Review MGallery Borgobianco hotel in Polignano a Mare (Italy)

I had an excellent stay in this property end May (4 nights). It is located near Polignano a Mare, which is a nice town between Bari and Brindisi (40 km east of Bari), in the beautiful Puglia region of Italy. The hotel is not located in the town but inland at about 8 km from it. It is really in the middle of nowhere in a mixed zone having both residences and fields for olive trees and vegetables. So this is not a beach or city hotel (even if you see the sea and the town from the hotel). You absolutely need a car when staying there (do not try to do it by taxi or whatever, you’ll be stuck at the hotel and miss all the beauties of Puglia and Basilicate.

You arrive in a very nice Mediterranean garden

We were very nicely welcomed. Most of the staff is speaking French very well and it was obvious from the 1st 5 min that the stay would be great. I would say that half of the guests were French, so French-speaking is clearly a given for the staff. We were thanked for loyalty, the services at the property were explained and they said they would be very happy to help for any restaurant recommendation and booking or visits to do.

To make it simple, in this hotel, they have only 2 types of rooms: suite or non-suite. We had 2 rooms booked, one Suite under my Diamond account (I used SNUs) and one Deluxe booked under a Gold account. There was no upgrade possible for me (no upper room category) and the hotel was fully booked so the Gold room was not upgraded.

This is the lobby and inner "courtyard":

The Suite was more a large room with a sofa & armchair part, rather than a traditional suite but that was certainly a nice room. The Deluxe oom was smaller but of sufficient size. Both rooms were facing a big field of cauliflowers with Polignano town & sea behind. A nice view without any noise in the middle of nowhere. It was already quite hot end of May, so AC was clearly needed. It was not working well the 1st day but it was fixed after asking front desk.

The Suite amenities included bathrobes, slippers, Espresso machine, kettle. Espresso machine was not provided in the other room. 

There was a welcome note + welcome gifts : a fruit plate, a small bottle of a local olive oil and a pack of Italian crackers. Only the latter was given for the other room (Gold member).

The hotel has a Spa and an outdoor swimming pool, well appreciated coming back from visiting as it was hot.

For F&B, there’s :

• Pool bar and restaurant : We had a late lunch just after checking-in and we were likely their last customers for lunch but the service was super slow (it took almost 45 min to have simple dishes like salads). This was the only criticism we had during the stay and it was just due to the waiter (we had the same guy the next day at the main bar and he was behaving the same way – the type of person who is blowing the air to look very busy but doesn’t deliver much.

• Indoor bar

• Main restaurant which was just above our rooms. It has indoor and outdoor seatings. It is a very good restaurant (I would qualify it of a semi-gastro one) at affordable prices. Just a warning : you need to book at least in the morning (as it was said to us at check-in), otherwise it will likely be full. We wanted to have dinner a 2nd time there without booking and we asked coming back from visiting at around 5 pm and we could not get a table. Also they serve what is considered as the best Primitivo wine : just a killing. I found the same bottle at the airport duty free and the cashier told me “very good choice : this is the best of the best”.
• Breakfast is taken on the rooftop terrace, just above the main restaurant. The buffet was quite generous and they also have the usual egg-based products on order.

If you cannot have dinner at the hotel, Polignano town offers plenty of good restaurants. It is a 10-15 min drive to go there. The hotel recommended and booked one excellent restaurant in town. We were not disappointed at all by the recommendation.

Overall a very good stay. I recommend this hotel, although it is not cheap (but what is cheap nowadays…).