Hotel Citta del Mare

Located on the oceanfront, 4 miles from Terrasini. To reach the hotel from Palermo airport (located 12 miles away), allow a 20 minutes drive.

The Citta del Mare is located in a privileged natural area. It overlooks the Castellamare bay, a protected seaside park. This is then a perfect destination for water sports. The club also offers a diving centre registered PADI and offers sailing, windsurfing, pedalo and water ski. Careful, all these activities are extra. As for seaside relaxation, the Citta del Mare is built on a slope down to the Mediterranean Sea, and offers several sundecks fitted out in solarium between the rocks. The latters have deckchairs and sunshades, but are too small to welcome all the guests of the hotel. Most of them will fall back on the sandy beach located 2.5 miles away. It is serviced from the end of April to mid-October by a free shuttle. Very spacious, it offers deckchairs and sunshades, and opens towards a very nice portion of turquoise water where children and adults can swim peacefully.

Spreading on 67 acres, the Citta del Mare has a central building housing the reception, and twenty one-level villas arranged among a pleasant Mediterranean vegetation where you will find pines, cactus and many coppices of aromatic plants. Despite the large capacity of the complex (803 rooms), you will not feel cramped, even in high season. However, you have to like walking and sometimes you even need to be in good physical condition because you will climb a slope and stairways to get to the sea from the main building. That being said, the quality and the variety of the relaxation facilities need to be mentioned. The Citta del Mare offers two pools. The first one, olympic sized, is surrounded by a tiled sundeck with deckchairs and sunshades. It is located near the central building. The second one, located below, close to the sea, is composed of three pools connected by water slides. An unique facility among other Sicilian hotels: no doubt that it will satisfy the entire family! As for grounds, lots of activities are scheduled, among which tennis, archery, dancing and yoga classes.

The 803 rooms of the property are divided into three classes: village, standard and superior. The village rooms are ventilated and they only offer a telephone. The standard rooms offer air-conditioning, telephone and a refrigerator. The superior rooms offer also a hair-dryer and a mini bar. All the rooms overlook the sea (the view is not a guaranteed because of the vegetation) and they offer a balcony or a sundeck. Their light-coloured wooden furniture is more functional than attractive. This simplicity you will also find in the bathrooms, where the shower is only an evacuation spout on the ground.

Depending on the package chosen, (''village'', ''standard'' or ''superior''), the main restaurant may be different. ''L'Isole'' is reserved for the guests staying in the ''village'' class. Its setting (a large room with naked walls) is not very welcoming and the buffets served for the three meals are quite like a canteen regarding their quality, with rationing as for variety. If you want to eat well, choose a ''standard'' or a ''superior'' room that gives access to the ''Belvedere''. Looking a little more pleasant (printed hangings bring a touch of decoration), it offers a buffet service for breakfast and a guest table for the other two meals, with starters, cheese and desserts offered buffet-style. An à la carte restaurant (open from mid-June to the end of September only) has meats, grills and grilled fish.

The village is built on steeply sloping ground, so there is no sandy beach. However, a solution has been created in the form of sturdy wooden terraces, which are fixed to the rocks and offer access to the sea either down steps or, for more of a splash, down slides. Guests can use the parasols and deckchairs provided here, and there is also a bar, although it was closed when we visited. There is a bridge connecting this area to the cove, where the 'Sub Dive Compagnie' diving school headquarters are based. This is a charming place with crystal clear water, but there is not really enough space given the number of guests the village can accommodate. The swimming pools here make up for this lack of space.