Borgo Egnazia

I would like to start this review by saying Borgo Egnazia was the worst travel experience we have ever had in Italy, or anywhere else in the world. And we have travelled to high end resorts in over 20 countries. Bullet points here: - Visit was in September 2023; we booked a 7 night stay in a three bedroom villa "Casa Stupenda" - My wife and I were on a family trip with our baby (5 months), sister and a friend - Despite emailing the hotel twice to confirm our airport pick up, which they also confirmed twice, they did not show to pick us up. When we called the hotel they said that there had been a problem in the morning with the car. We had arrived in the afternoon and no one had told us this from the hotel, and they had not arranged another transfer. So we had to wait 45 minutes with a 5 month old infant, after flying from New York. - The service at the hotel bar - and everywhere - was terrible; unless you spoke Italian which we found out when a friend of ours visited us, the staff were dismissive and took 30 minutes minimum to make a cocktail. When we followed up on our order, they said we had to wait. Nothing else. Noting the hotel was not at full capacity. - Every night when we ordered reserve wine, until we stopped going to the hotel restaurants as service was so poor, no one seemed to know how to open a bottle and we waited around 30-40 minutes for this to happen. - The three Michelin star meal was 3.5 hours long - by the time real food came out you were so hungry and tired and also tipsy from cocktails as you'd had no food, that we don't remember any dish except the bread. - When we went to the children's pool with our daughter for a change from the villa, the staff told me that if we wanted to order anything we had to walk up to the main bar that was far away where they were standing doing nothing. I've never had pool service at a five star hotel where guests had to find staff to order - especially after tipping them 100 Euros to make sure we were looked after. We were not. - On multiple occasions the bar staff at the main bar in the evening asked us if we were wearing "pool clothes" in the evening, I'd just had a baby so was wearing kaftans, which I told them every night - The staff also told our two male friends who were visiting that their shorts were too short - they are gay men and fashionable so that was an awkward moment - After two days of this nonsense we decided to go into the local town to buy our own cocktail ingredients and just served ourselves at home rather than deal with the staff. I was not expecting to be serving myself at a five star resort. - The food at the resort was mediocre at best, the second night we went to eat at La Frasca and my wife got food poisoning from Melanzane. She has never had food poisoning before. We told the hotel and they did not care or offer any medical services. We organised that ourselves. - Room service took forever and the order was never right. Water was ordered and never came. The plastic cups we requested ourselves to have by the pool were taken away every day, even though we asked them to keep them in the villa so we didn't have glass by our pool. And didn't have to ask - and wait - for an hour every day. - We stopped eating in the hotel after the food poisoning incident and ate all our meals - except breakfast - externally to the hotel. - When it was recommended that we speak to the hotel manager about our experience she proceeded to give us her bio of where she had worked before as if we didn't know what she was talking about. Belmond Hotels - of which we have stayed at many times - and Aman hotels - the same. It was strange to be patronized by a hotel manager who asked to listen to our grievances. When we spoke with her we specifically told her we did not want any remedies, but to offer her our experience and let her know we would not recommend anyone we know to visit this hotel. After realising that we had stayed at other "good" hotels, she gave various excuses about staffing and Covid - it was 2023 - and said that hotel guests rarely complained and had a great time. Hilarious given our experience. - She asked us if there was anything we could do, we asked if she could arrange for a poolside bed for our nanny to enjoy her day off. She said absolutely. When our nanny went there an hour later she was told that the pool was fully booked and nothing had been arranged. So I then had to go and find the manager again and asked her what happened. She said the lifeguard was confused and hadn't listened to her properly. I didn't understand how something so simple could be hard to understand. - The only two positive aspects of the trip was our lovely housekeeper Eugenia who made us a beautiful breakfast every morning, and a lady called Camilla who was sent to us when we arrived because of how unhappy we were about not being picked up despite confirming twice. - The weirdest trip we've ever had unless you enjoy waiting 45-60 minutes for everything at a five star hotel, and feeling like you're at a self serve Air BnB.

Borgo Egnazia canceled four room reservations out of nowhere with no explanation. I was planning on traveling to Borgo Egnazia with my extended family including one baby (we were celebrating her first birthday) in May. We woke up one morning to an email from the hotel saying the rooms we had booked five months ago were no longer available for our dates and we couldn’t stay at their property. They offered us no explanation why. They offered to rebook us at the Rocco Forte next door, which we heard was no as good for kids. They gave us only four days to let them know what our plan is with the rebooking or they would simply be canceled with no compensation, explanation or reimbursement for other sunk costs. We now have 9 non-refundable flights from New York to Bari booked with nowhere to stay. They have ruined our vacation and we are out thousands of dollars. We called the hotel and they simply said they were “closed” for our dates. We assume they had someone offer them a lot of money for a wedding buyout and decided to cancel all the rooms the other guests have booked. I imagine this happened to hundreds of other guests. I highly advise against booking this hotel. They were rude, unhelpful, ruined our vacation and are leaving us out over $20,000 in non-refundable flights.

We only spent a few days there to meet some friends who were guests there. South of Bari and north of Brindisi in Puglia, Borgo Egnazia is a particular and unique resort, it is like a village equipped with every comfort but above all with a pleasant and relaxing atmosphere, albeit slightly inauthentic, a little bit like a luxury Club Méd. Signature white décor. The rooms are spacious and well furnished. There is really nothing wrong with it, other than the lack of the sea and the relatively minimal distance from it, and the fairly high price. The food is quite good, but for that it is also possible to venture out of the resort to find and have a simple, inexpensive, tasty meal or snack in private. In any case, if you can and want to just treat yourself and splurge a little, it is really worth a visit, even a short one. For us it was a new experience.

Wonderful experience! Rosa, Vicenzo, Antonio, Alessandro and Noemy transformed our time with kindly memories! The best pizza that I ate in my life. The golf course was perfect. Green and fairways were impeccable. All services were fantastic!

The Borgo Ignazia is a hotel that we will most definitely return to next year. The rooms are wonderful , food excellent and the staff second to none. We were lucky to chose the “dinner with Nona “ one evening and were served a meal cooked in front of us. Veronique, who usually works in reservations helped her chef brother in law who had been on Italian master chef prepare and serve the meal. All the staff are good but she was exceptional. This hotel is expensive but worth it.