Holiday Inn Congress Centre - San Martino

The Congress Centre Hotel is for business people on expense accounts. It is located in the industrial/commercial zone about 8 Km out of the city. It's not really for tourists. The nearby shops included dodgy looking clubs which are probably aimed at lonely business people.

This is probably why we got an excellent deal for a three night stay so we could attend Aida at the Opera. It also coincided with the Assumption, a public holiday in Italy, which turned out to be four day weekend.

The staff at the hotel were friendly and helpful, the rooms large and clean, and the restaurant was stylish but very expensive. Excessively so in my view; the hotel was cashing in on the fact that everywhere else locally was closed. I do not recommend the restaurant because of the cost - €149 for a two course meal for two with a bottle of Chianti is far too much - it is cheaper and more fun to get a taxi into Verona and eat there.

Our room at the front had uninterrupted views of the toll booths at the S. Martino/Verona Est junction on the A4 autostrada. Fortunately it was an Italian public holiday most of the time we were there so the traffic was OK, but on the morning of our last day we realised how busy the junction could be.

The hotel arranged our transfer to the Arena di Verona and back for the opera at €15 per room each way. There was some confusion over this with €15 being charged to the room for the outward journey and €15 being given in cash to the driver on completion. We were led to believe there were two taxis (large Peugeot 807s) but there turned out to be just one which made two journeys. On the final journey back after the opera at about 1:15 am, he took 10 of us back despite there being only 8 seats - but then who wanted to be stuck in the city centre in the middle of the night some 8 or 9 Km from the hotel? And he cleaned up the best part of €150 for the two journeys.

The Internet connection was €15 a day - more expensive than it need be.

There were snacks in the room and a refrigerated mini-bar - again very expensive.

It's a very nice hotel with great views of the colourful toll booths but it is unnecessarily expensive.