Casa Vendicari Boutique Hotel

Excellent hotel, newly renovated, especially love the pool and the surroundings. Their beddings especially the pillows are sooo comfortable. Staff was really friendly. They have great breakfast too. We had lunch at a nearby restaurant owned by same owner, it was so good too. For dinner we drove to Noto and took us about 15 min. Everything is just beyond perfect!

As previous reviews say, this is a beautiful inn next to a stunning nature preserve. However, our 3-day stay was ruined by the most uncaring, rudest staff we’ve experienced in decades of luxury travel. Their motto seems to be ‘Just Say No’. We stayed in the hotel’s most expensive suite, and for the first two nights, it was very hot inside, with no moving air (26.8 C, or 80 F). It was cooler outside, but as I soon discovered, there are many mosquitos who were soon feasting on me. We were told the HVAC system has two settings, heat and A/C, and as it had been cooler a few nights before, it was on heat, and ‘the switch’ couldn’t be changed until the next day (which turned into two days). Eliana, the staffer on site, couldn’t touch anything. No apologies, no ‘we’re very sorry’—just ‘nothing can be done. As it was so hot inside, our only sleep option was to use mosquito repellent, open the screenless windows, and tolerate the mosquito bites. The first night we were awakened at 5:58 AM by tractors in the adjacent field. There is only one staffer on site at a time, who you can only reach via What’s App (no phones in the rooms.) The single staffer leaves at 11PM, after which the person on site is ‘the boy’ (?). We dealt with Eliana and Sara, neither of whom seem able to make a decision without contacting ‘the manager’ or ‘the owner’ on What’s App. There is apparently a lot of ‘policy’ that they are unwilling to waver the tiniest bit from, and at every point, the needs of the customer seemed secondary the hotel’s policy. I’ve stayed at hundreds of luxury hotels, including three others in Sicily on this trip, and have never encountered such uncaring service. The hotel has a nice breakfast spread and great waiter, Mauritizo. For lunch, there’s a beautiful open-air bistro a few hundred yards away (mosquito repellent recommended.). Apparently, it is sometimes open for dinner, but not when we were there. Your only other real dinner option is to drive to Noto-- 20 minutes away, where you can only park in a city lot, and walk a bit, but there are numerous good choices. The hotel claims to offer a limited menu for dinner, but when asked, they roll their eyes, as if you’re inconveniencing them, and offer only ‘what we have left over’. We were very frustrated by the hot room, mosquito bites, and constantly hearing ‘Madam, it is not possible.’ Ultimately, we left a day early, giving our pre-paid room to a couple we’d met, two physicians on vacation. This too led to many complications, because of absolutely inflexible ‘policy’. I asked for a discount because of the HVAC problems, and they grudgingly discounted the rooms 10%. I was too tired to argue any more. And then... As we were leaving, my wife went to the bathroom in the breakfast area. After about 10 minutes, I wondered where she was. Though no one told me, she was stuck inside the bathroom, and had been banging on the door, which someone eventually heard. They said ‘someone’ was

A wonderful place to rest and recuperate after a busy few days sightseeing in Sicily! Situated on the edge of the glorious Vendicari Nature Reserve, with its flamingos and spoonbills and abundant other birdlife, Case Vendicari is elegantly appointed with charming large rooms all furnished in a quiet, tasteful style. It's in the middle of a working farm with lemon-trees and olives. Very friendly staff; delicious breakfasts; and a delightful swimming pool. The beaches within the Nature Reserve are lovely - as is the simple restaurant between the hotel and the entrance to the reserve. Noto is only 15 minutes away. A delight to have spent five days here - do go if you can!