Acacia Resort

We recently visited this hotel following a last minute booking with jet2. The rooms in the hotel are clean and spacious, just as I would have expected. The resort grounds and pool are lovely. The pool is suitable for both children and adults, plenty of sun loungers and a beach are further down the grounds with more sun loungers. We found the beach area more relaxing as there was constant music playing through out the day and as the weather was hot, the breeze at the sea was much appreciated! There isn???t much to do around this hotel, no where to walk to, everything is a taxi/bus ride away. I would recommend getting the shuttle bus from the hotel to Cefalu, we did this three times during our stay (???14 return pp). Regrettably we should have stayed in Cefalu as we much preferred it there. So much so, we didn???t get the return shuttle as we didn???t want to go back to the hotel. Instead we got a taxi which was ???50. The entertainment in the hotel is the same every single night! It seems to be targeted at a much older audience, a gentleman playing the piano and signing over an instrumental playlist. And when I say the same, I mean he sing the same playlist every night! It would be nice to have something to look forward to in an evening. They had a nice selection for breakfast, what you would expect in a resort hotel. However, the buffet dinner was okay, the choices didn???t really vary each night. Overall, this hotel is okay but expensive for what it is. We feel we would choose a different hotel and area to stay on my return to Sicily as this hotel just wasn???t for us.

First off, the hotel, pool and beach were lovely. The actual 10 night stay at the hotel was a different matter. My wife and I always make an effort in every country we visit to speak the language and are always polite to the staff and rarely, if at all complain. In fact everywhere we went in Sicily, we made friends with the locals. The reception staff at the Acacia seemed a bit off with us from the beginning but we thought it was maybe because we were British and in the minority and maybe they had a few badly behaved ones. Then on the second day, the elevator I was in plunged down and then got stuck between floors. I had injured myself with the jolt and shouted for help. When they got me out they were just nasty. No apologies at all and angry because I had caused a scene from inside the stuck elevator by shouting for help! I am now considering my next move, especially as it appeared that the staff weren't surprised so it might have actually happened on other occasions. It continued downhill from there. The Aircon kept breaking down (or so we thought) and each time we reported it there was a different answer, such as an engineer has been called or we have left a door open or its all gone off around the hotel. The truth is that they switch your aircon off to save money, and usually at night so you don't get a good night's sleep, even though you have paid for this. And speaking of sleeping, when you have excursions booked for 6:30 am and need to go to bed before midnight, forget it. The 'entertainment' is ridiculously loud and close to the rooms. I felt sorry for the families with young children who couldn't get them to sleep. As for the room, there is a wardrobe but no drawers anywhere, so no where near enough storage for your clothes or even anything for just the bits and bobs. The safe was useless and kept locking us out almost every day. They tried to say we were always typing the incorrect code, but we use these safes on every holiday without issue. There is a mini bar and they tell you it is forbidden to take any outside food or drinks into the room or put them in the mini bar / fridge, so we thought we could get a water or drink when we arrived in the night from the airport. I asked reception if they could stock it and was told it's too late. They never did stock it all holiday and we obviously went thirsty that first night! And don't think of just booking bed and breakfast unless your prepared to pay for a taxi to the nearest town every day at between ???10 and ???40 euros each way. There is nothing anywhere near this hotel except a small snack bar up the road, and remember, it is forbidden to take any food or drinks back to the hotel. It was such a shame because a lovely hotel like that really should be better maintained, have professional staff running it and less silly rules.