Hotel Caesar Palace Giardini Naxos – A Family Summer Break in Sicily for Under £2500!

Yes, once again, the incredible Mrs B and her nose for a bargain managed to bag all four members of my tribe a cracking summer deal by sniffing out flights and an all-inclusive week at the Hotel Caesar Palace Giardini Naxos with change from two grand.

Now, before you get too excited, no. It’s not that Caesars Palace Hotel. Not the luxury one in Las Vegas that appeared in the movie The Hangover. This one is a rather more sedate, family-friendly affair located in sunny Sicily, that triangle-shaped island just off the boot of Italy.

Now, I know nothing about very much at all, but I especially know nothing about Sicily. What I do know is that it has an active volcano (bad), great food and wine (good), some mafia links because it’s where the Godfather films were shot (interesting… could be bad) and decent weather (v good).

By my simple boy maths, the good parts outweighed the bad, so I magnanimously agreed with Mrs B that a cheap trip to Sicily was a Good Thing.  And just as well, because if I hadn’t agreed, Mrs B would have gone anyway.

A bit like our recent trip to Turkey, we managed to bring the price right down by booking the flights, transfers and hotel part all separately. The flight part was relatively straightforward, with Mrs B keeping a beady eye on the British Airways website for the cheapest slots.

While we did consider the myriads of budget airlines that also fly this route, the first tip is to always do the maths on the flight costs.

While a budget airline might offer a cheap headline ticket price, by the time you have added in things like extra charges for taxes, bags and snacks, flying with a premium carrier may well work out cheaper for you.

It certainly did in our case, even though we were dutifully carrying our budget airline approved cabin bags. We managed to get return flights from Gatwick to Catania for £800 for 2 adults and 2 children at the end of July.

Volcano Trouble

The second tip is to check your travel insurance thoroughly for Sicily because as previously mentioned it has a volcano (bad) in the shape of Mount Etna. Now, I’m no geologist, but I do know exactly two things about volcanoes.

Firstly, they are the subject of my favourite Viz Top Tip, which is “Depressed People: Cheer yourself up by imagining Ian Duncan-Smith falling into a volcano” which never fails to make me grin.

Secondly, I do know that volcanoes do like to occasionally explode (also bad), and it seems they especially like to explode around the time you are planning to fly to Sicily (very, very bad). We were lucky, as the most recent eruption on Mount Etna occurred just 48 hours before we were due to fly from Gatwick which resulted in the Italian authorities closing the airspace around Catania Airport.

Fortunately, it has all calmed down by the time we took off, but it’s easy to see how your plans could be thrown into chaos. So – check if your insurance covers you for volcano-related shenanigans as Mount Etna explodes over 200 times a year. Luckily, there’s a handy detailed news article about it here.

Getting to Giardini Naxos

We flew from Gatwick on a sunny July afternoon with BA and the flight took just under 3 hours. We touched down on a peaceful evening at Catania Airport in Sicily without any issues – and it’s worth booking a window seat to get that unique ariel view of Mount Etna as you land.

The children eagerly pressed their faces up against the airport window to get a view of the exploding lava, leaving a lovely face imprint on the otherwise clean glassware.

After landing, we strolled through the airport into the hot night to our pre-booked transfer. Again, this was a simple matter of Mrs B Googling local taxi firms and haggling for the fare, although the airport is also well served by the local bus companies and trains, depending on your final destination.

Hotel Caesar Palace Giardini Naxos

We headed 42 km to the North, to the coastal town of Giardini Naxos sitting on the edge of the Ionian Sea. Formerly a quiet fishing village, the explosion in tourism in the 70s changed the character of the town to a bit of a tourist hotspot with both Italians and foreigners alike.

As a result, enterprising businesses threw up a couple of hotels – but not too many to spoil the relaxed vibe – and the Hotel Caesar Palace was one of those. We paid £1700 for a family of 4 for 7 nights all-inclusive, so we definitely felt we got value for money!

First impressions were good. The hotel was clean and functional, and the staff were efficient and polite and even forgave my terrible attempts at Italian. If I’m being honest, the place could do with a bit of updating as the décor is firmly in the 1990s but that’s a matter of taste, I guess.

The main thing is the hotel does exactly what you need, in that it provides food and drink, comfortable beds and a pool to cool off in.

Arriving later at night and having travelled through the dinner hour, I was naturally worried about food, having sustained the children with only Haribo and Pringles on the flight.

Luckily, I needn’t have worried as the hotel kindly leaves out a small late-night buffet for any late arrivals or hungry night owls, with some rice, pasta and meats and vegetables to snack on, and the restaurant area also has self-service drink machines.

Suitably refreshed, we headed up to our room for a restful night’s sleep and again, our first impressions of the rooms were good. There was a good-sized double bed, and for the children, there were two pull-out sofa beds.

The wardrobe contained some blankets in case of a chilly night as well as a floor safe for any valuables and the bathroom had the normal shower, sink, toilet and bidet arrangement. Bidets are particularly amusing to small boys.

Crucially, the air con worked well, and that is essential for Sicily in summertime, breathing out nicely cooled air to allow a decent quality sleep. And sleep well we did.

Sunbeds and Slushies

Mornings on holiday should rightly be slow, gentle affairs, and mostly, they are. The exception is Mrs B, who activates Holiday Mother Mode as soon as she leaves the shores of England.

Holiday Mother Mode involves waking up early with a bundle of towels under her arms to secure the very best sunbeds in the hotel, before a hearty breakfast, strong coffee and returning to the room to wake the rest of us sleepy heads and jolly grateful we are for it too.

