New Generation Hotel Riviera Mare

The Sand Begins Where the Terrace Ends

Viserba is the stretch of Rimini that families have come back to for generations, north of the centre, where the seafront is low and the streets behind it are residential rather than commercial. The Riviera Mare sits on the front itself, with the beach starting where the building stops, which on this coast is the distinction that matters. Twenty-eight rooms, a restaurant, a bar, a small wellness room, and a beach that runs flat and shallow for as far as you want to walk it. The house belongs to a small Rimini group rather than a chain, and it shows in the way the place is run.

Why It Works

Direct beach access is the reason, and it is not a small one. With an animal, everything depends on how many doors and roads stand between the room and open ground, and here the answer is none. The second reason is the shape of the coast: Romagna sand is flat, broad and endless, which makes early and late walks easy even in the busy months. The third is the restaurant, which cooks the Adriatic catch and means you can eat well without a drive, an arrangement that matters when there is a dog waiting upstairs. Add private parking and the logistics of a week here almost disappear.

Why This Location

Viserba puts you outside the noise of central Rimini while staying on the same seafront. The old town, the Tiberius bridge and the Roman arch are a short bus or bike ride south; Italia in Miniatura is two kilometres inland and the exhibition centre about two and a half, which makes the address as practical for a trade fair as for a holiday. Behind the coast, the Romagna hills and the small hill towns are half an hour away by car. The Rimini coast is also unusually organised about dogs on the beach, with bathing concessions that take them, so it is worth asking the hotel which stretch to use before you arrive.

Fast Facts

• Price: Mid-range

• Vibe: Adriatic seafront, family Romagna, straightforward

• Rooms: twenty-eight, sea-view and classic, in double, triple and quadruple configurations

• Best For: families, travellers with a dog, long flat beach weeks, trade-fair stays

• Our Favorite Thing About the Hotel: the beach starts at the building, so the first walk of the day needs no road and no car

• Dining: restaurant specialising in seafood, breakfast and bar service, room service, packed lunches and barbecue facilities

• Amenities: private parking, jacuzzi and sauna, beachfront position, bike outings arranged through the group, animals accepted

• Attractions: the Viserba seafront, Italia in Miniatura about two kilometres inland, the Rimini exhibition centre, the old town and the Tiberius bridge to the south

Rooms Facing the Water

The rooms divide simply into sea-view and classic, and each type comes as a double, a triple or a quadruple, which is the arrangement a family coast expects. The sea-view rooms are the ones worth the difference, not for the photograph but because they put the beach in front of you when you open the shutters, and because they are the ones that make the early morning outing a thirty-second business. Furnishing is plain and practical. Air conditioning, a bar downstairs, and sand two steps away.

Seafood, and the Small Wellness Room

The kitchen is built around the Adriatic, which in Romagna means fish cooked simply and served in quantity, with breakfast and a bar carrying the rest of the day. There is a wellness corner with a jacuzzi and a sauna rather than a full spa, which suits a house of this size and is welcome after a long day in the wind. Barbecue facilities and packed lunches are available, which tells you something useful about the kind of stay the hotel expects: long days outside, meals arranged around them.

What to Know Before You Book

Say that an animal is coming when you reserve, and ask about the beach concession at the same time, because the rules vary from one stretch of sand to the next along this coast. Ask for a sea-view room if the budget allows. Parking is private, which is worth a great deal in a seafront town in season. And bear in mind the rhythm of the Romagna coast: it is busy in high summer and very quiet either side, and the quiet months are the better ones with a dog.