Grand Hotel Terme

This was the final stop on a tour of Puglia. It is situated centrally, with its own access to the beach, which is sandy and clean. The hotel was nothing special, and although it was said to have had a refurbishment, this seemed limited to the bathroom, where ours had a walk-in shower, marble-effect sink area, and a bidet. The decor was dated, and the only plug we could find easily in the room was attached to the coffee machine (which was full of dirty water with a scum on it, so we didn't use the Lavazza coffee pods that were supplied). You will pay 2 Euros for a bottle of water from the fridge. This was a convenient stop-off to visit Monte Sant Angelo, which is a delightful hilltop town with views out over the Adriatic, and has a superb church built underground into a cave. We only ate in the hotel on one night, and the food was disappointing. Breakfast was limited, and the coffee was awful. Given that the restaurant only opens at 0730, and most tours staying there were gone by 0830, breakfast was a scrum-down - utter chaos. Not much going on in the town, and restaurants are mainly pizzerias along the beach front, but Stella d'Oro, just around the corner from the hotel, is a good shout, and we had a nice meal there. The staff seemed to be fairly robotic, and the lady at check-out simply couldn't cope, to the point where she wanted to charge us twice for the tourist tax of 2 Euros each.