Disappointing - we shall not be returning
2 September 2023 at 15:03:07
Our first holiday to Italy started out quite well with a great trip to the airport, a very short queue through security and on flight take off. Landing left a little to be desired but land we did, at Milano BGY Airport. We even collected our luggage really quickly from the carousel.
Then, and we knew... it was coming, things started to go wrong....
This review is about the destination so I'll keep this part brief - do not hire a car from Viaggiare Rent at Milano BGY Airport. Not only did they try to scam us out of extra money and payments, us and many others queued for over 3 hours for the pleasure! The staff were slow, rude and argumentative. There were 4 - 5 couples/groups in front of us who also cancelled their car booking and walked away (out of pocket and without car).
Once that was over, our only choice was to take public transport to Camping Cisano which takes circa 2hrs 30mins. This was less problematic than we'd anticipated but not what we had planned so our first day did not start well.
On arrival, we had revered a bungalow at Camping Cisano, booking directly with them. The images had looked lovely and just that little bit more apartment like than the caravan options etc.
After paying €100 deposit for the keys, air con remote and leaving a clean bungalow, and an extra €15 tourist tax, we made our way to our room.
This was really quite disappointing. As a family of 4 - 2 adults, a teenager and a young baby, this was not going to be an easy week.
There was little to no storage for clothes, shoes etc, never mind baby items, toys, nappies or food/drinks for the week. There was 0 space to manoeuvre in the place, particularly in the bathroom. Plug sockets were damaged and in unusual places such as next to light switches and no shelves nearby to place anything. A single small mirror in the bathroom was all we had and no hairdryer, no iron, no oven or grill, no bbq, no microwave, a tiny fridge and freezer, limited utensils, limited bedding and a single pillow each.
I requested an additional 4 pillows from reception 4 times before we finally got them on the second to last night. This was after I had to raise a complaint woth the reception team and highlight that paying €800 for a weeks holiday in a tiny room is unreasonable enough as it is without an extra dig of requesting pillows daily until they eventually arrive.
Anyway, there are some pros....the site itself is clean and tidy, there is easy access to the lake and swimming pools etc. There is an onside shop and restaurant which are slightly over priced but are good. Great fresh baked goods around 8am in the shop and lovely takeaway pizzas from the restaurant.
As our holiday drew on, we started to consider our departure and return to the airport. Another trip to reception helped me discover that-
1. If you leave before 8am in the morning, the staff don't start that early and so no one can "check" your bungalow and so you automatically forgoe a €35 cleaning fee, regardless of how you mat leave your room
2. They quote you €59 euros for a taxi to the airport that you cannot book in advance, you're meant to just turn up at reception when you want it
3. See point 1, no one works before 8am so the taxi company card is given for you to email/call to reserve your taxi. Which turned out to be €239 l, a far cry from the quote at reception. Upon questioning this with the taxi company, he confirmed this happens often and his quote is the true and best price. The taxi took an hour and was the cheapest quote we received.
4. We were expected to fully clean the room, despite being provided with nothing but 2 brushes and a dustpan.
In short this holiday was stressful, horrible and the staff were rude. I will not be returning.
On that note, some others in our party booked with Eurocamp and had a different and better experience in their accommodation. However they did have some difficulty in the shop when a child's sandals broke after a day and they would not return or exchange.
We were disappointed this holiday didn't work out for us, there was a lot to like but overall it felt stressful, no respite from being at home and definitely not worth the money we paid.
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4 February 2024 at 13:36:46
2 September 2023 at 15:03:07
