My first impression of the hotel was mixed. We think the reception may have been moved recently as it all looked very new, but it seemed strange that you had to climb four or five steps with your suitcases to get to it (rather than have the use of a ramp). As a party of five we were also surprised to find only two of the three rooms were ready when we arrived. We suspect there had been a mix up and only two rooms prepared but if so, it was resolved very quickly, efficiently and professionally and didn't cause us any major inconvenience.

The hotel has guests from many countries but was predominantly German and English. A lot of the guests we spoke to had been to the hotel numerous times before (I think one couple were on their 16th visit).

Our party had two double rooms and one single. The only difference with the single room was that it didn't have a balcony and had a double bed rather than twin. There was also a table and chairs, colour TV (I could only get one English channel - BBC World News), minibar, air-conditioning and en-suite bathroom. The bathroom had the usual toilet, bath and shower, plus there was also a handshower, bidet, hairdryer, bowl of goodies (shower gel, tissues, sewing kit etc..), weighing scales and if you went with Thomas Cook you also had a dressing gown and slippers provided. Other guests could hire these for a returnable deposit of 30 euro's.

Not sure if this was linked to Thomas Cook, but we also received a bottle of wine and box of chocolates on arrival and received a free (large) bottle of water every day.

The hotel is very big, I would guess there are a couple of hundred rooms. There is also a fitness room, a well being centre (for massages, facials etc...), four restaurants, a pool bar/grill, a very large swimming pool and lots of sunloungers.

Of the four restaurants one was self-service, one waiter, one a la carte and one italian gourmet. We had intended to try them all, but liked the waiter service one so much we used it all week. The food was excellent - buffet style breakfast, and a five course evening meal (two of the courses self service). There was the option to exchange your evening meal to a lunch if you were half board. Or to purchase vouchers for an evening meal if you were bed and breakfast.

The pool was excellent - at a guess I'd say 25-30 metres long. It gets very deep, very quickly, and there isn't a shallow end so it is not really suitable for children but the brochures do say this as well. As a party of 5, we never had any problems getting sunloungers together.

The one fault I could probably find was with the entertainment. It was very basic and low key (a musician playing the piano by the pool bar on most evenings). I suspect this is because its difficult to provide entertainment for guests who speak different languages and the musicians were definitely excellent, but I would have liked more variety and for it to be a bit livelier.

For me the hotel location was excellent. If you went out of the hotel via the reception, you could walk into the resort the "back" way and be at the top of the resort centre within about 5 minutes. Alternatively you could leave the hotel via one of the gates around the pool area, and this took you straight on to the lake side and a 10 minute walk took you to the centre of the resort and the ferry terminal. Immediately outside the hotel, the path down to the resort was mainly pedestrianised and had an amazing view.

Overall, I thought this was a very good hotel and would certainly go back if I was to return to this resort.

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We stayed in lake Garda during probably the most hottest period. (It was really hot during our stay).

Ok, so about the hotel..

Location.
Parc Hotel Gritti is only a ten minute maxinum walk away from the small but lovely town of Bardolino; where you'll find a small range of clothes stores, ice cream stalls with many flavors, and especially restaurants - perfect location for those that are staying self catering. The above just being some of what's inside the wonderful town. The lake is also right opposite the hotel although not directly facing over it. We took many strolls along the lake at night and it was actually rather pleasant. There isn't absolutely loads of things to do in Bardolino but it's a nice little town to stay at and you can easily access the other small towns of Lake Garda by catching either the bus (Hotel Gritti only being across the road from bus stop), the ferry and there's even bikes you can hire at quite a low price. Bardolino itself is quite expensive but the cost of things generally aren't extremely high.
Parc hotel Gritti is one of the closest hotels to the town. Infact, it may well be the closest bigger hotel. Once, maybe twice a week there is a fabulous market which stretches quite far along the sidewalk around the lake; typically selling clothes, purses, jewelry and that kind of thing.

