Room report: Hotel Tiffany, Cesenatico

Atlantica water park, Cesenatico. Copyright Gretta Schifano

Hotel Tiffany must be one of the most family-friendly hotels that I’ve ever stayed in. The family-run hotel is on the Adriatic coast of Emilia-Romagna in the North of Italy and I spent a week there with my husband and children (17 and 12 years old) while we were in the region this summer. While we were there I was struck by the many ways that the hotel owners, Signor and Signora Bassi, their sons Iacopo and Filippo and the hotel staff make families with young children feel at home. Signora Bassi told me that 90% of guests at the hotel are Italian – and I was surprised when she added that we were the first British family ever to have stayed there.

Rooms

The hotel was built in 1962 and has been extended and renovated regularly since then. We stayed in two double rooms with wide balconies and they were modern, light, comfortable and well-equipped.

Double room at Hotel Tiffany. Copyright Gretta Schifano

The WiFi was good (to my kids’ delight), the rooms were cleaned daily, the air-conditioning provided a haven from the summer heat and the mini fridges were very welcome for chilling our bottled water. The hotel also has some smart family suites with two connected rooms which are perfect for families with younger children. Signora Bassi showed me a couple of these suites and I was impressed:

There are cots and extra beds available at the hotel and there are also family rooms which have a double bed and bunk beds. These rooms are more dated than those where we stayed but are still clean, comfortable and well-equipped.

Facilities

On the ground floor of the hotel is a shaded terraced area where we had breakfast every day and where there’s also a small climbing frame and some sit-on toys for children. The hotel bikes, which are free for guests to use, include some with baby and toddler seats and there are also some kids’ bikes. There’s a small outdoor swimming pool at the hotel which is a great place to cool off.

Hotel Tiffany swimming pool. Copyright Gretta Schifano

There’s a spa (for anyone who’s over 16 years old) next to the pool with a steam room, sauna and jacuzzi. You can also book beauty treatments at the spa.

Food

We were staying at Hotel Tiffany on a half-board basis and each day we chose to have either lunch or dinner at the hotel. This was a problem because the food at Hotel Tiffany is so good that my son didn’t want to eat anywhere else. Both lunch and dinner begin with an excellent antipasti buffet from which you help yourself.

Antipasti buffet, Hotel Tiffany. Copyright Gretta Schifano

Then there are two more courses which you choose from a menu with three options for each course. The menu changes daily and usually has a vegetarian option. I don’t eat meat and my daughter doesn’t eat meat or fish. On the two occasions when there was nothing for us on the menu the chef made us fresh pasta with a delicious tomato and basil sauce. For dessert there’s a table of home-made dishes to choose from including options such as fruit salad, tiramisu, creme brûlée and panna cotta. The hotel also offers gluten-free food.

There’s a children’s menu and I’d assumed that the dishes on there would be smaller portions of the main menu options – until Filippo showed me a vast recipe book. The book was written for hotels by a dietician and contains hundreds of healthy recipes for children including variations and portion sizes for different ages. Young children are provided with bibs, cups and plastic cutlery and crockery in the dining room. Mothers can breastfeed their babies where they like.

Baby room

There’s a Baby Room just across the corridor from the main dining room where parents can feed their babies with their own food or with baby food prepared daily by the hotel chef. This room has a kitchen area with a microwave, fridge and highchairs at one end and a play area with low chairs, toys and craft materials at the other.

Mini Club

There’s a childminder to play with the younger children for eight hours a day – mainly at mealtimes – so that their parents can relax. It took us a while to work out that the guy doing the job, Luca, was a childminder – we thought that maybe he was someone’s very patient big brother who all the children wanted to play with. Luca was also at the hotel swimming pool to play with the children for an hour in the afternoons and in the Baby Room at 4pm every day to supervise the Merenda, Italian children’s  afternoon snack time. If you want to go out of the hotel and leave your children there’s a separate babysitting service which is booked through an agency. When children check out of the hotel they’re given a box containing healthy snacks for the journey.

Beach

If you’re looking for deserted beaches where you can run around then this part of Italy isn’t for you during the summer. If you prefer a beach where everything is taken care of and you just need to bring your towel, sun cream and swimming costume then this is the place to come. The coast in this area has long, sandy beaches, most of which are covered with sunbeds and sunshades which you can rent by the day or week from private bagni (beach clubs) during the summer months. The beach clubs have a bar where you can buy drinks and snacks and sit in the shade, changing rooms, toilets and showers and many also have sports facilities, children’s play areas and other entertainment. Hotel Tiffany is two minutes’ walk from Cesenatico’s Blue Flag beach and has reserved sunbeds and sunshades (specific ones for each room) there for its guests at Bagno Snoopy.

Bagno Snoopy, Cesenatico. Copyright Gretta Schifano

Bagno Snoopy is clean and safe and has everything that you need for a family day at the beach. There’s a children’s play area next to the bar, pedalos and boats for hire at the water’s edge, a lifeguard station in the sea close by and even a storage area for your inflatables. The hotel provides beach towels for you to use.

Cesenatico

Hotel Tiffany is in the modern part of Cesenatico in an area which is full of hotels and restaurants. Most of the buildings were built in the last 50 years but there are some older buildings too. The area caters well to families with children. During the day life centres around the beach, in the evenings around the restaurants. At the heart of the old part of town (a 20-minute bike ride away) is an attractive, historical harbour which was designed by Leonardo da Vinci.

Cesenatico. Copyright Gretta Schifano

The area around the harbour is pedestrianised and bustling with restaurants and ice-cream parlours. There’s a good water park (Atlantica, pictured at the top of this page) in town and a couple of bigger ones a short drive away. Inland there are some beautiful hill towns to explore.

Verdict

All four of us really enjoyed staying at Hotel Tiffany. The staff were all friendly, kind and helpful. The kids were very relaxed there and both told me, without prompting, that they really liked the hotel. The food was excellent, the rooms were comfortable and had everything that we needed. The location was good and we enjoyed exploring Cesenatico and the local area, especially the water parks. It was great having the beach so close and the bikes to use whenever we wanted. I’d definitely recommend Hotel Tiffany to families and also to people travelling without children – as long as you’re not looking for a wild nightlife.

The lowdown

Prices to stay at Hotel Tiffany per adult, per night, range from 60-125 euros for half board and 65-135 euros for full board. Children sharing a room with an adult stay free of charge if they’re under two years old, have a 60% discount if they’re 3-6 years old, a 50% discount if they’re 6-12 years old and a 20% discount if they’re 13 years old or more. The price includes meals, wine and soft drinks with meals, wifi, mini club, use of bikes and private beach access with reserved sun loungers and umbrellas.

To read the post which I wrote before our trip outlining what we planned to to in Emilia-Romagna click here. To find out more about Emilia-Romagna click here.

Recommended guide books

The guide books which I used the most on our trip are the Bologna & Emilia-Romagna Footprint Focus Guide and the Lonely Planet Italy Travel Guide, which I bought from Amazon.

Have you ever been to Emilia-Romagna? If not, would you like to? Would you like to stay somewhere like Hotel Tiffany with your family?

Disclosure: We stayed at Hotel Tiffany as guests of the Emilia-Romagna Tourist Board. All opinions are my own.

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