I booked this holiday over the phone after looking at hotels on line. The one i wanted wasn't available even though it showed as such on the website and the operator suggested other hotels to me.

While i was talking to her i checked various holiday review web sites and found no mention of the Berna (because she spelt it BernE to me) and it looked ok so on the basis that no news is good news i went ahead with it.

Two days after booking i found these reports on here and my heart sank! I didn't tell my husband what i had found and hoped that the reviews would be wrong............... they weren't!

What a rubbish hotel!

I had booked a lake view and when we got to our room (702) all we could see of the lake was about 2" of water through the trees. I went back down to reception to ask if they had put us in the wrong room and the manager was very offhand and ignorant, telling me it WAS a lake view room. The receptionist rang the Crystal rep for me and we arranged to chat to her at the next day welcome meeting. She was very helpful and came to see the room, agreed it was NOT a lake view and after checking our booking she agreed to refund us there and then for the extra we had paid.

The room was clean but very basic, not so much as a picture on the wall to cheer it up. On the plus side the air con worked!

Our first nights meal was a disaster. We had been up at 2.30 am for a 6am flight, had spent over 4 hours on the coach getting from the airport (an unusually long time we were told) and then had to wait for a taxi to take us from the lake shore to the hotel and we were very tired and travel weary. We needed a decent meal but certainly didn't get one.
The salad bar was boring to say the least. The bread rolls were dry and hard. Our main course of chicken was undercooked and came with 3 boring tasteless boiled potatoes and half a can of tinned peas! Mmmmmmmmmm yummy i don't think!
Sweet was ice cream or fruit.
The meals did improve slightly over the week and i have to say the pasta starters were very filling, as much as i had as a main course for some lunches we had out.

The hotel has, i would think, about 80% German guests and the food is very much geared to their tastes. Continental breakfast only with cold meats, cheese etc and those same dry bread rolls. There were the usual cereals and yoghurt. The croissants were nice, and if you times it right and they were still warm they were VERY nice.

If food is important to your holiday this is not the place for you.

The bar was a revelation! I have never stopped in a hotel before where they just seemed to have one bottle of any particular spirit. First night i asked for Bacardi only to be told "sorry, Bacardi finished"
Second night we wanted whisky and they managed to get 2 drinks from the bottle and then it was gone. This happened 3 nights running. Good job we had our own supply! The final time it happened i didn't even try to hide my own bottle, i sat it on the table and when the barman indicated that i shouldn't be drinking my own booze in the bar i told him in no uncertain terms what he could do! If the hotel cant supply what you want why shouldn't you drink your own?
The bar shuts at 12 each night on the dot.

Limone is a lovely resort, much nicer than the places at the other end of the island where its very flat. The mountains are a spectacular backdrop and the town itself is very clean and has a safe feel to it. even the young people that were there were quiet and pleasant, no rowdy behaviour, all very civilised.

We went on a trip to the Dolomites, i really recommend that for spectacular scenery and you MUST go up the cable car to see the views from the top of the mountain. Just shut your eyes and hang on tight till you get to the top!

Go to Limone by all means, its a great place, but for heavens sake................avoid the BERNA!

We stayed here from the 13 - 20 June 2007. This was a late internet booking just to join my sister and her husband who had booked much earlier. When we booked we had no upgrades available so we didn't expect any sort of views etc. We were very surprised when we received a room on the top of the tallest block with two balconies, one from the bedroom and one from the bathroom, really good views of both lake and mountains. Air conditionng was useless, no hot water on three days but otherwise the room was good albeit quite small. Do not come to the Berna if food is a high priority. Breakfast is bland, no fruit, croissants or even tomatoes to go with the cheese and cold meats, no toasters, too few drinks machines for the size of hotel meant frequent queueing. Evening meals were choices of three main courses, the salad bar was small and another long queue, sweet was usually ice-cream. The complimentary wine was OK.
My sister had paid for views etc but her room did not, in my opinion, have anything other than very partial lake views, the room was larger and did have good aircon. There were many complaints from people who had paid supplements but had received terrible rooms, there did not seem to be one tour operator who escaped unscaithed.
On balance this should be looked at as a budget hotel with very variable quality of rooms. Limone is a very picturesque resort, I think there are probably much better hotels.

Good clean room, not an excellent view, but that did not matter much to my wife and I.
Good location in Limone. Malcesine, on the other side of Lake Garda might have given us more options for activities, but it is busier.
Handy supermarket under the hotel.
Evening meals were good, very good we thought. Plenty to eat. Served by waiter. Wine was included in the price [with Airtours]. Desserts weren't up to much though. You always sat in the same seats in the dining hall. Breakfasts were OK, just OK.
BUT, our air conditioning did not work. The fan worked, but just recycled the warm air of the room. We complained four times to the reception desk [twice being to the manager], but they did not seem at all interested in our complaints. They just said it WAS working - little customer care. Our rep also mentioned the A/C to the staff, but it made no difference.
We had a good holiday there, and did not let the warm room get us too mad and spoil our time.
Good trip to Venice, although you do not get a long time there as traveling takes so long.
Hired a car for two days from Riva and drove to the Dolomites - excellent! [We then found that there is car hire at Limone further up the hill.]

This hotel is made up of five different blocks of accommodation. The block my husband and two friends were in was the oldest part of the hotel. The room was in a very poor condition, broken tiles on the floor, cracked wash hand basin, sockets with bare wires hanging off the walls, TV on high shelf which was to small to accommodate TV, ants in bathroom, loose fitting window frame the width and height of the exterior wall, fire exit blocked, no smoke detectors, foul smell in hall ways, staff very dismissive of our complaints. Tour rep agreed that the room was not of the standard her company would want to use. The food was not edible and was precooked several hours before it was served. All in all this was the worst hotel we have been in and it ruined all our holiday. We have sent letters of complaint to tour operator, as the part we were accommodated in was not fit to be classed as suitable accommodation to 3 star rating.