Club Hotel E Residence La Vela

“Enjoyed our stay”

I don’t usually write reviews but felt that some of the recent comments on trip advisor have been unjustly harsh for this hotel - so here goes. Firstly the bedroom. Our room overlooked the pool and kids play park with a side pool view. Beds were comfy, the free safe worked as did the fridge. We h… more

I don’t usually write reviews but felt that some of the recent comments on trip advisor have been unjustly harsh for this hotel - so here goes. Firstly the bedroom. Our room overlooked the pool and kids play park with a side pool view. Beds were comfy, the free safe worked as did the fridge. We had a nice balcony. The room was carpeted. The blackout curtains worked and it was quiet. We slept well all week. The decor is quite dated but all was spotlessly clean. The shower worked fine and our experience was that there was always hot water. The shower cubicle is on the small side but was fine for us. Now the restaurant - currently this is on minus one floor as the usual restaurant is being refurbished so out of action. Many of the group we travelled with had some complaints about the food in particular it not being hot enough. Again personally we found it fine. There is plenty of choice at breakfast with cereals, good bread, fruit and good coffee. On an evening there is soup or pasta to start then choice of salads - one hot meat dish, one fish dish, chips, one veg and pizza. Pudding is always a mousse, a cake or fruit. It is self service. I think at the moment due to the temporary location of the dining room they maybe struggle to keep the food hot and the self service tureens have pull down lids so if left open the food gets cold quickly. It is really not as bad as some of the reviews on this site and we never went hungry. It is a small hotel so you can’t really expect the choice you would get at a large chain hotel. The staff at the hotel are really nice and friendly. They always chat and had a joke with us. The pool area looked nice but it wasn’t warm enough to use during our stay. The worst aspect of the hotel for us was that the bar area is basically in the reception with dining chairs and tables. No soft lighting, no comfy sofas - this needs improving. People did use the bar on a night but it’s not a comfortable environment really. We had an odd drink then went out to a little pub locally called the Cutty Sark which was great - excellent cocktails and live music on Friday nights. The hotel location is great only a few minutes walk from bars, shops and the lake. The resort of Torbole is lovely as is Riva del Garda which is the next town/resort along the lake and a nice walk. I hope this review helps others who have booked and read previous negative comments.

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“Better than Expected, given previous reviews”

I was a little apprehensive about staying here, going by the recent reviews, but the Tui package was discounted enough as a late booking to sway me, somewhat. The hotel was ok, though the check-in was delayed for us when we arrived by about an hour, as the room had not yet been cleaned from the pre… more

I was a little apprehensive about staying here, going by the recent reviews, but the Tui package was discounted enough as a late booking to sway me, somewhat. The hotel was ok, though the check-in was delayed for us when we arrived by about an hour, as the room had not yet been cleaned from the previous occupant. We only saw one room attendant, though there may have been more, and she did knock (when we were there) to check if we wanted the room cleaned. I was already aware of the lack of certain things in the room, that you would expect from a self catering accommodation, notably the lack of a kettle (we took one with us as a result, along with an adaptor), and a microwave (too big for the luggage!, but we tended to only have breakfast in our room anyway, so not overly necessary). There was no washing up liquid or scouring pads, or anything food related, such as oil, salt and pepper, etc, so had to but that at the local shop, which was a stone's throw away. There was a fridge, which went off during a storm, and reported to the reception, who said it would be fixed the following day, though when I chased this up the following day, I was told they don't work on a Sunday, and said there was no note of it anyway (a lack of communication with the staff members, it seems), so it would be the day after - though they did take our perishables and keep them in their fridge. I did spot the fuse box later that day (not sure how I missed it for 2 days....) and it was just a simple trip out, so flicked the switch to fix the issue, which I'm sure could have been done by any of the staff. I did inform the receptionist that the issue had been sorted, and collected my food from them at the time, telling them cancel any engineer for the following day, though they still came - another lack of communication. The aircon was quite poor, even at the lowest temperature, though not overly uncomfortable during the night. Nice to have a balcony, especially to dry towels, swimming gear, etc, with a couple of chairs there. The kids had the sofa bed out, so only the kitchen chairs to sit on (or lay on the beds, of course), but we were out much of the time anyway. The pool is not heated, that I could feel, so the water was 'refreshing', especially the pool shower, which was fed by an iceberg, it seems!.. The staff were good, generally, with just the fridge issue being a bit of an annoyance. Tui rep (Apphia), very helpful with the information provided. Tip - get a Mio Trentino card (speak to reception to get this), which gives free entry to some places, notably Arco castle, as well as free bus transport to much of the immediate area around Torbole. This alone saved us about 40-50 Euros on one day alone. All in all a better than expected hotel, with a good location, close to the beach and town.

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“Great location, poor air con”

We visited this hotel on a second visit to Torbole, having stayed here the previous year. The hotel facilities are really good with a great pool and sunbathing area. The hotel would benefit from having additional sun beds around the pool as there were only around 20 which is not enough with familie… more

We visited this hotel on a second visit to Torbole, having stayed here the previous year. The hotel facilities are really good with a great pool and sunbathing area. The hotel would benefit from having additional sun beds around the pool as there were only around 20 which is not enough with families reserving them often even when not using them. The self catering rooms have everything you need in them but would benefit from having a kettle and a sofa to sit on in the lounge area. All you have are a table and four chairs which is not very comfortable to sit and relax of an evening. The other main issue with the rooms is that the hotel boasts having air conditioning but this is clearly turned down at night because it is too hot with the air con blowing warm, this made it very difficult to sleep at times. Staff are friendly and helpful, we really love the location of the hotel and the hotel itself overall, but the poor air con will mean we will be looking at alternative hotels for our next stay.

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