laurenmiadad
Earning My Ears
- Joined
- May 10, 2010
- Messages
- 14
We recently returned from our spectacular ABD Alpine Magic Adventure and wanted to share a report as I found this site invaluable in preparing for our trip.
I'll post as many pictures as the site will allow in a separate post once I figure out how to get the images from Iphoto into this thread
This was our first ABD experience and this trip truly exceeded all of our expectations. We were a party of five
We arrived in Venice several days before the adventure and had a spectacular time soaking in a really cool part of the world. This allowed us to get over jet lag and start the ABD trip off relatively fresh and acclimated to the time change.
We took a train from Venice to Milan and then from Milan to Stressa. The train station was only a few blocks from the Regina Palace and was actually a fairly easy walk even with our rolling luggage.
Marco and Maddie greeted us in the lobby with their cheerful and helpful personalities. They were very tuned in to a families needs by making our two kids feel at ease and welcome. They quickly gave us an overview of the local restaurants, things to do in our free time and oriented us to the hotel and where we would be meeting later that evening for our reception. After this quick intro to ABD we checked in to our two rooms and headed out to check out Stressa
The rooms were more than adequate for us and actually much larger than we anticipated based on our assumption that European hotel rooms were much smaller than those in the states. Each room had a nice balcony looking over the lake and it was obvious that our stay here would be comfortable
We hit the streets of Stressa as we had several hours before the reception. The town is lovely with the center of town being entirely walkable for all ages. This was great given all the fun we had walking in Venice just window shopping, etc. We did some window shopping and tried to get a sense of where the different restaurants Maddie and Marco had listed were located.
We stopped for our now daily vacation day ration of gelato (or two somedays) which we all throughly enjoyed and decided to head back to the hotel.
We had time to spare so we sought out the pool. This pool just blew my kids away. It is below ground level and made to feel as if you are in a grotto. The water was a little on the cold side but other that that just a great poll with all kinds of water misting options, small built in jacuzzi seats, buttons all over the place that create lighting effects/misting effects, etc. They were very excited and we all had a relaxing/fun time
The reception was very nice. All of the groups/families introduced themselves. This was a nice mix of people who were ABD veterans (ranging from one to three prior trips) and ABD first timers. The total number of people was approximately 35 as one family of 5 that was on the guest list they give you was a last minute cancellation
Following the introductions we broke for dinner in the main dining room. The room is very nice with large patio doors/windows that have a view of the lake. The buffet was a nice selection of regional food along with plenty of kid friendly options. There was rather attentive waiter service during the meal and wine was complimentary and a rather nice regional selection
We had a lovely time chatting with a family from Baltimore and the two sets of kids hit things off nicely.
Many of the families were feeling the full impact of jet lag by the end of dinner and went off to get some much needed sleep. We went back to the pool and swam till 9 which was closing time. We all spent some time on our balconies and took in the view of the lake and excitedly read our preview of tomorrow's adventures!!
I'll post as many pictures as the site will allow in a separate post once I figure out how to get the images from Iphoto into this thread
This was our first ABD experience and this trip truly exceeded all of our expectations. We were a party of five
We arrived in Venice several days before the adventure and had a spectacular time soaking in a really cool part of the world. This allowed us to get over jet lag and start the ABD trip off relatively fresh and acclimated to the time change.
We took a train from Venice to Milan and then from Milan to Stressa. The train station was only a few blocks from the Regina Palace and was actually a fairly easy walk even with our rolling luggage.
Marco and Maddie greeted us in the lobby with their cheerful and helpful personalities. They were very tuned in to a families needs by making our two kids feel at ease and welcome. They quickly gave us an overview of the local restaurants, things to do in our free time and oriented us to the hotel and where we would be meeting later that evening for our reception. After this quick intro to ABD we checked in to our two rooms and headed out to check out Stressa
The rooms were more than adequate for us and actually much larger than we anticipated based on our assumption that European hotel rooms were much smaller than those in the states. Each room had a nice balcony looking over the lake and it was obvious that our stay here would be comfortable
We hit the streets of Stressa as we had several hours before the reception. The town is lovely with the center of town being entirely walkable for all ages. This was great given all the fun we had walking in Venice just window shopping, etc. We did some window shopping and tried to get a sense of where the different restaurants Maddie and Marco had listed were located.
We stopped for our now daily vacation day ration of gelato (or two somedays) which we all throughly enjoyed and decided to head back to the hotel.
We had time to spare so we sought out the pool. This pool just blew my kids away. It is below ground level and made to feel as if you are in a grotto. The water was a little on the cold side but other that that just a great poll with all kinds of water misting options, small built in jacuzzi seats, buttons all over the place that create lighting effects/misting effects, etc. They were very excited and we all had a relaxing/fun time
The reception was very nice. All of the groups/families introduced themselves. This was a nice mix of people who were ABD veterans (ranging from one to three prior trips) and ABD first timers. The total number of people was approximately 35 as one family of 5 that was on the guest list they give you was a last minute cancellation
Following the introductions we broke for dinner in the main dining room. The room is very nice with large patio doors/windows that have a view of the lake. The buffet was a nice selection of regional food along with plenty of kid friendly options. There was rather attentive waiter service during the meal and wine was complimentary and a rather nice regional selection
We had a lovely time chatting with a family from Baltimore and the two sets of kids hit things off nicely.
Many of the families were feeling the full impact of jet lag by the end of dinner and went off to get some much needed sleep. We went back to the pool and swam till 9 which was closing time. We all spent some time on our balconies and took in the view of the lake and excitedly read our preview of tomorrow's adventures!!
If you don't mind me asking yet another question, how did you get from the airport in Venice to your hotel, and which hotel did you stay at or would recommend...we are a family of 5, so will need 2 rooms. Thanks!
