Praia Art Resort

Personnel aimable mais un peu débordé

We are on a Puglia and Calabria road trip and Praia Art was our second stop, from the moment we arrived everything was professionally done, our luggage was taken care of, we had a warm and friendly greeting, welcome drink by the beautiful beach and sea was a very nice touch, great recommendations for where to visit, all of this before we entered our beautiful sea view suite. We stayed three nights and wish we had stayed longer. The cabana you are given at check in becomes yours for the duration of the stay so it’s very easy to come and go on the beach as you please. All the staff are exceptionally well trained, new staff in the restaurant eager to please too. We ate in the restaurant every night and the food and wine and prices were all excellent. The staff are warm and friendly and this rubs off on hotel guests with people chatting and welcoming. Breakfast buffet is a little slow as you need to select your food, but no real hardship. Checkout was easy and straightforward. We would confidently recommend this hotel to our friends and family and we will be back for sure.

Fantastic.

Great resort! Good location,Fancy, Quiet, We enjoyed our stay our quarters was a suite with a bath located outside the room. excellent food!

Our experience at the hotel was wonderful. The rooms are decorated with great taste and artistic flair ,truly impressive. The housekeeping staff did an outstanding job, everything was spotless. On the other hand, the restaurant and room service could use some improvement, especially during breakfast.
Honestly, I was going to give 4 stars, but I’m adding a fifth one for the hotel boutique, which felt like a small museum. The gentleman there introduced us to all the local products with detailed explanations and great attention to detail.
We would have loved to take the boat tour, but it was a bit windy on our last day, so we decided to save it for our next visit — and we’ll definitely be back!!😊

Hotel Room:
Our room was spotless and very well maintained. The housekeeping was excellent, and the beds were absolutely fantastic – large, comfortable, and perfect for a restful night’s sleep. The only minor issue was with the outdoor lighting, but this was fixed immediately after we reported it at the front desk.

Reception & Service:
The reception staff were extremely friendly and attentive, always greeting us warmly and eager to help.

Hotel Grounds:
The entire property is beautifully maintained, very clean, and gives a luxurious impression throughout.

Beach & Beach Bar:
The beach is cleaned daily and looks pristine. The sunbeds are wonderfully comfortable, offering plenty of shade and a perfect spot to relax. The beach bar is modern, clean, and service is friendly. Prices for drinks are on the high side, but no more than what you’d pay in the center of a major Western European city.

Breakfast:
Breakfast is tasty with a good variety, but unfortunately there’s no buffet. We would have preferred being able to help ourselves instead of asking for every little thing. Items like scrambled eggs are charged extra, which feels a bit unreasonable given the overall price level.

Restaurant:
The food itself is very good, fresh, and of high quality. However, the service does not live up to the 5-star standard – the staff clearly try hard, but they lack the training to serve food and drinks in a confident and professional way. This was a bit of a disappointment considering the prices.

Overall:
If you’re not overly concerned about budget and are willing to overlook a few shortcomings, this resort is absolutely worth a stay. By Northern European standards, we would rate it 4 stars, with potential for 4-star-superior if the service were brought up to an international level.

Fantastic experience that was recommended to us by Elena during our visit to Venice. The secluded beach was serene and the staff friendly and accommodating. There is a Michelin rated restaurant on the premises. No need to go anywhere else. We stayed, relaxed and were pampered by the staff.

We stayed at Praia this past week as travelers from the US. There are not many (if any) travelers from the US visiting this property, which makes it feel more authentic to the area but more difficult to navigate if you’re not comfortable with using translation apps. Very minimal English is spoken at the resort - which is okay with us, but could be intimidating to some.

Our room - 301 - was amazing. The set up is perfect for a couple. Gorgeous, private yard with a pool and another gorgeous sitting area in the back (that we didn’t even use!). The unit has 2 full bathrooms, the bed is very comfortable and the closet has amazing space to open your bag and unpack.

On the downside, the room does feel very dark and there is minimal lighting especially in the bathrooms. The lights don’t feel well placed, especially with no lighting in the shower at all.

Towels were minimally stocked - only 1 per person. And no towels were given at all for the pool. We had to steal them from the beach every day. This just feels sloppy. If the unit has a pool, towels should be stocked and refreshed.

This trend continued at the resort pool. There were no towels at all at the resort pool. Additionally, the pool is not set up well. There are only 4 (massively uncomfortable) pool loungers. The rest of the pool is set up with dining tables. Given there is no restaurant or service at the pool, other than breakfast, we did not get this. It made using the resort pool awkward and annoying.

