This was our second time to the beautiful island of Panarea!!

We booked a room at the Hotel Quartara and asked for a private terrace with a sea view. We had to book a suite to get the amenities we wanted.

We had our hotel in Stromboli contact Hotel Quartara to let them know what ferry we were arriving on so they could pick us up on the dock with our bags. When we arrived on the small dock there was no buggy to meet us. We walked to the only street going up into town. I waited with the bags while my friend went to find the hotel and get someone to pick up our bags and me. They started our stay with them by lying to us and telling us they were on the dock and had left. The buggy is very well signed and could not be missed if it was there!! Furthermore, it would have to drive past us to go up the hill on the only road. IT WAS NOT THERE!!

We were then taken to our room. We had to wait for about an hour outside on the SHARED deck while the previous guest’s bags and personal belongings were removed and the room was cleaned. That is right, shared deck. The private terrace that we could only get by booking the suite was the sun deck and the hot tub for the entire hotel.

The room was beautiful!! The sea view was beautiful!! We decided to get over the fact that we were sharing the terrace and just enjoy the view. When we decided to get in the hot tub we found it was warm at most. We asked if the water got hotter and we were told no. No apologies or explanations. You can not list a hot tub as an amenity if it is not hot.

The hotel is written up as tranquil and Zen. This was so not true. Early in the morning and most of the day there were children running around the hotel laughing and screaming. This would be understandable if these were guest’s children but one was the owners!

Breakfast was very nice and the dinning room was open and airy. One morning we took our pot of tea and planned to finish on the terrace at our room. The girl who was waiting on us rushed after us to ask where we were taking the pot. We told her we would leave it in our room when we were finished. We put the pot and cup on the table outside our door while we went in to dress for the day. About 15 min. later we went outside to have the tea and the pot and cup were gone and we never had the tea.

We had three restaurants that were recommended to us. We asked which were best and we were talked into eating at the hotel. It was not good at all. One dish was not edible and we were asked if we would like something else instead. We ordered another dish.

When we checked out of the hotel we noticed that we were charged for both of the dishes. We left a fax that needed to be sent and were told that they would send it. The next day in Salina we heard from the office back home that the fax was never received. We had our hotel in Salina call Hotel Quartara and just as they started out with a lie they ended with one. They told us they did send it, however they did not have a confirmation page!!