Saracen Sands Hotel & Congress Centre - Palermo

Good location on the beach, with private beach access. Reception staff very welcoming and helpful quiet hotel (unless there is a party!) We had a sea view room, and the sunset view was worth it...one of the best we have seen, even the kids were amazed by the view. Room was very clean. Plenty of sun beds available. Close to train station, which could bring you to Palermo city or the airport.

The pool could do with a better clean, and it was not great to see the staff cleaning the pool while we were there and people were in the pool already. The food was tasty but no variety, kids barely found anything, and after our first dinner, we went to nearby restaurants the following days. There were only two options for main course on the day we got dinner, and both were two different types of fish and no other meats; also for desert there was only tiramisu and ice cream. We had breakfast everyday, which also was not varied. The staff took forever to refill for some reason, and they were just standing waiting to be asked if there is any more of a certain item before it was refilled. There was a party on the terrace one of the days, and we could not sleep due to the very loud music which went on until very late!!

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

Very clean Nice scenery Breakfast was good

The lunch / evening food was not very authentic Sicilian. I would have expected more Sicilian food. No good choices of other restaurants. Not near any local shops. Everything shuts at lunchtime. No evening entertainment for younger families. Air conditioning not cool enough. Was auto set to 23 which is not cool enough for summer heatwaves.