Experience the Charm of Puglia (Italy) | Top 10 Boutique Hotels
Looking for a unique and memorable experience in Puglia? With the help of Lulu’s list of the top 10 boutique hotels in the area, explore the hidden gems of Puglia. Find your ideal getaway from elegant palazzos to historic castles with Lulu's Luxury Lifestyle and Travel.
Top 10 Boutique Hotels of Puglia
The area of Puglia is found at the bottom of the peninsula that forms Italy's boot. It has recently risen to the top of the list of tourist hotspots due to its beautiful coastline, clear waters, and attractive landscape. The region is a must-visit destination for tourists from all over the world because of its friendly hospitality, delicious food, and rich cultural heritage. Staying in one of Puglia's top boutique hotels is the ideal way to experience the real Italian way of life if you're planning a trip there.
Puglian boutique hotels are renowned for their outstanding customer service, distinctive architecture, and chic décor. They are often more intimate and personalised because they are smaller than large chain hotels. Additionally, they often offer food that is produced locally and provide unusual experiences like cooking classes, wine tastings, and cultural tours. In this article, we have listed the top 10 boutique hotels in Puglia, where you can enjoy a luxurious and unforgettable stay. There is a boutique hotel in Puglia that will meet your demands, whether you're searching for a calm break, a family vacation, or a romantic retreat. Pack your bags and prepare to explore Puglia's hospitality and natural beauty through the eyes of its best boutique hotels.
SA SUITES
Lecce, Salento
Near the quaint, ancient town of Lecce in the Puglia area of southern Italy, a new boutique hotel has opened called Sa Suites, in fact, I was one of the first guests to stay in April 2023. The hotel's distinctive blend of historic and modern design elements creates a classy and welcoming ambience. It was a labour of love with the owners doing a lot of the restoration of the villa themselves. The hotel has 10 attractively appointed rooms and suites, each with air conditioning, flat-screen TVs, minibars, and complimentary Wi-Fi. Additionally, the rooms have en-suite bathrooms with complimentary bath and body products and comfortable beds with top-notch linens. I loved the high-tech lighting and Japanese loo set-up with the remote controls offering you a choice of services! Sa Suites' lovely courtyard, which offers a peaceful respite from Lecce's busy streets, is one of its best features but there’s a stunning pool and art deco bar which serves drinks and snacks throughout the day. The bar’s terrace is also a great spot for a sundowner - try the Litchi Sour house cocktail - one sip and you’re hooked! A superb breakfast with a variety of fresh and regional foods is served in the dining room or al fresco during the warmer months. To ensure you have a comfortable and convenient stay, the charming owners Anja and Nick are on hand around the clock. Let Anja know if you intend to stay in for supper as she will happily cook a delicious three-course dinner for you. Many of Lecce's top sights, such as the Basilica di Santa Croce, Piazza del Duomo, and the Roman Amphitheatre, are conveniently close to Sa Suites (20 minutes by car). With quick access to the Salento beach and other local towns and cities, the hotel makes a fantastic base for exploring Puglia as a whole.
Rates start from £101 per night
Castle Elvira
Lecce
I loved Castle Elvira, two nights certainly wasn’t enough and I will be returning. The castellated roof of Castle Elvira may be seen from Lecce, sometimes known as the "Florence of the South" in Puglia, which is only 15-20 minutes away by car. Elvira scrambles up a cypress-lined road to the enormous front entrance of this century-old folly as the perfume of wild herbs and orange flowers fills the air. Castle Elvira, a project that took four years to complete, is situated in a verdant 37-acre estate high on St Elia Ridge with expansive views of the Adriatic. Art and Design are at the heart of Castle Elvira; owners Stephen and Harvey have imprinted a sense of fun on the ground floor with beautiful floor tiles, colourful velvet chairs, Diptyque candles, design pieces and stunning artwork, much of it by the tremendously talented and sought after Harvey-B-Brown. Ten suites are distributed across the castle, the two-bedroom mediaeval gatekeeper's cottage, Tower Elvira, and The Masseria. Each can be reserved separately or the whole house can be rented out exclusively. From Timothy Oulton beds to Cattelan Italia chandeliers, Arketipo chairs to IB Rubinetti brass tapware, they all play prominent roles in this dreamy space. The abandoned castle was originally a hangout for lovers, therefore it was cleverly restored to retain as many of its original features as possible. The patina has been highlighted, the ceilings have had their flaky paint delicately brushed off and sealed with a special varnish, and even some graffiti has been saved. All levels of the main house at Castle Elvira have lift access, and there are rooms suitable for less-abled travellers.
