Grand Hotel Misurina - Blu Hotels — Hotel in Auronzo di Cadore

Grand Hotel Misurina is a very old hotel whose best days are behind it. The front desk staff are very friendly and helpful, and speak multiple languages. Finding your room is a challenge, as the hotel is built like a labyrinth. The room was clean and the bathroom was spacious. The hotel only has Italian power sockets, so make sure you bring an adapter or two. There are some weird switches on the wall with no explanation of what they do. WiFi is slow and only for 2 devices. Most rooms have no view, except the expensive lake view rooms, but you don't need that - you didn't come to the Dolomites to stay in the room, right? The view is free and it's outside. Neither should you come here to watch TV, unless you love cartoons dubbed in Italian.

The breakfast buffet is good, but the service isn't up to standard. The coffee from the machine sucks, but you can ask the service staff for coffee from the kitchen, and with some luck, you might even get it. If you want a table with a view, you apparently need to reserve it in advance.

The best thing about the hotel is the location. It's walking distance to the Tre Cimi shuttle bus (see the location I added on the map), so you spare yourself the the hassle and 30 EUR parking fee at Rifugio Auronzo. Bus schedule can be found at the front desk (or at the fiction section of the local library, I assume). On the lake side of the hotel, there is a supermarket/Café. Buy the Tre Cimi bus tickets from the cashier of the Café. It will save you tons of time. Buy return tickets (4 EUR each way). Buying the return ticket on the bus is expensive (9 EUR one way).

Lake Misurina is beautiful, with plenty of good eateries are nearby. The hotel has free parking, but it can get full fast, so grab your spot before 3pm. If not, there's a paid parking nearby, and you can bring the car in after 10am next day when people check out. The walk around the Misurina lake is good exercise, and there is a lot of interesting plants and animals on the forest side of the lake. Watching a brood of ducklings leaving the nest was a highlight of our stay. The view of the Tre Cimi, Monte Cristalo, and Monte Piana is breathtaking, especially early morning and evening. Malga Misurina is a must-try for a fresh Farm-to-Table dinner. The pizza at the pizzerias suck, and you are better off ordering...

I see a lot of comments about the hotel not being "grand". It is grand but from a different era. We were very happy with our stay. The location is perfect for the lake and the Tre Cime hikes. We did have a lake view but also consider that you could get noise from the road with a room at the front. We were out all day and only really in the room to shower and sleep so in hindsight the view from the room wasn't important. The food was amazing. There was a great selection for breakfast so you could fuel up before the hikes. We paid for half board so got breakfast and dinner included. This was perfect as we didn't have to worry where we were going for dinner and if we needed to book ahead. Dinner was at 7pm (a bit late for us some days as we were hungry after hiking) but was four courses. The view from the dining room is amazing. A lovely setting to enjoy your meal. The dining room can get busy if there are large groups but the staff cope well and it's all part of the experience.

Our room was clean and comfortable. There aren't any tea/coffee making facilities in the room but you can ask for hot water and cups from the bar ( BYO tea bags if you're English and have a favorite tea😉) There wasn't any air con in the room. It wasn't an issue when we stayed. Not sure how hot it gets in summer.

I also see a lot of comments about cost. It is a long way from a major city or town. Everything has to be transported in - food, drink, and all other items concerned with running a hotel. They are running a business - staff, cleaning, maintenance - so it's not unreasonable to expect the cost given the location.

There is a shop (DeSpar) down at the front of the hotel. They had a good selection for food for hiking. The bus to/from Cortina d'Ampezzo stops out the front too.

Would we use this hotel again? Yes, we would return if we were in that area again. The location...

There is nothing grand about this hotel except maybe its location. It is an old hotel with tired decor and even more tired staff who do not smile and check you in with a minimal amount of human contact. The word grand may impress the Chinese tour operators who are busy packing in all the lake view rooms at this hotel a lower rate than what I paid to get a dark room facing the parking lot. It was the commotion in the parking lot that made me aware of the arrival of the tour, followed by the commotion on my floor which made me open my door to the hallway and see all the lake view rooms were being opened for the guests that really matter to the hotel.||I have been to several Grand hotels in Europe, and the best among them refuse to cater to tours for reasons we all know. The breakfast was just ok, but it was not the breakfast I had had a week before at the Grand Geisbach Hotel in Switzerland, which would shame Misurina’s management; nor is the location as good, and certainly the polish and poise of the staff at the Swiss hotel would not compare to the cold and indifferent greeting I received. ||The breakfast is served at 7AM, which I would say is too late, because nearly fifty guests walked in at that time and surrounded the two serving areas, resulting in an awkward wait. Scrambled eggs, however, were not brought out until 7.20. To make it a perfect fiasco, the coffee/cappuccino machine was out of commission by 7.30. ||Remarkable that I have had memorable exchanges with owners and staff of good family run B&B in this trip, and the only sense I now have of this stay is that the word Grand may no longer be suggestive of class, elegance, consideration, competence or even basic friendliness. Even the four star rating is...