The hotel itself:
I'd say Parc Hotel Gritti is quite a cosy hotel. It does't actually look that modern, but not completely old fashioned either. There are plenty of sunbeds around the pool, aswell as seating around the hotel in general. There's a small square of palm trees etc in the center area outside of the hotel. Surrounding the wonderful scenery are the other rooms of the hotel and underneath that the four restaurants. The named 'Gardens' aren't what you may think of as a garden really, but more just decoration inside that gap as you enter another area of the hotel. It is very nice though. It's really quite pretty around the hotel with all the flowers and trees.
The room we had was nice; clean, not a very big room, but still cosy and nicely decorated. You are given a bottle of sparkling wine and a small box of chocolates as a welcoming gift, which was a nice extra. you are also given sachets of tea etc each day and also a bottle of water which is a good size. Luckilly, we never had to buy the water as it is safe to drink from the taps in Italy. Talking about drinks, there's an hour of free tea, coffee, hot chocolate and cookies each day, which we also found a nice extra.
Onto the hotel restaurants. I personally didn't love the food here, but that could be because i am a fussy eater in general. I thought there could have been more of a range of food for those that don't love all Italian food. This was my only problem with it. I am not much for European food myself. But on the other hand, i will say the food such as Lasagne and the odd bits of British food they added etc, were really nice. It's very true about the Lasagne and pasta being genuine here=]

Entertainment:
The hotel entertainment wasn't the best, but i won't rate the hotel lower because of this as we don't usually run after the hotel entertainment anyway. Around the pool there was always music though, and often someone up on the stage, however Hotel parc Gritti isn't the best hotel for teens entertainment and definitely not the best place for young children. Why i say this is because there is no kiddies clubs or anything, and unlike other hotels where they have been like a disco with a dancefloor and music, for teens, or anyone. Those kind of things lacked a bit in the hotel, but again it wasn't an offput.

I can't think of anything else to add, but i would definitely reccomend this hotel to more the older range of people. I enjoyed my stay at this hotel (i'm only 19), and it doesn't bother me too much if there isn't a lot of livelyness at night and all that kind of thing.

Other than the lack of facilities, e.g - more evening entertainment, games etc, i don't have any negative points to make. Oh, and also the food variation.

Both me and my dad stayed at Parc Hotel Gritti in 2009;on a late deal. Our first impression of the hotel was good, although i personally would have thought of it as being more of a three star. Inside the hotel itself seemed as though it could have been done up more, and generally looked more of a four star standard decor. But having said that, the way the Hotel is set out is lovely - with the typical Italian gardens surrounding. I particularly liked the way the middle part (outside)was done up, where the center area with the 3 (might have been 4) restaurants. We always thought how great it must be to have a room over looking this area! The small area has free tea and coffee around dinner each day, which was definitely a good extra to the hotel.

Entertainment:
I think entertainment was lacking inside the Hotel. There was a games table and plenty of seating around the Hotel. However, there's not much for those that enjoy plenty of gaming inside the Hotel, and probably won't suit families with young children. Just an opinion though. Luckily, there was outdoor entertainment at evening time, which gave a bit of atmosphere to the Hotel.

Food:
My only issue i had with Hotel Gritti was the food. Maybe this is partially due to the fact i'm a fussy eater! However, i was rather disappointed with the cleanliness inside the Restaurants, around the food area.

Room:
The room was impressive, and the balcony was just about the right size. Room was clean, nice sized, and welcomes guests with a small bottle of wine and small box of chocolates. We also got a free medium sized bottle of water each day, delivered by the cleaner.

Overall, it was an enjoyable experience staying at Parc Hotel Gritti. Although, i'm not sure i'd stay there anytime soon, again.

