Hotel Ai Capitani - Peschiera del Garda, Italy     

We stayed at this Hotel late nov 2007 and got a very good rate. The first thing we experienced was the wonderful staff that really was profesional and friendly. We got a warm welcome. As the Hotel wasn't fully booked the also gave us a free upgrade to a Junior Suite. The nice things with the Hotel was the rooms interior which felt qualitative and fresh. It was also a flat screen TV and computer for DVD etc. Also the bathroom was nice and felt luxurius, among other things we had a fresque in the shower. To note is that the rooms are not very big at this Hotel. We strongly recommend the Hotel, especially for it's nice Staff.

We have just got back from the Ai Capitani where we went for the Bank Holiday weekend. We had a fantastic time. The hotel is a new hotel which accounts for the lack of reviews on TripAdvisor. When we first arrived we noticed how beautiful and minimalist the hotel was. It is all clean lines, wooden floors, concrete and glass in the shell of a very old building in the heart of Peschiera. We love this look so we were really happy with the hotel. We also liked our room, or rather, came to like our room. The hotel is created out of a very old, and not extensively spacious, building. While this defines its unique charm it also means that some of the rooms are necessarily, well, small. Space is at a premium here and our junior suite was not more spacious than a normal room in other, more mainstream places we stayed at. Also, the room had the tiniest window so it was necessary to use the lights all the time. Perhaps not surprising then that the bathroom was also on the small side, accommodating only a shower and no bath. On the plus size, the room was beautifully appointed with state of the art lighting, fittings, flat screen. In the end, forewarned is forearmed on this one. If you know what to expect, the small rooms do not take away from the experience and pleasure of this first class little gem of a hotel. But if you expect expansive rooms set in extensively sized communal areas, you will be disappointed. BUT From this initial disappointment, things went from good to great to even better to brilliant. This is really because of the service which was top Class 5* treatment. Angelo at breakfast was really lovely and friendly and he makes the best coffee. He also gave us tips of where to go, what to do etc etc. Paolo on reception took great care of us. We were going to the Opera on the Sunday night. He organized a taxi, and at the appointment hour, came to personally collect us from dinner, and accompanied us through the back streets of Peschiera to the waiting Jaguar limo. This level of service gives the George V in Paris a run for its money - and that hotel is regarded by many as the best in the world! We felt like royalty! And the service kept on getting better. The hotel probably does not advertise itself well enough in this regard, though. It has some incredible things to offer but doesn’t tell you! For example it has a private beach and we only found out about it by asking where the beach was. The private beach is actually a beach club with again, brilliant minimalist furniture, great sunbeds, food, ambience (cool music, imported white sand from Egypt etc etc) and once again brilliant service from Roberto and his team. It is however about 40 minutes from Pesciera by speed boat, which was in fact a plus! We hired a boat and found the beach ourselves. The joy of getting there was part of the experience. Once we got there, the club sent out a dingy to anchor our boat and take us into shore (you are not supposed to bring in rented boats too close to the shore). Again, such fantastic service. NB If you don’t want to hire a boat, the Ai Capitani has its own which for 40 Euro will take you there. The hotel restaurant was fantastic and the food was to die for! It is located down a few alleys slightly away from the hotel but once you got there it had the same fittings and tell tale signage what associated it with the hotel. It somehow added to the experience to keep discovering little bits of Ai Capitani all over Garda. Wonderful! Again the restaurant service was top class and on our last night the waiter brought us out (for free) a new dish they were trying and wanted our opinion on. It was cheese ice-cream on an onion tart all sitting on cheese fondue. It was actually lovely if very rich! There is tons to do in Garda. We spent one day at the waterpark which was brilliant. We hired a water taxi to take us there and bring us back (we just had to call them 10 mins before we wanted them to pick us up and they came to collect us). Many of the slides were definitely grown up slides with one or two too scary for me [well, two, actually. Whereas I manly braved the 50m drop slide thingy - your boyfriend] We could easily have spent another 2 hours there but unfortunately had to leave to get back for the Opera. To sum up then, the longer we stayed in Peschiera the more we fell in love with it. The holiday was really made by the first class service of the team at the Ai Capitani.