Grand Hotel Excelsior

Great location and stunning view from the room. The personnel at the reception were very welcoming with excellent service during our stay. Shuttle bus service was also great.  Service and approach from waiters at the bar/restaurant was extremely poor during our whole stay so obviously something was wrong at that area of the hotel.

Rarely write reviews. But feel like I must because this hotel is a gem. Arrived by ferry from Salerno. Very reliable van that you can book on tablet in room or in advance. Seamless transfer to hotel which is located very (very) high on the cliff. Since Amalfi is crowded nice to be above and because the shuttle makes getting to town so easy being away from the fray is a plus. Staying in a sea view room with huge balcony. Good breakfast served cliffside with crazy view. Pool is nice but the best part is the private beach club. Easy transfer on shuttle, and then take two elevators out to very secluded beach. No need to reserve/pay for chairs, food is good, private bathrooms. Service from employees is A+. Rooms/bathrooms are pretty basic but lobby/common areas are 5 star. And given what hotels cost here it is at a fabulous price point.

Start with the good. Great location being 5 minutes walk from Valletta. Good pool area and great sea swimming area. Good views across the harbour from the bar. The not so good. This certainly isn’t a 5 star hotel. The staff serving tables in the evening seemed more interested in chatting to themselves and wandering around in groups rather than actually serving customers. When asked for service after waiting 20 minutes you are told that someone else will come and serve you. After another 10 minutes it was easier just to go to the bar and order it yourself. There were 4 serving staff and only 9 occupied tables that I could see so no excuse. Not 5 star standard. I work in a large organisation and I can see when people are poorly managed. This is a prime example. There were big queues checking in with half an hour wait with only 2 receptionists. Surely there must be a better system. The rooms are outdated and the bathrooms dilapidated. Checking in or out or even asking a question at reception was met with a look of’how dare you bother me’ . No niceties. Other than that we loved Malta and the people we met. Would go again but not to this hotel unless they seriously up their game.

This hotel is all about amazing views, peace and relaxation. The room we had was amazing and on the 6th floor. It was newly renovated and was perfect. The booking of the shuttle was easy and all accessed by room pad or phone. You certainly need to use the shuttle as it’s not really a place you can walk into and out of town unless you are really young or fit! The food in the restaurant was lovely, Well presented and tasty. Breakfast was simple but had a good choice unless you leave it too late. Downside was that we visited at the end of October so know they were running the hotel down for winter. The weather was amazing and the pool would have been lovely, but we understood why it was empty. It was freaky heat! We really enjoyed our stay and recommend this hotel.

My husband and I stayed for a week at Grand Hotel Excelsior and had an amazing time! It's situated in the cliffs high above Amalfi, which was actually great to get away from the crowds. The view was unmatched and amazing to wake up to every morning. The shuttle service was easy to use and goes back and forth to the town quite frequently. We never had any issues. The front desk staff was very helpful with any questions we had. Breakfast was great, they had a good selection of food and everything was very tasty. We had dinner there once and the food was decent, but you'd be better off going into town for dinner. The drinks at the bar were also great, and we got a charcuterie snack one night which was wonderful. I've seen a lot of comments that the beds were too hard, but we found it quite comfortable. We had a great stay!

