Hotel Ariston

"Taormina ( like Capri, lindos, San Tropez) is a tourist trap . Hundreds throughout day. Pricey. We stayed 1week , 3 days would do. Hotel location not suitable for elderly/ disabled/ children. Tiring walk uphill to centre. Entrance to hotel weird, U pull your luggage uphill to lift, walk through terrace and restaurant to another old lift to reception. Hotel is old but clean . Our superior double was small but clean. Tiny bathroom. Old furniture. No a/c until June ( which was NOT declared by hotel) . Got a noisy fan. Fantastic view over small balcony. Breakfast loads of uninspiring food. Very busy and cramped . Lunch & dinner better and reasonable prices. Lovely terrace with great views. Pool would not pass UK health & safety. ( No shallow end, or hand rail to steps. ) Staff. Cleaners, waiters pleasant and attentive. Night staff grumpy and unhelpful when we arrived. The older reception were particularly abrupt and need retraining. Overall poor experience and would not return to taormina and certainly not this hotel. 4* it is not"

"The back entrance to the hotel where everyone arrives is in the bus terminal. It is a steep incline to a lift then another lift which brings you to reception. We arrived at midnight and first impressions were not good. Reception staff quite abrupt and rude. We booked a superior double room with a panoramic view the room we received was small, bathroom really small with no ventilation, furniture cheap and incredibly dated no air conditioning. We queried this with reception and were told we had the room we booked and air conditioning was not available until June but they could give us a fan. Breakfast next morning confirmed our impression of how dated the hotel is. There is a good selection of food but most of the hot food, scrambled eggs etc were cold no omelette station. The hotel has a pleasant pool area the views are lovely. However the pool is very deep no shallow end and no hand rails going into the pool. The sunbeds are incredibly uncomfortable. The terrace where lunch is served is pretty and food and drinks at the hotel are reasonably priced most of the waiting staff are helpful and pleasant and our room was kept very clean by the excellent cleaning staff. As the hotel is so elevated it is quiet outside although soundproofing in the hotel is not good you can hear neighbouring rooms very clearly. Taormina town is a 15 minute walk away up a steep hill not suitable for elderly or those with walking difficulties. I do not feel this hotel deserves a 4 star rating it really needs refurbishment and I would not return."

"We stayed here as a couple in May and were really let down, especially for a hotel claiming to be 4‑star. The room cleaning was poor throughout our stay — we had to ask for our bedding to be changed on day 8, and even basic things like toilet rolls weren’t restocked unless we went to reception, which was extremely embarrassing!! The worst part was the heat in the room. It was extremely warm, and despite asking several times for the air conditioning to be switched on, nothing was ever done. We barely slept. When we emailed after leaving, we were told the hotel “didn’t feel it was hot enough” to activate the system, which felt dismissive and unprofessional. Beautiful location, but the lack of proper housekeeping and refusal to turn on the air con completely overshadowed our stay. We will definitely not be returning!!!"