VOI Arenella Resort

"This hotel has so much potential but there are several odd practices that need to be changed. The layout is very confusing. Food lukewarm at best, although pretty good products. Lovely grounds and beach area. AI drinks too small, shops mostly closed. Staff generally friendly but pool stall officious. "

"Where to start as we were rather underwhelmed with the hotel and feel it falls short of the description. As there is a lot to unpack I've broken my review into sections.  The room - The room was made up each day but not cleaned. You knew when the maids were coming as the hallways echoed loudly of the trollies and them shouting from room to room to each other. If you like a lay in or are a light sleeper be aware that day or night the corridors offer very little peace. The room had no amenities other than a TV and an empty fridge. If you required a kettle, iron and anything else you had to rent them. Someone told us in the resort a kettle was €30 for the week! Food - We stayed as an all inclusive guest. Breakfast ran from 7:30 to 9:30 we didn't make it down for this. So unable to comment. Lunch - plenty of choice from local cuisine to pizza, burgers, chips etc. Fresh fruit and ice cream was available at lunch only. Dinner - Same as lunch but with more options including a roast station which changed each day from meat to fish. Drinks during meals - beer, red and white wine on tap as were water and soft drinks. Jugs available to save multiple trips which was handy. A Pizza bar is available for lunch or dinner. But you have to book. Pizza was decent and made a nice change from the buffet. When booking the website said snacks available throughout the day. The only snacks available within AI at the pool bar was what seemed to be left over breakfast pastries or cold squares of pizza. So this was very disappointing. There are two other places to eat. One restaurant is only available if you have a premium room. The other is a bar offering coffee, cocktails and local snacks (arincini etc). This is a pay only place and isn't covered under any board. The food was all ok, but my personal opinion it was never hot enough, everything was lukearm. So somethings weren't pleasant to eat. Drinks - Beer, cocktails, wine, spirits and soft drinks but all served in a small plastic cup. All fine and tasted pretty good. Premium cocktails and bottled beer drinks available to buy. Prices as of Sept 2025 were very reasonable. Pools - The 2 outdoor pools offer plenty of sun loungers. The reservation of beds is not stood for and is controlled by the life guards. One pool offers music and activities and the other more relaxed. The third "indoor" pool isn't indoors, just had a sliding cover which was open. I guess this is used in colder months. Also the 3rd pool is only accessible via the spa (payment required). The Spa - We did use the spa facilities. Massage was great as were both the wet and dry saunas. Unfortunately the hot tub was cold and only 2 jets working The cost for a 30 minute massage and spa access was €40. Other options available. We had a couples massage and one complaint from my wife was her masseuse had smelly feet and could smell them through her trainers when she was face down on the bed. So not the best when trying to relax! The beach. Just a 10 minute walk from the hotel or a free shuttle takes you to the lovely sandy beach and amazingly clear shallow sea. Very clean and well maintained. Plenty of sun loungers, first few rows reserved for premium rooms only. There is a bar/restaurant at the other end of the beach. However this is not included within the AI board, but it is reasonably priced. Two decked areas for sunbathing, one with a bar overlooking the sea and with direct access for a swim. Entertainment - There seemed to be plenty going on during the day if you wanted to, but we never took part. Evening entertainment was a singer doing their best. It was entertaining but maybe not in the way it was meant to be. This is the only entertainment during the evening at the hotel and is located at the terrace bar. WiFi available throughout the hotel including at the pools and beach. Good connection. Shuttle to Syracuse Runs every day at a cost of €5pp each way. Must be booked in advance. To help you plan day trips the bus runs 9:30am & 12:00pm out - 3pm & 6pm return. The hotel has absolutely nothing around the vicinity. So unless you have a car or use the shuttle to Syracuse you are stuck there. The hotel does have a little shop selling souvenirs but that's it. I feel it could do with a little mini market on the grounds due to its location. Although the hotel grounds are well maintained and a pleasure to walk around (it's a huge resort), the rooms and indoor areas are very bare. The hotel has a concierge service where you can book excursions and car hire if you want. The hotel staff were generally pleasant with a few exceptions. It felt like one or two had no interest when it came to anyone who wasn't Italian. This was generally the bar staff. One of the lifeguards hygiene surprised me. After using the pool facilities one of the lifeguards came out of the cubicle and followed me out of the door without washing his hands. I suggested he turn around and wash his hands but he laughed, refused and walked back to his post. God forbid anyone needs medical assistance from him. A note to be aware of, if you have a late return  flight you can request a late checkout at the cost of €70. But this request must be done at least 24 hours prior and isn't guaranteed. I think overall the hotel is ok and was good for a relaxing week away. However maybe a little too big for what the staff can manage. I can't imagine why it's like in high season. Due to its location and standards I wouldn't recommend friends to stay and wouldn't return. "

