Il Palmento Hotel Relais

Firstly I cannot fault or find issue with the hotel, it’s stunning, nestled in the hills, quiet, secluded, spacious rooms, clean, helpful and friendly staff and lovely views. So I would like to give that all the stars possible… I have to also give a special mention in the dining experience, which was like something out of a romance novel. Eating dinner surrounded by ancient olive trees and under grape vines while was quite special and a super experience. However, and here is the bits that I think I found a bit jarring and did take the shine off a perfect visit…. We have come in the hottest part of the year, 30 degrees + every day. The air con (which is quite important in my view) is just not up to cooling the rooms. So be prepared to sweat and feel uncomfortable. The service around the pool is slow, but it’s not the staff that are the issue, just the distance they have to walk to put the order in. So if you are hungry or want to order drinks be prepared to wait. There are a lot of mosquitoes around and talking to other guests, quite a few got bitten. If (like us) you are not driving yourselves around, taxis are expensive, even to get to the nearest town, so we ended up weighing cost vs outings a lot of the time. Also, the complimentary coffee provided at breakfast (that is in the large metal cafeterias) is awful and I would suggest asking the breakfast staff be to make you some. Anyway hope that helps!