One thing we absolutely loved is that you get a lounge bed assigned to your room at the beach. There is no fighting over space and everyone has their own bed. It’s great. We’ve never seen this at a hotel and loved this feature.

The food and service is the reason we are giving this hotel such a low rating.

The hotel is isolated from town. Nothing is walkable except a few small stores in the neighborhood. There is no hotel shuttle at all, which we strongly feel should be an option to get into La Castella and the neighboring towns. The cabs are expensive (20 euro to go 3 miles into town!). La Castella is an adorable town with many restaurants and a gorgeous castle. The locals were so friendly - shout out to our fave restaurants Tippico & Piccante and Donna Carmela. Amazing food and the locals were so friendly!

The surrounding neighborhood is like a family resort. It feels run down and isn’t very well cared for. There are really no sidewalks and walking around is difficult with speeding cars and trucks blowing down the streets. We like to walk and hike around our hotel in the mornings and this resort was not set up for that at all.

In addition to the isolation, the restaurant hours and food options are not convenient for international guests. The breakfast is open 7:30-10:30 and then nothing is available until 12:30. The restaurant that opens at 12:30 is the only restaurant on property and it is very formal with a limited menu. After it closes at 3:30, there is nothing else available until dinner which is just a larger version of the lunch menu. The food and drinks are VERY expensive. The food is good at the restaurant but there’s no way a guest could do 2 meals per day there for a stay at the hotel. They need a more casual service at the pool with pizza, panini and salads. The quality of the breakfast was pretty terrible on the kitchen menu. The selections of meats, fruits and cheeses were great but there eggs were terrible. Eggs aren’t really an Italian thing so maybe they should try making something more typical so it is better quality.

NO ONE ever asked us if we wanted anything during our 4 day stay at the hotel. At one point, we were in the pool and the entire staff including the restaurant manager were sitting at a table at the pool. They walked by us multiple times without even asking if we’d like a drink. This is just crazy to me. There is also no beach service unless you walk up to the bar.

The service was overall pretty bad. The staff was friendly (the gentleman at the breakfast bar and the young lady waiting tables were lovely) but it’s clear that none of them have been trained to work at a luxury resort. The manager is from Sardinia, which next to Calabria, is the worst hotel service we’ve ever had. The hotel needs a real manager from a luxury hotel in an international tourist area if they want to have return guests. They will get people like us once - but the guests will have a similar experience to us and not return. The hotel was very difficult to get to, isolated, and not set up to be a destination on its own. They need to improve the food and hours that food is available, lower the drink prices, add shuttle transportation to neighboring towns, and get some better service. This was a one and done for us. 4 days was way too long and we were very ready to move on.

We stayed at this beautiful resort for five days in July. We loved the architecture and style of the resort. If you appreciate something special, this is the place for you. We were particularly impressed by the restaurant right by the sea with its excellent Italian cuisine. The whole team is extremely friendly and very helpful. We had 5 happy days.

Very enjoyable stay! The hotel is clean and peaceful. The staff are professional and attentive. The beach feels like a swimming pool, with large comfortable mattresses. A big thank you to Adil at the reception, who helped us with our room change and answered all our questions with great kindness and professionalism. Also, a special mention to the gentleman in charge of the beach facilities — thank you!

Extremely pleased from beginning to end
The place is isolated but beautiful and the sea is prestine. Even before arriving Lucha was extremely helpful sending us a taxi to collect us as we were in the wrong train station.
The service was amazing from everyone unfortunately I won’t be able to name everybody as it is hard to remember all their names but for instance Patricia, Andrea, and Alessandro made our meal times very pleasant and the chef Antonio made delicious food. The sommelier Giani Door always gave us good advice with a constant smile. And I forgot to ask the name of a very young waitress that every evening did a brilliant job always predicting what we needed and being extremely kind .
In the beach area Fabio and Fabrizio are two names I remember for their extreme kindness and good humour.
Last but not least Constanzar Lido saved me by being extremely patient and helpful by booking our trains and taxis back as well as printing our boarding passes …..
Also important to mention, the room was very clean and comfortable…. thank you to all the team for an outstanding stay
I cannot wait to go back

Great stay

Spacious room with fantastic bed. The layout is a bit strange with an unusual large tub on the balcony. Beautiful beach. Food was good but not noteworthy. Excellent service all around. The only downside is that the area surrounding the hotel is run down and not welcoming.

