Reale - Montecatini Terme, Italy 

This is best hotel I have stayed in, in Europe. Very clean and very friendly family owned and operated hotel. This would be first on my list on any visit to Montecatini Terme. Lovely pool area for relaxing and desk staff speaks and understands English very well. We spent 12 nights here with a tour group and could not have asked for a better hotel or location. It is only a few blocks walk to the train station for trips to Florence, Lucca, etc. The restaurant has excellent food, but but a little dull.

We stayed in this spa town for 12 nights in Oct 2005. We found the outdoor area and foyer very clean and pretty and the pool very inviting. Lovely trees. The staff were very friendly and helpful, especialy little blonde Cinzia. We had breakfast here only once, and at 10Euro per person, we think it's a bit expensive, so we walked to a nearby cafe and stood to eat our pastry and drink our cappucino. We did not eat dinner in the hotel either. The room was what you would expect from a 3 star hotel, it had a small balcony, TV, inbuilt hairdryer (which was fairly useless ladies!), a shower in the bath ( the bath was very small and I didn't even try fitting my Australian size 14 bum into it!) and the cupboard had plenty of coathangers. It has a small lift, which could be a problem if you are claustrphobic, but not all rooms are reached by the lift. There were 2 computers available and a nice lounge area. Appeared to be a family run hotel and we saw the famliy eating in the restaurant together every night and the little girl would often be playing on the computer behind the recption desk. It was all over very clean and pleasant.