8 Best Luxury Hotels in Puglia
20 years ago you would have found maybe one 5-star hotel in all of Puglia. Oh how times change…
Now, you can find dozens of stylish 4 and 5-star hotels throughout the region. Many of them are housed in converted Masserie which, in Puglia, are large fortified stone farmhouses from the 1800’s. They’re somewhat like the Pugliese equivalent of little castles. These thick-walled beauties have been lovingly restored and very stylishly renovated and now are home to some of Puglia’s best accommodation options as well as the region’s hottest restaurants.
Even at 5-star resorts, the name of the game in Puglia is rustic-chic, so expect lots of stonework, exposed wood, and decorations in blues, greens, and earthy tones. You won’t typically have any jaw-dropping amenities and rooms won’t wow you with their opulence. Instead, you’ll find eclectic styles, sophisticated charm, and elegant, yet casual vibes that exude relaxation.
Puglia is still a rural region and the majority of high-end hotels and resorts are in small towns and open countryside. Because there’s not typically much within walking distance, almost every high-end hotel here has on site restaurants, farm to table gardens, pools, beach clubs, cooking classes, and lots of other amenities to keep guests happy and entertained.
With the exception of 3 hotels we mention in Lecce and Ostuni, everywhere else will require that you have a car rental or be prepared to shell out for a driver/taxi any time you want to go anywhere. Puglia is road trip territory anyways, so you’ll really want a car no matter where you go.
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Table of contents
Masseria Torre Maizza
Palazzo Bozzi Corso
La Fiermontina
Masseria Montelauro
Borgo Canonica
Relais La Sommità
Paragon 700 Boutique Hotel
Borgo Egnazia
Where are Puglia’s best hotels?
The biggest concentrations of 4 and 5-star hotels are in three areas: on the central coast in Savelletri & Monopoli, in fabulous Lecce, and around the charming Itria valley. These are the main places that tourists visit, so it’s no surprise that hoteliers have clustered in them.
Outside of this area, you’ll find a few gorgeous hidden gem properties dotting the Salento countryside and coast, but not much else.
1. Masseria Torre Maizza
Location: Savelletri
Star level: 5-star
Best for: Couples, larger groups
Rough price per night: Varies by season – $400 to $700 USD
5-star Masseria Torre Maizza is located in the Savelletri countryside about 20 minutes south of Monopoli. Alongside Masseria Torre Coccaro, it was for many years part of a stalwart duo in the Savelletri luxury hotel landscape. In a fabulous whitewashed Masseria with a beautiful chapel, Maizza exudes elegance paired with relaxed country charm.
The rooms are pleasant, the grounds are gorgeous and meticulously maintained, and you have all the amenities and services you could need for a 2-5 day stay. The hotel restaurant is pretty good, though not great, and the bar area is a real winner. Breakfast is also one of the best in the area.
In 2019 the Rocco Forte hotel group took over control and did some renovating in addition to a mild rebranding. For guests, very little has changed which is a good thing as the hotel is excellent.
For beach access, the hotel has a deal with the very pleasant Lido Bamboo beach club and guests have open access as well as all-day shuttle service to and from the beach. The beach club has a good restaurant and bar, beach loungers, umbrellas, and water sport rentals. The hotel also has a par-3 golf course that, while nothing to write home about, does let you get in some swings.
The front desk is quite helpful and can arrange tours, drivers, cooking classes, and all sorts of experiences around the region.
Amenities
Wet spa, massages, pool, beach club, restaurant, bar, golf course, transfers/tours, experiences
In terms of amenities, Maizza has a good wet spa (with in-house masseuses), a fabulous pool, a small gym, a spacious restaurant with elegant indoor and outdoor seating areas, and a lovely bar area. When the weather is good, the tower also has a nice rooftop where you can have cocktails.
Nearby sites & attractions
Torre Maizza is in a very convenient location for visiting a whole host of Puglia’s highlights. The hotel is about 20 minutes from the lovely towns of Ostuni, Monopoli, and Polignano a Mare and just 25 minutes to Alberobello and the charming towns of the Itria valley. The Savelletri coastline is also good, with small sandy beaches and clear, calm seas.
2. Palazzo Bozzi Corso
Location: Lecce
Star level: 5-star
Best for: Couples, small groups of friends, solo travelers
Rough price per night: Varies by season – $300 to $700 USD
Hotel overview
On Via Umberto 1, just seconds from the Basilica di Santa Croce and Lecce’s main square, an unassuming set of double doors with no sign and no markings is the entrance to this gem. As soon as those doors fling open and you look up into the elegant internal courtyard, you know you’re somewhere special.
Palazzo Bozzi Corso is an absolute delight. Housed in a fabulously restored 18th century Palazzo Signorile (nobile residence - i.e. palace) and located smack in the heart of historic Lecce, the location alone is impossible to beat. It gets better.
