The classic theme of the hotel was very charming and so was the room. Nice balcony with a view. The pool area was nice and chill too. Friendly and helpful staff.

Minor things. There were some weird sounds from pipes in the walls in our room especially at night. The hotel restaurant and bar closes at 10 pm and with the location of the hotel being a little away from everything you won't be able to get a late night snack or drink easily and the minibar doesn't have any alcohol or snacks. The breakfast is not impressive, chaotic at best, and the selection seems like what you find at e.g. gas station stopover.

Beautuful hotel in Siracusa, good breakfast. Pool was amazing. However €5 for a towel! Hotel was a 5 minute taxi ride from Oritigia (main attractions or start of tours) @ €15. Red bus out front of hotel no 105 to Oritigia was €0.50c.

Hotel reception were not that helpful.

We had the pleasure of spending the past week at the Grand Hotel Villa Politi and were thoroughly impressed by its timeless elegance and refined charm. The architecture is magnificent, the rooms stunning and comfortable, and the sweeping views over the gardens are truly delightful. Perched gracefully on the hillside just outside the historic centre of Syracuse, the hotel enjoys a wonderfully convenient yet tranquil location. Its illustrious past – with distinguished guests such as Churchill – lends a unique sense of prestige and history to one’s stay. It should also be noted that the property is situated atop the Latomie dei Cappuccini, a historic stone quarry of great cultural interest. One may view it only from the hotel’s balustrade, which is indeed picturesque, but it is a pity that the site itself cannot be explored by guests. Such an opportunity would have added a truly remarkable dimension to the stay. That said, one does at times sense that the hotel relies a little heavily on this heritage. The breakfast offering was rather average and could certainly be improved, and the lunch as well as the poolside bar options fell somewhat short of the standard expected from an establishment of this stature. Same goes for the welcoming at check-in and provided information. Special commendation, however, must go to the housekeeping team: our room was impeccably maintained each day and their dedication to detail was most impressive. In sum, this is a splendid hotel with great character and history, but with room for refinement in the culinary and service department.

The hotel is beautiful and has preserved the character of the lovely old building and loved the swimming pool area. The staff were really great and I would like to mention the restaurant team for managing a really busy breakfast. We ate twice in hotel restaurant and food was exceptional. Also the head housekeeper who went over and above and gave me her personal charger lead when I had mislaid mine, so kind and thoughtful. Also loved the terrace area for drinks.

Wish the restaurant could be located in an outside terrace as feel that this would attract alot more guests as there is limited choice of restaurants in the local vicinity. The local buses are terrible and run on a loop to Ortigia which makes them very unreliable with times and it can be a little difficult for those with mobility issues to keep walking back and forth.

The property exudes an amazing charm, meticulously maintained with period features, grand public spaces, and beautifully refurbished rooms. Lovely details such as piano music on the veranda, a nicely smelling lobby, and above all, the best working Wi-Fi among all hotels we have been to in Sicily!

To enhance the breakfast experience, I would aim to present it more elegantly with a modern food display, eliminate paper cups and glasses, and improve the quality of sweets by incorporating more Sicilian items. Perhaps also add a few more flowers to the superb pool deck to make it an oasis. But all these are minor details in an otherwise perfect character hotel.

This is a lovely hotel that is located near many key location stops. Parking is on site and free. The rooms are nice with a mix of modern and old furniture. The bed are comfortable and the bathrooms are clean. This a busy hotel with groups that also stay here. The breakfast was nice and had a variety of options. The pool is great, clean and refreshing with lots of deck chairs to lay around the pool

We stayed over Easter weekend and what was disappointing was no restaurants near the hotel were open. We had to eat at the hotel restaurant. This was not good value for money and the food was average. The air-con was noisy in our room.

The hotel had bags of character. From walking in you can feel the history. It is a truly unique place to stay and for the price we felt we got our moneys worth (c€1000 for the last week September). The rooms and pool have been recently refurbished to a high standard. Especially the pool area which was a great relaxing spot. I got the impression they do updates to the hotel in the winter for summer peak. So it should keep getting better and better. I would focus on reviews for the summer just gone as that’s when the pool was completed. Beers by the pool were around €5 - more expensive than in the bars but pretty good for a pool bar. The location is a half an hour walk from Ortigia. That worked for us. Some people said the walk wasn’t pleasant in the reviews but we found it fine and it is down hill on the way there. There is a bus (105) that comes every 15 mins. We kept missing it and just walking instead which helped work off the copious amounts of pasta we ate. It was also great for the attractions of Syracuse itself with the archaeological sites around a 15min walk away. The free parking was also a plus as we hired a car to get around other parts of Sicily. Breakfast was largely European continental buffet style. There was some cooked elements - scrambled egg, sausages and bacon but they didn’t look at appealing to me. There was lots of pastries, cereal, yogurt and fruit which served us well.

If you’re expecting 5* luxury hotel service you won’t get that here. That’s no slight on the staff any question or concern we had they answered but there was no turn down service etc. The other point is that the shower in our room was incredibly small - I don’t think the bathrooms were part of the recent refurbishments - maybe next in their list? But if this is a concern for you you would need to pick a larger room than the standard.

The history and grandeur of the place is undeniable. Lovely swimming pool. Comfortable beds.

Some weird eccentricities that don’t fit a 4* - while bookings keep coming the Director General (hilarious responses to reviews on Trip Advisor) will ignore the many suggestions but failure to make changes will eventually impact business. These include - €5 per pool towel, undrinkable machine coffee at breakfast (€3 charge if you order more than one from the bar), average breakfast that shuts down on the strike of 10am, a bar that shuts at 10pm (bar staff still hanging around but refuse to serve) an unpredictable poolside bar, no kettles or irons in rooms, a happy hour where the drinks are the same price as non-happy hour with not very nice snacks thrown in.

The hotel is gorgeous. We stayed here for a couple of nights at the end of our holiday and after reading the previous reviews we were quite skeptical of how it would be. I think when you read the negative reviews you have to take them with a pinch of salt. This is a 4 star hotel, not 5, and to put it bluntly, you get what you pay for. We booked this as a cheap and cheerful end to the holiday and we were actually so surprised with how nice the hotel was. The staff were all super friendly, always said hello to us as we walked past, they were always happy to book us taxis etc. The breakfast was fantastic, again we were a little worried about this having read the previous comments but we were pleasantly surprised. They had a big selection of pastries, they had hot food, a big selection of meats and cheese, yogurt etc. The hotel grounds are beautiful and well maintained. The only thing worth mentioning is it seems to be for an older crowd, my boyfriend and I are in our 20s but this was never an issue, but might be if you want more of a younger vibe. The room was fantastic, so beautiful and the view out was incredible. A lot of people have also commented about the location, which is bizarre to me as you can see where it is before you book it! It’s not like they can pick up the hotel and move it, if you don’t like the location, don’t stay here. For us, it was lovely and tranquil, away from the town (but still close enough to get a taxi)

Yes you have to pay for towels which is expensive per day, but I’ve been to a lot of hotels that do this. If you don’t want to pay it, go into town and buy a cheap towel? The happy hour is a bit of a con, if you want a cocktail I’d highly recommend going to bar drago across the road, it’s fantastic and open til late!

The whole property was spectacular, from the grand stairs to the entrance, the lobby/library, and the beautiful room with the little Juliet balcony. All very luxurious and the bathroom was the best of our whole trip through Sicily. The breakfast was scrumptious with a lot of variety. The pool was magnificent & it looked like they were in the process of adding an outside bar which would make it even more inviting.

Not really a problem for us as we are walkers, but it is a 45 minute walk into Ortigia.