Grand Hotel Forte Dei Marmi

Immaculate, room, pool and public areas. Friendly staff excellent food a wonderful experience. Hired bikes, very reasonable charge, hotel only 10 minute walk from town, lovely bars restaurants and activities.

Really enjoyed our stay, smart clean hotel with friendly staff at reception, dining room and bar. Food and service was excellent, Beer €3 to €5, wine €3 to €4 restaurant bottles of wine from €13 upwards. Trains and buses were easy to use for visiting Pisa and Viareggio and a great drive to Lucca

We stayed at this hotel in the middle of May for a week. The hotel was very clean, the rooms comfortable ( no tea and coffee facilities in the room which was disappointing). The reception staff were very helpful and welcoming. We hired bikes from the hotel as the area has a cycle path running from one end of the resort to the other. We found a good selection of food at breakfast but always the same. Dinner was 4 courses with a variety of choices on each course, some days much better than others and the quality. The restaurant staff were very friendly however they were let down by the rude Head Waiter Bruno Lucca. Some days the service was like being at Fawlty Towers with people being given food they hadn't ordered, one part of the couple served and the other left without anything and other people around them being served instead. It was fun watching what was going to happen each night. The pool area very clean and comfortable with lots of chairs and leading to the bar area with coffee, snacks and ice cream available. We didn't have a problem with noise by the pool but as it wasn't the main season there was probably less traffic. The area itself is very easy to walk around with a good selection of Designer and European shops. Everything closes at 1pm and opens again at 4 till 8 pm so bear this in mind when staying at the resort. We took the bus to Lucca which is a very old town that's the sort of place you just wander and will come across something to look at. A must for opera lovers. We went to Pisa on the train but the train station is a distance away from Forte town centre so you would need to take a bus to it. We enjoyed our holiday at this time of the season however if you go in the middle of summer I can imagine that it would be an extremely busy resort. The beach is lined with chairs and sun beds but they are all privately owned so are chargeable, further up the beach there are free communal beaches but no sun beds or chairs you have to provide these yourself. We found the cost of refreshments at bars in the main town itself very expensive but the bars and coffee shops further out less so. We would certainly recommend the holiday to anyone that wants to get to go to a lovely area from the uk in a short space of time. We travelled with Jet 2 holidays and was pleased with our choice. The flight quick (plane seats not suitable for long haul) transfer from airport to hotel exceptional as a private transfer.