When Gaz surprised me with a weekend away to celebrate my 40th Birthday to run Etna parkrun this also meant a childfree stay at the Criu Boutique Hotel.
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We headed down to the airport early Friday morning and boarded our RyanAir flight, I know they get a lot of stick but we didn’t have any issues with them (mainly because we checked the luggage sizes BEFORE getting to the gate!). The aircraft was one of the cleanest I’ve ever been on and as I’m 5ft nothing I had plenty of legroom, even with my hand luggage under the seat in front.
We arrived at Catania airport which is possibly the smallest airport we have ever flown into! We were through security pretty quickly though and headed out to collect our hire car. Again this was a quick process and we were soon on our way to the hotel.
Criu Boutique Hotel
It rained pretty much the whole time we were in Italy so my pictures don’t really give the full picture of how lovely this hotel is!
Gaz booked the hotel via Booking.com
Parking is available on the street and is payable via app or the restaurant next door have a small car park available for a small fee. We parked on the street and this was fine for us.
Room – Suite
We stayed in the Suite which is located on the top floor of the hotel.
We had a lovely little welcome gift as they knew I was celebrating my birthday and also a cake when we went down for breakfast on Saturday.
Tea and coffee making facilities along with a mini fridge and safe.
The bathroom was spacious with a huge rainfall shower and robes for us both. The toiletries also smelt really good.
The room itself is more than enough room for 2 people. With a desk area, a hidden tv (sliding it across to hide the tv opens up the view to the gardens) a huge bed and of course the bath.
Bedroom Bath
Obviously the main feature of this room type is the bath in the bedroom. Here are my attempts at some arty photos for you.
Mini Bar
A fully stocked mini bar is available on arrival and you just pay for what you have used on departure.
They have a laundry / dry cleaning service available (we didn’t use it) the price list is in the basket.
Lunch at Osteria Garibaldi
One thing I didn’t do this weekend is go hungry. We had so much food! For lunch we headed down to Osteria Garibaldi which is just a short walk away from Criu.
With a strong family friendly feel (we were the only couple every other table was large groups!) it is a lovely place to grab lunch.
The portions were huge and it was delicious, we didn’t even attempt a dessert as we were also eating out later.
Dinner at Scorzonera Restaurant
We managed to get a last minute booking for the restaurant next door to Criu and we are glad we did.
It is pretty fancy so thought we better make an effort, It’s not often we get a chance to go out to nice places childfree!
Again the portions were absolutely huuge (maybe this is just normal in Italy?) when they served it we just looked at each other as we had already eaten so much at lunchtime.
Thankfully they were happy to box it up for us to take away.
Breakfast at Crui
The breakfast was my least favourite bit, it is just a continental selection which meant I would only eat croissants. They had a fabulous spread of options, but not for fussy old me, which is 100% a me problem, Gaz loved it.
I think we were the only ones staying at the hotel so we were the only ones down for breakfast but I think if others were staying it would be lovely way to meet the other guests.
We didn’t know it but as we were heading to the airport Etna was blowing a bit of smoke (which I was excited enough about!) but it erupted just a few hours after we left and I am gutted we missed it.
Easyjet Flights home
We flew home with EasyJet and again they get bad press but we didn’t have any problems and the airport had a piano for people to play which was cool.
I would normally give you a breakdown of the costs but as it was a surprise I have been told I am not allowed to know the cost either but as a guide the same weekend next year at the Criu is £200/night including breakfast in the suite.
It’s a great place to stay if you want something a bit fancier while visiting Etna parkrun.
ChrissyJ xxx
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