Atlantic Palace Hotel — Hotel in Sorrento

This is not like any of the TUI blue hotels I’ve stayed in before. Forget luxury and cleanliness and instead you get broken, dirty and tired. This place needs a major renovation! It’s more like an old 3 star hotel. It’s not all bad though and at least the price has gone down compared to when it was in it was at its prime. We got married in Sorrento and stayed elsewhere and when we returned unfortunately that hotel was full. My friends stayed here 11 years ago when we got married and it was a “First Choice” hotel back then & they liked it, so we thought we’d give it a try. Now, parts of the building have fallen off, the hot tubs in the garden are sealed up and seem to have been for ages. The roof top bar is more of just an empty, dark space- the bar was open just once when we went up there. Our room was not particularly clean. It was wiped down in a basic way but those bathroom tiles hadn’t been scrubbed in a long time with mould setting in & grime building up. Our bathroom kept flooding and I don’t mean a little bit, we were wading through water on the floor after each shower & this has obviously been happening for ages because damp has set right through the walls and it is wet on the other side in the bedroom and as a result the paint is peeling off. We told reception but the man who came couldn’t fix it. It needs to be fixed properly (like the hot tubs). It seems like they just can’t be bothered to get things fixed properly. They try a quick bodge job with the hotel handy man and that’s it. ||The hotel is out of the way and there is a shuttle bus but the times are limited. They run very well in the day time going in fairly regularly until 4:45pm. Then the evening times are strange. You can go into town at either 4:45pm or 8pm and the latest bus back was 10:30pm. That’s not long if you go in at 8pm. We would have wanted to go into town most days between 6-8pm. The reason it’s strange, is because there is a shuttle bus back up from town to the hotel at 6:30pm, so I don’t get why it can’t also go the other way just before or after? A shuttle in between 6-7 would be great! When we’ve stayed at other hotels in the area, their shuttles ran all morning until around 11am then the driver had a break until 2pm then another break from around 4pm until 6pm when they started up again until 11:30pm, this was much better. Maybe this hotel could look at the times and do something similar? It seemed they didn’t run in the evenings at the times most people would want them. Maybe they think that because they offer half board nobody would want to go in to town for dinner? The driver was great though & at least they have a shuttle bus I guess. The service bus does also stop outside the hotel, so people could try that if you can get info on the times. ||We had an annexe room with a big terrace area however, we never used it because you get bitten to death by the mosquitos. It’s also right next to the terrace of the room next door separated by just a few plant pots. Better screening would be preferred by most guests I think. The mosquito situation is the same in the outside garden restaurant so take your repellant! ||Now for the positives: the lady on reception was lovely- a little ray of sunshine! Couldn’t try to help more but she must get so frustrated with what must be huge numbers of complaints but she still manages to smile! Same for the restaurant staff especially the restaurant manager who will help with dietary requirements. I’m allergic to dairy and at breakfast he took me round to show me what I could and couldn’t have and asked the guy cooking omelettes to whip me up some fresh scrambled eggs with no milk. They had soy milk for coffee which he showed me and I’m glad he did because it wasn’t labelled, so I wouldn’t have known otherwise. ||The hotel is also a short walk (although steep) to a gorgeous spot called bagni Regina Giovanna. A beautiful swimming hole. You would be too far from this place if you stayed in the town.||The pool area was nice & clean. The bar guys were very good. I appreciated that the snack bar menu was written with allergen symbols.||All in all, a disappointing stay and we won’t return unless a major refurbishment happens but we made the most of it & just spent a lot of time outside of the hotel or at...