Rates start from £299 per night
Paragon 700
Ostuni
Paragon 700 is perfect for a two-night stay. A Greek-founded historic white city in Puglia, Ostuni boasts a hilltop location with views of biblical olive fields and the Adriatic Sea, which is only five kilometres away. A brief stroll will take you into the maze-like mediaeval citadel from where the hotel is located at the top of the historic district. You can travel along Puglia's east coast from Ostuni or go inland to the lovely Itria Valley. Brindisi (24 miles south) and Bari (62 miles north) have the closest international airports, and boats depart from each of these locations to a number of Mediterranean locations. A grand 18th-century home painted in Pompeian red, Ostuni's Palazzo Rosso (Red Palace) is a notable sight in the white city. Its expensive restoration by Swiss owners Pascale Lauber and Ulrike Bauschke transformed it into a chic boutique hotel rich with character. The hotel has green walled gardens behind it that have an orangery, a sunken pool (the only one in the city), and shady colonnades and pergolas for outdoor dining. The tiny, personal-use spa has a hydromassage tub, steam room, chromotherapy shower, and a rest area with Himalayan salt walls. It was constructed using an underground water cistern. The 11 carefully selected suites, many of which include period murals and frescoes of pastoral landscapes and Biblical stories are like sets from a Baroque opera. Bedheads in shades of spices from South Africa, sunflower lamps from Thailand, and armoires and commodes made of carved wood from Puglia are some examples of eclectic furniture. There is still a sense of vintage design in the rooms, so don't anticipate TVs or built-in cabinets. Some have a large terrace with a view of Ostuni's rooftops; exotic wood panels with complex carvings offer a modicum of privacy. With their hefty brass mirrors, washstands, fancy tubs, and/or rain showers, bathrooms have the feel of dressing rooms. The terrace suites also feature an outside shower so guests may enjoy tropical rainfall. Ask Leonardo at the bar to surprise you with a cocktail - he makes the best and once owned a cocktail bar in town. Restaurant 700 offers gourmet contemporary Puglian cuisine with a kitchen led by Milanese Kevin Fornoni who studied music (organ) at the Conservatory of Milan. Kevin paid for his studies by becoming a waiter and then assistant chef and is now one of the most promising chefs to emerge on the Italian food scene.
Rates start from £387 per night
Palazzo Presta
Gallipoli
Located in the heart of the old town, a 15-minute walk will take you to a wealth of treasures. Gallipoli is a real town, not a museum, despite the Centro Storico's appearance as a Fellini film set. Your stroll will take you past locals chatting outside of their homes, down streets barely wider than ribbons of pappardelle, past baroque courtyards, past arched passageways, past the 13th-century fortress and golden-shored Spiaggia della Purita, past excellent, unpretentious restaurants, chic bars, and past churches so stunning they'll move you to tears, if not to God. The hotel will open a restaurant the next year, but in the meantime, it only offers breakfast, bar snacks, and drinks on its rooftop terraces. The staff are friendly and welcoming and they do a fantastic job of preparing and presenting everything so that you fall in love with the hotel, the city, and the area, which you will. Palazzo Presta contains 13 suites in total—10 in the palazzo and three more in a nearby home—available in the junior, deluxe, and superior categories. The beds range from generous to enormous (the four-poster bed in El Fenn is all pomp and ceremony), and the shower rooms (which do not have bathtubs) from tiny to large. Although they are all lovely, you might find the smaller bathrooms' lack of shelving to be difficult.
Rates start from £202 per night
Masseria Cervarolo
Ostuni
The Masseria Cervarolo is located in one of Puglia's most beautiful regions, the Valle d'Itria, a lush, rolling valley of centuries-old olive orchards and cone-shaped trulli. A refuge of tranquillity and unspoilt beauty, Cervarolo was formerly a destination for pilgrims and is where spring is supposed to arrive early. There are relaxing hikes through olive orchards along stone-walled trails near the Masseria, as well as simple motorcycling in the plains. Teo and Patrizia Avellino, the property's owners, have preserved the spirit of the famous 16th-century Masseria, a rural farming estate that now offers charming lodging in 17 rooms and suites. The owners will give you a warm welcome, and their hands-on participation in the business creates a cosy atmosphere. The staff are friendly and informal. Enjoy the large lagoon-style pool, a wellness area for massages and beauty treatments, and a poolside bar for al fresco drinks. The pool is pleasantly cooling in the summer and bracing in the shoulder seasons. The bougainvillaea-draped stone terraces and lawns, which are also aromatic with rosemary and lavender, are a true paradise. An honesty bar, a stylish barrel-vaulted lounge, and inviting seating areas with plush sofas and coffee tables are perfect spots for whiling away the hours on chilly days. The Masseria provides free wine tastings and cookery workshops once a week for visitors. Every year, the hotel is closed from the beginning of November to the end of February. With their own patio or garden area, the junior suites in the Trulli are a feast of serpentine stone vaults, arches, and alcoves. Oriental rugs, aged terracotta amphorae, and furniture made of woven wicker and weathered wood complete the aesthetic. The main building's rooms include high ceilings and exposed limestone walls, which are tastefully complemented with rustic antiques, traditional artisan pieces, baskets, and Puglian ceramics. Here, the junior suites and superior rooms include balconies, terraces, or small gardens.
