Hotel Carignano — Hotel in Lucca

We arrived earlier than expected after cycling during a very hot day. They made an effort to make our room ready earlier. There are positives, but our experience had many negatives.

My daughter had fallen down during the ride and grazed her knee. Despite this being very evident, we were not even asked if she/we needed anything. Yes. We put this within the context of being asked about her knee in several hotels after we left this one.

The hotel has a storage room for bicycles and we were never offered to use it. We only saw it existed when we checked out and we saw other guests taking their bicycles out. And they knew we were cycling from the moment we arrived...

Let's move on to the restaurant... Due to my daughter's knee issue, we decided to have dinner there. We were the only customers. The dinner was nice, but very over-priced. We had much better quality meals in Lucca for a much better cost. When we finished the meal they were very quick to bring the bill without even asking if we wanted dessert/coffee. We of course ordered dessert, ate, paid and left. Breakfast... Not a bad one, with lots of variety and selection, but we noticed that despite being busy, all their eggs and warm meals were not being kept warm at the buffet. Our eggs were at room temperature when we were served them. The coffee was not great either. The worst amongst several hotel we visited. Many in the same region as this one.

The rooms... Ours was spacious with a very large and comfortable balcony. However, the air-conditioning despite working was not cooling the room. Staying cool in the room was for us an act of survival. We thought it was due to high external heat, but yet again... We were in other hotels in the region even during warmer days and the A/C worked like wonders. Lastly, their plugs for charging mobiles and devices were very limited and use non-standard EU plugs. We had to unplug the fridge to charge our mobiles by turns because it was the only plug that worked.

Location... About 3 km from Lucca. That is not the center of Lucca as some replies in other reviews seem to emphasize. The taxi from the hotel costs 20-30 euros. That tells you how close to Lucca's centre it actually is. If you do not have your own/rented car and you are expecting to be close to things, then don't stay here. This was not a problem for us even on bicycles, but still worth mentioning it. Marketing of the hotel itself is very misleading. "The peaceful surroundings, filled with fruit trees, vineyards and olive groves" seriously disappoint. They are there, but quite far from the hotel and not accessible from the hotel itself (unless you are keen on jumping fences, invading your neighbour's garden, and things like that). The hotel itself has limited green spaces beyond those that surround the swimming pool. And they have limited fruit trees. The swimming pool however, is very nice and we had a good time using it.

More on customer service... Because of my daughter's knee accident, we spent most of our first/second day in the room with the "don't disturb" sign outside the door. Nevertheless, there was ample time without the sign and we were not even asked if we needed a change of towels or our bin emptied. This is something that yet again was done in other hotels that in contrast showed better customer service. Even in hotels for which we paid less.

So in summary... We do not recommend this hotel at all. I usually give places a second opportunity. In fact I only tend to write reviews when I have nothing negative to say. Our experience was however, so bad that it would be unfair to future customers not to say it. It is a place to avoid as it stands. Hopefully management can address these issues and make the hotel much better. It certainly has the potential, but check other reviews after this one for improvement...

We chose this hotel because we were doing cooking school in Lucca & the cooking school was right next door. Everyone spoke very good English and the main floor had a cappuccino bar and wine bar, although I didn't see a single person sitting on all those couches and chairs in the 4 days we were there. The room was basic. We had a nice balcony that overlooked the pool. Breakfast was terrible. Only one day did we get a breakfast we were able to eat, and that was the first day. They showed us the machine to soft boil our eggs, so we did that and had croissants. The next day, there was NO breakfast left. We came down early due to our cooking class. A large group had eaten all the food. They told us they could get some eggs to soft boil, but it was going to take 20" for it to heat up. We had to be in class in 20". We asked it they could scramble or fry some eggs & they said no. All that was left were a few croissants. There was no fruit, no cereal. Literally nothing left. We ate a croissant & had a cup of coffee & went to cooking school, where we got some real food. The next day, the soft boiled egg machine was turned off again. All that was edible was the croissants and a few straggling hard boiled eggs that were left behind. No good fruit. Terrible dry cakes. Terrible looking sliced meat & dried up cheese. Just-yuck! On the fourth day, we told them the night before to please turn on the soft boiled egg machine. Luckily, they did & we got eggs again. The rest of the breakfast isn't worth eating. Luckily, cooking school filed in the gap. We were @ 15 euros to get to Lucca & another 15 back each trip daily. One day we shared with another couple doing the cooking class. It was easy to get to Pisa by going into Lucca & getting on a bus. The cooking school was magnificent-Cooking Under the Tuscan Sun with Chef Paulo Monti. We should have stayed in his Tuscan apartments. The bill for 4 nights was about $225, so very cheap. The bathroom had essentially no amenities except shampoo. We had to buy body wash in Lucca. There is a hair dryer. This was essentially a crash pad for 4 nights before our trip to Florence, where we stayed at an elegant hotel & definitely paid for it there! Also, we could only get one key per room-annoying. There was also a lot of noise with screaming running children until almost 11pm one...

I'll be honest, after reading some of the recent reviews my family and I were nervous at the thought of arriving at the hotel. Thankfully we went with an open mind and were delighted with our stay. We arrived late at night and Marco was there to welcome us and get us checked in quickly. Our rooms were spotlessly clean and we enjoyed a restful night. Our party of 10 ranged from age 5 up to 66 and every one of us had a great time. Our rooms were cleaned every day by extremely friendly cleaning staff who did a brilliant job. The continental breakfast was plentiful and even when we arrived near the end of breakfast there was lots for us to choose from ranging from cereals and yogurts to pastries and cakes - you can even boil your own eggs! The location is a little remote (approx 10-15 drive from Lucca) and having a car would've made travelling a lot easier for us. In saying that there is a great wee bus service to Lucca if you are travelling during the day. It's only 2 euro return or 1.80 if you pay at the information point in Lucca. We had to rely on taxi's when heading back from Lucca after 7pm which are pricey - expect to pay about 20 euro each way if travelling from the walled part. If you don't mind walking, there is a brilliant path that follows the river all the way to Lucca which took my husband 45 minutes on foot. In my opinion this hotel was great because, despite being a little tired round the edges, it was immaculately clean and offered a relaxed atmosphere - nothing was a problem for the staff. One of our party became ill during our stay (nothing serious thankfully) and the staff went out of their way to help us. Thank you to all the staff who made our family holiday a...