Praia Art Resort

We stayed at Praia this past week as travelers from the US. There are not many (if any) travelers from the US visiting this property, which makes it feel more authentic to the area but more difficult to navigate if you’re not comfortable with using translation apps. Very minimal English is spoken at the resort - which is okay with us, but could be intimidating to some. Our room - 301 - was amazing. The set up is perfect for a couple. Gorgeous, private yard with a pool and another gorgeous sitting area in the back (that we didn’t even use!). The unit has 2 full bathrooms, the bed is very comfortable and the closet has amazing space to open your bag and unpack. On the downside, the room does feel very dark and there is minimal lighting especially in the bathrooms. The lights don’t feel well placed, especially with no lighting in the shower at all. Towels were minimally stocked - only 1 per person. And no towels were given at all for the pool. We had to steal them from the beach every day. This just feels sloppy. If the unit has a pool, towels should be stocked and refreshed. This trend continued at the resort pool. There were no towels at all at the resort pool. Additionally, the pool is not set up well. There are only 4 (massively uncomfortable) pool loungers. The rest of the pool is set up with dining tables. Given there is no restaurant or service at the pool, other than breakfast, we did not get this. It made using the resort pool awkward and annoying. One thing we absolutely loved is that you get a lounge bed assigned to your room at the beach. There is no fighting over space and everyone has their own bed. It’s great. We’ve never seen this at a hotel and loved this feature. The food and service is the reason we are giving this hotel such a low rating. The hotel is isolated from town. Nothing is walkable except a few small stores in the neighborhood. There is no hotel shuttle at all, which we strongly feel should be an option to get into La Castella and the neighboring towns. The cabs are expensive (20 euro to go 3 miles into town!). La Castella is an adorable town with many restaurants and a gorgeous castle. The locals were so friendly - shout out to our fave restaurants Tippico & Piccante and Donna Carmela. Amazing food and the locals were so friendly! The surrounding neighborhood is like a family resort. It feels run down and isn’t very well cared for. There are really no sidewalks and walking around is difficult with speeding cars and trucks blowing down the streets. We like to walk and hike around our hotel in the mornings and this resort was not set up for that at all. In addition to the isolation, the restaurant hours and food options are not convenient for international guests. The breakfast is open 7:30-10:30 and then nothing is available until 12:30. The restaurant that opens at 12:30 is the only restaurant on property and it is very formal with a limited menu. After it closes at 3:30, there is nothing else avail

We stayed at this beautiful resort for five days in July. We loved the architecture and style of the resort. If you appreciate something special, this is the place for you. We were particularly impressed by the restaurant right by the sea with its excellent Italian cuisine. The whole team is extremely friendly and very helpful. We had 5 happy days.

Spacious room with fantastic bed. The layout is a bit strange with an unusual large tub on the balcony. Beautiful beach. Food was good but not noteworthy. Excellent service all around. The only downside is that the area surrounding the hotel is run down and not welcoming.

Beautiful & pretty quiet Hotel, with amazing rooms set in a “Albergo diffuso" style, modern concrete, with private gardens/ yards some included outside pools or baths/hot tubs. Lovely touches like towels for beach, allocated beach loungers/parasol with room number, fantastic beach & pool area and good food and very happy, helpful staff. Negatives- for a 5 star extra touches like a rug and two chairs & maybe a coffee table in room as a lot of space with just concrete floor and one chair. No coffee or milk in room only tea, bed was lop sided and uncomfortable, blind was broken. Seemed under staffed by pool/dinning area waited an hour for food one night. Staff seem to miss a trick by you having to get their attention to order a drink by pool/sea areas, they don't ask you. Only having one restaurant to order from was exhausted after a couple of days. Breakfast was a very slow process as again under staffed, have to queue up to be served and then they charge you extra for things on menu like bacon/pancakes! Area has nothing to offer and can only go anywhere by car. Taxi was very expensive, even just to go 15 minutes to La Castella-Also not enough organised trips, difficult to find where to go, even with extensive research. Again missing a trick here as I would have booked a few tours if it was organised and simple

Wonderful staff, really welcoming and extremely helpful. Room was well designed and everything worked extremely well - lots of storage space and very good shower. Only criticism is that it looked a bit old fashioned.

We love this resort. Staff is friendly and rooms are made with high quality materials. Only recommendation would be the menu. It’s limited but I would still come back again! Beach is soft do you wanna play soft no shoes necessary!