Rates start from £166 per night
Palazzo Daniele
Gagliano del Capo
The Daniele is the largest palazzo in Gagliano del Capo, a modest southern Italian hamlet that receives little tourist traffic. It’s located at Salento's southernmost tip, just a short hop from Santa Maria di Leuca, where Italy's heel meets the Adriatic and Ionian seas. In the summer, Francesco Petrucci, the owner of the Palazzo Daniele, launched the Capo d'Arte contemporary art exhibition, which awakens sleepy Gagliano. There are numerous lounges and salons inside where you can unwind and read. Earth-mother cooks Donata Rizzo teaches practical cooking workshops in the elegant kitchen, where a lace-draped shrine once served as an honesty bar. A charming courtyard garden with a sunken pool, a tiny sauna and steam room in the ancient cantinas and an orangery where visitors can partake in an aperitif or a candlelit supper beneath a stone folly are all outside. The Daniele's staff arrange activities that involve the community, like fishing with local fishermen and touring surrounding farms, as well as boat cruises, yoga, trekking, and tours in vintage motor vehicles. The nine rooms and suites are palatial in scale but monastic in their simplicity and reflect "the sanctity of absence." Peaceful sobriety permeates the space at Palazzo Daniele thanks to the distressed walls painted in subdued putties and chalks, the absence of TVs, and the minibars. The original 19th-century floors and frescoed ceilings can be found in the majority of rooms. The three bedrooms and elegant parlour of the aristocratic suite apartment boast a magnificent collection of modern sculpture and art. With walk-in showers or, in the case of the Royal Junior Suite, a six-metre-high rain shower that descends from a vaulted ceiling into a massive sculpted basin, the bathrooms are cold and sparse. There is a safe and heating/cooling in every room.
Rates start from £350 per night
Furnirussi Tenuta
Serrano
In the rural scrublands of southern Puglia's Greca Salentina enclave, where some of the older ethnic Greek residents still speak Griko dialect, lies the opulent family-run Furnirussi Tenuta. Although it seems to be in the middle of nowhere, Otranto, a historic port, is seven miles away and Lecce, Salento's baroque provincial capital, is 20 miles away if you're looking for bars, restaurants, and a lively passeggiata. Five miles separate you from Alimini's beaches. The De Santis family constructed this opulent white modern Masseria as their residence in the centre of their organic fig farm, but they later thought it was too large for them and converted it into a luxury hotel by adding two rows of one-storey apartments on either side of a lush Mediterranean garden. In this region of Puglia, luxury tourism is still developing, but Furnirussi is gaining ground quickly. The euro-hipster Twiga beach clubs are expanding to the Otranto shore next year, with a shuttle service to and from the hotel, thanks to the youthful, ambitious owner-manager Luigi De Santis. Even the most sedentary visitors might consider working out at the glass gym in the verdant garden followed by some time at the hotel's spa, which features massages and chromotherapy pools. The friendly front desk will be happy to recommend local restaurants. The double suites, which have additional beds available, have sliding doors onto a private terraced area on the one side and the hotel’s inner garden on the other. They have a more Scandinavian than a southern European feel. The rooms and suites have workplaces, armchairs, large TVs installed on the walls, private patios surrounded by hedges, and contemporary bathrooms with spacious showers. Walk-in closets are featured in deluxe suites. Il Ristorante serves fresh, simple and delicious food using only seasonal, local ingredients, much of it (cherries, apricots, lemons, persimmons, figs, pears) coming from the estate (which is the largest organic fig farm in Italy).
