Pharos - Hvar Bayhill Hotel — Hotel in Grad Hvar

It is a decent 10-15min walk from the harbour to the hotel, which if you are lugging heavy luggage and it's a hot day can be exhausting, particularly as you will be either trekking up staircases or a steep hill. You can however organise a transfer service through the hotel, which will take you and your luggage directly to the hotel.

The hotel is relatively modern design, overlooking the bay. The reception is up another set of stairs from the road - a simple white wall and glass interior with monochromatic splashes of colour and furniture. The staff always seem busy and pre-occupied, so they sometimes come across as indifferent and rude. We found them helpful, particularly when booking tours/excursions.

The reception blends into the main dining area, which overlooks the adjoining pool. We found that the pool & dining areas tended to be full of groups of young male tourists, who were loud and drinking heavily - not a great impression for families and couples.

The accommodation is in separate multi-storey blocks, located away from the reception/dining area. There are about four of these three-storey white accommodation blocks - which from the inside and out appear to be like college dormitories. None of them have lifts/elevators so if you don't like taking your luggage up and down stairs, I suggest you book a ground floor. Luckily our dormitory block was away from the pool and the noise.

Our room on the second floor was compact and minimalist, with pop art decor in the bedroom & bathroom which reinforced the feeling of a student dormitory. It lacked sufficient storage space for our suitcases and there was barely enough room in the bathroom to open the door and get in and out. One of the redeeming features was the small outside balcony with views over the garden and the sea. The air-conditioning is preset, like most 3-star hotels in Croatia, but we didn't find that a problem. we were located at the far end of the block, opposite end to the stairs, so we didn't have much problem with noise. I can see however that the thin walls would prove to be an issue if the guests in the rooms next to you were loud.

Breakfast at the hotel was reasonable, although the hot food was only served warm, probably because of the numbers of guests. It was regularly re-stocked so there was never an issue with missing out. Not a big fan of people smoking whilst you are eating so it's hard sometimes to find a decent table away from other people's smoke.

It was comfortable enough but I'm sure that there are better places to stay in Hvar, if you want to get away from the crowds of loud drunken...

I would not stay here again. We arrived before check-in but were told our room would be ready in 30mins so to have a drink at the bar, an hour later we were still waiting and were then told it would be a couple of hours. My main issue with this was that the staff had not managed expectations and were realistic with us, we would have gone into town if we knew we'd be waiting longer! Breakfast - a total bun fight. Clearly they were very understaffed as every food station was low/empty and there were long queues for things so as soon as stations were replenished, people waiting emptied them again. The staff just could not stay on top of things. Rooms - tiny and poorly fitted out. After the saga at check in we were 'upgraded', I worry at what we were due to be in. There wasn't enough room to swing a cat, it lacked the basics (waste bin, somewhere other than the bed to sit, more than 2 hangers etc.) The rooms do not have mini bars or tea/coffee facilities and the hotel bar closes at 2200. We bought bottled water from town so we had some in our room - nowhere to keep them chilled though! The bathroom was well fitted, large walk in shower but the temperature ranged from freezing to scolding in a moment (we hadn't changed the settings!) To top all of this off rooms are only serviced every 2-3 days, we waited 4 before having to ask someone to come and were then left without any towels, when they arrived they were threadbare. When housekeeping do come along your corridor its at 0700 and they are not quiet. The blocks that rooms are in reminded me of youth hostels. Pool - get up at 0700 and get a towel on a bed if you want to be able to hang out there! Or avoid the groups of teenagers and drunk stags and go to the beach instead! It said the pool closes at 2100, there were drunk groups of people hanging around there jumping in at 0400. To top it off the place is not value for money! Still pricey for a poor service and shoddy hotel combined with...

Wonderful nights sleep, lovely pool, amazing breakfast included!

The only drawback were the other guests (20-somethings, rather noisy) and the steep climb to the property. But advice on both of these below.

Fortunately, the young guests were well behaved and the rooms seemed to block out any noise well. Our sleep was quiet and restful. Beds very comfortable, linens nice and crisp. Bathroom good size, good water pressure, very clean.

The walk from the ferry terminal and harbor was about 12 minutes and was largely uphill. If you don't have heavy bags, this is an easy walk. With heavy bags, you may want to make some arrangements. Also, the route Google maps gave from ferry terminal to the hotel was less than ideal (many steps and turns to navigate) if you have bags. Instead I recommend walking about five minutes along the waterfront in the general direction of the hotel (head towards hotel delfin) then turning to go up 6 steps from waterfront. At that point all you have to do is walk up a sloped walkway. It's easy enough to pull your suitcase and is only for pedestrian traffic, so is lovely. Once in the property, staff offered to take our bags to our room.

As for the breakfast, it was stunning. It was a very large buffet that I believe many other hotels would charge 25€ per person. But it was included in the room! I've attached photos, but they didn't do it justice. There were 3 kinds of juices, various milks (dairy, non dairy, low fat, walk, child, etc etc), 4 types of pastries, 4 types of bread, cheeses, meats (cooked bacon, dried salami, prosciutto, etc), scrambled eggs, fried eggs (made fresh), sauteed onions, sauteed mushrooms, fruits and more fruits, oats and cereals is so sorts, dried fruits and nuts, yogurt. I must be missing something!

Front desk staff was helpful and courteous on check in and check out, slowing guests to enjoy the property and pool even before check-in time.

In the end I was so happy...