I went to this hotel on my honeymoon. I loved rapallo and the service in the hotel was good but I had some inconviniences. I asked for a king bed, and what I got were to twin beds put together, if you were in the middle you could sink in the hole. Another thing that disapointed me was the "private beach" that they offer which is no beach, it has no sand!!! Also if I were to repeat the same trip I would stay in the Hotel Splendido at Portofino which is just 15 minutes away and the price is similar, but the Splendido is far superior.

The physical hotel, breakfast and public rooms was sensational. Dinner, & check-in, was a train wreck. Rooms, so so. Check-in was so slow, they put half of the parties in rooms with balconies, kept calling one party by the wrong names and were so arrogant about it. The dining room stunk of old fish and people couldn't even eat their dinner. Beautiful location, beautiful pool, setting etc.

We stayed at the Excelsior Palace for a week at the end of July 2007. We had a very enjoyable stay.

Hotel
The hotel is very well maintained. We booked the blueweek offer on their website, which worked out at quite a bit cheaper. We paid Euros 2690 for an exclusive room, bed and breakfast. They handled our email enquiries promptly and we received confirmation very quickly.

On arrival the receptionist came out to greet us, which was a nice touch.

Room
We booked an exclusive room and were allocated room 210. It was beautifully decorated, well maintained and cleaned to a high standard. The views from the balcony were wonderful: Rapallo marina to the left and the Portofino headland to the right.

We could hear the noise from the road if we had the doors open, but only extremely faintly when closed. We enjoyed sitting on our balcony watching the world go by and the noise didn’t bother us.

We didn’t feel the level of noise we could hear from our neighbours was appropriate for a 5* hotel. It was quite noisy, so don’t go if you like to lie in!

Restaurants
We ate breakfast in the restaurant each morning and it was a delight. The food was of the usual high standard provided in 5* European hotels. We ate on the terrace each morning and enjoyed the fine weather and views.

We ate lunch in the Eden Rock most days, a really nice restaurant near the pool with beautiful views. We thought the restaurant could have provided a few more lunch snacks. We had the salad buffet each day which was really nice but a little repetitive. We also felt it was a little over priced at Euros 18. However, the service was excellent, it was very convenient and relaxing and we thoroughly enjoyed it. You can also choose to eat by the pool, although the menu didn’t look that different.

We didn’t eat in the hotel in the evenings. We would normally have chosen to eat there on one occasion but it looked very expensive and formal.

Pool and Bathing Terraces
There’s plenty of sun beds at all times of the day. We chose not to sit by the pool as it seemed that mostly families hung out there (it was peak summer holiday). We chose to sit further away in the peace and quiet. There were plenty of lifeguards and they stopped the children jumping in the pool, which was good as it is the only pool and isn’t especially large. The views from the infinity pool are amazing – you could hang over the edge for hours admiring the view!

You could also swim in the sea, which had easy access. We thought there may be some snorkelling, but there wasn’t anything much.

Location
We liked the location. We walked into Rapallo every evening. It took 10/15 minutes via the marina and along the prom. Apart from the hotel driveway it is flat. It was a very pleasant walk and was our only exercise! We didn’t find crossing the road a problem at all. It is on a bend, but you can easily see enough to cross the road without any problem.

Rapallo is a good location in terms of visiting other places, such as Portofino and the Cinque Terre.

It feels a bit unfair as I can’t put my finger on why, but for me, it wasn’t a ‘wow, wow, wow’ hotel, but it is very pleasant; we had a very enjoyable and relaxing stay and would recommend the hotel.

y husband and I stayed here for 3 nights at the beginning of our Italian vacation. This hotel was everything we wanted and more. We have stayed at other 5+ star hotels and found this to be beautiful, and worth every penny. The staff was amazing, the beach/pool area is to die for and the quick walk into town was great for a light lunch or dinner.it reminded us of positano scernery-wise for those who have been. we are already planning our next trip back. truly special.