Grand Hotel Miramare

We didn’t stay at the Grand Hotel Miramal this time (they were fully booked), but we did stop in for drinks at the bar—and it was absolutely fantastic. The terrace overlooks the entire city and harbor, offering one of the best views in town. Antonio, our barman, was excellent—great drink recommendations, a bit of hotel history, and top-notch service all around. It’s a stunning hotel with a small number of rooms, so book early. We’ll definitely be staying here the next time we’re in town. Can’t wait to come back.

This is a wonderful hotel. The location is ideal for the harbour, restaurants and is close enough to walk to Portofino if you are able bodied and enjoy a very pleasant walk. The pool is beautiful and clean and the pool attendant extremely helpful and pleasant. The hotel is set in splendid gardens and they are very well kept. The rooms are lovely, spacious and elegant. The only reason I didn't give five stars is that we had some very loud people in the room above on our last night and it did disturb us. The hard floors probably exacerbated the noise transmission so it probably wasn't just their loud voices and stamping around to blame. The elegance of this hotel is evident at first glance. However for us the outstanding feature which would bring us back is the amazing warmth and attentiveness of the staff. All the staff were great but I would like to specifically praise the staff on reception and the guys who welcome you to the hotel and deal with your luggage. First class.

Faded glory. A once grand hotel without the budget (or management?) to support the prices it commands. I cannot understand how these hotel rooms are so expensive. The money doesn’t go into maintaining the hotel, that’s for sure. They should consider taking a page out of Hotel Grodenerhof’s book in Ortisei - THAT is a historic hotel that has been gorgeously updated and maintained, where prices reflect the service provided, the quality of the rooms, the incredible on site restaurants and more. Miramar is in desperate need of a renovation with fresh paint, upgraded doors, relevant art, and hall furniture that doesn’t look like it was handed down from your nonna’s house. Their “modern art” display on the first floor looks like an exhausted pregnancy pillow. Just because it’s expensive doesn’t mean it’s good. The “art deco” design + antique furniture + bad modern art feels schizophrenic. But hey, money can’t buy taste. Adequate beds - not comfortable, not luxurious. Truly the worst mattress and linens of our 3 weeks of traveling in Italy. They feel bare bones basic. Adequate breakfast - not delicious, not terrible. Some half decent pastry, but of all our hotel stays with similar continental breakfasts, this is the only spot where you can’t have basic eggs cooked to order (without an additional fee) and there’s a noticeable drop in quality of meat and cheese. Adequate service - helpful porters, timely turndown, but nothing above and beyond. The only time anyone greeted us by name was when retrieving our key (they have a system to look you up) and on the third day of breakfast. This is NOT a quiet or restful place - you can hear everything in the hallway from your room, so you better hope you’re not near a door, an elevator, or a family on vacation. Beach club is nice enough, but they rent out the majority of their chairs to locals so forget sitting where you’d like - you can only select from specific chairs. There was zero service the entire day, other than being escorted to your chair (and told no, you can’t sit on the blue ones, those are rented out). This made it so surprising when, the next day in the exact same chairs, someone lovely came by with a menu and took our drink order. While pleased by the improvement, it just highlighted for us how scattered and inconsistent everything is here. Shoddy WiFi - it throttles down after use, and then cuts in and out to further discourage your continued use. Egregious shower design - it flooded the bathroom every time we showered despite every attempt to keep the water contained. We are a honeymooning couple and would have loved to order coffee in bed most mornings - but a flat $25 fee for ANY room service prevented us from doing so. A % of the bill would be more appropriate here. It feels like they want to offer the illusion of good service rather than actually have to provide it. This is a solid B grade hotel, but I’d downgrade it to a C given the exorbitant cost. The only people who are rating this 5 stars have never actually experienced a 5 star hotel. It’s 5 star by default - because it qualifies based on the amenities it has, and because there’s nothing else better in this zone. I wish we’d paid twice as much as stayed down the road at the Belmond. This is NOT a honeymoon spot - it’s not special, it’s not quiet, it’s not romantic. But if you’re a traveling family who wants to impose your kids, their iPads at full blast, and their vacation on everyone else, you can run rampant here.