One of the main advantages of the hotel is its geographical location. The view of the sea, the rocks is awesome. You don't even have to overpay for a Deluxe Sea View room: the hotel territory is quite large, the views from everywhere are gorgeous, and there is always the opportunity to sit on the terrace at a table with a glass of aperol or wine (you can buy either at the hotel bar or in the store, which is about 12 minutes walk from the hotel).
As for the room itself, we were very pleased with it. We had a Deluxe Sea View room, they come in two types here - on the ground floor (without a balcony, but with a great patio) and on the second floor (with a huge balcony). We got a room with a patio. The rooms with Side View also have a balcony, but it is absolutely tiny - it is difficult to accommodate two people there. The rooms are very clean, bright, with modern new furniture, very comfortable bed. Cleaning was done every day. We have no complaints about its quality, however, the linen was changed for us only 1 time per week. The room has a safe, a tiny refrigerator (barely 2 bottles of wine will fit, and even then in a horizontal position) and an LCD TV, but it worked poorly for us (the signal was constantly interrupted, it was not very comfortable to watch it). The problem was not reported because we did not need a TV. Wi-Fi works, but very poorly. The phone in the room didn't work at all. The shower is very nice and comfortable - the shower stall is large, the water pressure is strong, there were no problems with adjusting the water temperature.
There are no complaints about the hotel staff. Everyone was very friendly, the waiters were very friendly and nice, they always came to meet us and pleased us. None of them speaks Russian, but we spoke Italian and English.
The hotel is actually located in the village, there are only the same hotels in the neighborhood. In the evening, after sunset, there is not much place to walk. There is one small supermarket (OK, there are two) - about 12-15 minutes on foot from the hotel (go steeply uphill) - you can buy everything there, from cheese, wine and olive oil to local canned food, newspapers and souvenirs. About 20-25 minutes on foot is the Rikadi railway station, trains run once an hour. We went to Tropea (10 minutes), Nicotera (15 minutes) and Pizzo (40 minutes), but you can also get further - to Reggio Calabria or Scilla (but it takes about 2 hours, and with a transfer). I would like to note that the ticket offices at the station did not work, and tickets had to be bought either via the Internet or through a travel agency located on the way to the station (but they charge a commission of 1.5 euros per person, while a ticket to Tropea costs 1.2 euros).
Now about the beaches and the road to them. We chose this place and this hotel precisely for the famous Groticelli beach - when I saw his photo on the Internet, I decided that we needed to come here. In reality, everything turned out exactly as I imagined - the purest azure water, good sandy beaches. We had a rest in late September-early October - and it was absolutely wonderful here. The water is about 24-25 degrees, there are very few people (it was already out of season). There are large stones in the water, but not everywhere, i.e. it seems to me that special slippers are not necessary to wear (you can choose approaches where it is convenient without them). Despite the fact that the Blue Bay Hotel is the first line, it was still necessary to get to the beach (because the hotel stands on a cliff). This can be done on a special free shuttle - but it has its own schedule. On foot: there is a long and comfortable road (the one on which the shuttle is traveling, it will take about 10-12 minutes on foot) and a short but more dangerous one (going down directly from the cliff is exactly how we went, both there and back, but I would not recommend it to people of age).
And finally, about food. We took full board - breakfast, lunch and dinner. To put it briefly, the food was more than passable for our very whimsical taste. That is, I did not experience any kind of super-enthusiasm for the local food, but nevertheless I rolled out of the restaurant almost like a bun every time (we had all the service according to the buffet system - only on the very first day dinner was on the menu). Something was delicious, something was not very good. That is, the impression is very contradictory, and I will not openly scold the food. There have always been different types of pasta from hot for lunch and dinner - but this is not exactly the kind of pasta that can cause gastronomic delight. Pasta is like pasta, even for some reason not al dente. There were delicious fish, once they cooked swordfish, once there was a delicious stewed prosciutto (I understood that every Wednesday there are "hotel days" when the menu becomes very rich and interesting). There are always fruits (but not in abundance, and not always delicious: the peaches were wooden, the melon was unsweetened - but the pineapples and grapes are the most excellent), a lot of pastries (but never delicious). The dinner included free wine (white, red, pink) without restrictions - it was in principle tolerable, but it is much better to take a bottle of Ciro for 10 euros in the hotel bar (in the store it is from 5 to 7 euros) - it will definitely be better. Well, I will express most of the negativity only in relation to breakfast. They were always the same for all 7 days: the same cereals, the same yogurt, boiled eggs, a tasteless omelet with sausages and bacon, several types of croissants (medium in taste) and other tasteless pastries. Coffee from a coffee machine, tea bags, some kind of chemical juices. In general, on the 6th day, I was sick of these breakfasts. But there was no special alternative in this regard.
In general, the main disadvantages are summarized in two points:
1) Monotonous and rather meager breakfasts (well, in principle, the quality of the food could have been better overall)
2) The absence of any entertainment on site, such as elementary ping-pong or billiards (after sunset, you can only sit on the hotel grounds and drink wine, because there is nowhere to walk here)
However, despite these disadvantages (actually quite minor), I could safely recommend the hotel. We were very satisfied with our stay, and we could choose this hotel again.