I am gobsmacked at the bad reviews. Ihave stayed here twice and cannot speak highly of it. The pool, food ,lido ,staff etc fab.
You must book a seaview room and they re great . Even with the railway, you cannot hear them in your room and can enjoy a siesta, no trains at night and in the day when they do come through no probs as for the road all you complianers get a life
i go to italy at least 3 times a year and rate this hotel highly

The nicest thing I can say about the Caparena is that fairly nice facilities seem to have given the management and staff delusions of grandeur. Although a few were exceptionally helpful and friendly, most were indifferent and some downright rude. The nice facilities are diminished by the train running directly between the garden and the beach as mentioned in other reviews.

The pool advertises an indoor pool, outdoor pool and fitness center. What they fail to tell you that it costs 6 euros per person for each and every entry to the pool. The fitness center costs 8 euros for each and every entry. The outdoor pool is quite small and the indoor pool located in an extremely warm greenhouse sort of area. Many of the advertised services on the premises are only opened in peak season.

Use the shuttle service with extreme caution. You are required to book a return when you take the shuttle to Taormina. They may or may not pick you up to return to the hotel. We were not picked up and when we telephoned, the hotel claimed to not have a return reservation. We were directed to take a 15 euro taxi back from Taormina and not reimbursed.

We made the decision to leave 3 days into our 6 day stay. We found another hotel for about 40% less and with much more warmth and charm. Save yourself the trouble and don't reserve there at all.

Having a vision of my first stay in Sicily I looked forward to the wonderful Caparena hotel...Indoor/outdoor pool with a balacony facing the sea...free shuttle service to and from Taormina...a beach with a beach bar and restaurant....But what I found out was a total shock...checking into the hotel I found some of the staff stuffy and somewhat hostel...one girl was helpful but the rest of the staff seemed agitated if asked a simple question...the balcony seaview is from behind that of train tracks with trains that run quite regularly....the cost of the fitness center and pool are not included in your too expensive hotel price: 6 Euro for using the pool Per Day and 8 Euro for using the fitness room Per Day? Hello? With a cost of 225 Euor a day for two you would think that they would throw in the pool or fitness center? The shuttle did run a few times per day but you had to make arrangements ahead of time for returning to the hotel or you could not take the shuttle...Using the shuttle was only a roundtrip affair....funny that they forgot to pick us up in town one nite at the prearranged time...and then had the nerve to state that "We Forgot" to give them a pickup time? With a 14 Euro Taxi drive later can you believe that the hotel refursed to compensate us for the cost because they had no record of our return time...(Remember the rule that you cannot take the shuttle without a pickup time...hmmmm?) Let me also mention here that although the hotel said they were open for business they clearly were not....only one restaurant was open with a limited menu...like 3 entree selections...the beach bar and the other restaurants were not even set up for buisness...the outdoor pool was not filled and the beach chairs and loungers were locked up !!! Needless to say....We Moved...but we wasted two days and too much money before we realized that we had been "had"! I cannot say enough negative things about this hotel as it should be avoided at all costs. I am an experienced traveller as I live over seas and have never found a hotel with such a price to limit that high cost to only the room?

This hotel would be great if it was priced around £50 per night and had two stars. It does not warrant a four star rating with summer prices of over £200 per night.

Based on the star rating, the rate and the web site, I booked this hotel for our honeymoon. Big mistake. It is located off a busy motorway and has no convenient access to Taormina centre. The shuttles that the hotel provides go about every three hours and take only 5/6 passengers. A taxi will cost around euro 25 for a round trip - quite expensive.

When we arrived, the hotel made no attempt to recognise that it was our honeymoon. Not that important but it didn't create a good impression. The suite that I booked turned out to be a big room with a wooden trellis placed in the middle. Unfortunately that does not consitute a suite. The bathroom was terrible and the hotel has not been decorated/modernised for at least 20 years.

The train line runs about 20 metres in front of each room. No matter what you are told, 4 trains (including freight trains) an hour makes a lot of noise. Plus, who wants to spend that much money for a room next to a train line?

The bar is below ground and smells of toilets. It was actually never staffed so we manged to save our noses.

The restaurant was also dated. We didn't have dinner there but did have breakfast which was a very basic buffet.

The beach is very nice but you have to go under the railway line to get to it and it didn't seem that relaxing. The pool is good but closes at around 5pm.

The halls are decorated with very old rugs and plastic flowers. Also, wherever you are in the hotel, you hear the constant din of the motorway.

We stayed one night and then checked out to go to the San Domenico Palace Hotel - real luxury! My only rant is the actions of the hotel manager. We stayed one night and informed them on the day of our arrival that we would be leaving the next day. There was no cancellation policy on our reservation and the guide in our room stated that we could check out on the same day if we told them by 10am. On check out, the receptionist tried to charge us for the entire week. The manager then reduced this to a charge of two nights. When I told him that I would only be paying for the one night that we stayed there, he hurled a bunch of papers at me and shouted at me to get out of his hotel. Given that this was what I was trying to do, I didn't think he was winning his argument very well. I have never in all my years in international travel been shouted at by a hotel manager.

As I said at the beginning, this hotel would be a great budget hotel. My view is that you're better off elsewhere - preferably in Taormina town centre.