Masseria Il Melograno

We spent three nights at Masseria Il Melograno and thoroughly enjoyed our stay. The hotel has managed to retain the character of an old Puglian masseria while providing the space and comforts you’d expect from a luxury hotel. The property’s history is part of its appeal. Il Melograno is a genuine 17th-century fortified masseria, built among the olive groves outside Monopoli. Masserie were working agricultural estates as well as homes, their substantial walls providing protection for the people and produce within. The central courtyard, thick whitewashed walls and low, sprawling layout at Il Melograno still give you a real sense of that earlier life. Interestingly, it is also said to have been the first masseria in Puglia to be converted into a luxury hotel, something that has since become almost synonymous with tourism in the region. The grounds were a particular highlight. The hotel is arranged around an attractive open courtyard with plenty of space to wander, a lovely outdoor pool with both natural shade and umbrellas, a spa and tennis and padel courts. Ancient olive trees are peppered throughout the property, many apparently more than 600 years old, linking the hotel to Puglia’s long agricultural tradition. The enormous tree that greets you in reception is quite possibly the largest olive tree I’ve ever seen. Our room was spacious and comfortable, with thoughtful touches including an espresso machine and beautifully aromatic bath products. The service was excellent throughout. Even before we arrived, reception had been extremely helpful in arranging flowers for my wife’s birthday, which were waiting for her at the hotel. What really stood out, though, was Alessandra on the concierge team. She took a genuine and enthusiastic interest in making sure we enjoyed our stay and our time in Puglia. What I particularly appreciated was that her recommendations never felt driven by what would generate revenue for the hotel.

The property and rooms are spacious and magnificent! The property is well maintained and rooms cleaned with housekeeping in the morning and evening turn down service. Service was friendly and food delicious! The kids enjoyed the pool and breakfast buffet. We also enjoyed the complimentary taralli making with Alessandra. She was an excellent hostess! The Spa was great and relaxing with a fantastic massage. We enjoyed the Tamerici Beach Club which was a great location and fun for the whole family!

We traveled as 2 families with 8 people total, 4 of which were children ages 10-12 years. The resort was family friendly however some guests complained about children in the pool even though they were not being obnoxious and simply swimming. We did not always feel welcome as a family with children by some of the older guests. The resort should add a children's menu or more kid friendly options to the lunch/pool menu. The kids ate hamburgers every day and some other options may have been nice such as pizza. We were also extremely surprised to find out the Tamerici Beach Club was not included with our cost, and we paid about 70 Euro additional per day to access, which was at least a discount from the public price. Our Tamerici reservation was canceled one morning on Sunday as the "beach was too full," and since we did not have it included in our room price, we did not get priority. This was disappointing but at least we were called in the morning so we could adjust our plans to the pool. We did the Tamerici Beach Night Celebration on our last night which was an additional cost that included food and drinks starting at 9pm. We were told it was family friendly and it was fun, but a lot of long lines at line food and drink stands. Not many children and mostly resort staff enjoying an evening off. We asked the front desk ahead of time about round trip car service and was told the price and thought we could do taxi since we had taken a taxi to Monopoli. Unfortunately we were not able to find a taxi at 11pm that would return us from Tamerici to the hotel, and wish the front desk would have mentioned that when we said we would call a taxi, especially because we had kids. It took us almost 30 minutes to find a driver for a ride and we used a private number as the hotel was unable to help us.

Everything!

Nothing

La struttura è molto bella e parecchio grande, ha al suo interno degli ulivi secolari che sono opere d’arte, il cibo è buono e il personale della recepition è molto cortese, le stanze risultano ben pulite , ampie e veramente molto gradevoli.

La struttura benché molto bella è parecchio trascurata, la zona piscina avrebbe necessità di un intervento di restauro urgente, nel complesso tranne che per le camere, tutto l’hotel risulta spoglio e senza anima, il ristorante invernale è tetro. Nn tutto il personale risulta cortese. Peccato veramente perché nel complesso la struttura ha un potenziale enorme, necessiterebbe solo di un po’ più di attenzione, di maggiore cura, di arredi negli spazi comuni, insomma di quel qualcosa in più che fa la differenza.