The best spa hotels in Puglia, including olive oil therapies and thermal baths
The southern-Italian region of Puglia brags the most extensive coastline in all Italy and sweeping plains studded with some 60 million olive trees; many are said to date back to Antiquity when this area was part of Magna Graecia. With its sun-drenched climate and abundant natural resources, the area celebrates the beneficial effects of the Mediterranean diet, and its hotel Spas offer treatments and beauty products that exploit olive oil, sea water, and the fruits of its fertile land. Here's our pick of the best spa hotels in Puglia.
Masseria Torre Coccaro
Savelletri, Puglia, Italy
8Telegraph expert rating
This five-star hotel built around a 16th-century farmhouse offers cooking classes, several restaurants and two private beach clubs. Underground caves once used as olive mills are now an Aveda spa, with an alluring indoor pool and a treatment menu using local ingredients such as olive oil and rosemary mint. The main courtyard is magical, especially when lit with garlands of lights in the evenings. There’s not much you can’t do here, with a packed programme of activities, from rooftop yoga to horse riding. Seasonal Pugliese peasant cooking completes the picture of an unpretentious home-from-home. Read expert review From £178 per night Check availability Rates provided by Booking.com
Borgo Egnazia
Fasano, Puglia, Italy
9Telegraph expert rating
This fake but fabulous Puglian village has a film-set quality that's lured Hollywood idols. There’s a staggering litany of facilities, including indoor and al fresco bars, a good gym with free yoga and fitness classes, and the Vair Spa – inspired by Roman thermal baths, staffed by vestal-goddesses in floaty gowns. The only problem you’ll have here is deciding in which of the four crystal pools to take your dip or which of the five restaurants to dine in. For more active pursuits, you can pedal round the coastal plains on one of Egnazia's bikes, practise your driving skills on the San Domenico golf course or perfect your backhand at the tennis courts. Read expert review From £195 per night Check availability Rates provided by Booking.com
• The best masseria hotels in Puglia
Masseria San Domenico
Savelletri, Puglia, Italy
8Telegraph expert rating
This exotic-looking 15th-century masseria, now a five-star hotel, is an idyllic retreat. The pièce-de-resistance is the vast sea-water lagoon-pool – an oasis of sparkling water, rocks and palm trees. San Domenico also benefits from an excellent wellness centre specialising in Thalassotherapy (using sea-water) and beauty treatments with products made from the estate’s own olive oil (in which you can be basted, wrapped and lightly poached on a warm-water bed). All guests can use the gym, Turkish bath, sauna and hot tub. After your treatments, relax under the sea breezes on one of the hotel’s two private beaches. Read expert review From £306 per night Check availability Rates provided by Booking.com
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Naturalis Bio Resort & Spa
Martano, Puglia, Italy
7Telegraph expert rating
The Italian company Naturalis & Benesse bought this 18th-century farm to produce organic ingredients for its cosmetics; it now doubles as a country hotel. The spa, with its subterranean pool, has been created out of an 18th-century toolshed. Treatments use Naturalis' own organic extracts. There is an outdoor saltwater pool with lots of day beds, and private yoga lessons are on offer. What makes the rooms distinct is the own-brand beauty products, herbal teas and scented cards to slip into your pillows. Bathrooms employ chromotherapy lights, should you want to choose what colour shower is the most energising (or relaxing) for you. Read expert review From £99 per night Check availability Rates provided by Booking.com
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Furnirussi Tenuta
Serrano, Puglia, Italy
7Telegraph expert rating
A modern, solar-powered, luxury hotel set in the middle of the largest organic fig plantation in Europe. The spa beneath the hotel offers massages and chromotherapy pools, and a glass-box gym that opens onto lush gardens makes even the most sedentary guests consider a workout. The gigantic swimming pool is the main draw, dotted with craggy rocks and flanked by sunbeds, including decadent doubles. The calmingly minimal rooms are more Scandinavian than southern European in feel, although the pietra leccese stone walls remind you you’re in rural Puglia. Read expert review From £195 per night Check availability Rates provided by Booking.com
Contributions by Kate Bolton, Adrian Mourby, James Palmer & Clare Speak
