Hotel Minerva - Brindisi

We read there was an airport shuttle from the hotel to the near airport Brindisi-Paola Casale, but staff said there hasn't ever been that service. Breakfast included but very poor and bad: Just a coffee/cappuccino and one croissant, not sitting at a table but only standing in front of the bar. In the bargain, cappuccio wasn't warm. Very nice and well cleaned swimming poll. Room ok.

There was a very bad problem with flies.

I didn' like the hotel at all , but I like very much the breakfast.

There was no map on the Venere site, the hotel is located in the middle of no where opposite and army barracks. It is about 15 minutes from the airport and 20 minutes from the centre of Brindisi but it is not between the airport and the town. I found the hotel depressing, the decor is dated and the room smelled of damp. It was more like a bedsit than hotel room and is in fact more of a motel than hotel. Everything about the hotel and room was disappointing, location, accomodation and staff. This was the first night of a three week holiday in Italy where we stayed in 10 different establishments raning in price from €45 - €140 pps and this was easily the worst and represented the very worst value for money.

My only real problem was finding the Hotel from the Airport

We knew that this place was not in the centre, but now thinking back, we probably should have picked a hotel in the centre. The great thing about this hotel was that it was very spacious. We were travelling with a 18month old and asked for a cot, but they did not provide us with a cot as it was not previously arranged. (disappointing). Also the small TV in our room was broken which we didn't borther to get fixed. The pool was great, but when we were (august) there it was too windy to go in. I"m not sure if that area is alwasy windy. Overall it's a good hotel, but we would probably choose to saty in the centre next time. One more remark about this hotel is that all towels were like tea towels which was thin.

The hotel was close to the airport, fairly easy to locate even though it was very dark when leaving the airport and there are no lights beneath signs in italy on route. we had a warm welcome, the room a triple was clean and comfortable with television and air conditioning, price also reasonable. the breakfast was very good with a variety of food items available - we left the hotel for our onward journey full and did not need to eat until the evening. although food was not available at the hotel on our arrival we were able to purchase drinks and they gave us snacks free of charge. we spent the following morning around the poolside and enjoyed our first morning refreshed and ready for our journey. we will recommend this hotel to our friends and will use it again when we return to this part of italy.

Accommodation was clean and very satisfactory. Reception entrance a little bit confusing. No coffee making facilities in room was disappointing.

A very good mid range hotel, with efficient and attentive staff. We enjoyed our stay. We had arrived late at Brindisi airport and the hotel was only 15 minutes away. If you like pools it has a good one. It was good value and comfortable.

Problems with Catering

Good value for money but avoid restaurant

We stayed one night in this hotel. We were not happy with our room. It looked like there were better rooms looking out on the pool, but our room looked out on the main highway. The balcony off our room looked like a fortress, with tall iron railings all around. We ate dinner in the dining room and had the worst meal we have ever had in Italy. We were the only diners, except for some service men stationed in the military base acrosss the street. The grounds and cottages in the back of the hotel and in the courtyard around the pool looked very nice. Maybe our impression would be different if we stayed in the cottages in the back. We probably would not stay in this hotel again.

I think that the location of the hotel was very misleading, we were under the impression that we were not far out of town, we thought that there would be regular bus services in and out of Brinidi. This was not the case. The hotel was not within walking distance of Brindisi, there were no other shops or facilities anywhere near the hotel, and the 4 buses that ran throughout the day were either early morning or late afternoon. The hotel staff were not very helpful when it came to this matter, we thought that they would have provided their own bus service for customers given the lack of public transport available, but they just pointed at the bus timetable, therefore we had no choice but to get taxi's in and out of Brindisi. Luckily we met up with one other English couple whom we shared the cost with as they were 15 to 20 euros EACH WAY. In total we spent 180 euros on taxis in FOUR days. Had we have known about the exteremly remote location and lack of transport in and out of Brinidi, we would have spent the extra money we used on taxis towards a more expensive Hotel in the centre of Brindisi. It would be appreciated if you could inform other customers about this matter.