Hotel Atlantic Palace||Despite its 4-star rating this hotel is tired, dirty and lacks the fundamentals of any holiday location. It’s tourist rating needs to be reviewed.||On arrival at the hotel both rooms were not clean. ||I had to clean my own bathroom with alcohol wipes on arrival and requested clean sheets because the sheets were marked and I found a pubic hair in the bed. ||My daughters room had persistent issues with ants that were gaining access through cracks in the crumbling fabric of the building. We were instructed that it’s best to have no food in the room and if there is food it should be properly sealed, I suggest if there weren’t cracks in the walls or gaps along the skirting and the rooms were clean, then the chances of insects gaining access would be slim. I left open crisps and nuts in my room with no issue. Tui Reps did respond quickly to issues, so that’s something. This was a persistent issue in this room with my daughter returning one night to find ants crawling on the bed. There was NO open food in the room, only a tub of sealed Pringles which was placed on the dresser on the opposite side of the room to the bed. I spoke to the reception staff that evening about 11.30pm and was dealt with very rudely and abruptly. The women on reception held her hands up, snatched her bag and walked out of the hotel leaving me to deal with the night manager who spoke no English and told me via google translate that there was nothing to be done until the morning. I’d like to stress I was polite and her reaction was extraordinarily rude and an inappropriate response to a persistent hygiene issue. I shook the ants off the sheet on the balcony, cleared the ants from the skirting and sprayed insect repellent along the skirting. On our last night the room was eventually sprayed with ant killer. This whole experience was very distressing for my daughter and her friend.||Drinking water had to be paid for despite water from the taps being unsuitable for drinking. It’s astonishing that a 4 star hotel wouldn’t provided water in the rooms for drinking. And water at the hotel was expensive! 2€ for a 330ml can of water. We ended up buying water in town, 2l for around 2€. Drinking water is not a luxury.||The food isn’t great. More school canteen than 4-star hotel. Very disappointing. Breakfast was the only saving grace with a great selection of fruit, pastries, pancakes and hot items.||The hotel is very tired and in need of major work. Apparently there was some cosmetic improvements over winter, but this hotel needs an overhaul. ||The hotel is isolated and relying on the shuttle bus is limiting. We tried to book a late night transfer back to the hotel for 10/1030pm, but it was fully booked. Taxis are too expensive to use at 30€ for a less than ten minute ride into town. We ended up walking along the non paved dangerous steep windy road with busy traffic. We got used to it, but not for the faint hearted. It would be worthwhile investigating the local bus service if you are less mobile or don’t fancy sharing the road with the local traffic.||The hotel is very noisy. Do not come here for rest and relaxation, especially if you are a light sleeper. We paid extra for a sea view which is very limited don’t expect sweeping Mediterranean views, more like a gap in the trees. Sea view rooms are also roadside and the road is extremely busy and noisy. Ear plugs an absolute must. Hotel staff are also noisy, talking loudly at 7am right outside the rooms.||The pool area is tired and disappointing.||TUI hosted a pool party, inviting everyone to enjoy the prosecco as part of the fun. I was disappointed that guests were expected to pay for it, it was implied that the prosecco was part of the fun. I wasn’t the only guest to be disappointed/surprised by this.||All in all, the hotel was terrible and I won’t ever be back. |TUI staff were helpful and friendly, no issues...

I don't want this to be a negative review because we did have a lovely holiday here last week, but there re definitely improvements to be made if this were to be a genuine 4* hotel. We largely suspect it is only a 4* so they can charge €4pppn tourist tax - interestingly every single hotel in the area appears to be 4* - coincidence?||Room|The room was spacious and clean with a nice size balcony and the housekeeping staff came every day to empty bins and change towels etc. |But we did have to complain about the bathroom - the shower head was leaking from the pipe spraying water upwards against the wall which was covered in black mould so obviously been happening for a while. The maintenance guy did come and replace a part but my partner still had to tighten it by hand as it was still spraying out. They also just painted over the mould so not sure that was a long term solution. Every time one of us ran a tap or the shower the whole bathroom smelt like sewage for ages afterwards which was deeply unpleasant.||Food|We were half board so had breakfast and dinner included. Breakfast was standard far, pastries, fruit, bacon, eggs etc. Milk for the cereal was always a bit warm, they could do with thermal flasks to keep it cool rather than jugs.|Dinner there was always a buffet of salad/veg and every other night was a la carte for mains. The salad was always a bit dry and sad looking and the vegetables were generally room temperature at best - the hot plates didn't really keep anything hot, they could do with covers over everything, especially the fruit as well as the melon had fruit flies on it most mornings. |The a la carte food was fresh and hot and generally very nice.||Staff|The staff were all friendly we spoke to various members of reception team and they were always helpful. The TUI team work hard to make sure everyone has a lovely holiday and allow you to join in with things as much or as little as you like. Francesco in the restaurant was very friendly, you can tell he's got an eye on everything going on there, super efficient. ||Miscellaneous|The shuttle bus was useful to the town - having seen the way people drive I wouldn't have wanted to walk down that road with no pavement! The schedule was a little bit random and because you had to book it it was sometimes hard to know what time you'd want to come back when you're booking the night before. We caught the local buses a few time as the 008 stops right outside the hotel and costs €2pp each way. Reception do have copies of the timetable for this but I'd take it with a pinch of salt as they seem to just turn up when they want to - we ended up just standing at the bus stop and getting on the next bus that turned up. |Drinks are expensive - they are in line with what you pay in town but €8 for a mocktail which is essentially fruit juice is a bit steep. Water was also expensive and you get one bottle in your room on arrival and no more. Best to get 2L bottles from the shop and store them in your fridge.||I will email the hotel directly as well but I would like to suggest that the restaurant staff (including chefs) have more training when it comes to cross-contamination. My partner is coeliac and twice was ill having consumed gluten. Francesco was great bringing pre-packaged gluten free bread/muffins/cereal etc and for the evenings would cook the pasta dishes with gluten free pasta and point out anything not suitable on the buffet. But if you are coeliac steer clear of the pizzas in the lemon garden - we noticed on the second time that whilst they use a pre-packaged gluten free base all of the cheese and toppings are taken by hand from the same pots as non gluten free. We did raise this and the chef went and washed his floury hands but still used the same stuff that had already...