Albergo Stella d'Italia — Hotel in Valsolda

The view is spectacular. The hotel and the garden is lovely. There is a private lido for the hotel guests, where you can relax and take a bath in the lake. The lake is very clean and refreshing (while still being warm enough). The hotel is very charming and just looks like an old Italien hotel (wich it is). The atmosphere is very relaxing and calm. When you enter trough the lobby, it’s kinda like entering a time machine. It remembers you of the old days and just has a very welcoming look. There are a lot of lovely pictures to look at and there are a lot of places in the garden as well as in the hotel, where you can have a seat and just enjoy the moment. I had a lake view room wich was just spectacular. You can sit on your balcony and enjoy the sunset / sunrise with an amazing view over the lake and the mountains that are surrounding the lake Lugano.

You can even see the Monte San Salvatore (one of the Mountains in Lugano, Switzerland).

If you are traveling with a car, you’ll get a free parking voucher, wich was perfect. You can either park in the hotels garage or park on a public parking slot (for free with the voucher).

The AC in my room was working perfectly so I had comfy 19 degrees Celsius in my room. The shower is cool (it’s almost a rain shower) and the provided toilet amenities (soap and shampoo) are very good.

The room is lovely, but unfortunately my room was not very clean. We were traveling with friends and their room was clean. Generally speaking the floor and the toilet were clean. The shower was very clean. But under the bed, in the corners (of the toilet and the entry area) and on the Wall-strips was a lot of dust. After the first night I put the „please clean my room“ sign on the door. The made my bed but unfortunately, the dust in the earlier described areas was still there.

So maybe the person who is responsible of cleaning the rooms, was a bit lazy and only cleaned areas where you can see the dust directly. It was not that bad, but it would be nicer to arrive to a 100% clean room (not sterile of course ;) ).

The pillows were comfy but the spring bed was not the most comfiest, but still comfy enough to have a good sleep.

The staff were very friendly and were helpful when we had questions.

The breakfast was delicious and had a lot of options (for an italien breakfast) (breakfast is not that important in Italy). The bread was crispy and had a good taste, the orange juice was sweet and good. The muffins and croissants were good as well. But the Highlight was of course the coffee. Just a cup of goodness :).

We also had dinner in the restaurant, wich was pretty good. The main parts of the meal (very taste fresh fish with a good texture and the best pasta ever, absolutely al dente) were delicious, but the side dishes were boring and lacked of salt. Both times when we had dinner, the main pet of the meal was accompanied with potatoes and spinach. The potatoes had good seasoning but the spinach was bland.

They waiters were very friendly and we had good small talk with them. They are completing the charming atmosphere of this place, because they wear nice Suits and bow ties.

The highlight of the hotel is of course the lido and the garden. Spend 2 days here and you are completely relaxed. The price is absolutely good, for what you get. It’s an amazing hotel, the only reason why I am not giving 5 stars, is because of the dust (as I mentioned earlier).

I can absolutely recommend this charming hotel in the beautiful small town...

Safety and security is always at the forefront of my mind when I travel alone. This experience was a complete violation of the guest and hotel agreement. || ||This is the most disappointing review I have ever written, based on the most disturbing experience at a hotel. ||||I stayed here two nights June 4 and June 5. About 12:30 a.m. on June 5 I heard my door unlock and a man entered my room. I was sleeping and awoke upon his entrance. I screamed as he proceeded to make his way into the room. I don't know if he was going to rob me or rape me. I screamed that he get the hell out of the room, and he did. I called the front desk and no one answered. I was afraid to leave the same room - he just used a key to enter. I put a sweater on to report what happened to the night manager. I ran down the stairs to the front desk and to my shock the man who just entered and exited my room was the night manager. He was shouting so sorry and that he was "lucida" which I did not know what that meant - not sure that translates. I was beside myself that the person who is on duty is also entering guest's rooms in the middle of the night! I did not fall back to sleep. I spoke with day time manager and was dismissed. He said, "Sorry that that happened, I'll have to speak to my employee to see if it is true." That was it. No, follow up. Instead of leaving later that afternoon, I left that morning. This decision disrupted my travel itinerary for the day. For the rest of the week of my vacation, I didn't sleep more than a couple of hours a night. ||||As I left the hotel that morning, the night manager stood and stared at me from a flat directly across the hotel. It was beyond disturbing. ||||This experience was disappointing on a number of levels, including the dismissive nature of the daytime manager. I received his reaction to equate to "this was not an isolated event". ||||Second, this was disappointing because the setting, the location, the staff (with the exception of the night and day manager) were lovely. The restaurant was wonderful, and the spa, was simple but wonderful as well. ||||It is not easy to get to and I considered coming back with friends. ||||All of that is history. ||||I followed up with American Express because I booked the hotel through its Travel site. Amex said it has no recourse and suggested I return to the hotel for a response (after a non-response) and to leave a review. After 32 years as an Amex cardholder, I believe I will be ending that relationship since it is the conduit through which I found the hotel. I did use the reviews here to decide to book the hotel. ||||If you value safety, if you want to be respected as a woman, and care to sleep soundly on vacation you should...

The location of this hotel is superb: right next to the lake, in the middle of a very charming and quiet little village with one shop, two bars and a little market stand on Saturdays.|The hotel is nicely decorated in a British-Italian style. While I would not necessarily want to live with this decoration all year long, I liked it for a short hotel stay.|Check-in was easy. We had a very nice room, quite spacious (we were with a kid), with a terrace from which you were more or less "on the lake". Only the restaurant was in between our terrace and the lake. |Beds were very comfortable, the room and bathroom very clean. I also thought that the price was very fair - not cheap but fair.|As the weather was not very nice, we had to eat inside. Food was very good and service was nearly "old style" with waiters who you could see really knew the business and a chef de service who normally works in a five star hotel restaurant. You could feel it and I personally enjoyed the experience. However, I found the prices for the restaurant for this area on the expensive side. I would go there again but not too regularly.|All in all, if you are looking for a hotel located at the lake and in the middle of a charming Italian village and don't want to spend a fortune but still have a nice room with a view - this is the...