"Review of Acacia Resort, Campofelice, Sicily.
April 15th until 22nd. Solo traveller
This review is in two distinctive parts - firstly the hotel is excellent in my opinion, a full five stars. Secondly, I rate the holiday I had which was a one star.
The Acacia is a posh hotel, lovely pool, friendly staff and an excellent choice of food ( all inclusive buffet ), with something new and exciting every meal. It was the first time on all inc. that I had been offered salmon steaks and solid chunky meaty kebabs. Wonderful bedroom with panoramic windows and a large balcony, but sadly no kettle.
The hotel , and its sister hotel, the Palladium, is wedged along a sliver of land next to the sea, next to an industrial unit, some residencias, and the railway. There is a local road, then two fast roads ( N-S and E-W ). The beach is not ' pristine' as I have seen it advertised, and it is not possible to walk miles along it, due to rocks, boulders, gritty sand, tons of litter and a great deal of washed up 20 foot long Bamboo stalks.
The hotel did get a bulldozer in on my second day there, to flatten out the beach, but that was just for the 400 yards beachfront for the two hotels.
Unless you had a car or a desire to try out a local taxi you would be isolated.
The walk to the local railway station is nearly an hour duration each way - just follow the 4km concrete wall, no pavement, just more litter. The train ride to either Cefalu or Palermo ( 50 km in 47 minutes ) was fast and efficient, although there is only one ticket machine at Campofelice station, with instructions in several languages, but always has a queue.
The hotel has stunning grounds, beautiful gardens and a pool with three islands, but as the gardens stretch out toward the sea, there just lies the tatty beach.
They have electric gates controlled by CCTV at the front, but no security at all at the beach side.
There was one hotel bar only while I was there, which has a tendency to play piped music of a ' Jazz type ' -all muted trumpets and jazz piano, from 7,30am ( then later comes the DJ, and later still the Sicilian Rapper ) If you are lucky, you will hear the occasional classic from Sinatra or Ella Fitzgerald.
I should have taken notice of previous reviews of the location - but it was a chance to see Sicily through Jet2 Holidays. Like me, you could feel like a prisoner. I was the only Brit staying there at the time, ( mostly French families visiting ). I found not ONE local shop. There are petrol stations on the fast roads, but first of all you need to get across the railway line, but the roads have signs indicating ' no pedestrians'.
There were only three excursions offered, one of 7 hours duration and the other two of eleven hours - this is due to the location, but seeing Mount Etna in the distance from the transfer bus, was truly a magical sight !
The best thing the hotel could do was to invest in a shuttle bus, purely to take its guests to the railway station, and back.
Positive remarks about the staff include Massimo, front of house in the buffet, and receptionists Tiziana and Rosy, who helped me with failing WiFi on a daily basis !
To summarise, a wonderful hotel, but in an abysmal location."