"Have just returned back to the UK after staying at the VOI Arenella Resort. Found that unfortunately our stay didn’t live up to expectations of a 4 star resort overall. Starting with positives - the biodiversity is great and general grounds are beautiful and well maintained. As a whole public areas are decently clean - with regard to the pool area and the communal floors. The pool area has lots of loungers and places to stay out of the sun and it’s very unique to have loungers near the sea, where they provide floats so you can safely swim. Most of the staff are friendly and helpful. I especially thought the activities team were great and very enthusiastic getting people involved in aqua fit. Shoutout to Emma who is very warm and smiley but definitely all the team are amazing. I can say the same for the restaurant, in particular Fernando and Laura! Now unfortunately onto negative side. The main issue that really affected my enjoyment and peace on the holiday was the frequent presence of flying cockroaches. On our first two nights we had one in our room that made several appearances at night. It flew onto my head while I was sleeping and I could hear it scuttering around causing me to have little to no sleep the first few nights. It was so bad we had to request a room change. When we did move to an upstairs room we weren’t offered to help move our suitcases upstairs considering the inconvenience. When we did mention about seeing the bugs it generally felt that is wasn’t taken very seriously and was seen as a normal occurrence. We saw it twice in the restaurant and again in the upstairs terrace bar. I understand that we are living close to nature but it isn’t acceptable just to expect them to be in your room or running past when you’re trying to eat. Especially for someone who has travelled a lot and never seen them so often at a resort. It does need to be taken more seriously and steps to minimise the impact. Maybe a wall splitting the bushes and restaurant and better checks of rooms before people go in. The standard of food in the restaurant was mixed. The main highlights are the roasts, lasagna and the trio of desserts. Some nice pasta dishes here and there, beyond this it was fairly disappointing. Often a lot of food was lukewarm and not piping hot which isn’t pleasant when eating vegetables and certain meats. Fruit and some salad items were slightly warm and not very cold. Due to the temperature and flies I think it’s a must to have metal lids to cover the food. I tried to avoid salad due to this for concern of food poisoning. Think food needs to have a better way to keep it hot or cool when needed. The queueing system for the buffet restaurant was pretty stressful, with long queues for drinks and rude people trying to jump the queues. Maybe a longer dinner service or staggered entry times? Cleaninless was mixed as a general. On a few occasions the pool toilets smelt very bad and the floors with dirty. Sometimes with no toilet or drying paper. The maids were very accommodating and lovely, providing us with new towels when requested. But I think the cleaning process should be more comprehensive. For example, when it rained our balcony should have been swept and mopped as we had bird poop, mud and leaves for a few days. Amenities are quite limited. We didn’t have basics in the room like milk and a kettle with a few cutlery, saucers and plates. This resort really needs a proper supermarket considering how far it is from a main town. In order to get milk into our room this required us to take this from the buffet area in water bottles. The same goes for the difficulty faced trying to get bottles of water throughout the trip. I understand the intent to be environmentally friendly but few places in the resort sold bottles of water. Would have been happy to pay for these. Felt there were a lot of restrictions. My family and I take medication twice a day, so constantly walking 10 minutes to access some water for medication is very inconvenient. Especially in their older age. We were pretty far located from the main part of the resort, requiring a lot of walking each day (some of an issue for my parents). Not ideal for older people. There was a golf caddy kart that did take us and our luggage from the reception to the room and the main guy who runs this is very warm and friendly. I understand that potentially this is something we would have needed to request to regularly have this service. All in all, unfortunately the stay was quite disappointing in ways. It would make us not want to return and wouldn’t be able to recommend to anyone. The staff at times did their best and were generally helpful and friendly but this didn’t fully make up for the whole experience."