Saracen Sands Hotel & Congress Centre - Palermo

After reading several fairly negative reviews I was getting nervous as our holiday approached. However those fears were unfounded, this hotel is a gem. Clean, spacious with great facilities. 4 pools (2 for kids) in 2 separate located to the side and front meant you could choose according to the sun wind and be comfortable. At breakfast there was an amazing choice of fresh fruit, tinned fruit yoghurt, hams, eggs chesses, pastries, cakes, bread and on most days a fresh orange juicer (got busy). Now please understand this is not a UK holiday resort type location, you are not going to find a full English breakfast nor kebab shops, chip shops as you would in England and English is not freely spoken so understanding the food in the local restaurants can be tough, look for those with QR codes that often have online English menus Also, for this hotel we would recommend getting a car if you want to venture further afield, although there is a train station relatively close and we made use of this on a couple of occasions. If all you need is a pool and/or beach then the hotel is ideal given it has its own private beach and sunbed/umbrellas We travelled in May, this is not high season which typically starts in June, so we had no fights for sunbeds but there were a lot of beds avail. The room was of a very good size with a sea view and balcony overlooking the main outside hotel area (room 149). The bathroom was well equipped (inc Bidet) and the shower was excellent. Air con worked faultlessly and the wifi was great. bed was large and comfy, I slept better than I do at home ! the security safe meant our valuable possessions and passports were secure. We could have had the room cleaned every day if we wanted, the cleaning staff worked very hard, thanks ladies. Really enjoyed our stay here, cost for the week was more than reasonable although of course this would change in high season.

only 2 very minor gripes and these really show how good the hotel was in the first place. 1) some labelling on the extensive list of cake/pastries avail would have helped, there was so much choice some often looked very similar and it was hard to know what flavour you were choosing sometimes. 2) The pools close for 21/2 hours at 1pm everyday.

Lovely hotel

Food not labelled up for allergies

The staff members were welcoming and friendly. I particularly remember Giorgia. Also I met the hotel's owner and she could sing some serious Adriano Celentano. The room was very nice with a balcony overlooking the sea. Breakfast and dinner were included - delicious. The hotel is on the seafront with a nice beach. This hotel has easy access to the Palermo airport. They also have a reasonably priced spa with massage service.

Niente

The internet was useless, we would be lucky to get 5mps speed and it dropped out frequently. The room was far too hot as the air conditioning was also useless. The swimming pool was closed for a couple of hours during the hottest time of the day. It would of been nice to have a cold drink from the fridge, but that too was useless as it hardly worked.