The Arbiana is in so many respects a very good hotel, especially for a holiday where (i) taking in the lovely architecture of the old town, (ii) enjoying the busy attractive harbour life and sights and (iii) the ability to get easily to several good to fantastically good restaurants is the objective. Sadly, the Arbiana’s enviable location near the end of the old town pensinular, right on the road just 10 metres from long lengths of public parking and 15 metres from where the cruise ships with their happy and therefore noisy tourist groups moor, is both its special selling point and its Achilles heel. The street noise into the early hours for hotel guests with rooms overlooking either the water or the garden area to the south, will need to cope with loud chatter of the holiday makers, music from the moored cruise ships and car doors slamming. The many small motor cycles which the youth use to enjoy their evenings out are a particular feature of the cacophony. The road past the hotel to the end of the peninsular is one of the straightest and widest, certainly in the town and both drivers and motorcyclists seem to use it as a personal race track.
As if all that were not enough to make light sleepers wonder why they had chosen the Arbiana, the Hotel Management actually put on a disco party on one of the two Saturday nights I spent in the hotel, knowing full well that the named DJ it had engaged for the evening would ensure that every corner of the hotel would experience that continuous thump, thump, thump of the base – until 5 am on the Sunday morning. A reasoned complaint to the management the next day brought a routine apology for the inconvenience and an assurance that it was the “last hotel party of the season”. That should have been some consolation, but, again unfortunately, it did not stop a nearby harbour side disco from keeping me awake the next Saturday night.
That is, however, the only criticism in service terms that I would level at the hotel – that it did not warn me when I booked a room overlooking the harbour that there would be street noise and that on one of the nights of my booking the Hotel would ensure that I would not get a wink of sleep. As the lady manageress said when I suggested that it would have been kind to have offered a warning, “If I told people about the party, the street noise and the cruise ship groups they wouldn’t come to the hotel”. True, but still sad.
The other drawback – in my view - to an otherwise special place is that it provides no possibility to enjoy a swim in the glorious clear waters that make Rab a must see destination. Beach towels are provided by the hotel – at a cost (something which did not emerge until I came to pay the bill) and there is a “town beach” open to the public but offering no facilities such a sun beds and umbrellas. Except for those who can take the unmitigated full sun, the town beach, lovely though the water is, is no place for anyone who does not have all the beach equipment necessary. The famous sandy Paradise Beach at Lopar proved to be no swimmer’s beach: the water is only 30 cms deep one kilometre from the shore.
Putting that aside, the hotel is very comfortable indeed – ours was a superior room with plenty of places to relax and a good bar for drinks. The garden area for breakfasts and for dining is most pleasant. Standards are high and the staff could not be more helpful and pleasant. They were always ready to offer good advice when asked about where to go and what to do. Breakfasts were good, offering plenty of fruit and a cooked breakfast. although those of us used to English B&Bs will not recognise the fried bacon that was served with the eggs. Importantly, as indicated above the Arbiana is a great place to use as a base to explore Rab Town and to retreat to when the weather gets hot – we had 33 degrees on each of the 10 September days we were there. Would I go back? Only on a Monday to Friday basis and if I did not want to swim.
Room Tip: Best if others read my review
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This review is the subjective opinion of a TripAdvisor member and not of TripAdvisor LLC