This is by far the worst run hotel I've ever stayed at. The hotel offers two shuttles into the city center that stops at the beach club they have. One of the shuttle drivers refused to drop a couple off at the beach saying "its not a good time for the beach" making that decision for them and instead forced them to get out at the city center in a very humiliating fashion. In order to use the shuttle service you're supposed to reserve a space as there's only 8 seats. Instead of asking the people that didn't reserve a space to get out for the ones that actually did they asked us to squeeze in. Having 11 people fit into a van. The hotel has a €20 fee if you wish to order room service on top of the prices. The kitchen under cooks food and has a cross contamination issue with the breakfast omelets being extremely runny and tasting like seafood. We ordered a med-rare filet for one of our dinners and a well done version of a ribeye arrived. The waiter noticed that it was inedible after us sitting for about 20 minutes trying to get someone's attention and took it away and thankfully took it off the bill. The beds are thin spring mattress that feel about 20 years old and have the same give as a concrete slab. The electronic "do not disturb" sighs on the rooms don't work so expect your room to be entered everyday. The waitstaff is atrocious. While having coffee outside on the lounge balcony a waitress walked up to our table in which we still had coffee in our cups and water in our glasses and bottle, started clearing the table touching her hands all over the rims of the cups. She didn't ask if we were done instead she stated, "I take this". We tried to insist we weren't finished but it was so disgusting that we just couldn't make ourselves stay. When I brought that to the front desk she said we could stay out there, defended the employee saying she thought we were finished which she couldn't know not having talked to the employee and then asked for my room number. You don't need my room number. I'm paying almost $700 a night. I don't expect perfect service but I do expect to be able to drink my coffee with my wife overlooking the water at 10:30 in the morning. Thats not unreasonable. They closed the beach club on a sunny 70 degree day. There was zero prior notice. Each room has a tablet that you can order shuttles or room service from but it also has push notifications on it. Instead of saying the beach was closed it offered a boating excursion for $1,400. If thats available the beach should be too. This hotel should have a 2 star rating and cost $150 a night for the service provided. If you're coming to Amalfi and wanting to stay here please heed my warning and don't. Spent the little extra to stay at a nicer hotel closer to town. I promise you won't regret it like us.

Amazing. I can’t bring myself to write a full review yet. This holiday and the location was so amazing I’m still tearing up with happy tears as it truly was a holiday of a lifetime I’d wanted to do for so long, and staying here, the views, the ambience, the staff, the shabby chic of it, the food, the pool, the beach, and Amalfi was so so magical, I just won’t do it justice. Want to go back,

We stayed at this hotel for 6 nights at the end of August, what an amazing experience we had. The room was spotless clean and cool thanks to the aircon, the bed is massive and the addition of a sofa and very large balcony is appreciated. The pool is a perfect size and being adult only means its fairly quiet and relaxed, there is also a grotto bar at the pool serving drinks. Breakfast is fresh and has a great variety, we also had the hot food most mornings getting a Ham and Cheese omelette with crispy bacon. The orange juice is freshly squeezed and delicious. We also ate in the restaurant twice, the food is high quality, delicious and very reasonably priced, we also ordered room service once, this was again delicious but also very reflective of the overall service we received, the waiter brought the food in and prepared the table on our veranda, laid the food and drink out and lit some candles we had laid out. Don't forgot the views, absolutely stunning and the shuttle bus every 20 minutes to the private beach or town centre. easily one of the best hotels I've ever stayed in.

Fantastic view - rooms OK, but a bit dated. Breakfast was good. Service at the beach was fantastic. Bar had no atmosphere, and no visitors. reception staff and shuttle service was very good. They have all possibilities with this location and this view to fill up the restaurant and bar every night. We tried the restaurant first night. The restaurant and the service from the waiters were rude and without any edication in service. Menu was wrongly translated to english. We ordered Caprese Salad (typical Italian). They served a tomato soup with a very hard ball of Mozorella. When we made a comment, the waiter said that we should be happy that at least it was cold..... Main course was grilled fish. We asked the waiter what kind of fish, and he informed us that it was Seabass. When we got it it had a very small piece of fish ( 50 - 60 grams) and quite some pieces of octopus and 2 prawns. Unfortunately we are alergic to shellfish, so we ate the vegtables. The fish was grilled way to much - way to dry and no taste. Tranlations should have been grilled seafood, and the waiter should indicate that it was not only fish.... The rest of the time we had GREAT Italian food from a resaturant in the village 2 km. away, and the owner picked us up and transported us back to the hotel. We found out that a lot of the guests from the hotel went to one of the 3 restaurants in the village for the same reson as us - not satisfied with the hotel service.....