Rates start from £214 per night
Don Totu Dimora Storica
San Cassiano
Don Totu is a boutique hotel located in the tranquil village of San Cassiano in the Salento region of Puglia, 25 miles (41 km) from Lecce, which is referred to as the "Florence of the South" for its Baroque structures, and approximately 10 minutes drive from the seaside. The lords of San Cassiano, the Cito family, gave the mediaeval residence to land steward Don Totu as a tranquil respite from tending the fields. In light of this, the palazzo has undergone a meticulous restoration to become a five-star, boutique bed and breakfast with a zero-mile dining philosophy. Take a yoga session in the well-equipped gym to start the day, unwind in the hammam, or get on an electric, push, or Vespa cycle. Before heading out for dinner, aperitifs and canapés are provided on the patio. Feel free to help yourself to drinks and gelato throughout the day. Each week, a free outdoor movie theatre presents carefully chosen films. There isn't a bar or restaurant here, however, there are plenty to choose from nearby. Six large rooms, each with its own special services, are modest yet luxurious. Others have enormous bathrooms with free-standing tubs and enough space to hold a Pilates class, while some have walk-in closets. Natural materials and custom amenities are used in the design, which is muted like the rest of the building. The Don Totu suite includes two patios with breathtaking views of the sunset and the room with the biggest bathroom. It is a perfect place to stay ever.
Rates start from £213 per night
Borgo Canonica
Cisternino
Borgo Canonica is a stunning boutique hotel located in the heart of Puglia, Italy. This charming hotel provides visitors with a distinctive and genuine Italian experience and is housed in a beautifully renovated 16th-century farmhouse. Within a short distance of the town of Cisternino, the rural Borgo Canonica is surrounded by vineyards and olive groves. For those looking for a tranquil and quiet holiday in the heart of Puglia, the hotel's location is ideal. Originally constructed in the 16th century, the building has undergone a painstaking restoration process that has kept it charmingly historical while also providing contemporary amenities. The Borgo Canonica Hotel has 14 exquisitely renovated trulli and guest rooms with rustic furniture and contemporary facilities. The hotel also has a restaurant providing typical Puglian cuisine, a spa, and a swimming pool. In addition to air conditioning, flat-screen TVs, minibars, and complimentary Wi-Fi, each room is uniquely furnished. Borgo Canonica also has holiday cottages, which are ideal for families and groups, in addition to the hotel. These include the Villas of Borgo Canonica, which are tucked away in the countryside and come complete with exclusive gardens, terraces, and swimming pools. The villas come with two to four bedrooms and all the modern conveniences, such as living rooms, dining rooms, and fully equipped kitchens. It provides a variety of amenities and activities for visitors to enjoy in terms of services. One of them is the spa, which provides a variety of massages and treatments utilising organic products like lavender and olive oil. The hotel also provides culinary workshops, wine tastings, and guided excursions into the nearby countryside so that visitors can discover the area's beautiful scenery and ancient villages. This quaint Italian village has lots to offer whether you're searching for a romantic break or a family holiday.
Rates start from £178 per night
Conclusion | Top 10 Boutique Hotels of Puglia
Lastly, Puglia's greatest boutique hotels provide a distinctive and opulent approach to enjoying the beauty and allure of this magnificent province. There is a boutique hotel in Puglia that fits your tastes and budget whether you like the countryside or beach, ancient castles, or opulent palazzos. Your holiday in Puglia will be memorable because of the first-rate service, elegant architecture, and breathtaking surroundings provided by each hotel on our list. Don't forget to include Puglia and its top boutique hotels in your travel plans if you're planning a trip to Italy. Stay in touch for more details. I visited Puglia in April 2023 so am happy to answer any questions you may have.
FAQs | Top 10 Boutique Hotels of Puglia
Q: When is the ideal time of year to travel to Puglia and stay at these boutique hotels?
A: The ideal season to visit Puglia depends on the traveller's preferences and desired experiences. The most popular season for travel is summer because of the mild temperatures and the availability of many attractions. However, spring and autumn are the best times to visit the area's picturesque countryside and quaint towns because of the milder temperatures and lower tourist numbers.
Q: Are clients with disabilities able to use these boutique hotels?
A: The top 10 Puglia boutique hotels each have their own rules and amenities for visitors with impairments. It is recommended to enquire directly with the hotel to learn about their lodging options and whether they can accommodate your particular needs.
Q: What time do these boutique hotels check-in and check-out?
A: The top ten boutique hotels in Puglia may have different check-in and check-out hours, so it's advisable to enquire with the place of stay directly to learn about their policies and find out if they can meet any special requirements.
Q: How can I make bookings for a stay at one of Puglia's best boutique hotels?
A: You can reserve a room at a boutique hotel in Puglia online through the hotel's website or through online travel agencies like Expedia or Booking.com. For longer stays or trips during the off-season, some hotels could also provide special deals or packages.
Q: Do these luxury hotels provide all-inclusive deals?
A: The top ten boutique hotels in Puglia could include all-inclusive packages with meals, libations, and entertainment. It's usually a good idea to explore packages directly with the hotel.