This is a hotel and location of contrasts and on overall balance we reckon it is worth using but you do need to be aware of all points.
The 50 rooms are over three floors, we were on the top floor, ensure you do not get room 103 as it is adjacent to an open door that overlooks the road and traffic noise may be a problem. A/C is fitted but not always available, it is turned on at management discretion, possibly to conserve power? Rooms are spotless and would appear to be recently upgraded with good furniture and equipment.
Cuisine is always a challenge, this hotel primarily caters for the self drive German holday maker and so the breakfast suits that taste. Always a good spread of the usual continental breakfast bits but do not expect a full english as it is not an option. Bolied eggs are provided, good bread yoghurts and fruit it was very plentiful.
Evening meal is four course: Salad buffet, soup or pasta portion, meat or fish with a vegetable!! yes one vegetable, dessert. Drinks package provides copious drinks with evening meal. We asked for aletentaives for the main course ona couple of dates and got them ie omelette. You order your evening meal from the daily selector on the breakfast table. Brits found it challenging, Germans ok and for me i was fine with it but my wife had to have the alternatives as there was no standard veggie option.
Waiter service was excellent.
You use an allocated table for each meal so you do not have the scrum for table locations, this was excellent.
Dinning room is basic, lounge is basic.
Sun areas are great and pool is ok for the size of the hotel.
Guests tend to be maturer so no problems with noise etc on terraces etc.
This hotel is a 20 minute walk from the town only if you are an olympic hill walker! Yes it is a nice walk but will be closer to 30 minutes for most people at the hotel. the return will be 40 minutes unless you want to have a breather. Access is down a very steep set of steps, from reception level we counted 135 steps or along the main road for 200m then down to the pedestrain route. 100m of the road has no path and is on a bend so extreme care i needed.
Evening meal is completed by 8.30 so then there is a serious decison what to do next. Take walk into town or not! We did on three out of seven nights. Limone also puts on events on the promenade during the summer and was a great little place.
This was our first time to Garda and we will go back and are seriously considering the Hotel Villa Dirce becaue overall it is worth it.
Yes you will find places closer to the action what little action there is in quiet Limone, other hotels will have better meals, Villa Dirce is clean compact quiet and has great views.
Any one going to Garda to use the water will need to make sure you have water proof shoes like sailborad shoes or flip flops to get to the water edge. The beaches are nothing more than places where the water meets the land and are covered with sharp stone chippings which are tough on the feet! Get into the water it is well worth it!!
We tried the restuarant Al Pirata as suggested and it was ok as a typical Italian ristorante.

Luckily our transfer bus took the motorway into Limone from the airport rather than the scenic views around the lake as I was told it took more than 3 hours that way.

The hotel was in a lovely setting with fantastic views across the lake from both the bedrooms and the dining room. Our room was very comfortable although we were directly under dining room which was quite noisy at half 5 in the morning when the staff began getting ready for breakfast.

If you want a peacful holiday relaxing around the pool then this is it, everyone seems to disappear during the day and I found most days we were the only ones around the pool.

OK, the bad points. Breakfast was boring, the same food every day, bread rolls, ham, cheese, yogurt, cereal and boiled eggs. There was nothing to eat at lunch time and as the weather was so hot it made for a very long walk to the nearest restaurant. The evening meal was disappointing, very unimaganitive. We did eat out twice during the week and found a brilliant place called La Parata which did the most amazing pasta dishes and pizzas.

It was quite along way into Limone itself, but it was worth it, the bars along the front are lovely and very cooling in the evening breeze. Some of the older guests felt a bit stranded in the hotel as the walk into Limone was long and quite hilly.

I personally wouldn't go back to this hotel purely because of the food. I also think that if they changed the food then this would make a nice 4* hotel.

We have just returned from Limone where we stayed at the Hotel Villa Dirce for a week. The views afforded by the position of the Hotel were simply breathtaking. We looked across the Lake towards Malcesine (definitely worth a visit - if only for the cable car ride up the mountain) and to our right there was Limone which is a most beautiful resort. The walk to Limone is about 25 minutes and quite hilly but a taxi is relatively cheap. The rooms were very clean and comfortable and our balcony (which was one of the largest) was extremely well equipped with a table and two chairs, sunlounger and a sun chair. We spent quite a lot of our time there just enjoying the view. The staff were absolutely excellent and there really is no other word to describe them.

The hotel offers a swimming pool with sun loungers, a plunge pool on a completely different level and a sun terrace which, again, affords wonderful views across the Lake. There was no entertainment in the evenings which was a pity but we still enjoyed ourselves chatting to the other guests.

The dining room is impressive since it has large windows (almost doors) and the view is just wonderful. We were extremely fortunate as our table was positioned right in the window and we enjoyed watching the sun set and I remember being very excited as there was a full moon which reflected right across the Lake. I shall never forget it.

The dining room, the hotel and the wonderful staff were badly let down by the unimaginative food which was served. If you are the type of person who likes to sleep in do so because if you miss breakfast quite honestly you haven't missed much. Every day breakfast was the same: bread rolls, jams, cheese slices, salami, ham, yogurt (the same strawberry yogurt every single morning), cornflakes, muesli - oh one day out of the seven we were there we did have a hard boiled egg. The coffee was dreadful. We bought ours and drank it on the terrace. The evening meal was quite frankly bland and boring. There was little variation. We are very frequent visitors to Italy and this menu is not what we have become accustomed to at all. Dinner is not something to look forward to in this hotel. Such a great pity as the waiters were Croatian and were wonderful. The service offered by the staff was without doubt the best we have ever encountered. We are sure that if this hotel could improve its food it would become a 4* as opposed to its current 3* status.