Hotel Gritti,Bardalino.
Rooms were clean,Maid was very good , Hotel clean pool
very good, grounds good , sight very good near to lake.
Breakfast was awful, anything supposed to be hot was cold, evening meal was better good selection but staff
were grumpy and unhelpful, everything was too much trouble,
Entertainment was awful the standard was a joke, we had a couple of wet cold evenings when nothing could take place outside so no one bothered to transfer anything inside although there were bars available these were not opened.
This Hotel used to be very very good, six of our group had used it before although my Wife and I had not, the members of our party who had used the Hotel before were
astonished at its decline, none of us would use it again.

After booking this holiday, I then came across this site and was alarmed at some of the poor reviews. I was greatly relieved to find them to be extremely misleading. I don't consider myself to be easily pleased, and can compare this hotel to some 5 stars we have stayed in over the years. Please let me reassure you the hotel and its staff are excellent. Spotlessly clean; excellent facilities, ideal location; lovely rooms and a choice of 4 restaurant types. A lovely mix of guests from a variety of nationalities and ages. I would go back again and would confidently recommend it to friends.

This hotel is given 4 star rating but don't be fooled that is due to its location to Lake Garda 20mtrs max and its location to Bardolino 500mtrs to resort centre.

We paid half board but only had two evening meals in hotel.

Meal times end at 8.30pm which is quite early but to be honest evening meals were so poor,cold,lack of choice and not presented well. Breakfast's were OK.

The bar/pool grill had better meals but was let down by the service from its staff.

Entertainment was basic nothing special.

Hotel is in prime location but lets itself down when it comes to the food/entertainment.

The hotel location is superb - located right next to lake garda. The hotel itself is rather dated but all rooms public/private were spotless and well maintained.

Our room had tea/coffee making facilities, free dressing gowns & slippers - even bathroom scales.

The staff we encountered were friendly & helpful. You have a choice of self service or waiter service (no extra cost) but the menu is exactly the same whichever you choose.

I personally didn't rate the food as being 4* quality in choice or quality but it was ample for our needs. There is also free tea/coffee & cake at 3pm every afternoon - a nice touch.

The pool area is spotless and has free sunbeds/mattresses & towels and there are plenty of them with no rush to grab one in the morning.

I'm 60 and felt like the youngest one there - the hotel is relaxing and on the flat so I can see why it is chosen by the elderly - they have been travelling for years & recognise a bargain.

Entertainment was geared to suit the clientele - string quartets & pianists in the main - but all good musicians.

Could not fault the standard of the rooms, or the service.

The food was fantastic - especially the Christmas Day Lunch (13:00 to 18:00hrs and again 20:00hrs to 21:30hrs).

Did not use the rest of the hotel facilities as too busy touring Lake Garda or having fun with my tour !

In any case, I regard a Hotel as a place to sleep and to eat, not as a place to live!

Summary = Excellent

Our first visit to Lake Garda and we were certainly not disappointed. Parc Gritti hotel is ideally situated just a short stroll along the lakeside promenade to Bardolino which is a particularly nice place, somewhat quieter and smaller than other towns but with plenty of excellent restaurants and pretty little streets to explore.

Parc Gritti is in a nice quiet location offering good facilities and comfort with a large supervised pool - no noisy games or diving in the pool permitted and no problems with "reserved" sunbeds - towels were quickly removed.

Although we were independent bookers on a B&B basis we did eat some evening dinners in the hotel and found the food to be both varied and of a good standard.

Although we like children it was nice to stay in an hotel where children were "scarce" being favoured mostly by more mature visitors so no late night noise and antisocial behaviour.

Our only disappointment was the fact that the Wellbeing Centre and indoor pool was closed for refurbishment which would have been ideal for our last 2 days when the weather was a bit wet and overcast.

The staff were always friendly and helpful. Although not requested our towels were fresh every day and bed linen changed every 3 days with a free bowl of assorted fruit in the room every day. Afternoon tea, cake and biscuits was also a nice addition.

All in all we would certainly recommend this hotel as somewhere to unwind and relax in a comfortable environment.