VOI Daniela Essentia

"This place could be a little gem but we found it was very disappointing in some areas. Firstly the positives, nice room, clean enviironment, peaceful and beautiful location with small but pleasant beach located through the pine forest. However, the food was very poor, often barely tepid, served to you buffet style creating queues which meant your already tepid food was cold by the time you got back to your table. Even when the hotel tried to rectify this for me, the food was not hot. The choices were limited, often four out of six dishes were fish (I don't/can't eat fish), and the desert selection was poor, only offering fruit, some kind of cake and an instant whip type desert. The dining room was very noisy and uninviting and had the ambiance of a school canteen. When you look forward to a tasty and relaxing meal at the end of the day this was a real disappointment. We were allocated a table, but on three out of the seven mornings we found other guests were using it at breakfast, this would not have been an issue for us, except that there were no other tables laid up ready to use which meant we had to resolve this issue ourselves, not a great start to the day. Hotel staff spoke limited English and we only speak limited Italian so communication could be challenging. We also found that there was a lack of entertainment, and hardly any of it in English so we couln't join in with the few activities that were offered. We booked an excursion to Lecce through the hotel at a cost of 120 euros having been told that there was no guide, only to find that there was a guide but she only spoke Italian, we had hoped to be able to explore on our own but this was not possible as we would not have been aware of the rendezvous time or location had we not have stayed with the group. The hotel is remote, no shops or resturants nearby or any public transport so if you want to see some of Puglia you'd need to hire a car. The nearest village being a 20 minute walk away along the cliffs, a pleasant walk at lunchtime but possibly not a good idea at night. We chose this hotel as it had received the TripAdvisor award of excellence and based in it;s good reviews, but perhaps the mainly Italian clientele have lower expectations, sadly this hotel did not live up to ours."

"We have had a wonderful stay here at the Voi Daniella. The hotel is situated in a lovely peaceful spot surrounded by nature, with a short walk to the beach (or regular dotto train) to the right or to some beautiful views to the left. All the staff are so friendly and helpful. Rooms spacious, beds comfortable, cleaned every day. Honestly I cannot fault our experience for the price we paid. We'd booked as a Base to explore this area of Puglia with our rental car, but came to look forward to getting back to sit by the pool for the afternoon and have dinner here in the evenings. Thanks Voi Daniella, you have been fantastic x"

"We had a wonderful experience and truly enjoyed ourselves. The restaurant was excellent, offering a wide variety of delicious food for all tastes. The beach was just next door with a very well-organized shuttle service. On top of that, the entertainment team made our stay even better with their energy and support. Special thanks to Michael for being such a great entertainer and also an excellent padel teammate!"