Eden Village - Ricadi, Italy 

We stayed at Eden Village second half of October. The idea of the Villagio itself is good, as they have hotel, separated apartments the same area, detached apartments a bit higher on the hill, restaurant joined to the bar and all of it located close to the sea. To get there you need to go several curls down from the main road on the plato.It is isolated place - to get to other restaurants, hotels or shops it takes min 10 min drive by car up the hill.We used the car, but we saw people walking arond, without children.Tropea is 8 km, but it took about 15-20 minutes to get to the center. May be in summer, when the sun starts shining earlier, it is more convenient - just go to the sea early. We were up early in the morning, jugging by the seashore - and then were to wait couple of hours until sand becomes drier and air will warm up. There was nothing to do in there, so we took the car and usualy spent mornings in Tropea or surrounding villages, walking and taking morning capucchino. The beach Grotichelle itself is really good, clear water, grottoes, nice views. Eden Villagio has chairs with umbrellas - 2 per room for free, additional euro 5/day.Kayaks are also for free. As for the service and premises itself - those are not of declared 3 star quality.The staff is mostly young people, looking when together,like solving their own problems.It was complete unexpectedness, that the young lady was rude to us, showing disregard in the bar, throwing my credit card with grudge. We understand that tourism in this rural area just started to develop, and service is not perfect even in Rome, but no value for money in this case. The room was moist all the time, and spots of mould were smelling in sleeping room.The mould started to damage even the wood on the bed.Moreover, it looked like everything was falling apart - toilet sink was not working at all, window nets were torn and broken - so the moskitos were eating the child completely;bed was broken.The kitchenware was minimum, with only one big meat knife:)). Breakfast at the restaurant was not bad compared to the standard italian - yoghurt, bread, jams, fresh croissants,pudding, coffee, tea - a la buffet.But my husband likes some meat pand cheese products, so we gave it up. We ate first evening at the restaurant also, but the food was drastic.I ordered beloved mozarella with tomatoes (which could not be spoiled:))and the tomatoes were really green and bitter!Pasta with seafood was hard ( beleive me, more hard than you can find in Italy),Grilled fish was dry because not fresh.And the prices are higher than you have in best Tropea restaurants. To make a conclusion, if you going to enjoy just sea and sun, do not care accomodation, meals and service - this is the good:))place. But if you use a car, I would suggest to stay somewhere even further and come to Grotichelle (if you like it so much) just for swimming.To say the truth, Grotichelle is more ad than it is itself. I saw even at Vibo coast very beautiful beaches, which are not worse.I am sure, Grotichelle had much more charm without Eden and Quatro Scogli Villagios constructions. I personnaly was missing night walks by narrow village (like Tropea,for example)streets, sittings at open air terraces (though I do not like loud night life). We used apartment and were cooking from time to time.To get food we were to think were to find it, because there are several supermarkets around, but only 1 at the walk distance.As we were travelling intensively, were to think about buying food somewhere by our way. In most places food was very good, fresh. My personal feeling is that it is better to stay at Tropea and use surrounding beaches if you need more nature, or use rural accomodation even. Calabria itself interesting, versatile and you may travel from place to place looking for new emotions and fun.People are very friendly - always help even if they do not know English. It was great experience and fun when someone was helping us to show the road or explain what to do - we spoke English, they Italian, and when I was saying "Si" they thought that I understand completely and started to talk more and faster. Have a good time in Calabria and enjoy the country and people!