The Ashbee Hotel

As has been stated in other reviews, this is all about LOCATION LOCATION LOCATION. A very nice property just a few hundred metres from the main drive of Taormina. The staff were very friendly and very helpful on restaurant recommendations. It is expensive for what you get but that is Taormina all over (for example, try buying a glass of wine for 18 euros at the Grand Belmont hotel where the patio seats give a great view Etna ). So you have to look at this hotel in the light of other hotels in the same area ....and then you have that great breakfast and pool view !!

We spent four nights at the ASHBEE Hotel this past week. I would describe this as a comfortable old hotel that is quite charming. The rooms are small but nice and clean. The staff is excellent and extremely helpful. My main complaint is with regard to the breakfast service. First of all, they do not serve breakfast until 8 AM. If you have a tour and need to depart early, your only choice is for them to serve you a very limited menu in the lobby which is prepared by the night porter. If you do wait for breakfast which begins at 8 AM, the service also is extremely limited and the menu is quite inflexible. If you like fruits, you better buy them at a store and bring it yourself because the fruit they give you is served minced in small cups the size of an espresso cup. You need to eat at least eight of those cups for one portion of fruit. I found this to be quite strange.

There is no doubt that you will find the hotel's setting fantastic, the pool breath-taking, the rooms comfortable, and the location close to uptown, but the price is so high that you expect perfection that we did not get: the breakfast staff couldn't remember us at all as if we had just arrived and there aren't many customers at the same time in the hotel, the open-air breakfast place is so hot during the summer that you literally sweat on your chair while hoping to eat as quickly as possible to leave and the TV either doesn't work properly or is hard to use. So we had a nice experience but we will not return for the same price.

This hotel is very well located as it is at the bottom of the main shopping street in Taormina. The location allows you to access all the main attractions, including the amphitheater and gardens. The hotel's grounds and the pool are gorgeous and the view from the suites and terrace for breakfast in the morning are stunning. The suites themselves have large rooms where you can easily relax and enjoy a peaceful vacation. That being said, it will cost you an arm and a leg for a nice room. The standard rooms in the secondary pavillon had a few ants as there is more shrubbery around, so we upgraded to a suite in the main villa. Unless budget is not an issue, you might want to consider other options before booking here, especially because breakfast will add up quickly too.

Our stay at the Ashbee was perfect. The staff were polite, helpful and very attentive. Drinks and food rather expensive but the town is so close with dozens of small bars, cafes and restaurants that it was no problem. The infinity pool was amazing with clean towels several times a day and lovely views over the bay. Breakfast, included, on the roof terrace was excellent and the vies again were superb. We stayed for our honeymoon and would definitely love to go back.