Cala Dell'arena

Recent Reviews: 421

• User:mbs1973

  Trip type: Couples

  A family resort in a beautiful location, away from the hustle (but close enough to drive to).

  31 Jul 2025

  We visited as a family of adults, a little under the weather. The staff were accommodating as we arrived before siesta and were happy to check us in (providing if there before 1). We had both the self-catering apartment and a double room with balcony. The facilities are basic but what you need. The public areas are well looked after, with a beautiful pool area. There is laundry facility for a small fee (€5) and if included in your room type, breakfast. Breakfast was well presented, and varied, fresh and staff very attentive. The staff are super helpful, in advising where to go for doctors, pharmacies and the local attractions. There is a short drive to San Vito Da Capo, which was full of life and excitement in the evenings if seeking that. A very pretty little town. For improvement: in the apartment, you could not plug two things in at the same time or trip the fuses. The wifi was not accessible in the apartment.

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• User:gretabc1

  Trip type: Solo travel

  Be prepared of additional costs

  09 Jun 2024

  It is lovely and quiet. BUT there is no shops no restaurants near by and unable to reach them without a car or taxi. Taxi costs €30 to the nearest shops. Taxi from and to the airport €220ish. Plus they charge for electricity, gas and water, and a final clean of the property all which are not optional. The water is also salty water so won’t advise a hair wash or to use it to even brush your teeth. It’s lovely view to the sea but that’s about it the positive. Me personally would not go back. Can find a better place where is no hidden extra costs and can have food near by..

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• User:967mrt

  Trip type: Family

  Beautiful at first sight, lacking when looking better.

  10 Aug 2023

  Have you ever seen a beautiful image of a place that mainly disappoints when you actually go there? Welcome to Cala dell’Arena! The parc itself is beautiful, just as the surrounding nature. But maintenance lacks. So many things spoiling the paradise-like feel you would expect at first sight. Nearly everything looks beautiful until you look closer. There are too many points in desperate need of love. This place was probably great 15-20 years ago. Now, the discrepancy between the price and quality is off limits. I will not go into details about outside, but the rooms, that definitely look very charming from the outside, just lack given the price point. Smelling damp and moldy, nearly useless kitchen (a true gem, time capsule from the 70’s!) that was already amortised decades ago, non-working airco in one room and fan making scary noises in the other bloody hot room. Hopefully they won’t catch fire during the night. Fungus in the fridge. Horrible mattress. Stains on walls. Bare bones furniture and wifi only at the reception. No couch or whatsoever. Either the rooms and the parc in general need an overtake, or the price needs to be dropped by at least 75% to make sense. With proper actions, the management could upgrade this place to an unbelievable high level, right now it just disappoints -apart from the fantastic first impression. Staff is friendly and helpful when checking in. We have been shown another room. Slightly better, but the improvement isn’t worth the hassle. Another nice one: they want the garbage to be collected separately. Glass, plastic, paper, organics. There are bins for all but organics. There a note in our room, saying you have to separate the trash, otherwise a fine will apply. When I asked about the organics bin, the lady told me to buy a garbage bag at the supermarket…Of course, we also reported our findings to booking.com and according to them, they contacted the owner of the place. The lady at the reception said she didn’t know anything about that. So far for customer service of this place. Villa dell Vespa might be a good name as well, as we were terrorised by wasps. Do yourself a favour and spend your money elsewhere. This is the worst room in this price class we have ever had in Sicily. Rooms 2/5Cleanliness 3/5Location 5/5Service Value for money 1/5Would visit again 0/5

