Hotel Covo dei Saraceni

Why it’s on the Edit

Hotel Covo dei Saraceni is a four-star hotel founded in 1982 on Via Conversano 1-1/A in Polignano a Mare, postcode 70044. It has 42 rooms, and the hotel says it looks across to the famous cliff of the town.

It is a conventional hotel, listed under the wider selection bar the Edit applies to four-star hotels with an official site. A pool, a spa and a garden are not confirmed here.

What it offers is a base in Polignano a Mare itself, with a sea-view restaurant, suites with terraces and a reception that never closes.

The rooms

The hotel has 42 rooms of different types. The 2021 Regione Puglia register records 42 bathrooms and 86 beds, which fits mostly doubles and twins, and it lists a lift, a porter, luggage storage, a safe at reception and facilities for guests with disabilities.

Hotel rooms go up to 35 square meters. The site names Classic, Classic with Balcony, Panoramic and Panoramic with Terrace rooms, and suites with a sea view. The Suite with Terrace measures 32 square meters for two guests and has a large terrace over the sea.

A second group, the dépendance, has rooms of up to 24 square meters in a separate building 20 meters from the hotel. Check which of the two you are booking before you compare prices.

Eating and drinking

The restaurant overlooks the sea. In winter guests eat in the indoor rooms, and in summer lunch and dinner move to a terrace over the water.

The bar serves aperitifs during the day, and on request the hotel arranges special moments on its Terrazzino dei desideri, a small terrace.

The menu, the chef and the opening days are not confirmed here. Breakfast is not confirmed either.

The setting

The national tourism portal describes Polignano a Mare as a spread of medieval white houses piled on a cliff. The town is entered under the 16th-century Arco Marchesale, also called the Porta Grande, which was the only way in until 1780.

Lama Monachile, the small turquoise beach under the Roman bridge, is the most photographed place in town and is always crowded in the summer months. The sea has carved some twenty caves into the cliff, and the hotel lists a two-hour boat tour of them. It also offers a day at a partner beach.

The old town holds the 13th-century Chiesa Matrice, the Palazzo Marchesale and the Palazzo dell’Orologio. Polignano is the birthplace of Domenico Modugno, author of Nel blu dipinto di blu.

If your dates include mid-June, the patronal festival of Saint Vito runs on June 14, 15 and 16, and the saint crosses the town from the sea aboard a raft. Raw seafood dishes are on menus all year, and the hotel’s site suggests trips to the Castellana caves and to the Carnival of Putignano.

Good to know

• Four-star hotel, 42 rooms, 86 beds, per the 2021 regional register.
• Check-in from 15:00, check-out by 11:00, reception open 24 hours.
• The hotel has a lift and rooms for guests with disabilities, per the register.
• A reserved parking area is listed, 200 meters from the hotel. Cost is not confirmed here.
• Two meeting rooms take 10 to 250 people.
• The 2021 register gave an opening period of the whole year.
• Pool, spa, pets and children are not confirmed here.
• Price band: 2 of 5 (estimated: no official rate found).

Who it suits, and who should look elsewhere

It suits couples and short-break travelers who want to be inside Polignano a Mare with a sea-view room or a terrace suite, and business groups that need a meeting room.

If you want countryside and a pool, go elsewhere. Il Melograno is a masseria near Monopoli with two pools, and Don Ferrante is the small old-town alternative in Monopoli.

Getting there

The hotel is in Polignano a Mare, in the Monopoli and Polignano area. Bari airport is the nearer airport.

The hotel says it is easily reached by car or by train. The old town is compact, so a car matters more for the coast and the countryside than for the town itself. Ask the hotel how to reach the parking area.