Stayed here for a week with my husband and 2 teenagers (14 and 17). Fantastic hotel for families with children of any age, and for older people who don't mind having children around. Not so good for romantic couples.

What's good: location in Limone convenient for town (10 min walk) and public beach (3 minute walk). Superb food - huge variety for breakfast; free cakes served mid afternoon; amazing 5 course suppers with plenty of choice; all to a standard exceeding our expectations. Great outdoor area - pleasant terrace, 2 pools with plenty of sunloungers and beautiful view. Friendly, helpful and very efficient staff (restaurant staff really helpful about my son's egg allergy). Generally a clean and very well run hotel.

What's not so good: Must stress first that we had a great holiday at this hotel, and this comment is only for people who are really bothered by aesthetics...... the decor is very dated. Also, the restaurant is vast and lacking in ambiance - although, having said that it's lively and full of chatter!

Just got back from a week at the Caravel Hotel in Limone, Lake Garda. We originally wanted to stay in Riva del Garda but as we were booking last minute we couldn't get the availability that we wanted, so our last and only option was the Caravel. We knew nothing about the area as we had never been to Lake Garda and we couldn't find a hotel website so we only had trip advisor reports to go on.

When we arrived we were pleasantly suprised. It was centrally located in Limone which is unusual as many hotels you had to get a minibus into town as it was only a 5 min walk to the main promenade.
The reception staff were helpful and very pleasant and the hotel was very clean, the rooms looked like they had recently been renovated, we were in room 114 which was a ground floor in the main building. Unfortunately we had 2 twin beds but they were easy to push together to make a large double, a sofa, 2 chairs and a really large wardrobe which had space for so much, also lots of hangers were provided also had an electronic safe in it! TV in the room had only italian and german channels and the only UK channels were BBC World News and Sky News.

The bathroom was quite spacious, very large shower with rainshower head which was lovely, toliet and bidet with a large sink and area to put your wash bag, There was a hairdryer on the wall but it wasn't very hot and it wasn't very powerful so maybe best to take your own.
Whilst i said that the room looked newly renovated it was still a little dated and the doors into the room were not fire doors and seemed original doors from when the place was build Additonally the lock stuck so it took 10 minutes to get in and out of the room every day,,, they key we were given at check in also weighed a ton, and the air conditioning was a little hit and miss!

Public areas again were very clean but it did feel like you had steped back to the early 80's however it was pretty cool! Restaurant was nice, you were given your table on the first night and that was your table for the full stay which was nice ( if you had a nice table ). Waiters/Waitresses were very friendly and extremely attentive.. I have never seen staff work so hard!! The hotel is H/B and Food was extremely good, breakfast was buffet with breads, jams, fruit, cereal, cheese and hams and some hot items like scrambled eggs and bacon. Dinner was 5 courses, Salad, then a starter, pasta, main dish and dessert and it was a excellent choice and tasted pretty good. Some days were hit and miss but that is dependant on your personal food tastes but it was all good food. Wine was about 16 euros per bottle and if you didn't drink the whole bottle that night they'd save it for you. A large table Water was 3 euros per bottle.

Swimming pool and area near the reception again was very clean, with lots of loungers with comfy pads, Pool behind the main block where the Eden block was was larger and quieter and had the Grill/Bar open at Lunch.

Limone itself was a charming town with excellent places to eat, easy to get around the northern part of the lake and you can get the ferry easily to the south of the lake but these services are not as frequent. Went to Riva for the day and spent 2 hours there not as charming, much bigger and not as pretty so glad all in all we didn't get a hotel there in the first place!! Malchesine was beautiful and our favourite place we visited and whilst we liked LImone if we go back we will stay in Malchesine. My observation was it was expensive in general within Lake Garda, admittedly the Euro isn't particually good at the moment!!

The only thing we did not expect was that Lake Garda was so geared towards the German guests, all the restuarants had menu's in italian then german and then english and german was more of a second language than english which was odd.
All in all though a great holiday with nothing bad to report, a beautiful part of the world and a great hotel if you want to use it as a base, extremely clean, lovely staff and great food, it was listed as a 4* but i would say more 3.5*!!

We were a little apprehensive about the hotel because we paid substantially less than for 4* hotels in other resorts on Garda. We were attracted by the price and the location and the lake view balcony.
This was a great hotel- the staff couldn`t do enough, the room was fine and the balcony enormous with a stunning view. The air con worked really well, the pools were well maintained with plenty of loungers and umbrellas. The food was really good, traditional Italian with lots of choices and a great dessert buffet.
Excellent value for money and made for a really enjoyable holiday.
My only reservation- this is a great hotel for couples, but I wouldn`t want to come with children.

If you suffer from any food allergies then this hotel can cater for them perfectly. I suffer from Nut anaphylaxis & worry about eating out in the UK & especially abroad. I met another lad who also suffers from serious nut & egg allergies & he agreed that this hotel is fantastic he said that he trusted them to cater for him. I ate at this hotel 3 times a day for 10 nights, the evening meal consisted of 3 courses each time. I did not have a single problem reaction to any of the food. Everyone, from the Hotel Manager to the Receptionist to the Waiters took the time to consider my request & dealt with it efficiently. The head waiter 'Salvo' was very careful & attentive & often adjusted the set menu for me so that I could eat in the restaurant.

Even if you are fortunate enough not to have any food allergies I would say that this hotel is perfect for Honeymooning couples, retired people, young families (& teenagers) who wish to relax by the pool & eat good food. This hotel is only 5 mins walk away from Limone's centre, which is still quite peaceful & only 20 mins by ferry away from the busy town of Malchesne across the lake.
Contrary to other reviews there is absolutely nothing wrong with the decor, it is simple & compliments the lemon & orange trees. There are 2 clean pools, a well stocked bar, live music, great views & transport links. There were no yobs despite Euro 2008 being on - you know the sort. We went with Inghams they were superb. First Choice airlines however made flying with a nut allergy difficult though, I would consider them to be 'Last Choice' for someone flying with allergies. the only thing that i will say that is slightly negative about Limone is that when flying in & out of Verona airport there are many coach stops & Hotel Caravel & Villa Eden is the last stop, this also means that any trips to the Verona Operas or Venice ensure that hotel Caravel is the first pickup & latest stop.
This hotel deserves a 5* rating - I didn't want to come home!