Hotel Le Dune - Catania

My brother and I stayed here on October 18, 2011 for the last night of our vacation because of its closeness to the airport, which somehow still managed to be a 10-15 minute taxi ride. The surroundings were grungy and residential / industrial. We arrived via taxi around 9pm. Luckily someone else was entering the walled compound of the hotel as we arrived, otherwise, it was not obvious how to enter the gate. Reception was eventually found. We checked into Room 53. It was supposed to be two twin beds but they were put together as one large bed, as I've seen before. We saw a few mosquitos in the room right away. I swatted the ones I could, then we went to dinner at the hotel restaurant. Unremarkable but expensive, and the price of dinner was only to be seen on our bill the next morning. Upon returning to our room, I saw a three or four small ants after dinner. Then more in the bathroom. By morning, my backpack was covered in dozens of tiny ants. Horrifying. Around midnight our noisy air conditioner shorted out and wouldn't come back on, at which point we could hear loud music coming from a party in an area above the reception. We went to reception to have someone help us with the air conditioner. Eventually a young guy came down from the party. He came to our room and flipped a switch to reset the fuse of the air conditioner and seemingly scolded us for not using it correctly. Within 2 minutes it blew again. Eventually we got the fan to stay on, and it was loud enough so we couldn't hear the music from the party. I will try to avoid staying in Catania on future trips and will obviously NEVER STAY AT LE DUNE again. Beware of the ants in room 53 -- and this place in general.

Everything was fine, except dinner offered by buffet, too poor for that price.

Good

Regardless of the proximity to Catania Airport (10 mins door to door)we did not suffer airport noise. (Maybe outside flight path?) Comfortable room and excellent staff inc English speaking. There are regular jazz nights (and a party when we were) there but we had been moved to further side so virtually no noise. This hotel is so convenient for Airport and Catania city so we would definitely stay again. Also easy to find from autostrade as one can follow airport signs and then beach.

Incredibly nice place in horrible surroundings in a low-season period

Our only problem was in finding it. Even though we were on the right road, the sign indicating the hotel was difficult to see. We drove past it more than once.