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• User:Sofia R

  Trip type: Couples

  So much potential wasted

  28 Jul 2023

  Cala Dell ‘Arena is a gorgeous place yet lacking in so many ways. There is no way to truly enjoy your experience there to the fullest when there are many things ruining it. This is going to be a long and detailed review on both bad and good, as I don’t think it’s a bad vacation spot, I think it’s very neglected and in need of a new attitude.The Bad--The main issue was the room itself, mainly the bathroom situation. Part of the shower floor was covered in mould; it was a tile at the door of the shower that looked soft due to the amount of mould, clearly no effort had been made to clean or remove it. The metal taps and heads of the shower were covered in rust and in dire need of an update. I could not tell if we were given a neglected room because we were English and maybe the Italians staying there were prioritised but either way it was foul to try and feel clean after showering. We noticed from the day we arrived that the water coming from all the taps was salty and very questionably sourced, but I didn’t mind while salty. Then much worse occurred on the 2nd/3rd day when the water smell changed again, to an absolutely horrid bleachy, chlorinated smell. At this point I thought they were sourcing water from the pool, it was so disgusting to shower with, I felt filthy, Me and my boyfriend would wretch at the smell of turning on the tap to brush our teeth. Most disgusting part and the part I hated the most out of all of it. - You could say we should’ve directed these issues seriously to reception but we learnt from the moment we arrived that the receptionists weren't the most welcoming or helpful, we struggled to get information out of them at times, information that also seemed very basic. One of them was very apologetic when we were inconvenienced but it was the other who was completely apathetic and very unwilling to communicate effectively. This particular receptionist wasted our time on occasions unnecessarily, with no apology or even acknowledgement of the inconvenience. They also recommended a taxi service that is disgraceful, this man they recommend takes an hour to arrive and we agreed a specific pick-up time with him. He then proceeded to not show up and when called and messaged, he blatantly lied and said that we did not agree to that time, and had someone else come and pick us up. We also organised and paid for breakfast but every morning after when going for breakfast we were told by the breakfast staff that we were not on the list and we needed to speak to them again, but it was reception that wouldn’t communicate with their own staff. On our penultimate day, our air conditioning broke, we spoke to reception to send someone to fix it, as in Sicily its obviously unbearable to sleep without air conditioning in summer. Someone came an hour later but couldn’t fix it, said they would return, never did :, and of course we had to walk back down to reception hours later, asking for them to fix it again and waiting again for people to show up to get what was a 3 minute job done.-Another sneaky thing they do when you book an apartment with a kitchenette, is they don’t leave any dishwashing up liquid but that is not the problem. The problem is the passive aggressive message above the sink reading "If the kitchenette is not left clean before your leave, you will be charged 30 euros". Super cheeky to ask for it to be left clean but to not even leave dishwashing up liquid, which costed us 1 euro to buy. Everything such as plates and pots etc. is left dirty by the last people anyway despite the message, which is what we found out and we couldn’t use anything comfortably until we got the dish soap in the closest town, San Vito. This also leads to the obvious fact that you absolutely cannot go there without a car. -The pool is also in quite a state, the filtration system running around the pool is breaking and full of black-ish mould, I assume the system also doesn’t work as the pool was constantly filthy. We would arrive to the pool with the same/more dirt than the day before. The sunbeds are not only uncomfortable but breaking apart with large holes in the weavings, the umbrellas were also never secure and would rattle and fly at the slightest wind. I disliked swimming in the pool at the end of the day as it was full of random dirt and human hair, people swimming in the pool without their hair tied would fill the pool with hair that would get stuck in your hands while swimming, felt atrocious. You may think the nearby beach is a saving grace instead of the pool, but the nearby beach is nowhere near as beautiful as the other beach of San Vito and nowhere near as well kept. It’s very quiet for sure, but the beach is filthy with plastic and junk, then the ocean has large black layers of seaweed that I wasn’t very confident stepping into and the water is nowhere near as clear and as stunning as San Vito’s beach. The Good- -Cala Dell ‘Arena is a stunning location surrounded by nature, and beautiful gardens that are very sweet to walk around. I enjoyed roaming around the area and taking in the natural beauty. Very secluded in many ways and felt very peaceful especially at night, and beautiful surreal mountains that the place backs onto. The nearby town San Vito is so much fun and beautiful to spend time in and a very short drive.- The breakfast, contrary to reviews, in my opinion is very good. The staff are kind and helpful in giving you breakfast. Theres a selection of fruits, pastries, cereal, juices, different milk types, boiled eggs and sausages. For me this big yet simple selection was perfect and delicious, and I really looked forward to eating breakfast at the terrace area in the mornings.-Really good air conditioning and Wi-Fi. There are Wi-Fi connect spots all over the complex not just in the room and it’s a good-ish connection most of the time. For us because we were in the main bedroom where the air conditioning wall unit is placed, it was really good and kept the bedroom nice and cool to sleep in. -The room is very basic but the little terrace area you get outside is very sweet and has a lot of useful items such as a drying rack and a little outdoor sink, even a mop, I think. There are also at least two vending machines in the area, with water and drinks, even snacks which was nice when making and having dinner at the apartment.Overall- I think it’s a beautiful place that needs a complete review and a new mindset to come in and rework it. The main issues for me were the unpleasant receptionist attitude and the strange water that was either sourced very badly or treated very unsafely, it felt like it was going to make me sick having to shower in that water. These things made the trip at times much less enjoyable than it could’ve been and looking at the beautiful place it just felt like so much wasted potential. Even if there had been these issues, I believe if the reception staff didn’t feel so unapproachable and unaccommodating, I would’ve felt much safer just directing any problems constructively to them. But after a couple of attempts asking them for fixes, it felt pretty draining to seek them out. Hope this is helpful to anyone considering Cala Dell ‘Arena.

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• User:i-mascherati

  Trip type:

  location super, but that's all

  05 Aug 2019

  The location is wonderful, with a superb view on the seaside, and breathtaking sunsets.There is also a nice swimming pool to enjoyBut that's it:Rooms will not be clean if not with an extra payment. The restaurant has the same menu (2 starters, 6 main dishes, 2 desserts) all season long. Bar is open only in the afternoon, and not on MondayStaff is friendly, always available, and nice people. But most of them have no experience and they are few

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