The hotel has just 10 rooms, located across 3 floors, and each is totally unique with its own vibe, style, and design. The two suites on the ground floor are particular stunners. Some rooms have massive walk in showers, others enormous standalone bathtubs, and one even has its own sauna. While some rooms are certainly better than others, each has a unique charm.
The common areas of the hotel, not something that you’d normally mention for accommodation in a city, are also terrific. Breakfast is held in a verdant and tree-filled back patio that is a complete surprise and the second floor drawing room is so pleasant that it makes waiting on your travel partners to get ready practically desirable. Further adding to the experience, the hotel’s rooftop, equipped with a small but lovely pool, is an inimitable place to watch the sun set over Lecce, prosecco in hand.
The entire hotel feels incredibly intimate and gives the feeling that you’re staying at a friend’s secret mansion in the city. In a way, you are.
Amenities
Rooftop, rooftop pool, bar, spa area (jacuzzi), transfers/tours, experiences.
Palazzo Bozzi is pretty light on amenities, but this shouldn’t deter you. Spa days and poolside relaxing are better left for other hotels that don’t have Lecce and the rest of Salento at your fingertips.
The rooftop pool is small, but very nice. While there is a spa, there’s no in-house masseuse and you really just have a large jacuzzi. One mild annoyance; using the jacuzzi incurs a 50 euro per person fee which we find rather inexplicable and obnoxious given it’s part of the hotel’s advertised amenities.
The front desk can help with drivers, tours, experiences, and all other manner of request. We don’t normally mention specific staff members, but the night porter, Mar, (still there as of our last visit in 2022), deserves a special mention for always being such a lovely guy.
The front desk closes at 11 pm, so be aware that you don’t have 24-hour reception.
Nearby sites & attractions
Lecce! In addition to the city, you’re just 30 minutes from Gallipoli, Otranto, and most of Salento’s best beaches.
3. La Fiermontina
Location: Lecce
Star level: 5-star
Best for: Couples, small groups, solo travelers
Rough price per night: Varies by season – $300 to $700 USD
Hotel overview
La Fiermontina, like Palazzo Bozzi, is owned by the Fiermonte family. While less intimate than its sister hotel, it is equally appealing.
The rooms are minimalist, but spacious, luxurious, and chic, with a casual “we’re not even trying to impress you” style. Think crisp white bed linens, smooth paving stone walls, vaulted ceilings, and exposed wood beams. Pieces of artwork dot the hotel and the style is very design and fashion-conscious. Some rooms have their own little private terraces and pleasant sitting areas.
Even more than the rooms, the highlight of the hotel is the beautiful external garden, with a walkway lined by centuries old olive trees that leads to a fabulous pool. While you might think that you won’t make much use of the pool at a city hotel, keep in mind that Lecce can get oppressively hot in the summer and much of the city still observes the mid-day siesta. During that down time in the early afternoon, the pool just may be your godsend.
In addition, the hotel restaurant is excellent and you have bar service, on-site parking, and a great location just slightly outside of the main tourist zone.
Amenities
Pool, restaurant, on-site parking, transfers/tours, experiences.
Also like Palazzo Bozzi, there aren’t any major amenities to mention and there’s no spa. But the front desk is very helpful and can arrange anything from an in-suite massage to wine tastings and guided tours.
Nearby sites & attractions
Lecce! In addition to the city, you’re just 30 minutes from Gallipoli, Otranto, and most of Salento’s best beaches.
4. Masseria Montelauro
Location: Otranto
Star level: 4-star
Best for: Couples, families, small groups
Rough price per night: $250 to $350 USD
I have to start by saying that Masseria Montelauro really isn’t a luxury hotel per se. But I included it anyways because it’s one of my favorites.
Located on a country road 10 minutes outside of Otranto, this lovely Masseria is pure relax. 25 nicely appointed rooms, all white with black wrought iron touches, expand over the bucolic grounds. With olive trees, fruit trees, and even the occasional donkey on site, it’s all very rural and idyllic.
The focal point of the hotel is their fabulous pool in the back garden. There are also two bars: one by the pool in the daytime and early evening, and then at reception later into the night, as well as a good onsite restaurant.
Unlike most of the other hotels on this list, Masseria Montelauro is a very good choice for families with kids. A testament to this is the fact that the owners are often on-site with their own children.
The hotel is staffed with genuine locals who are there season after season and they’re efficient, knowledgeable, and really nice. Everything is well thought out and guests are excellently cared for, but there’s none of the pretension and stuffiness of many other high-end hotels.
The location is great for visiting Otranto, the region’s sandy beaches, Lecce, and the rocky and glorious stretch of coast that runs from Otranto all the way to Santa Maria di Leuca.
