Hotel Aurora

Great location overlooking a bay and the sea; however, not all rooms (in fact, only a small minority) has views onto it. There is parking right in front of the building, at a charge; there is further parking on the premises for a slightly lower charge. No advance reservation – you have to ask at check-in. You will be greeted by a well-staffed, friendly, multilingual, efficient and helpful reception. Rooms are reached via elevators; there are not enough of them, so many guests use the opens stairs instead. The rooms come in different sizes; my “superior” room had a good size, with a desk, a small seating area, and still enough space to move around. There is also a proper wardrobe and a cabinet – you should find enough space to store your clothing… The interior design has light timber imitations and muted colours, giving a fresh, mediterranean feel. The “superior” rooms are on the top floor and could in principle have a sea view; however, only those close to the central building do have them – for the rest, trees are blocking the view (but it feels like you are in a tree house, overlooking a sea of trees…). The balcony was spacious. A little tip for the views: If your room does not have one, try the landings of the stairs; there are seating areas there, which provide the desired view. The beds are good, if a bit hard; there is only one pillow type (but you have two for each person). Free beach towels are provided; sunbeds at the (public) beach come at a charge. My bathroom had a good size, and enough space for toiletries. Mine had a bathtub that can be used as a shower; due to the frame it was quite awkward to get in – I wonder how older people would manage… The free WiFi was working well. Note that the air-conditioning switches off when balcony door is open (energy- and carbon-saving measure). Windows are equipped with roller shutters; they keep the light out completely, but also any fresh air, so best to keep on at least a crack open. It is quiet at night (well, you hear the sea and the seagulls…), so in principle good sleeping conditions. In the morning (7.30 h to 10 h), you have access to a large breakfast buffet; a lot of the food is average quality, but there are ‘little gems’ of better quality – they are there somewhere, you just have to find them... You can also have a buffet dinner, either as part of your booking, or bought individually at the reception; as an alternative, you can also get a 10% discount at the restaurants of the chain, for example the beach restaurant next door, if you reserve through the reception. Other restaurants exist, but are a distance away (eg ½ h walk), with difficult car access (-＞ no parking; pedestrianised zones).

This was our fifth year in Aurora. Location is great, on the beach, walking trail along the sea to Čikat or all the way to Mali Lošinj. You can also take a little train to Mali Lošinj or use the walking trail through the woods, about 3 km one way. Yes, some renovating would not hurt, but all that you forget, because peple who are working there compensate for any remark, objection you might have. Restaurant, beach, cleaning staff- all the employees are amazing, at your service. And of course, the variety of food for dinner... We really feel good at Aurora, hope to see you again!

No hotel on the world is perfect. Guests are grateful when they see kindness and hardworking stuff. Aurora has such people. This is the main reason for repeated visits. Any writing after one overnight stay or after one good or bad experience is just subjective opinion. Aurora has good and bad sides. Best is cleanliness. They are cleaning from early morning, not just rooms and corridors, also stairs, gardens, any fence or painting frame. Second good thing is location – it includes good view and trees all around. Black side is problem with parking. Some reserved places are expensive; if you are lucky, some places are free. Rooms are standard, but clean. There is a small fridge and TV. Wifi is working. Rooms have standard bathrooms. Food is good and really diverse. It is good for any taste, also for vegetarians, fresh food eaters and others. Sometimes it is not warm enough. It is always self-service. Waiters are helpful, women more than man. Problems are guests. You can find really greedy guests without any etiquette. Age is not a problem. Young or old guests are the same. Beach is clean, with rocky or sandy parts – it is about 110 steps from the ground floor. Sunbeds and parasols are expensive. Similar is with excursions – they are same each year and expensive. Each trip costs 50 €. There are some other transport problems with visiting Mali Lošinj. Little train is expensive for ten minutes of drive. Family will pay 12 or more euros just for one way. Reception is working smoothly. Guests miss a visit and a smile form the manager or at least the manager of the restaurant. Evening events are poor and some evenings have no entertainment at all. It si not as it was years ago.

No doubt the location is amazing with the beach etc, but the hotel itself is very average at best and extremely overpriced for what you get. The hotel is very basic and bland. The breakfast buffet is one of the worst I’ve experienced and everything just seemed hard work. I’ve stayed in better 2 star hotels. The restaurants around the beach area were very good to be fair.

This was our second time in Aurora, and my fourth. The hotel and the position of it is nice, I like that it is near sea. The staff is kind and nice, and the entertainment programe on the terrace is nice as well, especially one night during our stay we were listening to some trio ban/group. It was one girl singing, and two men (one drummer and one guitarist), they were great. But, this year I was disaapointed with food (breakfast, we only had that included. The choice od food was great, but everything taste the same. I remember the previous years, it was way way better. This year they started to charge the hotel parking which I haven’t seen yet in other places, but okay that’s the hotel policy. Another thing is the pool, smaller one. This is mostly a guests problem, because the people are rude. Most of the time guests leave their towels at lounge chairs near the pool, and leave for coffee, breakfast etc. They are gone more than half an hour/45 minutes, and when other people come at that exact moment they don’t have a place to put their things because others put theirs and left. Some people are not able to go to the beach for various reasons and then they don’t have a place to put the things and enjoy the pool. So this is just a suggestion for the staff to check the pool more frequently and to enable a place for people who are not reserving their place near the pool. Because the lounge chairs are not paid like on the beach, they are free for everyone. All in all it was okay, most satisfied with personel, especially at the reception and hotel bar!

Stayed here half board for three nights. This is very large hotel which shared facilities with hotel Vespa next door Room- room was nice, air conditioning good, shutters good, no tea and coffee facilities in room. We had a park view which is basically a car park view but not all rooms can face the sea! In fact due to the Pine trees it only looked like the very top floor rooms would have a sea view which would likely come at a premium. A number of the rooms facing us sea are directly over the entertainment area so bear this in mind- great if you want to watch from your room but could be loud above the bar. Location- right above a beautiful bay, 15 min walk from Mali losinj harbour or less than five mins drive. Lovely walks around the bay from the hotel. Parking- problematic. There is free parking but it was pretty much full when you returned after a day out. Basically you can park anywhere out the front of either hotel or up near the road. You can pay extra for their private car park which we did on the last night as couldn’t find a space- peak season I’d imagine you’d have to do this if you don’t want hassle and plan on coming and going a lot. Beach- just stunning. Pebble so take beach shoes. Sun beds and umbrella are 30 kunas each which does mean that you are more likely to find one as we went down in the afternoon and there were still beds available. Pedalo hire etc, beach bar and toilets. Sunsets are magical. Yes there’s a few steps but only an issue if you have mobility impairments. Cikat bay is also beautiful. Food- pretty good. I can imagine it would get repetitive if there for a week but there are other places you can eat (for a price) to change it up. You can sit on the terrace which is lovely but you need to get there early. It did get quite busy towards the weekend so I can imagine peak season there may be queues but it’s a large restaurant. Several coffee machines at breakfast although they did malfunction quite a lot. Sour cherry juice was lush! Staff very friendly. We didn’t check out the spa. The clientele was mainly adults but as the hotel next door is a family hotel and they share facilities there are children around so it’s not adult only. The hotel arrange some excursions but they only had them On a Friday so we couldn’t join them as this was our check out date. Overall I would recommend this hotel