The welcome at the reception was limited but over all a very good stay in spacious clean room. Convenient garden, our dog was welcome.

Amazing Service, charming place. Great & kind service! I cannot wait to come back. My girlfriends are had a wonderful time!

A beautiful castle-like building in elevated position offering fantastic views across town, mountains and sea. Good comfortable rooms and good basic breakfast.

Pretty hotel, friendly staff, and a good enough location. You have to walk about a kilometer to get to the more touristic area of the city. The hotel is castle, which is interesting. There is a parking lot, although a bit crowded when I stayed.

One night in transit quiet satisfactory

Unless you are very adroit at Italian road driving this parking at hotel is daunting

Do not ever contemplate staying at this hotel, despite Santa Margherita Ligure being a lovely place for a quiet break...stay at another hotel. On arrival, my front wheel drive car, despite being capable of the 1,500 miles journey from Scotland, was unable to get up the very steep driveway to the "hotel". No appropriate alternative parking was offered by the receptionist, nor was any assistance to carry luggage up the very steep hill. We were then handed rooms keys and pointed towards our room....that was it. After one night we were summarily moved to a lower grade room, on the excUse that "the pipes weren't working". Our suspicions that the hotel had doubled booked the room were later confirmed when we saw guests coming and going from our previous room. Breakfast was a joke..hardly anything left by 9.30..despite a 10.00 finish....would be great if you are into tinned pineapple....otherwise forget it. The so-called roof-top terrace is a health and safety nightmare even by Italian standards, is filthy, and offers less than pathetic facilities. Finally, those in charge, who we presumed to be the owners, made Fawlty Towers seem like a welcoming 5 star establishment by comparison.....they weren't even funny. In summary...Would recommend a stay in Santa Margherita Ligure...but NEVER EVER at Hotel La Vela.

Do not ever contemplate staying at this hotel, despite Santa Margherita Ligure being a lovely place for a quiet break...stay at another hotel. On arrival, my front wheel drive car, despite being capable of the 1,500 miles journey from Scotland, was unable to get up the very steep driveway to the hotel. No appropriate alternative parking was offered by the receptionist, nor was any assistance to carry luggage up the very steep hill. We were then handed rooms keys and pointed towards our room....that was it. After one night we were summarily moved to a lower grade room, on the excUse that the pipes werent working. Our suspicions that the hotel had doubled booked the room were later confirmed when we saw guests coming and going from our previous room. Breakfast was a joke..hardly anything left by 9.30..despite a 10.00 finish....would be great if you are into tinned pineapple....otherwise forget it. The so-called roof-top terrace is a health and safety nightmare even by Italian standards, is filthy, and offers less than pathetic facilities. Finally, those in charge, who we presumed to be the owners, made Fawlty Towers seem like a welcoming 5 star establishment by comparison.....they werent even funny. In summary...Would recommend a stay in Santa Margherita Ligure...but NEVER EVER at Hotel La Vela.

The view is very good. The breakfast is very good. It is a little bit hard to walk from hotel to train station or to ferry station.

This place was great, starting with the drive up the driveway to get to the front doors of the hotel. If you are driving to this location you will find out soon enough. A brisk 8 minute walk down gets you to the water front along an isolated set of stairs that lead to a main road, Remember what goes down has to come back up again. (it's a hard life living along the ocean:). The staff was great, after check out they let me leave my car parked there most of the day while we took a boat ride into Portofino and spent some time in that area. If you have never been to La Spezia and surrounding towns you quickly realize that parking is hard to come by and not cheap. Again many thanks on letting me leave the car on your property.

Nice old castle but nobody helps with your luggage

great service. restaurant wa sexcellent

Greatlcation and very friend staff. Shower head power was very weak, made showering very uncomfortable. The shower drain was also clogged so it was overflowing all over the floor the first day; however, as soon as we mentioned it to the staff they fixed it right away.

Simply awful, Parking was a nightmare-waited for over an hour just to get our car out. Difficult location. Staff and check in was so rude and ignorant. Hotel was neat in that it was like an old castle but felt very unwelcome. Would definitely not recommend. Room was ok. Cool little rooftop place to hang out but no food or facilities there. Again the staff/owners were very rude and made us feel very unwelcome.

