Villa e Palazzo Aminta Beauty and SPA

Incredible hotel...if you have a car

The Villa Aminta is an incredible, five star property with all of the amenities and the pricing you would expect. The food quality and presentation at dinner is fabulous and they do offer a three course dinner in Le Isole, one of two restaurants, for less than 50 euros, which is actually well worth it. The pool area, spa, rooms (particularly if you have one with a balcony facing the lake) and grounds are phenomenal. The front desk, bar and restaurant staff are extremely gracious, helpful and knowledgeable. The problem is the location. The town of Stresa, where you will find most of the shopping, bars, restaurants and water taxi stop, it is a good solid 20 minute quick walk on a narrow winding road, often with no sidewalks and buses flying by. So if you want breakfast in the morning, you could pay the hotel about USD$8 for some yogurt or you will have to walk 15 to 20 minutes. If you have a car, we would recommend this hotel without hesitation. There is a lot going on in Stresa and plenty of parking is available. If you don’t, just know that you can’t always find a taxi, the courtesy car at the hotel does not run all the time, and you might find yourself doing a 20 minute walk when you don’t want to. Our suggestion would be to get a card from a taxi driver when you first arrive and take a cellphone with you so you can always get around. Other than the inconvenient location, which incidentally does face Isola Bella and Isola Superiore, maximizing the view, we would recommend Villa Aminta without hesitation. It is worth it to pay a premium for the full lake view with a balcony.

Lovely hotel - could be better though

The hotel is lovely and has wonderful views. It is also kept very clean and housekeeping is very good. However, if you want to make the most of your visit to Stresa, beware of the following. 1. Courtesy and politeness of staff - with the exception of the reception staff whom are excellent, there is no courtesy or politeness displayed to guests. 2. Impossible location. The hotel can only be safely reached by car due to a large stretch of road to Stresa and Baverno having no pavement and the roads being very windy and busy. There is a ’courtesy’ hotel shuttle but this is only every 1 - 2.5 hours and stops at 6pm in the evening. So if you want to go out after 6pm you have to book a taxi. Taxi ranks in Stresa and surrounding areas are not populated by taxis so you have to book one in a hotel or a restaurant! This means you really have to go straight from a restaurant to the hotel and don’t have freedom to do much in-between. 3. Very noisy hotel. The last thing heard in the evening (12.30am!) and the first thing heard in the morning (6am) was the apparent moving of heavy furniture in rooms above. Hopefully the owners of the hotel will read this review and make amends.

Is it really 5 star rated??

A lovely situation just 1 mile north of Stresa, the hotel is lavish with very courteous, immaculately dressed staff. The quoted price was for room only, everything else was extra. Our room overlooked the access road at the rear which could hardly be called a garden view. The pool was adequate, although not all that clean: a 5 star hotel would pay more attention to removing deposits from the perimeter tiles. We were not told about the courtesy services available, and got the impression that more fuss was made of the customers who displayed the most wealth. We felt better value was offered by the 4 star hotels we stayed at.

Traveller's tip on dining

Eat out at the restaurants in Stresa. Excellent value for money.