Amenities
Excellent pool, massages and spa treatments available on request, restaurant, on-site parking, transfers/tours, experiences.
The amenities are solid, though nothing amazing. The staff is available to help with anything you could want.
Nearby sites & attractions
Almost anywhere in Salento is no more than an hour’s drive. In 10 minutes you can be in lovely Otranto, on the beach in Torre dell’Orso, or cruising one of Italy’s most beautiful coastal drives, SP358, on your way to Santa Maria di Leuca where the Ionian and Adriatic seas meet. Lecce is about 35 minutes north and Gallipoli just over 50 to the west.
5. Borgo Canonica
Location: Cisternino
Star level: 4-star
Best for: Couples, families, groups
Rough price per night: $150 to $350 USD
Borgo Canonica is the Itria valley’s response to Masseria Montelauro, but with a little more panache. Located in a gorgeous patch of countryside outside of Cisternino, the hotel is made up of 15 suites, each of them a little Trullo (the canonical stone houses common in the Valle d’Itria). The property genuinely feels like its own small fairytale village.
The Trullo rooms are pleasant and cozy, albeit the standard ones are not terribly large.
The pool, surrounded by olive trees, is an absolute stunner. Lounging by it is so pleasant that you don’t even miss the beach. The hotel restaurant is also very good and highlights traditional regional cuisine with locally sourced ingredients.
Like Montelauro, the service and style here is casual and unfussy. Don’t be surprised if the poolside bar doesn’t have someone at it the moment you arrive and if some minor touches elsewhere might be missing. Don’t sweat it - you’re in the heart of the Puglia countryside and its time to slow down and relax.
If you’re a cyclist, there are fabulous quiet country lanes all around you and you can even take them most of the way to Ostuni, Locorotondo, or Martina Franca. Walkers also have plenty of good roads and trails.
Amenities
Terrific pool, spa treatments in room on request, restaurant, on-site parking, transfers/tours, experiences.
Similar to Montelauro above.
Nearby sites & attractions
In the heart of the Itria valley, the location is a dream for exploring the region. You’re 20-35 minutes by car to all the major towns of the area: Alberobello, Martina Franca, Cisternino, Locorotondo, Ostuni, Monopoli, and Polignano a Mare. Savelletri’s sandy beaches are just 25 minutes away and you can even get to Lecce and Matera in just 1 hour and 1.5 hours respectively.
*To explore the Valle d’Itria like a local, connect with our favorite Puglia local guide Paolo!
6. Hotel Relais La Sommità
Location: Ostuni
Star level: 5-star
Best for: Couples
Rough price per night: $250 to $500 USD
Relais La Sommità is one of two 5-star hotels located in the heart of the historic town of Ostuni. The hotel is housed in a beautifully restored 16th-century palazzo, and features 15 elegant rooms and suites.
One of the highlights of the hotel is its courtyard, which offers panoramic views of Ostuni and the surrounding olive groves that stretch all the way to the Adriatic sea. The open area also features a small dipping pool, perfect for cooling off at during a mid-afternoon break in the stiflingly hot summer.
Aside from the courtyard and fabulous view, the principal reason to stay here is because it lets you be right in Ostuni. Almost all of the other luxury hotels in the region are located in the countryside, with virtually nothing within walking distance. At La Sommità, you’re in a prime location in the middle of Ostuni’s beautiful maze of whitewashed streets and alleys and you have countless restaurants, bars, cafés, and shops just moments away.
Also, in the daytime, Ostuni can be somewhat overrun with tourists, so having your hotel in town means that you can enjoy Ostuni early in the morning before the crowds have arrived or in the evening after they’ve left.
The rooms at Relais La Sommità are tastefully decorated in a minimalist style with simple furnishings. In keeping with the surrounding city, the style here is whitewashed stone, vaulted stone ceilings, and lots of light-colored hardwood.
One thing to keep in mind should you choose to stay here: some of the rooms are small and a bit claustrophobic while some others have very little natural light. If you plan on spending a fair amount of time in your room, be sure to look at exact photos of the rooms and choose wisely.
Another bonus, the hotel's restaurant, Cielo, serves excellent local cuisine and has a lovely outdoor area for al fresco dining with enviable views. It recently was awarded a Michelin star.
Note that there’s no parking in the historic part of Ostuni, but the hotel has little tuk tuks that will meet you at parking lots in other parts of town and shuttle you up to the hotel.
Amenities
Pool, on-site restaurant, bar, spa with hammam, Turkish bath, and sauna, standard and tailor-made tours and experiences available throughout Puglia.
True to its billing as a Relais, the amenities here are good. The on-site restaurant is excellent, the spa is lovely, and the hotel staff can arrange all manner of wellness treatments, experiences, tours, and activities.
