Swiss Historic & Garten Hotel Villa Carona

Wonderful venue with a beautiful garden with a lot of different seating places, friendly staff, clean and cosy rooms with great decor, great breakfast with a big variety of everything, parking spaces available although very tight. Carona is a must-see trip, it is a lovely little town.

definitely do not recommend the hotel. For several reasons. The most important reason is the rude behavior of the owner. We spent only two nights in the hotel out of the planned five, precisely because of his behavior towards the guests. The hotel is supposed to have wifi available, it is stated on the hotel website. Unfortunately for us, as guests who wanted to plan excursions and can't do that without a connection, we were very politely asked twice (the first time nothing happened) if they would change our room or fix or check the signal. I should point out that it worked outside our room door, but not in our room. The owner came to the room, announced that everything was working and , that we had bad phones. We have an Apple 13. What followed was the worst disappointment of our vacation. When I told him we couldn't make it up, he literally said GO AWAY. His , in my opinion submissive wife tried to apologize and change the room but we did not stay after that experience. I was very amused when my husband paid for two nights and the owner told him his English wasn't very good so I guess I misunderstood the ejection. You can only laugh at this embarrassment. Also, beware of the rooms , they are not ventilated enough and on warm days you will not sleep there. But you have to take that into account, because it's without air conditioning. The third disappointment and I would like to warn all the guests is the parking. The hotel has a parking lot 100 meters away, which is for the guests of the hotel, but also the restaurant-unfortunately you may not find a place there. And to park in this area is absolutely impossible. This has already been mentioned by another guest.

This was our second stay to the Villa Carona, and it had lost none of its’ charms from our previous trip made before the pandemic in 2019. We even choose the same room – no.15 (superior double room) mainly because it is one of the few with a bathtub. It was a corner room located on the first floor, with views of the garden and mountains. The ceiling and frieze contained the remains of painted decoration. The owners had spent the intervening years altering the doorway and access to the room which was a sound improvement. The gardens remain a delight and are a deservedly popular refuge for guests. The leafy canopy and mountain views certainly encourage long, lazy afternoons relaxing with a good book – plus a few refreshments from the restaurant’s excellent range of drinks and snacks. For those more energetic souls a small swimming pool has now been added to the hotel’s facilities. Breakfast is buffet style and offers a good wide choice. It is set up on the ground floor which is somewhat inconvenient as, given the split-level nature of the property, this involves struggling up and down stairs, whilst your hands are full, in order to access the tables set up in the garden. A tray would have been helpful. Drink requests are satisfied by a very efficient waiter! Despite the usual cramped conditions of such villages, the hotel has extensive parking. Cornelia is a gracious and helpful hostess giving us a lot of help and tips via email, prior to arrival. However, the day we arrived it appeared only one member of staff was actually overseeing the hotel. The poor woman was struggling and we had to wait ages to check-in. Eventually, after much ringing of the bell, another guest went and found her. She also forgot to give us our Ticino card which would have helped considerably with reducing payments at expensive local sites. We ate in ‘La Sosta’, the attached restaurant, one evening which was excellent, if VERY expensive. Thoroughly recommended for those who want to have access to city life but who also wish to keep it at a discreet distance and relax.

The nice location does not compensate for the AWEFUL hospitality experience we had at this location. We were in Ticino for the wedding of our friends, who made a two-night reservation for us at this hotel. Since we were not able to stay for two nights, ONE MONTH before the wedding, we phoned directly the hotel explaining our situation and confirming we would only be staying one night. They very kindly said that they would have taken care of making all the necessary modifications to our reservation and, upon our request, that it was not necessary for us to send them an email on this. Long story short: when we arrived at the hotel (after clearly staying just one night and with no heads-up whatsoever from the hotel), the manager wanted to charge us with TWO NIGHTS (with breakfast for both days), arrogantly claiming that even if we had that phone conversation 1) they had NOT changed the reservation; 2) essentially implying we had been foolish to only trust their word by phone; and 3) following our complaints, threatening to CHARGE THE SPOUSE with the extra night we did not want to pay, therefore forcing us to pay for it (in order not to leave the problem to the spouse). We have never been more shocked for the rudeness with which we were treated and complete lack of responsibility for the hotel own inefficiencies. On the other hand, we heard that the other guests of the wedding had wonderful experiences with super available hosts in equally beautiful nearby hotels. Really think twice before booking here. NOT RECOMMENDED.

Petit coin de paradis dans un village des plus pittoresques. Idéal pour une petite retraite au calme, dans une ambiance délicieusement rétro, avec des balades splendides, sans oublier le plaisir gustatif et l’accueil plein de petites attentions. À recommander absolument !