Marenea Suite Hotel - Cdshotels

Wow! Just wow! What an amazing week we had at this hotel. Can’t recommend enough. The hotel is beautiful, set in very pretty grounds. It was quiet, which suited us. The room was spacious, clean and well thought out. Just need more hangers please as have more than 3 outfits!! The pool and hot tub were lovely and well maintained by the lifeguard. Sunbathing on day beds surrounded by trees and flowers. It’s a beautiful setting. The food options were extensive especially at dinner. Think we tried everything whilst there. Highly recommend the orange risotto or the gnocchi. Delicious! But most of all it was the staff. They were just fantastic and made our holiday perfect. Thank you Veronica for being so helpful, friendly and genuine. It was a delight to chat to you each day. Thank you Anna, Carmela and Danilo for assisting us every day. It’s the little things you do that make the stay so enjoyable. And to all the staff. I hope the owners know how good you all are! Would definitely return m, this time with a hire car as fairly remote setting. But walkable to the sea and to the beach club. Both of which were lovely.

Firstly the positives. The staff here are outstanding, truly can’t do enough to help. The pools are small but lovely and sun loungers are always available. Paying extra for a hot tub was worth it, that was a treat in the evening after dinner. The downsides. Privacy is an issue with the sun loungers on the roof as you are directly next to your neighbour. Also unless you have the front suite your view is of other sun loungers. The pool menu is limited, expensive and the the one experience of the food on it put me off eating in the hotel. The salad for 19 euros was dreadful. Plain, no dressing, tasteless. The pasta was better but expensive. Other options to eat locally are limited; a nearby cocktail bar ten mins walk away is mainly good for a drink; food was expensive and wouldn’t suit a family, more of a young hip crowd there going for drinks. The plan was to walk to Castro but the road is closed (has been since winter) meaning that trips to restaurants have to be by car. Beaches are either a very busy public one ten mins away where you will fight for a corner to sit or a beach club slightly further away where you’ll pay 35€ for a pair of sun loungers. To be fair we didn’t try here as paying 70€ for a family when you had the pools on site at the hotel seemed a lot of extra expense. Maybe this is a hotel for honeymooners but not for a family who want to walk to local amenities.

Beautiful property and rooms. We had wonderful service from all staff from concierge (Lorenzo and Marta), wait staff and housekeeping. The breakfast is included and was wonderful; the restaurant overlooks the sea. Not many restaurants close by…. But just a 10 minute drive to beautiful Castro and you will have great food. We loved eating at la grotto del conte.

We spent 5 nights here in a superior suite, loved it. The service really was unbeatable, our hire car broke down while we were there, they did everything to help us- contacted the car company, arranged the replacement etc. They had buggies to drive us down to the beach and beach club- both gorgeous, beach club perfect place to settle in for the day with shade etc, and a short walk along the boardwalk to the public beach which is the best place to swim. Breakfast was lovely. The resort itself felt beautifully quiet even though it was full, bungalows are luxuriously spaced and surrounded by gardens full of olive trees. Pool in the resort is nice and beautiful little daybeds throughout the garden to relax. The general location of the resort is fantastic, this area is the best coastline in Puglia. Only real downsides were 1) the restaurant in the hotel was not great for dinner, so you're best to go out for dinner, but Castro (10min drive) has some fantastic places and is beautiful, 2) There seemed to be some issues probably associated with being in a fairly rural area- major problems with power/internet, the internet was down for 2-3 days of our stay and the power went off completely two nights, causing some weird problems with lights all going on in the middle of the night and the aircon had to be reset several times, but the staff were super helpful in fixing that pretty fast. Overall, a wonderful stay in a beautiful area, perfect to explore the southern part of Puglia- you MUST have a car if you're staying here- there's very little within walking distance. But driving down the coastline towards Leuca stopping at the little grottas and beaches along the way for a day was such a highlight- and once you get to Leuca (40min), get a boat tour of the caves. Magical.