me was a swimming pool. Santa Margerita is a beautiful place.

9.2

A delightful venue in a delightful location. We would stay again.

6.0

The Continental Hotel in Santa Margherita Ligure has the 'wow' factor as far as its unique position directly on the sea with beautiful gardens and views over the bay is concerned. Also it is only a short walk into town which means that you do not really need a car. The rooms - for the prices charged -are mediocre apart from the views(when you book a more expensive seaview room). The grey and unlovely bathroom had a hospital feel to it and the breakfast was a real letdown. We knew that Italian breakfasts are not something 'to linger over' as it was put in a guidebook but Continental's breakfast was extremely disappointing. The tea tasted like dishwater and was not hot enough, the bread was stale, the orange juice tasted like sweet lemonade and the only fruit available was canned! The plus points were the beach bar with great views, the rockpool area and the gardens and terraces that were all equiped with nice new outdoor furniture. If the hotel was mine I would do the following: Upgrade the breakfast, dim the overly bright lighting in the public areas and in the bar (which feels like a refridgerator!) and get some decent feather pillows for the rooms!! Altogether I think that this hotel has great potential and could -with a few improvements - be much much better than it is at the moment. Regards Renate Lagler-Thompson Cheshire

7.6

A superb location. The staff were friendly and helpful. Our room was small and a bit dated but no doubt they are not all the same. Overall a nice hotel, the only criticsim being that it needs a little attention from a decor perspective in some areas. We would go back again

9.1

This was a great place to stay. The only draw back was the extra 18 Euro per person to use a chair and towel at their private beach. I thought that should have been included in the cost of the room. Other than that, it was a great place to stay!