Nearby sites & attractions
Relais La Sommita is ideally located for exploring gorgeous Ostuni and most of southern Puglia. To give you an idea, Lecce lies an hour south, Bari an hour north, Matera 1.5 hours west, the hilltop towns of the Itria valley are 15 minutes away, and the Savelletri beaches are just a stone’s throw from your door.
7. Paragon 700 Boutique Hotel
Location: Ostuni
Star level: 5-star
Best for: Adults-only
Rough price per night: $400 to $750 USD
Paragon 700 stands out from the other hotels in this list for being rather less Puglia-focused in its design. The building, Palazzo Rosso, is a lovely palazzo from the 1800s which has seen many uses over its 200 year history.
In its current incarnation as a luxury hotel, it’s quite something and you can immediately sense the amount of work and care that went into its restoration. The rooms are spacious and little works of art in their own right. Antique, restored, and reclaimed furniture from around the world furnishes each rooms, some of which have well-restored original frescoes on the high ceilings.
For common areas, the pool and courtyard is certainly the best in Ostuni and a small miracle given its location in the middle of the historic center of a medieval city. A large private garden, complete with an Orange grove, only adds to the appeal. The spa is also good with a host of bookable treatments, and the on-site restaurant is a good choice if you don’t feel like a night in.
The hotel has a 3-night minimum stay and is adults-only, so it’s an ideal option for couples looking for calm, relax, and a little romance.
Amenities
Pool, on-site restaurant, bar, wet spa, experiences, tours, and transfers all around Puglia.
The services available here are quite similar to those of nearby La Sommità.
Nearby sites & attractions
Like Relais La Sommità, Paragon 700 is ideally located for exploring gorgeous Ostuni, the Itria valley, and most of southern Puglia.
8. Borgo Egnazia
Location: Savelletri
Star level: 5-star
Best for: Couples, families
Rough price per night: $500 to $1500 USD
Borgo Egnazia is unlike any other place on this list and really anywhere else in Italy. The largest, and the crown jewel, of a handful of luxury hotels in the area owned by the San Domenico Hotel Group, Borgo Egnazia is an entire village created from scratch.
It counts 4 pools, a handful of onsite restaurants, 3 bars, high-end boutiques, a terrific gym, a golf course, tennis courts, 2 beach clubs, and incredible spa options. It is the closest you will get in Puglia to an outright luxury resort and there is no denying that it is a fabulous property and probably the most luxurious place in the region.
A favorite with actors, celebrities, tycoons, and all manner of vacationing elites, you’re likely to cross paths with some big names here. Full disclosure - despite all of this, I’m not a big fan.
It’s pretty much impossible to find any fault with Borgo Egnazia. Everything is well done and each detail has been minutely and meticulously seen to. The facilities are fantastic, the restaurants are excellent, the staff is beyond efficient and helpful, the rooms and suites are gorgeous, the variety and depth of services are unparalleled, and on and on.
If you’re planning on spending a lot of time at your hotel and the aforementioned are primary interests during your vacation, it will probably be an excellent fit. But if you’re looking for luxury with real local flavor, Borgo Egnazia doesn’t quite have it; underneath all the polish, it lacks authentic charm. If it all seems a bit fake, that’s because it is. There was no village, no masseria, no anything. It’s a fantasy luxury enclave built from scratch.
For me, it feels a bit impersonal, very impressed with itself, and more than a little pretentious. Now, that said, I’ve included it on this list because most people who visit love it, and we understand why. It’s just not my style.
The hotel is located a few minutes down the road from Masseria Torre Maizza in the seaside town of Savelletri near to both Ostuni and Monopoli. Like most of the hotels in the area, it’s set a few kms back from the sea amidst ancient olive groves, manicured gardens, and agricultural fields.
It’s a sprawling property that the architects and designers have done a fabulous job of somehow still making feel intimate. The plethora of facilities and available services (kids clubs, organized activities, classes, etc.) also mean that it’s one of very few luxury hotels in the region that is actually an excellent choice for families with children.
Amenities
4 pools, onsite restaurants (1 Michelin star), 3 bars, multiple spas, golf course, kids club, in-house cooking classes & experiences, personal concierge, boutiques/luxury shopping, gym with yoga classes, tennis courts, tailor-made tours and experiences available throughout Puglia.
The amenities at Borgo Egnazia are the best of anywhere in Puglia. If they somehow don’t already offer something that you’re interested in, they can undoubtedly arrange it for you at a moment’s notice.
Nearby sites & attractions
The hotel is about 20 minutes from the lovely towns of Ostuni, Monopoli, and Polignano a Mare. Heading inland, you’re just 25 minutes from Alberobello and all the charming towns of the Itria valley. The Savelletri coastline is also good, with small sandy beaches and clear, calm seas.
Plan your Puglia trip with a local!
Want even more tips and recommendations for your visit to Puglia?
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Learn more at www.goaskalocal.com/paolo.
