"Where to start with this hotel? I struggled to decide what rating to give it, but decided on average, mainly due to the location and views.
I had read the reviews before we booked, which weren’t great, but I was willing to give it the benefit of the doubt. I’ve stayed in plenty of nice places where people have left bad reviews for seemingly no reason. Unfortunately, this time, many of the reviews turned out to be accurate.
Starting with a positive, the town of Letojanni, where the hotel is located, is lovely, with some stunning scenery and beautiful beaches. The hotel itself is built into the cliff face and, from a distance, looks quite impressive.
The complex is effectively three hotels in one, with Hotel Olimpo at the top. Despite there being a road leading directly to the hotel entrance, which starts a short distance further along, our transfer driver dropped us at the bottom of the hill and told us to “take the lift”.
Not knowing any different, we proceeded to lug our suitcases up a steep hill until we came to a tunnel with a sign pointing towards the hotel. At the end of the tunnel is a lift cut into the cliff face. It was just about possible to squeeze the four of us and our suitcases inside, and by this point we were already extremely hot.
At the top, you emerge at Hotel Antares — although we didn’t know this at the time. It isn’t immediately obvious where you are supposed to go, but eventually we found our way to a reception desk to check in, only to be told that we needed to go up yet another level to Hotel Olimpo.
This involves another journey in a glass funicular lift. The views are impressive, but the lift itself is extremely hot, particularly when you’re dragging suitcases around with you.
Eventually, we made it to the correct reception and were given our room key. It was the first time in a long time I’d been handed an actual physical door key at a hotel, which rather set the tone for what is, overall, a very dated property.
That said, our room itself was spacious and clean, so I can’t fault it in that respect. However, the décor and furnishings were very dated and the whole place feels as though it could do with significant modernisation.
The staff were generally friendly throughout our stay, and I particularly want to mention the housekeeping team. They seemed to have a huge job on their hands considering the size of the hotel and the number of staff available, but they worked extremely hard and kept our room clean throughout our stay. Any criticism of the hotel certainly shouldn’t be directed at them.
Our biggest disappointment, however, was the all-inclusive offering.
If you are booking this hotel expecting a typical all-inclusive experience, I would seriously reconsider. In my opinion, what is offered here is closer to half board with a few extras than a genuine all-inclusive package.
The buffet restaurant was extremely chaotic at mealtimes and the choice of food was much more limited than we had expected. We were disappointed enough that we ended up eating out on most days, which rather defeats the point of paying for an all-inclusive holiday.
Drinks during the day are largely self-service, including the drinks station by the pool. Unfortunately, the poolside drinks area was frequently surrounded by wasps, which made getting a drink rather unpleasant at times.
There is also food available around the pool during the day, but the selection is very basic. We tried it once and what we had was perfectly OK, but it wasn’t particularly appealing and we didn’t feel inclined to use it again.
The swimming pool area itself is nice and the views from the hotel are undoubtedly one of its strengths. However, the pool is quite deep for younger children and, during our stay, was extremely crowded. It simply didn’t feel large enough for the number of guests using it.
The beach is another slightly complicated experience. You need to collect a token from reception to use the beach club associated with the hotel. Getting there means effectively doing the whole lift journey in reverse — funicular down, then the cliff lift — followed by a walk through Letojanni. In total, allow around 15–20 minutes to get from Hotel Olimpo to the beach.
Once you get there, though, the beach is lovely. The beaches around Letojanni are exceptionally clean and well looked after. The organised sections have attendants looking after them, which makes a noticeable difference, and the sea and surrounding scenery are beautiful.
Letojanni itself was actually one of the highlights of the holiday. There are some amazing restaurants in the town, particularly around the main square, and we had some excellent meals there. There are also some lovely bars, including Niny Bar, which became one of our favourites. In some ways, the disappointing food at the hotel encouraged us to get out and explore more of Letojanni, and we were very glad that we did.
I would also definitely recommend doing a Mount Etna tour while you are in this part of Sicily. We did one during our stay and it was a fantastic experience — made even more memorable by the fact that Etna actually erupted during our holiday! See my separate review for more details on the tour.
Ultimately, I found it difficult to work out exactly what Hotel Olimpo is trying to achieve. It has an impressive location, fantastic views and some hardworking, friendly staff, but the overall experience simply doesn’t come together. It feels dated, the facilities struggle with the number of guests, and the all-inclusive package falls well short of what most people would reasonably expect from an all-inclusive holiday.
If you come here expecting a traditional all-inclusive resort where you can spend most of your holiday at the hotel, with a good choice of food, drinks and facilities readily available throughout the day, I think you are likely to be disappointed. Half board would be a much more accurate description of the experience we had. I would not say we got value for money.
Letojanni itself, however, is somewhere I would happily return to. It is a beautiful part of Sicily, with great restaurants, lovely bars, clean beaches and stunning scenery.
Unfortunately, if we did return, we would choose to stay somewhere else."
