Apulia Hotel Baia dei FaraglioniResort

We stayed here for just one night during our tour of Puglia. The hotel is quite large and very much a resort-style place. Very clean and very high level of service, with friendly and helpful staff, porters and people who drive you to and from your car in a golf buggy! Our room was fairly standard. Nice, but no better than other rooms we stayed in during our trip in much cheaper places. We paid about €240 for the night (cheapest available option, it was a Saturday, booked a couple of weeks ahead). Air con very effective. Basic toiletries provided. We had a private balcony. The facilities were great, with a pool outdoors, a spa, and half of the bay reserved for the hotel guests during the day. I think the bay is meant to be public, but the two hotels have sort of taken over with all the sun loungers and parasols. I hear this has happened a lot around Puglia. There is a bit a few metres round the corner that doesn't have the loungers and you can go there for free. However, you must pay if you want to use the loungers (even as a hotel guest), I can't remember how much now. Towels are provided. There are toilets by the beach. There is also an outdoor shower where you can rinse off. We spent one day on the beach and it was lovely there. The water was warm and inviting. It's a pebble beach and the pebbles get incredibly hot, so bring something to walk to the sea from your seat! I think there was WiFi available too, can't quite remember. We didn't actually use the pool because we were only there one night, so can't comment on that. There was a wedding or party on the first night we arrived (a Saturday), and the music was loud late into the night. We had dinner at the hotel restaurant, and it was absolutely delicious. We sat outside. It was quite windy so we had to be careful of light things flying off, and there were some wasps about. But the service and the food were fantastic. I wouldn't say the hotel is good value for money necessarily, because although it has a lot of facilities, most of them you have to pay extra for anyway (eg, restaurant, sun loungers, spa treatments). I know this is standard, but the cost here was a lot higher than we paid elsewhere for similar places in Puglia. The breakfast was really great though, probably the best of our trip. There were a lot of staff, so probably the cost is for the high quality service they provide. I recommend also going down to the beach for a night swim, when nobody else is there. In terms of location, it's situated right on Baia Della Zagare, with one other, mostly likely identical, hotel. We didn't venture out from the hotel grounds during our stay since we were only there 24 hours, but I don't think there's anything very nearby except the next beach along the coast. Not accessible without a car. Good for a bit of luxury for a short time.