Luxury hotels and resorts

The pool and how quiet it is, is by far the best thing about this place. The cons: -The beds are not comfortable. -Very odd to have shower in the bedroom and be visible. -Very little pool food and not amazing service. -Massage was worst I've ever had. -There was a dead bird when we arrived on the patio and it was still there when we left 4 days later. -Dinner food was average. -Breakfast was the best meal. -Not enough water in the rooms. -Check-in did not tell us we had a key to the gate, so when we came home late one night we had to wait for a long time to get in.

An excellent experience notwithstanding a few glitches that should not have occurred. 1. The golf was a mess. Just because we were 7 friends travelling together we were deemed to be a "group" and therefore given terrible tee times after having been bumped from originally given good tee times by another "group". This occurred as we watched that there was virtually no one on the "other" course. The rented clubs were mostly good but some of the bags were a hodge podge of mixed up clubs and the staff would not provide a proper set even though it appeared that you had such sets available and they were not given out to other guests. You are a first class resort - don't cheap out on the club rental. Give your guests the complete set of good clubs that they paid for. 2. The "endless" part was confusing. If you are entitled to one glass of wine only -say so. We were 7 people and constantly in wonder about what was or was not included in drinks at meal times. Make it SIMPLE because we or at least I, am stupid!

The Shalai Resort in Linguaglossa was excellent. The staff were all courteous and professional, very willing to help or assist. Our room was spotlessly clean, even the balcony outside. There were very good restaurants nearby, as were Mt. Etna wineries and the beautiful town of Taormina. This was a very relaxing hotel, just right after a busy day enjoying Sicily.

We did not stay at this accommodation but we found a room at the 4* Villafranca hotel in Palermo. The Dimora del Genio was in a very bad part of town and was very dark in the stairwell. No lift, the appartment itself looked fine but the bedrooms were not good ...think student accommodation! It is not the sort of accommodation I am used to, the web site did not marry up to the actual experience. Partly our fault we should never have booked it.