Best Hotels near Il Giardino Botanico - Hotel Villa Cipressi, Varenna

It was truly fabulous stay!!! We've been deeply impressed: The best view on the Como lake and one of the best views ever!!! Service personnel – friendly and caring, with that personal touch that you won’t get in most of the big hotels. You couldn’t get the better value for the very decent at the Como lake price! Viktor & Katerina

We had a mixed experience at the hotel. Firstly, the hotel is great. The staff at the reception and concierge is very nice and helpful. The room is comfortable and since we took the lake view balcony room it was amazing. They have a very nice bar at the hotel with a nice poolside with some amazing views of lake Como. The location is also convenient just 10 mins from the train station. The only bad experience I had was today afternoon at their bar. They have a very weird rule that if you want to sit at the bar you have to order minimum 1 drink per person. I understand this rule is fair for outsiders but I think this rule shouldn’t be applicable for hotel guests. Anyways, my wife and I were sitting and the waiter came saying we cannot sit if we don’t order drinks. (This is when half the bar was empty btw). We told him no worries just bring us water, we’ll have that and immediately leave. First he refused but after that he said ok. But he didn’t bring us water for 25 minutes while he was still serving guests who even came after us. When I went up to complain at the bar, Daniele at the bar started shouting at me saying I need to be patient because it takes time! Huh? How much time for a glass of water? Then he started saying you should order 2 drinks instead of just 1. I think this completely ruined my experience of the hotel and this is not how guests should be treated. Especially when you’re charging around 800 USD per night. I mean , common! I even went up to complain at the reception about this but they didn’t really seem to care

This hotel is an excellent choice for tourists traveling by train or boat as it is located near both the train station and ferry dock. They serve an impressive breakfast buffet and rooms moderately priced. If one has heavy luggage it can wheeled along the street rather than using the stairs. Umbrellas are provided if necessary.

The room I occupied as a single with view of the lake was great. My remarks concern the poor quality of lunch and dinner. The risotto was bland and tasteless despite spoonfuls of parmesan cheese. It would have been easy to add some spices and pepper. The salad with its dressing of olive oil and vinegar from a sachet was not good. At dinner I had fish & soft chips, no cooked vegetables are available, only a salad. The potatoe chips should have been fried longer to make them crispy. Make melanzane parmigiani. The red wine offered gave me a stomache ache. By all means, stay, but eat elsewhere.

This hotel far exceeded our expectations (not that they were bad). From the ease of booking to the minute we checked out, everything was superb. Any queries before we arrived, where answered by email quickly by Mike the office manager. We had a late flight and arrived after office hours, this wasn’t a problem at all. We were sent an email with clear instructions on how we could get our keys. The rooms are large, bright, very very clean and have more than you need for your stay. The bed is really comfortable, the bathroom was fully tiled with a large powerful walk in shower. We had requested an iron and ironing board as we were attending a wedding while we where there, this was brought to our room within an hour of the request and was with us to use for our 4 day stay. The room has a Nescafé coffee machine, you can also get hot water from this so easy to make tea too. Pods and teabags supplied. The TV has Sky, obviously most channels in Italian but some you are able to change to English. Breakfast was lovely. Buffet style continental breakfast as well as bacon, sausage and scrambled eggs. If you want a big plate just ask. It’s an English thing. Mike is an asset to this hotel, any advice or questions, just ask. He organised for us to hire a boat on the lake for the day, found out the bus times for us so we could get to where we needed to get the boat (the buses are an experience in themselves). Nothing is too much trouble for him at all. Thank you for help with everything that made our stay so memorable. Would we go back? Yes in a heartbeat