Book San Nicola l'Arena hotels

Very good

The breakfast bar has a wonderful selection of fresh fruit, assorted, yogurts, wonderful pastries, scrambled eggs, bacon, frittata, and a wide variety of cheese and breakfast meats

This is a slightly shabby Grande Dame that seems to get most of it's guests through group travel. The room was large and well-appointed, though slightly oddly laid out with a deep bath but no separate shower. The bedding could use a refresh, particularly mattress and pillows. The breakfast was fine, though not of the highest quality (terrible cappuccino) and the staff very formal and obsequious. The location was great, and that really made it work for us.

Excellent. Wonderful accommodations and staff. Close to everything. Recommend highly.

Be under no dellusions, at very best a 2-star hotel. Currently undergoing major renovation with severe disruption & noise. Some rooms renovated, many ongoing & others in bad repair, decades out of date. Initially given a South facing refurbished room, but no air condtioning. Apparently council prevent its use until May/June (but not outlined in hotel adverts). Room was an absolute oven day & night, plus unbearable construction & traffic noise with windows open & imposible to sleep. Complained about this & medical issues over next 2-days. No result until I then threw a tantrum at lobby. Manager wouldn't admit to being manager & ran off. Eventually 30mins later a part time staff member issued a North facing older room in poor repair. Much cooler, but no electrics. Complained, but elecs not repaired until following day at 1130pm, post further complaints. Problem was shorted out hairdryer & trip switches, all needing replaced. Bathroom also in bad repair (extractor not working & toliet seat loose & broken). Electric kept going off at times & needed electricians to attend/reset. Room cooler, but very poor decor. Self serve breakfast on 14th floor very basic & guests chased away at 10am, because they want to clear/clean room by 10am (despite breakfast being 7-10am). Noise & disruption of many student parties also totally unbearable, staff unhelpful, rooms/facilities a disaster, pool was closed & food poor. The worst hotel I have ever stayed in. Totally avoid this torturious hotel!

Under Construction: be sure to call to see if construction is still happening when you plan to stay. Construction starts by 8:00 a.m. and you will experience the hammering and drilling noises of it even if you have an inside room. We had an inside room; there was no traffic noise at all. Wifi was flaky and it is annoying that you will need to provide your email address and phone number to use it; in addition, you will be forced to provide a brief hotel review the second time that the Wi-Fi is activated, in order to access Wi-Fi. The breakfast was excellent (except for the hot chocolate, which was of the thin and over-sugared type). The location is rather good; it is about a 16-minute walk to the intersection of Victor Emmanuel and Maqueda. Extremely easy access to or from the Palermo airport using the 6-Euro airport bus; do not take a taxi or use anything else. Make sure that you have the delicious lobster and pasta dish for 30 euros at Enomis, which is on Victor Emmanuel, 1 or 2 minutes walk west of Quattro Canti.