Magic of Miles in Italy: Hotel Review – Hotel Laurin, Santa Margherita Ligure
Trip Report Index:
1. Introduction
2. Transit Notes
3. Hotel Review: Bagni di Pisa Palace & Spa
4. Visiting Pisa
5. Visiting Lucca
6. Hotel Review: Westin Excelsior, Florence
7. Room Service Review: Westin Excelsior, Florence
8. Day in Florence
9. Hotel Review: Hotel Laurin, Santa Margherita Ligure, Italy
10. Day in Portofino area
11. Hotel Review: Park Hyatt Milan
12. Room Service Review: Park Hyatt Milan
13. Retrospect
After a drive on the fun winding road from Florence, I came upon a seaside town just 5 minutes away from Portofino, called Santa Margherita Ligure. It seemed like a great place to stop.
Doing a query on Hotels.com, the rate for a same-day one night reservation at the Hotel Laurin came up at $298. After a quick chat with the front desk, it was negotiated down to $300 for two nights, including breakfast. Sometimes when availability at a property looks good and you’ve done research in advance, it can be cheaper to deal directly with a hotel as a walk-in rather than using the hotel’s website or a third party booking site.
After putting my credit card on file, I was handed a key with a heavy keychain that made it difficult to misplace.
Rather than try to find street parking, the hotel offered a space in their parking garage a few blocks away.
Each parking space was similar to a storage locker (not much bigger either!). The hotel gave the key to unlock a particular space, and it had to be opened and then secured once the car was inside. Thank goodness the car was small, as the spaces were small.
Back at the hotel, one flight of stairs up from reception (or via elevator) was the room.
It was comfortably cool, and clean.
Even though the room was supposed to be a double, it turned out to be a triple room with Terrace and Sea View, which had an extra pullout sofa bed. The room was larger than it would have been as a double, with 236 square feet.
The wardrobe had a safe, laundry bags, and slippers.
There was a small desk with a flat screen TV, and a minibar below.
The minibar was my favorite kind – unweighted and already cold inside. Perfect for storing drinks and snacks.
The bathroom was well-stocked with fresh towels, and had a shower and full tub.
A door at the far side of the room led to a large outside terrace, which had a seating area and a great vantage point for looking out over the water.
The views of the port of Santa Margherita Ligure and the shimmery Gulf of Tigullio were stunning, and the terrace was the perfect place to enjoy a gelato from a nearby gelateria. Here’s a quick pan of the view from the terrace.
After the gelato I went to go check out the pool, which was a few floors up.
Up at the pool, there was a sign that no outside food was allowed, but an extensive menu offered sandwiches, snacks, and drinks that would be brought poolside by calling the extension posted right above the phone.
The pool had been cleaned recently and the gulf views were even better from this vantage point.
There were plenty of lounge chairs and seating.
Some of the loungers had an extra flap to strategically shield the face from the sun if you wanted.
Returning to the room I discovered a really cool feature, exterior rolling metal blinds. At the touch of a button, a full wall of blinds came down and covered the entire door & windows. Once the blinds were in place, they blocked out 100% of the light. They could be adjusted to any level, so I put them halfway down to shield the room from the hot sun. So effective, I want some of these for my house in the US!
The hotel also offers 1-3 bedroom apartments with kitchens for stays of 7 nights or more. Free breakfast was included with our room, but we didn’t take advantage of it since we wanted to get on the road early the next morning.
