Resort Collina d'Oro Agra

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.

A wonderful place to rest. We stayed for 5 days and we are very satisfied. A wonderful rich breakfast with the best quality of food from Switzerland, perfect hygiene, perfect service. I am most satisfied with the service, there was one cake that I liked very much the first day and then it was gone for 4 days, there were many other beautiful cakes but the cake I wanted was not there and I went to ask the chef what it was called, he told me only the name and the next day when I came and when I saw the cake for breakfast I was overjoyed. Our daughter is two months old, when we arrived in the room there was bed for our baby. Beautiful place to relax, spa center and pool perfect. A luxurious hotel with classy guests and a beautiful setting that gives peace and tranquility. ​

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.

The property itself is stunning, super quiet, beautifully maintained gardens, gorgeous views etc, but the rooms are different story. They falsely advertise double rooms as 32sq m, which is an absolute lie . Our room was barely 20 sqm. Awful beds & even worse cheap bedding linen. We had only 1 pillow each, when we asked for extra pillows the same person who works as a receptionist brought us extra two even more awful quality pillows. The room quality is a real shame otherwise would be fantastic relaxing hotel.

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.

Collina d’Oro is a lovely property on a hilltop, with fantastic views, spacious rooms (mine was a suite with the kitchen), beautiful hallway interiors and some really nice touches like free tea and coffee in the lounge area. However, I feel that during weekdays in November it is a bit understaffed which really affects the service. We have a one year old baby in the group, who is an early riser, so we arrived for breakfast at 7:25, just before opening time at 7:30, and the buffet was not yet ready. At 7:30 though we were told by the only staff member in the restaurant that the chef was still not there, so our party had to wait for coffees and omelettes etc although there were us and just one more lady present at breakfast. I booked a massage at the spa for 7 p m, again no staff was present at the spa when I arrived (on time). A young lady showed up 5 minutes later and asked for 5 more minutes of my wait but again she did not appear at 19:10. I let Sabrina at reception know that I was leaving. At 19:20 reception called me back offering a 20 percent discount on the treatment which was a nice try but I was already in my room fully dressed. Apparently there is only one therapist working, no receptionist at the spa, and noone to warn me BEFOREHAND that the therapist will be 20 minutes late. I was told by Sabrina that the previous client was late but I just don’t understand why this had to affect my treatment time and not the late client’s. One might think that having very few guests off season is a good reason to cut on staff but it just results in sevice that is not doing the hotel any good. Hope a beautiful place like this can do better next time.