Hotel Milan Speranza Au Lac

“Return to Stresa Italy 2025”

The flights there and back were fine, pleasant, a 1.5 hour delay on the outward flight was a bit annoying but with a strong tailwind the pilot caught up about 40 minutes. The transfer to and from the hotel was excellent, punctual and in very comfortable cars with polite drivers. The hotel was nice,… more

The flights there and back were fine, pleasant, a 1.5 hour delay on the outward flight was a bit annoying but with a strong tailwind the pilot caught up about 40 minutes. The transfer to and from the hotel was excellent, punctual and in very comfortable cars with polite drivers. The hotel was nice, our room for 3 people was spacious, pretty with period decor and was kept clean by the cleaners, and almost daily change of bed linen and towels. We had a small fridge and a safe in our room. The view from the balcony was beautiful. We had a bit of a problem with noise from 7.30 am on and diesel fumes coming up all day from busy traffic and from boats in the nearby harbour across the road. By the time the traffic calmed down on the road and the boats stopped for the night, it was dusk and the mosquitos were out in force. So that made us keep the balcony door still closed. The bathroom window could be open during the day as there were no fumes coming up from that side of the building. We had 4 major disappointments there that we could not find out about, though we had tried, before we were actually there in the resort. The wonderful hydrofoil had stopped running 3 years ago, so our trip to Locarno took 3.5 hrs each way on the ferry boat to Locarno, Locarno had been an interesting town 20 years ago but not now; the funiculars/cable cars/ chair lifts stopped working this year in Stresa so we couldn't go up the mountains to enjoy the view and walks there as we had done before, and the train that used to run to Milan from Stresa no longer ran from Stresa. 20 years ago, when we were last staying in Stresa, we had all this available, and we had promised all these delightful activities to our daughter, for whom this was a first time at Lake Maggiore. As there was so much less to do there this time, we went to the swimming pool on 3 different days. Alas, the beautiful-looking swimming pool at the sister hotel, the Regina Palace, a short walk away, had strange, spread-out concrete islands sticking up under the water that you couldn't see when swimming, so only a small part of the pool was good for swimming which was free of these underwater structures that had quite sharp, hard edges and initially my husband hurt his shin on one. We witnessed a young man injure his forehead as he swam underwater. It was beyond belief that such things were put hidden into a swimming pool under the water. About the food: the breakfasts were fine, but for the half-board guests like we were, the dinners were from a limited choice and quantity. The nice-looking stone-baked rolls at breakfast and dinner were extremely hard, I couldn't handle them at all, my husband could, but the man at the next table lost his crown in one of these rolls, he told us. He didn't report it to the restaurant staff although he should have. The restaurant service was very good and tried to be top class with its ways of serving the food. The dining rooms were lovely, Art Nouveau decor, lovely chandeliers, clean, welcoming. Beautiful tablecloths, the restaurant staff were very efficient, polite. There was a welcoming atmosphere in the hotel in general. We loved our visits (again) by short boat trips to Isola Bella and Isola Madre, our daughter was enchanted with these beautiful islands with their palaces and lovely gardens and we also liked the botanical and zoological park about a mile and a half from our hotel. All these three visits were quite taxing physically because it was all uphill walking in the sun, but there was also shade when walking under trees and many benches to sit down taking a rest and admire the lovely peacocks and other colourful birds walking about. The cafes on these 3 locations and on the boats were no more expensive than they were elsewhere in Stresa, unlike it would have been in the UK: whenever you are trapped in a location, the prices shoot up. But amazingly, not there. A supermarket was about a ten minute walk from our hotel where we could buy lactose-free milk for our tea and coffee and fruit. On arrival we asked for an electric kettle at reception and we were given one to use. They also brought up three cups and saucers. My daughter bought us flowers on our wedding anniversary and asked for a vase at reception and a nice water jug was found for as as a vase. The price of all clothes shops and the very few shoe shops in town were quite astronomical. Ice cream was also expensive. Pizzerias were only open in the evening when we were sitting having dinner in the hotel restaurant that never served pizza. So we left Italy without tasting pizza there. But the holiday is still a good memory as there were many nice bits to enjoy and remember. We have hundreds of beautiful photos that we and our daughter took there. We wouldn't want to go to Stresa again because with no hydrofoil, no transport up to the mountains and no train from Stresa to Milan anymore, we have done all that could be done by older visitors there and have seen all the main attractions. By the way, this is Mrs Beata Cornfield writing, even though my husband, Tom, was the "lead" person in the booking of the holiday, he prefers not to write the review to holidays.

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