Mahara Hotel & Wellness

Hotel has no wi fi as stated on website. The breakfast is poor. Juice machine broken. One coffee machine. Air conditioning was good. Staff friendly but just a so-so place. On seawall but in very poor part of town . Many buildings deserted and run down. The casbah is about a 20 minute walk away.

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 a dispenser.

I agree with the other reviews that this is 3-star hotel, not a 4-star. The hallways and rooms are OK, but not stellar. The elevators need maintenance - the growling noise they make is disturbing so we didn't use them. The hallways are utilitarian, not attractive. The room was OK but the bathroom plumbing was not maintained - showerhead corroded and squirting all over, sink stopper control missing. The real complaint is breakfast. You sit in a vast ballroom with little to no decoration. The overall feeling is sterility. The food is OK, just OK. The juice machine puts put some kind of over-sweetened KoolAid. It's horrible. It was citrus season in Sicily, so this is not about availability but saving money. Most fruit was canned - no other hotel on our visit had canned fruit. The overall quality and variety of the buffet was poor to middling.

Uncomfortable bed and pillows, very bad breakfast, not fresh, worst I’ve had in Europe, very noisy and music from a wedding piped into courtyard until after 1:00 am not mitigated by sound machine and ear plugs. The pool was nice. Basically a two star hotel in US. Will recommend travel company Overseas Adventure Travel use alternate 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 could really do!