Castellare Train & Trail Short Break B&B
18 September 2024
The Riding
The Accommodation
Do you have any comments about the accommodation and food?
The accommodation is OK with the bathrooms in need of some serious updating, however the beds/mattresses were absolutely awful.
It would be helpful if it was suggested by ITS that we picked up supplies for our room like filter coffee & water & milk on route to be honest.
[Olwen from IN THE SADDLE - we will reinforce our information to highlight that the accommodation has self-catering facilities]
The restaurant was like a Fawlty Towers experience much to our amusement. The wait staff were literally running with food but didn't know which table it was supposed to be taken to. When Ken went to pay the bill he told the manager that he had never seen such chaos in a restaurant the manager replied "so" and walked off. That there is the problem - The restaurant manager.
[Olwen from IN THE SADDLE - we have discussed your comments with Castellare di Tonda. They apologise for the disorganisation you experienced in the restaurant. They have told us this was because some staff members were off sick and others were doing double shifts.]
There are huge amounts of children milling about too, not everyone's cup of tea!
[Olwen from IN THE SADDLE - Castellare di Tonda have told us that there were some families with pre-school age children staying at the resort. This can happen at any time.]
Not sure we would recommend half board the food is average at best and mostly cold as it has to travel too far from the kitchen and then the staff don't know where you are sat.
The location is fantastic
Before Your Holiday
Did you have all of the information you needed to:
How could we improve the quality of pre-holiday information that we send?
Mention about picking up filter coffee etc on the way to the resort
Explain there may be many young kids at the resort.
[Olwen from IN THE SADDLE - our information already does highlight that there could be children at Castellare di Tonda at any time. The information also explains that the apartments are self-catering so guests can take their own decision as to whether or not to bring suppiles for tea/coffee].
As for the training/reigning lessons we never read about what that entailed we focused on the 2 hours riding a day as we no longer want full days in the saddle due to our aches & pains
Despite the shaky start with Franco we ended up all feeling like something had been accomplished
Louise who has been on 18 In The Saddle rides. A Privilege | The trail riding met expectations with fabulous scenery and opportunities to canter on fantastic horses.
We horrified Franco on the first day as our riding skills were considered below par. For the first lesson it was agreed by us all that some basics needed work with one of us asking for tuition to sit in a trot. By the third lesson with Franco much had improved with Franco apparently thrilled with our progress. It was a great privilege to take lessons with this genius and ride horses that were so much better trained than we were. We had a great time.