This place has put me off Italy for life!!!! Decided to go to Italy in April 08 with a group of friends on a 1 week golf holiday. We go away every year for some golf - a laugh and a few beers. Booked all thru mastergolf.it online. We were supposedly booked to the Castel Gandolfo Hotel but ended up in the Helio Cabala. (Master Stroke not master Golf!) This is a hotel geared for the Locals not for golfers - there was a wedding on our day of arrival. We felt a little out of place as we were the only tourists in the place. We were given rooms in an apartment block 500 M from Main Hotel down a very steep hill. No facilities whatsoever in the apartment block. The bar in the hotel is a joke - we were offered some local beer at ridiculous prices from a domestic fridge behind a 2 metre wide bar counter by a gentleman with zero English and less interest. No guest internet facilities either in the Hotel even at reception.. The Hotel is approx 3.5 Km from the nearest town of Marino. There is nothing in Marino for tourists. Even the locals wondered what 14 Irish Golfers were doing in town. We were supposed to have free 24 hour shuttle available to the town & back - never happened.(Master Stroke again) Walking to the town was not an option - no foot paths on a very fast busy country road without street lighting. We arrived Saturday and taxied to town for a few beers and a meal. Had a very ordinary meal in a local trattoria and a few beers - then when we looked for a taxi to get back to Hotel - NO TAXIS IN MARINO AT WEEKENDS!!! - after hours waiting & wondering in a strange town we paid some local lads to take us to the hotel. From then on we had to bargain with Bar / Restaurant owners to get lifts to the hotel if we ate / drank at their place. All in all a complete fiasco. THANK GOD FOR MICHAEL O LEARY & RYANAIR - WE BOOKED FOR 1 WEEK - ARRIVED SATURDAY AND GOT FLIGHTS HOME ON TUESDAY . The hotel did not have the decency to allow us book flights online - we had to have this arranged from Ireland online. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!
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