"I’m 45 - husband of 1, father of 2 (daughters under 8). If like me, you love to plan the holiday but often end up with a disappointed family (wife), overpriced car hire and more bad points than good, you’ll love the below.
Masseria Torre Coccaro scores an excellent 9/10. Let me drill down further on key areas.
Positives
- Value
- Rooms
- Pool area
- Cleanliness
- Design and Atmosphere
- Service
- Breakfast
Negatives
- Gym
Slight improvement
- Kids Club / Kids area
- F&B
Let me start this review with value. My kids view meal time as a quest to inhale pasta like there’s an incoming wheat shortage. This is quickly followed by a well-executed E&E (Escape and Evasion: Procedures used by service members to get out of enemy territory or in this case, away from the dining table). With this in mind, you can imagine how thrilled I was to have a full view of the swimming pool during lunch times, active monitors in the splash / slide area, and a life guard on duty. The hotel’s environment also encourages independence of little ones with a blanket of safety, allowing adults to relax through meal times, including dinner. For me, this top trumps most areas.
Rooms are excellent, large, clean, modern (yet cosy), with a well stocked mini bar and bathroom area. Sleep quality was ok, largely let down to the bed being too soft and feathers from the pillows needling you in the face every 5 minutes. The rooms do not have coffee making facilities but you can pre-order for 7:30am. The one time we used this service, said coffee arrived at 7:31am and was delicious. Also on the rooms, it’s important to say well done to house keeping who did a great job each day both in the morning and at turn down.
The pool area is great, with comfy beds and zero towel-war action. You are probably like me and cringe when your kids are screaming like lunatics around the pool, to the extent you take it upon yourself to apologise to random strangers like Hyacinth Bucket, so it’s great when the pool area and hotel genuinely welcome families (not just family friendly). The result, I can’t hear my kids because someone else is apologising to me about their children and to be honest, I often could not see them as they ditched me as a primary caregiver for a new best friend they just met 4 mins ago.
The hotel has focused on keeping the original structure and this, combined with an old school dining service, feels 5 star. Tips are not included in food or beverage bills so if you feel compelled, it’s on an individual basis. My advice is take cash so you can acknowledge great service, the down side here is it starts to feel like a 5-year old’s birthday party where every kid needs to win a prize at pass the parcel and you can’t leave someone out (this is me saying how incredible the service was from just about every person). I think a better system here would be to inform guests before arrival that tips can be added at the end of your stay and this way it’s a team effort and everyone is rewarded equally.
Breakfast is a cracker and the coffee is superb, ask for it to be made strong (as otherwise it’s actually quite weak) and then prepare to be shaking on cup 2, absolute highlight for me.
Lunch and dinner service were both excellent but food quality was lacking. For example, salads at lunch contained 90% iceberg lettuce (the sad sack of the lettuce world according to the wife) and zero dressing or imagination as far as salads go. As for dinner, dishes did not match the beautiful setting. An octopus starter was served with dry, mushy peas (genius, if we were at Whitby), the suckling pig was also dry and a ravioli course offered on the specialities menu was disappointing and again, dry. That said, some beautiful dishes were served including spaghetti with prawn tartare and risotto with sausage. Clothes were significantly more snug upon departure so we still managed to enjoy a lot of what was on offer.
The main beer is Peroni but nothing on draft which was disappointing. We did try one or two cocktails, they were good and served with excellent bar snacks.
The gym is not good enough. It’s small and feels like an unplanned add on next to the spa which means zero atmosphere and music (as not to interfere with treatments). The outside area has equipment but far from ideal, with a wooden surface on a slant which offers limited support and is actually quite dangerous if lifting heavier weights.
The kids area is great but it’s looking tired with some foam mattresses at the end of the slides in need of repair and a foosball table on a slope. I imagine this might be to do with it being towards the end of the season but a refresh is needed.
The kids club is ok, relaxed in terms of coming and going which on the surface is nice but not when I need to know where they are (often moved) so I can dump the kids for a few hours. I would suggest adding more structure and designated areas so parents know where the rendezvous point is.
Overall, we had a wonderful stay and the Masseria is highly recommended. Our kids had a brilliant time, as did we.
We rarely visit the same place twice but it would not surprise me to see us back sometime soon."
