Hotel Royal Victoria - By R Collection Hotels

“A lakeside experience.”

With so many hotels to view around such a beautiful lake, where do you start? Well, having reviewed and perused the RVH, my choice was justified the minute we arrived. Wendy checked us in promptly and courteously before showing us our room which was beautifully decorated. We had room 141 which look… more

With so many hotels to view around such a beautiful lake, where do you start? Well, having reviewed and perused the RVH, my choice was justified the minute we arrived. Wendy checked us in promptly and courteously before showing us our room which was beautifully decorated. We had room 141 which looks onto the square and had the early morning bell tower alarm call. Back to the hotel, the breakfasts have an excellent choice and a front seat view to die for. Other meal times are taken at the rear of the hotel overlooking the square. Positioned close to the ferry and the railway station makes visits to nearby towns easier. Finally, mentioning each team member by name is unfair as the whole team including those we didn’t meet ensure the standards are met. Thanks for a great stay and as we heard so many times….CIAO!!!!

less

“The hotel was a bit of a let down”

My wife and I stayed at the Royal Victoria (RV) Hotel for 1 week between June and July 2026. We had the impression that people don’t normally stay for so long and in retrospect we found it too long mainly because Varenna is too small and quiet and totally dead after 9pm. Our room was a good size. … more

My wife and I stayed at the Royal Victoria (RV) Hotel for 1 week between June and July 2026. We had the impression that people don’t normally stay for so long and in retrospect we found it too long mainly because Varenna is too small and quiet and totally dead after 9pm. Our room was a good size. The bed was comfortable, but we had to get a lighter duvet as the original was too warm. The shower unit was very basic, small, and the water pressure was poor and not invigorating. The bathroom itself was large, and more room could have been allocated to the shower unit. My wife always maintains that the facilities provided by a hotel should at the very least be as good as you have at home. The shower wasn’t. The furniture in the room was very dated. The bedside lockers were wobbly and there was a very annoying lip created by a covering that was stuck onto the top of the units. It made it difficult to rest a glass on the unit in the dark. My wife thought that the curtains were poor quality and there were no net curtains. Used cups were sometimes not washed. The hotel is a bit of a mix of old and new as far as the décor is concerned. The lobby area, the public toilets and the lift (very slow) could do with refurbishment. The hotel do not provide any evening entertainment for their guests. About one third of the tables in the breakfast area faced out onto the lake with a lovely view, the rest were indoors with no view to speak of. The breakfast was okay but nothing special. Some improvements could be made for instance, the ‘hot’ food was often cold, the orange juice tasted watery, the oranges were poor quality, and the English Breakfast Tea was a peculiar blend and didn’t taste like we would expect. Some items seemed to run out quickly and were often not replenished i.e. white bread and fruit yogurts. Many (but not all) of the staff were quite pleasant. Aziz (the barman) is undoubtably the best asset the RV has. Time and again he effortlessly developed a great rapport with the guests including ourselves. The RV seemed to have the highest staffing ratio we have ever come across in a hotel. Every day there were new staff on duty. Varenna usually goes into curfew mode at 9pm however on the Saturday night of our stay there was a public fireworks display which started at 23:30hrs down at the lakeside. We were very disappointed that the hotel staff did not have the courtesy to tell any of the residents! There was no notice board, no messages in the lift etc. There is a TV in the lobby which could be used for notices but is used instead to advertise other R collection hotels. We missed most of the fireworks display by the time we arrived at the lakefront. We booked a transfer to the hotel using Booking.com at a cost of €193 but were let down at the very last minute. We asked the RV Concierge if they would be able to get a replacement which thankfully they did. The cost of the RV transfer was an extortionate €320!! For comparison I checked a few sites to see what the transfer cost would be in Ireland for a similar distance (circa 80km) and the figure is in or around €197. On our final day our flight was due to leave Malpensa at 22:15 so we decided to hang around Varenna for most of the day. It was a very hot day, so my wife wanted to change her clothing before leaving for home. She asked if there was a room where she could do this and was told that she would have to use the public toilet! Usually, a hotel would offer a room in the spa area or something like that. Never before did my wife have to use the toilet and this after paying over €4k for our stay. The public toilets in the hotel are a bit dingy. They are unisex with just two small cubicles. My wife tried to stand on her sandals while changing as the floor was a bit damp. She was quite upset by this experience and found it both humiliating and degrading. We thought that the standard fell below what we would expect of a 4-star hotel and at the prices they charge we would expect better. The hotel is marketed as a “Romantic Escape”, but they make no effort to make it feel that way. The staff were aware that we booked this holiday to celebrate our 20th wedding anniversary but no fuss was made of that. There was no welcome drink (except a carton of water), no gift on departure or no similar gestures which hotels around Lake Garda would do. My sister-in-law phoned the hotel and inquired about leaving a bottle of wine in our room, but she rightly balked at the €80 charge she was quoted. Overall we would not recommend the Royal Victoria Hotel. The experience felt like the RV wanted to get the maximum return for the least effort. Varenna is lovely but a day trip would be adequate. There is much better value to be had in other towns i.e. Bellano and Mennagio and we heard that they are livelier at night.

less