Without this, the rest of us would be happily under a pile of duvets until at least lunchtime. And in the height of summer, with a nearly full hotel, there aren’t enough sunbeds for everyone so getting up early to secure one is a must. Yes, we hate doing it, but needs must.

Having been duly prodded awake, the rest of us donned swimwear and t-shirts and staggered down to the pool to take our first good look at the area. A good-sized pool surrounded by white sunbeds greeted us.

There is a restaurant area that is open in the afternoon for poolside buffet snacks and around the back of the hotel, there is a smaller kids pool. In the distance, framed between the local buildings and an azure, blue sky, the holiday ruiner that is Mount Etna smoked threateningly/interestingly in the background.

The Restaurant at Hotel Caesar Palace Giardini Naxos

But before a long, hard day of sunbathing commenced, it was definitely time to eat again and try breakfast at the restaurant.  

Breakfast, like all meals, was a buffet-style, help-yourself continental affair, with piles of pastries, breads, fruits, continental sausages, meats and eggs and jams everywhere. If I’m being honest, breakfast, like all meals, was “alright”.

Look, I get it, cooking for a huge number of people is probably very hard because I struggle to cook for four, so four hundred is a pretty big challenge. But with a teeny bit of imagination, you could make it a little better.

A pancake station would have been nice. A variety of eggs. Combine the fruit into a fruit salad. That sort of thing.

Anyway, I’m being picky. It was alright, and to be honest you don’t need that many calories when your main activity for the day will be walking to the bar area, lying down and pretending you can’t hear the children behind a trashy paperback novel. Plus, as it was my daughter’s birthday while we were there, they very kindly made us an excellent chocolate birthday cake for her which we devoured.  

And besides, if you tire of the “alright” food in the hotel, right next door was the excellent Al Fagiano Ristorante Pizzeria where Mrs B enjoyed the authentic four-cheese pizza and the Boy and I had a truly excellent steak with French fries, the wine flowed freely, and once again, they forgave our terrible attempts at Italian. 

Slowly, the holiday routine took hold, and the days blurred into the normal pleasing humdrum of sleep, eat, swim, repeat, so we broke it up with a couple of day trips.

Facilities at Hotel Caesar Palace

Although we were quite content to lie on the sunbed and the kids enjoyed using their inflatables in the pool, there are quite a few activities to keep you entertained. The hotel staff are extremely friendly and run aqua aerobics, water polo, dart competitions and provide dance music in the afternoon to keep us all amused.

There are billiards and ping pong tables and the hotel runs mini clubs for small children. In the evening there is live entertainment out by the pool which was a relaxed and classy affair!

Lido di Naxos – The Beach

First up, the hotel is inland from the local beach, Lido di Naxos Beach, so they kindly provide a free and frequent bus service to the local beach which is only a short 5-minute drive away. The hotel has its own allocated area of beach, complete with complimentary sun loungers and umbrellas.

Lido di Naxos is absolutely ideal for children, with a lifeguard and gently sloping sand that extends for a good long-distance before they go out of their depth. There are plenty of activities such as jet ski hire and a huge inflatable station in the sea which our kids were keen to take part in.

But in true Italian style, the lifeguard didn’t turn up and we were told to repeatedly come back before we gave up and got ice cream instead.

Goggles or scuba kits are a great idea at the beach as you can see shoals of fish happily swimming up to the shore. You needn’t worry if you’ve forgotten to pack these, within minutes of sitting down a local seller will approach you to offer sunglasses, beach toys, a massage, a towel or indeed anything else you might need.

Equally, you can walk up to the town to purchase any of those things either.

Taormina

Secondly, we decided to take the local bus to the nearby historical town of Taormina. The local buses are frequent, cheap and air-conditioned, so they’re a really good way to get around, apart from the frankly terrifying roads to get there.

Taormina is at the top of a really big hill, you see, and if you fancy taking your life in your hands, the local bus will negotiate some truly spectacular bends to get you to the very top where the bus station is located.  

Taormina is historical and mind-bendingly beautiful and worthy of a separate blog post that Mrs B will undoubtedly make me write. Beautiful Italian buildings sit on pedestrianised streets that throng with tourists and locals alike enjoying coffee in the Italian sunshine and dozens of cafes serve hearty-looking food, especially the local seafood.

Boat Trips

But, by far, the most enjoyable day – well, for me anyway – was the day we decided to rent a powerboat and crew for a bit of bay hopping around the Ionian Sea for just over 100 euros for the family.

There are a couple of boat rental companies in the harbour near Lido di Naxos and, to be honest, they’re all much of a muchness so it all depends on your haggling skills when it comes to price.

We got a good couple of hours pleasantly bobbing around the sea to see the Sicilian coastline before stopping at a breathtakingly pretty bay where the children happily dived in from the boat to molest the local fish.

The crew threw in a couple of glasses of genuine prosecco and some snacks and even lent out some snorkels if you fancy chewing on a snorkel that has been chewed on by that season’s tourists. It was a genuinely relaxing and interesting experience and gives a teasing insight into your life as a millionaire, should we ever get there.

We all returned with a suntan and a fierce determination to one day own a powerboat.

Sicily was many things – hot, beautiful and exciting, but most of all, it was a genuinely relaxing experience thanks to the laid-back Italian style of doing things. The fact that the whole thing didn’t cost us a bloody fortune and the fact they always forgave our terrible attempts at Italian made it an even more enjoyable stay.

Crucially, there were no major mishaps, although thanks to my terrible Italian we did once miss our stop on a bus that then went non-stop back to the airport, some 42 km away, much to the upset of my children (bad).

On the plus side, on the way home, I swear that I saw Iain Duncan Smith with his suitcases arrive for a short holiday near the volcano.