Resort Collina d'Oro Agra

Super

Wonderful hotel, beautiful , clean, the service is top notch, friendly and helpful. The facilities are fantastic, especially the outside prairie. Child friendly spa , everyone is very welcoming. We are very grateful to this resort for the 5 days we spent there , we didn't want to leave and we will definitely come back ❤️❤️❤️

Absolutely fabulous. I left a detailed Google review so check that out for specifics. In short, staff, location, accessibility and hotel are great. Everyone from the room keeper to front desk to Ivan and company at the restaurant, just amazing service and great all around effort. There will be bugs, you are in the middle of the mountains...duh. I'm definitely coming back. 10/10.

Positives: The location of the hotel is so tranquil. Beautiful just after sunrise or sunset. The SPA is amazing, with emotional shower, sauna, turkish sauna, relaxation room, massage area, fitness studio, indoor pool with cold and hot jacuzzis, and outdoor pool with a heated outdoor hot tub (both closed on this occasion, unfortunately). Plenty of towels in SPA area. Tea/water facilities available. Perfect facilities for relaxation. The shower in the room is something every person needs in their life: one feels like a newborn after it. Especially useful when SPA area is closed but one needs to relax after a long day :) We checked in very late (was a very spontaneous decision) and were welcomed in an appropriate manner - the last time we were treated like we didn't belong there (!). We enquired about a late checkout possibility, but were told to ask the next day. After some relaxing spa we did - and were offered to stay longer free of charge as it was Easter weekend. We checked out at 1 (instead of 11), meaning we had 2 more hours to enjoy the SPA area. Very grateful for this accommodation. Robes available in the room. Secure underground parking, free of charge. Complimentary bottles of water in the room and at checkout, a nice touch. Negatives: The breakfast is not great. This is our second stay and we are underwhelmed - we had better breakfast spread/quality in 3-4 star hotels before. There's no quark, cereal selection is poor, no Nutella, coffee is not good at all. The SPA area is open only between 8 am and 8 pm, meaning no late chilling in the jacuzzi. For a 5 star resort I would imagine this should be available 24/7 or at least till 10 pm. As mentioned previously, the lift system is bad, meaning one has to wait very long to use the lift to access the SPA/Restaurant/outdoor swimming pool.

When you see the beauty of this resort, you expect a unique up-to-standard experience. And then you get there, most of the staff will be very nice. And then everything else falls short. We drove an hour and a half from Milan to get to this place. The photos and display online showed that it was worth it. The pool area is fantastic. The view from up top is superb. And then you get to your room, and you’re thinking “this doesn’t feel like a $350 per night kind of room 🤔”. We call downstairs asking to get something to eat. And there it goes, the horror story of Italian Villa type hotels: kitchen hours. You don’t make kitchen hours you don’t eat. Period. But you’re thinking “when a hotel gives itself a 5 star rating, isn’t it required to serve food 24/7?”. Anyway, “kitchen is closed” was the imposed reality. So we had to wait. Dinner time came, we were tired so we asked to order to the room. Now I’m all for a luxury resort charging me high for fine dining. But I got 4 raviolis, and a small portion of what was supposed to be risotto, but that looked like army rice swimming in a lot of liquid, with lumps of something on top. The raviolis tasted bitter, and the risotto was simply repulsive. And they priced those at around $80. Please look at the photos and see what I mean. At breakfast, where the staff were more than courteous, we then discovered that the kitchen was indeed sub-standard at this place. The food items were okay. Budget hotel level okay. But that is not good enough for a resort at this price, is it? I mean for me to have a mini croissant and not have another, tells you something about how not that great they are. Same goes for the cakes etc. Sub-standard. We ended up returning the food and ordering a cheese sandwich and fries. Which we then had for lunch the next day, because, we arrived to the restaurant 6 minutes after “kitchen closed”. Even the fries were not great. Can you imagine a kitchen screwing up on fries? On the third day we had an emergency back home so we had to leave. We asked them to cancel the third night, and we were going to leave at 9am which is way before checkout time. They refused. We then asked to pay half a room rate as penalty, but the full rate was too much. Especially that we had stayed two nights already. They refused. And so we got charged $350 for a night we didn’t use. I believe that this hotel was beautifully designed, then handed over to management (or the owners themselves) that is not fit for such premises. And cannot hold the required standard. What a disappointment.

Very nice resort. Lovely rooms. Great swimming pools both indoor and outdoor. Lovely grounds. Good sauna and spa. The restaurant does not have a large range of food, except for a very good breakfast. Also sometimes closes if a function is on. Then you cannot get a meal even by room service. You must have a car because there is no transport provided from the resort except on arrival and departure. They will call a taxi for you. You can catch a bus into Lugano, but it is not a very frequent service. The resort staff are lovely and very helpful and obliging. The free internet does not work particularly well.