After a terrible experience with the Bay Palace Hotel down the road, stepping into the Ipanema was a breath of very welcome fresh air! Service was friendly and always with a smile, the room was excellent and the roof-top pool made for a perfect relaxing break. Evening entertainment on the patio was a nice touch as well. Thoroughly recommended for a short break or longer stay.

Let me start with getting to the hotel. If transfers are not included then this will be your first challenge. A taxi from Catania is €70 each way so a little expensive. The bus takes 1 hour and costs €5 Euros per person, they run 1 per hour. You stop in Taormina, but you need to get down the hill to the hotel, forget walking it can not be done, Either get a cab - €15 for 5 minutes or you can walk to the cable car and take that down, it is a short walk from the cable car, but here are lots of steps involved in doing this so don't try it if you are not reasonably fit.

The hotel. Clean (even my wife was impressed), with a lift and a sun deck on the 5th floor and a small swimming pool.

Staff. As the other reviewers will attest the staff were fantastic, Mario, Vinchenzo et al all superb and completely fluent in French, English, Italien and German.

Rooms. This is where the issues start. The rooms are tiny! You can just walk around the bed and that is it. Each have a small balcony which is nice. The bathrooms were very clean but dated. The biggest issue we had was the noise. The hotel floor is all stone / marble and the walls are very very thin, meaning if somebody 3 doors down uses the loo or walks down the corridor it wakes everybody up, or if someone moves a chair in the room above it has the same effect. This was compounded by the fact that we went when there were a lot of older people at the resort, meaning the "wake up calls" started around 6.30 am. We changed rooms 3 times but it still made no difference. Apparently the higher floors (4-5) are a lot quitier, so I would highly recommend requesting one of these.

Food. The breakfast was simply but very nice, fresh fruits, cereal, breads, cheese and meat, coffe and juice. We were not half board, so the dinner menu was €30 per person, although very nice it is not very good value for money when compared with a lot of very very good restaurants nearby. Personally I would suggest not taking the half board option as the choice and quality is greater outside the hotel.

Facilities. The "beach club" consists of a very nice pool, with a large sun terrace next to the beach, tennis court, and a private beach with sunbeds. he trains running right next to the pool are a bit annoying, however, because of the size of the hotel pool I would highly recommend using the free minibus to the beach club rather than using the hotel pool.
Bar: There is a small bar in the hotel, it was very quiet so I would suggest going out it you want something a bit more lively.

In summary: A very friendly, small hotel which I would highly recommend to anyone who goes to bed and wakes up early, anyone looking for a lie in, choose a different hotel.

Brilliant holiday. booked with panorama.

We loved this holiday from start to finish.

My little boy 22 months had the time of his life Valentino, Mario, Dario and VIncenzo made him and us feel very welcome, letting him help behind the bar, bringing him fruit or juice whenever they saw us pass by in the lobby.( even the gardener spent his time entertaining him giving us chance to sit back relax and just watch.) He was really upset when we left. These guys also found out it was my birthday and gave me a wonderful champaigne celebration to remember.
The rooms were quite small and noisey at time but you got used to it. The views are absolutely stunning.

Its really worth going up etna and to the aolian islands. Catania is a nice city as well when you find the right parts.

We are definately going back to the Ipanema Hotel. Mainly for the views and the staff.!!! Thanks for making our holiday!.

This was aperfect holiday made more so by the incredible delight secured for our little boy by the attentions and kindness of all the staff. He was particularly enamoured with Vincenzo and Mario who always took time, no matter how busy, to say hi and Ciao to him. He was very sad to leave and that was completely due to the friendliness of all the team. Thanks Vincenzo for the motorbike ride and Mario for all the Ornage beer!. They were extremely family friendly and could not do enough to help us. The hotel is close to all the facilities we needed and the staff helped us to organise the trips we wanted and dispensed accurate guidance for shorter trips. An outstanding Hotel that puts service and customers, and children, first. We will return.