121-Suite Park Hyatt Taormina Coming To Sicily, Opening 2028

I actually wouldn't love this location? Taormina is a pretty awesome town (although I was there pre White Lotus) and this is outside that town. It's not just down the hill but set fairly far away. You would get more of the ocean vibe I guess although it doesn't seem like there's a great beach there. I think you'd be pretty disappointed staying in this location unless your goal is to never leave property.

I have no idea why someone would go to Italy (and to Sicily, of all the places in Italy) only to stay in some soulless, corporate property.

Paying that sort of money to stay so far from the town itself would not remotely appeal to me.

Agreed, and going to somewhere like Sicily to just stay in your hotel seems daft to me. I’m sure they’ll find customers, but it wouldn't be me even if I was spending that kind of money.

Taormina is a shopping mall now. There are a dozen more gorgeous, peaceful, and authentic places to stay on Sicily that don't revolve around one densely crowded shopping street.

Many tourists stop in for an afternoon, on the trek to see Etna and the "Godfather" locations in Savoca. And an hour is sufficient.

Good try from the Hyatt marketing team for saying this property is located in Taormina. I've been to Taormina several times and I can tell you this hotel is not even close to Taormina in terms of how people get around in Taormina. You either walk from your hotel to the city center (like if you stay at the Four Seasons or Belmond Grand Timeo) or you stay by the beach where the Belmond Villa Sant'Andrea is located and take a 2 minute funicular up to the city center. This Park Hyatt property is located in Sant'Alessio Siculo, a 30 minute drive (with no traffic) to Taormina which is well known to be impossible to find a parking spot. So, if you stay at this property you will need to probably take a 30+ minute shuttle into town and then back to the hotel which is not the same as staying in Taormina.

The way things are going for the Hyatt construction in Rome. I would not expect the hotel opening before 2030.

I've been to Taormina many times before and after White Lotus and I can attest that stupid show destroyed this beautiful city. It used to be a peaceful town full of nice local restaurants and shops, amazing pastry shops, full of Italians and everything for an affordable price. Fast forward to White Lotus and now the place is full of influencers that need to post everything on Instagram, the main street is overcrowded of expensive stores and you can barely walk there anymore. Hotels are crazy expensive, restaurants are overpriced and overrated and local businesses are suffering. I have known the owner of a fantastic pastry shop there for years and she shared with me that in the past people would go to her store to buy pastries and enjoy local food. They spend time at the store trying different sets, ordering a coffee and hangin there for a while. Now, tourists enter, take a picture, post on Instagram and leave the place without buying anything. So, the store is overcrowded but nobody buys anything.

By 'marketing' team, you mean 'lying' team, right?

*in Sicily. Sicily is talked about and thought of more of a region/destination than an island, so it's weird to use the preposition "on."

What a pity. More nouveau riche and entitled 1%'s descending on this magical island, which has so much more to offer than Taormina alone. Taormina is not what it used to be and there's so much more to see beyond it.

Global 1%... roughly $1 million in assets, $100K income/year. Probably about 60 million people worldwide. I donno, that's a lot of people to vilify. Maybe you meant 1/10th of 1%? I'd say, things start to get interesting in the deca-millionaires category (we can throw some shade their way; most of them got it through passive income and generational wealth anyway; not hard-labor.)

It's an island. "On" is grammatically correct in English. Nothing weird about proper usage of written language.

It's not a matter of how it's "thought of" as a region. It remains an island.

I’ve been touring Sicily with points for the past 3 weeks. Been here plenty of times before. It’s challenging using points as not a ton of good corporate brand hotels.

Had a good stay at Piccolo Etna by Hilton and decent stay (but bad breakfast) at Hilton Terradamari in Modica a Mare (has a beach club). Mr/Mrs Smith in Mandranova was decent as well but poor Hyatt redemption. Just OK Accor redemption at Mercure Palermo.

BTW Taormina was touristy back over 20 years ago! We just did a day visit this trip and drove in and parked easily. Way too crowded and pricey for my taste but if money or points were no object? Ok then!

I'm curious, why is the recent linguistic standard established on this blog of describing properties as having a certain number of 'keys' as apposed to rooms, now abandoned when the property is all suites?

Using the industry lingo makes the article cool, I suppose 🙂

Only American One-Percenters are entitled. Don't you know that? 🙂

Entitled to what? /s

Ugh, sicily.

The concept of "keys" was introduced as a common denominator for properties offering a mix of rooms and suites. If a hotel is an all-suite one, why wouldn't Ben clearly state that? What a strange thing to nitpick on.

The White Lotus did Taormina (and Sicily) no favors. Lived in Sicily from 1991-1993 courtesy of my father's Naval career and despite it being a favorite haunt of Princess Diana it was never terribly busy, even if it was still very touristy. Hyatt should've focused on Sorrento on the mainland instead of trying to capitalize on the buzz from TWL.

Sicilians have never been particularly friendly towards stereotypical Americans - you definitely have to show yourself to be a gracious visitor - otherwise they will be openly disdainful of you.