This facility was disappointing. It is beautiful and was clean. I did not feel that the staff went out of their way to be courteous on our arrival, Very business like. The breakfast buffet was adequate. However if you were late to arrive, things were not restocked. We did not have a tv control in our room on arrival and when we requested one, we were told " there was most certainly a tv control in the room." Later someone brought a tv control to our room, but it was not functioning. The area was lovely but was very busy and noisy with vacationers.

The building is absolutely gorgeous but not very well maintained. View is amazing. Free Breakfast was ok. Wifi was in and out. Proximity to train made it very noisy, as train runs late at night and very early in morning, and was not mentioned on the page when booking the hotel. Make sure you are accustomed to travelling in Italy before booking this place. Doesn't have all the amenities of comparable hotels in the US. Didn't give us more soap or tp, toilet wouldn't flush, unhelpful staff upon checkin. No elevator to take heavy luggage upstairs and no bellhop either.

We stayed one night. The ONLY negative was that it is a bit of a hike up the hill, but once there, it's worth the effort! The place looks almost like an old castle, with ton's of nooks and crannies. Wonderful waterfall flowing sound in the back and cheerful birds make for a fun stay. The staff was attentive and helpful. Room was big and clean. I just loved my one night here and would definitely stay again!

The public spaces were beautiful and great views from the solarium. The ceiling in the bathroom was so low my 6 foot husband hit his head on the ceiling several times if he forgot to bend over. The A/C was very difficult to control. The safe so small it could be lifted out of the closet and placed under you coat. Room keys were hanging by the front door not supervised. Five minute walk downtown and 20 minute rigorous walk up hill. The bus ride is E1.50, however not always at the time we wanted resulting in E15.00 taxi ride. I expected this rate with baggage, but even w/o baggage E15. This hotel caters to Europeans who drive. The staff spoke very little English and I mean very little and made no attempt to understand my broken Italian. One gentleman who worked the late shift was helpful with train information and would not accept tip. There were no English speaking TV channels. I would not recommend this hotel for anyone arriving by train or did not speak Italian.

An amazing building with a fantastic view from a big rooftop. Nice breakfast. Easy stroll to the sea and town centre. But the bed was tooooooo hard and the shower was no good. Liked the place very much though!

We stayed there only one night and it was an OK experience. Room was clean & comfortable enough. Building is very nice and interesting, although once you're inside the room it is no different than a regular 3 star hotels. Although it is located on a hill, it is still walking distance to beach & restaurants at night. It might be hard with kids & strollers though because there isn't a sidewalk when the hill starts & it is curvy, so t can be dangerous to walk down. Parking was a challenge due to an additional curvy hill in front of the hotel. Stay there for a night or 2 but look for easier to access places for longer vacations.

This was a well priced hotel in a good area. The driveway was a little steep but we have experienced worse in Italy. The staff were extremely helpful and the room we had was comfortable and clean . Breakfast was nice , coffee and tea available at all times. The added bonus of free WIFI and parking was a bonus. Would go back if we visited this area in the future.

Apart from the 2 singles pushed together in our double room. The hotel was really lovely. They bend over backwards to help and assist you. Breakfast was ace.

Basic hotel with clean rooms but do not expect comfort. Dated furniture in a very nice building, but they could have done much better with updating the rooms and restoring the castle to its former glory. The price is cheap for the area, but I expected a little more comfort. Parking is free, but you have to be comfortable reversing down a spiral slope... not recommended for the faint hearted.

Lovely hotel located within walking distance to town. Parking available onsite up steep twisting driveway which must provide some good entertainment at times. Good breakfast and we stayed in a spacious room. Good view from hotel rooftop. No lift so be prepared to lug bags up the stairs. Can hear the odd train during the night but this wasn't an issue for us at all. La Vela is located in the hilly part of town so if you are adverse to steps it would be best to stay nearer the waterfront where it is more flat.

The service at this hotel was excellent the views were amazing. Breakfast was absolutely lovely. We could not fault anything with this stay. Highly recommend to anyone.