Hotel Mare

Very nice staff, gorgeous location, decent to excellent food, clean rooms, value for money, peace and quiet, a pleasant pool with lots of loungers, and some enchanting ducksin the yacht harbour who liked to dine with us - the restaurant is on the quayside. They were all drakes, except for one female who turned up one day with three ducklings. There were also two quite seperate ducks from that lot, a black one and a white one, who were clearly deeply in love, were always together and performed an intricate mating neck waving ritual every now and then. So as well as a lovely setting there were things going on! And then there were the other guests. Not really, although maybe thehotel might run the occasional minibus to town should there be punters wanting to use it. Travelling by boat to Portoferraio was terrific, and takes about 30 minutes, but the day the weather stopped it coming (too choppy) presented a problem for non car users like us, But the hotel did take us and others to town in their mini bus so they solved the difficulty. The location is OK during the day for getting to and from, but if you take half board, have lunch, and decide to eat in townin the evening - because there are loads of nice places - getting back means a taxi,....and even a car would not help because one woudl be insane to drink and drive on Elba's roads. The island needs a better bus service actually.

Quiet but central location and stunning views - being right by the sea. Reception staff and our waiter exceptional nice. The dining room which needed suttle lighting given stunning views and more willingness to allow resident guests to sit outside on the terrace [although we were 'allowed to'].Candles inside and out would give perfection to the setting. Maitre d could be friendlier.Perhaps a proper Bar with sitting area would have been good.

Position was excellent.