This property is not as advertised. We didn’t get a gazebo, double bed at the beach, deck chairs or table, which is what we paid for. No beach bar, this is under construction. Beach service is via the life guard. There was building work throughout the property.

We could hear saws and drills all day long while they were building the beach bar. (Told this would be end June 25) We were not informed there was construction. They are also digging trenches from the property to the beach.

The resort is sandwiched in between local residents. Taxis required.
One restaurant. The Michelin one isn’t open to guests only for private bookings, and appears to have lost its star in 2024.

The shower was over a sunken bath.
Please look at the pictures if you have mobility issues, as you will not be able walk to access it. The bath is knee deep and there is no handrail to step down into the area. I slipped and fell: it was very dangerous and I hurt my back have a massive bruises to look at.

One of the residents next to the resort was having a party all day long which you could hear loudly at the beach on our first day, as their balconies all overlook the resort. For the rest of the week they were building the beach bar.

We Cancelled our second week and got a refund however, they didn’t offer any compensation to being falsely sold on the first week or being injured just a swap of rooms which for the last two nights we couldn’t be both to do.

The best part - food and the restaurant. Food is lovely as is the service but very limited menu. Price is more than reasonable, but, the beer at 8e is 2e in the nearby time so beware the 5 star resort cost for some things. Breakfast was very good. Quiet in the room but the fridge in the room runs all night and right next to the bed so it may keep you awake, it did me but got used to it after a few days. We left coukdnt wait to leave now at a lovely resort outside Tropea with amazing views and a room which we can use.

Beautiful & pretty quiet Hotel, with amazing rooms set in a “Albergo diffuso" style, modern concrete, with private gardens/ yards some included outside pools or baths/hot tubs. Lovely touches like towels for beach, allocated beach loungers/parasol with room number, fantastic beach & pool area and good food and very happy, helpful staff. Negatives- for a 5 star extra touches like a rug and two chairs & maybe a coffee table in room as a lot of space with just concrete floor and one chair. No coffee or milk in room only tea, bed was lop sided and uncomfortable, blind was broken. Seemed under staffed by pool/dinning area waited an hour for food one night. Staff seem to miss a trick by you having to get their attention to order a drink by pool/sea areas, they don't ask you. Only having one restaurant to order from was exhausted after a couple of days. Breakfast was a very slow process as again under staffed, have to queue up to be served and then they charge you extra for things on menu like bacon/pancakes! Area has nothing to offer and can only go anywhere by car. Taxi was very expensive, even just to go 15 minutes to La Castella-Also not enough organised trips, difficult to find where to go, even with extensive research. Again missing a trick here as I would have booked a few tours if it was organised and simple

Overall mixed - on the plus side the beach and pool area were beautiful, one or two of the staff were delightful, but most were fairly average. I know it’s the end of the season…
The posh restaurant was very good, but a tad fussy and for such high prices a bit inflexible.
For an ‘Art’ hotel some of the design was just bad:
our terrace was enclosed and dark
Our bed was on a raised platform, so there was a step down - dangerous in the middle of the night with no light.
One of the outside steps on the way to our room had no light at night, so my husband stumbled on it.
The bathroom was all too tight; you had to go around the door to the loo.
Having 5 stars raises your expectations and to me the room was close to 3 stars.
The hotel did offer us a much nicer room, but it was up 3 flights each of 6-8 stairs, (no lift) but as I had hurt my foot, we declined this.
After entering the estate you drive for a long way, maybe a kilometre, before you reach the hotel there should be a sign saying this.

Wonderful staff, really welcoming and extremely helpful. Room was well designed and everything worked extremely well - lots of storage space and very good shower. Only criticism is that it looked a bit old fashioned.

I liked the peace, each room had its own deckchairs on the beach

We love this resort. Staff is friendly and rooms are made with high quality materials. Only recommendation would be the menu. It’s limited but I would still come back again! Beach is soft do you wanna play soft no shoes necessary!

Excellent stay for our family all around, great smooth service, michelin restaurant was amazing, ate there twice, but the pool restaurant (osteria) was awesome too, loved the beach bar with bartender playing congas. The beach is very close, in fact it is a direct part of the resort, clean, not crowded at all. The boat trip with Salvatore was a cherry on top. We loved our stay. We definitely recommend this resort.