RetreatJunkieNA
I will start with the positives: The "Museum" in the dining area is every bit as interesting and in many ways more informative than the official volcano museum. The location is excellent - walking distance to almost everything - and the neighborhood is friendly. However, we were definitely underwhelmed by our breakfast experience! We booked this hotel in part because it promised breakfast included. On our first morning there we went down at the appointed time only to be told that since only two rooms were occupied the night before, instead of providing breakfast they were sending us to a local bakery. Had we been told about that the previous evening, it might have been a charming opportunity to explore a local spot. But as it was, I had a broken foot and had not dressed for a walk downtown. I had to go back upstairs with my broken foot, change clothes and shoes, and then find the bakery. A hard thing to do when we hadn't even had coffee yet! ||All we had been given was a little note saying we could have breakfast at the bakery. But it was very confusing as to how that worked and there were no clear instructions. We placed our order only to be asked to pay an exorbitant sum. It turns out that we couldn't order whatever we wanted - we could only order one each from some small sandwiches (not the big sandwiches!), one pastry (but only CERTAIN pastries - and not the ones we wanted), and EITHER coffee or orange juice - not both. It was SO frustrating. Normally at hotels with breakfast included you can have both coffee and orange juice, and SOME kind of protein, like yogurt or eggs. Not here - if you couldn't eat gluten, or couldn't eat lots of carbohydrates, you were out of luck (and the sandwiches with eggs were NOT ALLOWED!). The bakery did at least let us get refills on our coffee. ||I would have MUCH preferred it if the hotel had just given us a boxed breakfast, with yogurt, pastry, juice and coffee, and called it a day. Or if they had just given us a voucher for a certain amount of money so we could order what we wanted. To send us out into the cold unexpectedly because it was too much trouble to make breakfast for "only" two rooms, and then not let us order what was suitable for us was kind of insulting. ||The next day apparently their occupancy requirements were such that we were allowed to have breakfast at the property. It still was not a great breakfast, but at least we were able to get some protein to start our day. ||So I would not stay here again. And if you do, I recommend you ask ahead of time whether there really will be breakfast. The other couple who had been sent to the bakery almost missed their ferry because they had planned their morning to grab a quick breakfast downstairs and then go to the ferry. They ended up just paying for their whole breakfast themselves because they were tired of trying to figure out the rules and didn't want to literally miss the boat.
