Hotel Mahara — Hotel in Mazara del Vallo

We stayed at the hotel for a week, travelling here for a wedding of dear friends and decided to attach small holidays to this occasion. I’ll start with the good points, because there are much more bad points. Positive: location. Very central location, next to promenade, you can access all the restaurants, caffès and walks easily. Cleaning team. The cleanliness of the rooms and professionalism of the room service is great. In fact, that’s what made our stay tolerable. Welcome voucher. We were given a welcome voucher for a drink at the bar (juice or Prosecco), which was a nice touch. Negative: Rooms. On the website and booking you could see the rooms with sea view and balcony. We went for this option. Upon arrival we found out that it’s either balcony or sea view. The rooms with both do not exist. Maybe yet, because they were doing some works on floor 3. Wi-fi. There is an extremely weak wi-fi. I had an online conference to present on during my stay, we asked a lady at the reception if there is a room or spot at the hotel with the strongest internet. We were told than no…even if this hotel positions itself as “Congress center”🤡 Gym and spa. On the website and booking page it is stated that they have Gym facilities and wellness spa club. Indeed, they have both, however, gym is for additional charge of 10€ per day, and wellness spa club is, conveniently, on the reconstruction, for god knows how long. It would be great if you can warn the clients in advance about that. Laundry and ironing. As we arrived on the wedding, my husband needed to steam/iron his suit. We ordered this service at the hotel. First of all, on the reception they were even sceptical they can do that..in the end they took it, ironed it and STAINED it. When I asked to bring an iron to my room to fix my dress myself, i realised what happened, the iron was incredibly rusty and old, as well as the iron board. Breakfast. Selection of the breakfast buffet was extremely limited, and it was all the same every day. No fresh fruit, except apples, which is strange, given that our stay was on summer. Scramble eggs and bacon…it was better not to see even, not to mention to try it. Pool. The overall condition of the pool is ok, however the sunbeds and chairs are very tired and dirty, it would not hurt to purchase some new ones. Even if the pool is quite spacious, the zone for sunbeds is veeery limited, also there were only three ruined umbrellas for the whole area. Elevator. No certificate of maintenance inside, and I was looking for that because the lift is very old and noisy. In fact, one day it did not work, they they resumed it’s use, but the condition did not change. Staff. Very very poor staff, who do not now how to communicate with the guests, they only talk to each other. When we complained because of the noises of works above our head on the floor 3 at 6.20 AM, we were told that it’s not possible, there is nothing, no works…this person either implied that we were experiencing a group hallucinations during the 6 nights stay, or it was her first day, or both. Lunch/dinner. On the last day of our stay we asked in the morning if we could have a lunch at the hotel, so then we could rest before the flight. In the end we arrived and they were closed. Complete miscommunication between hotel’s units. Overall, I’d never recommend this hotel...

Please read before booking.||The hotel is nice and the staff are really friendly and helpful, especially Angela. She went above and beyond to help me with getting to the only pharmacy on the island on a weekend (this was a 10 min drive from the hotel). The other pharmacies on the island are closed Monday - Friday so please take as much medication that you may need. I had been suffering from a severe migraine whilst on holiday and had used up the medicine I had already packed from the UK. Angela arranged for the hotel's transfer service to take me there and bring me back to the hotel.||YOU NEED A CAR for this part of the island as there is not much to do that is in walking distance. We could not get a cab for love nor money out there and found ourselves stuck and bored.||We searched looking for car hire which there is only one back at the airport which is a 45 min drive away!||There is the beach which is a stone's throw away from the hotel but it is rocky with no beach to sit on and is full of rubbish. The closest beach is about a 30 min walk away where there are sunbeds, and a beach bar.||Most of the food is all fish & pork based and I found it difficult to find authentic Italian restaurants in walking distance.||Most food places are closed in the afternoon and re-open again at 7pm for dinner. If you want to have lunch you'll either have to eat at the hotel or do some research for places that are open during lunching hours (we struggled to find any).||The hotel's breakfast was ok but mainly consisted of cakes and croissants which were sitting out from 7am, so don't be surprised if you see lots of flies hanging around. The only savoury option is boiled egg, scrambled egg and bacon.||Over the weekend there are stalls right outside of the hotel which consist of street food and many stalls to purchase jewellery & all sorts of Italian souvenirs. The night time is busy and full of life, there is also a fun fair ground not far from the stalls for the children which is open late.||We attended a hotel event which was lovely for 25 euro each, this consisted of buffet food (only mussels and mussel pasta as a main, no alternative options) , live band music, a firework display and plenty of wine!||WiFi didn't work in the hotel, so be plan to get roaming add on. ||Overall, a pleasant hotel to stay in but the location is very cut off and quite run down in some places. A car is A MUST. I wouldn't stay here again but had to make the most of the time being somewhere different, we were a bit disappointed but enjoyed relaxing by the pool the most, as this was all we...

Mahara sits at the edge of the Mediterranean, along Lungomare Mazzini, a quite busy seawalk promenade. It's a large compound, with a large courtyard, used for the open air restuarant-bar. You had to walk 10 minutes before reaching Piazza Mokarta, the Norman Arch, the Basilica Cathedral, and Piazza dela Republic, arguably the busy center of the old town. The Hopps Hotel, also along Mazzini, is a bit closer. ||The hotel does not turn on it's ac! That was the first thing the reception person told us when we were checking in, possibly to give the guests a chance to back out. Good thing it was late April and it was still ok - we just left the sliding door that led to a very narrow balcony open. But I can't imagine not having the ac in June - maybe they finally turn it on. ||We were also bothered by the thin walls, so we could hear people in the next room or when the staff (presumably) were moving around furniture in the floor above us.|The guest room is quite large, with a floor to ceiling sliding door-window that opens to a very narrow but appreciated balcony. The balcony gave a good view of the Mediterranean. The sliding door has both lace and blackout curtains. The floor is red tile. Furniture is basic wood painted in white. There were two wall lamps and that was it in terms of decor. A small TV sits on one side of the work desk - but no English language channels. There is also a hot water kettle. There's a minibar but it didn't make the drinks cold. ||The bathroom is serviceable, with a bidet and half-covered shower stall. We appreciated having the full set of body, hand and face towels. The washbasin drain wasn't draining well so we just took it off. ||Breakfast is on the ground floor. Fare is adequate, with decent hot food - sausages, bacon, scrambled eggs - but limited veggies and not fresh juice drinks from...