A One Night Stop at the Hotel Regina Elena

Hotel Review: Best Western Regina Elena Hotel, Santa Margherita Ligure:

Hotel Regina Elena

When our coach shot past the centre of Santa Margherita Ligure and pulled in at the Best Western Regina Elena Hotel further up the road, we were a little disappointed. We were only staying in the Italian Riviera for one night to visit Portofino and the Hotel Regina Elena was not in Portofinio and neither is it in central Santa Margherita Ligure. In fact the hotel is about 4 km from Portofino and a little over 1 km away from the centre of Santa Margherita Ligure.

A Best Western Hotel

Although Hotel Regina Elena is a Best Western chain hotel, it has been run by the Ciana family since 1897.  There are 104 rooms.

When we got to our room and saw the view from the balcony, our misgiving about the location dissipated. As we had little time in the Italian Riviera, it would have been nice to be in the centre of Santa Margherita Ligure, but the trade-off for us was a room with a magnificent view of the Ligurian Coast – at least we were lucky to have scored one. Some of the hotel’s past guests have complained about the top floor suite being hot in summer, but we didn’t have any problems. Maybe because we were already accustomed to the very hot summer in Italy before arriving at Santa Margherita Ligure.

The hotel has a rooftop pool and lush gardens leading to a private beach, but we didn’t have time to use these facilities. Our room worked fine for our one-night stay and it was comfortable.

Private beach of Hotel Regina Elena

What We Liked about the Hotel Regina Elena

• Our room on the top floor faced the sea and we had panoramic sea views from the spacious balcony.
• The free Wi-Fi in the room
• The breakfast room is spacious and pleasant and the breakfast was very nice. Although we were travelling in a group, they gave us individual tables and did not segregate us into a groups-only big table as many hotels do. You can order your own espresso or cappuccino at no extra charge. Breakfast was very comfortable and civilized and we could easily have dallied in the breakfast room for a bit longer.
• The bus to Portofino stops outside the hotel.

What We Thought Disappointing

The hotel is on the outskirts of Santa Margherita Ligure. Although it doesn’t take long to walk the 1 km into Santa Margherita town centre, it’s inconvenient if you wanted to have dinner in town.

You can book the Hotel Regina Elena here or see the list of Santa Margherita Ligure hotels here.

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