Guest User
October 30, 2023
We booked a "villa" with a pool at this resort in May 2023 so that we could stay in one place with our son, daughter-in-law and toddler grandson. The pool had no shallow end, and was freezing cold. The villa had no "kitchen" or "family/dining room" area, except for a tiny table near the coffee maker at the back patio door. The weather vacillated between warm and cold temperatures, sometimes rain, and the resort has no amenities for families except for the beach. The beach and sea were nice, when the weather was good. There is no bar, no game room, no casual dining area open all day. The front lobby is a big, pretentious marble-floored atrium. There is no life in it, except for one person at the front desk. The resort was understaffed. The dining room was cold and unfriendly, with no variety in the morning buffet food. We never ate dinner there because it did not open until 7:30 p.m., past our normal eating time, especially with our toddler. The only other option for eating during "off" hours was to have food delivered to the villa, which we had to do for several lunches and dinners. Eating restaurant plates of fancy food on your lap or tiny table squeezed into a tiny corner of the villa got old very quickly! The resort is not close to any other restaurants that are open all day or on the earlier side of the evening. The drive into Ortigia is about 20-30 minutes, including finding parking -- we did that a couple of times. We stayed at Minareto for 5 nights, and honestly, could not wait to leave. It was unbelievably expensive for the very poor set-up. It was not a good experience and I would not recommend for families. On top of that, the resort required us to pay a 50% deposit in advance through a bank transfer (which involved a trip to the bank, payment of a fee and a lot of hassle with my bank to get it right) -- it did not accept a credit card for the advance. We were allowed to pay the remaining balance by credit card when we checked out.