Castelfalfi

Excellent small, luxury property on top a Tuscany hill with fantastic views of the rolling countryside. Designed around a sunset facing main view, the views are stunning across the property. I picked this property to propose, the staff were incredibly helpful arranging things to my specifications - especially Ilaria who was my main point of contact on this. The hotel has 3 main restaurants - we went to 2 which were both great experiences. Food is good, not major city Michelin star level, but it was also relatively reasonably priced with large portions across the board. The breakfast is a highlight and one of the best we've been to globally - food is fresh, high quality and designed around fantastic morning views of the countryside. The facilities, particularly the spa with its indoor into outdoor sunset view is pool is one of the nicest I've seen. The hotel is located along a small "town" street with a nice castle and other scenic viewpoint spots. The hotel itself is small and at ~50-60% capacity when we were there but never felt crowded and everything we wanted was always available. Given the amenities and location, it is great for 2-3 day stay, beyond that I imagine some would run out of things to do. No nickel and diming you might see at other luxury properties, all of the snacks and drinks (apart from alcohol) in our room were included (and refreshed) during our stay.

It is definitely an expensive property but you do get top quality for your money and I found it to be worthwhile. The estate hike we did took us onto a main, quite busy road which was a bit annoying, perhaps some cleaning up of the paths / signs could be done there. The taxis used by the hotel also have a strange buzzing noise coming from the back too but this is very minor.

Everything was perfection

Nothing

Castelfalfi really delivers in the majority of ways a traveller wishes a dream hotel to be! Great location, perfectly clean and elegant, great service and modern facilities in a historical village setting. It was as amazing experience and one we would love to return soon. This is the way to restore and run an historical place!! Some really high quality points that really impressed me: - halls and carpets were very elegant with opulent nice scent diffusors and pristine clean light carpets. - amazing bed sheets. - amazing cocktails everywhere. - Il Rosmarino restaurant serves superb pastas and salads. The Italian food there was really impressive! - nice mosquitoes nets everywhere and no bug was found inside. - amazing gym. - amazing huge and clean main pool with nice decor and plenty of space and confortable sunbeds. Just the outdoor pool perfection setting!! - great spa amenities; although more attention should be giving to teas and snacks there (maybe some porcelain mugs). - the staff was overall very nice especially concierge and reception staff!! - live music with very talented singers most of the days!

There are some problems that I believe that can and should be fixed. As minor as they are they just gave me a bitter taste that is totally unnecessary: - the breakfast. Same basics are just not there. There is no plain greek yogurt for example and the yogurt brand available is just not good at all. The eggs are not particularly interesting neither salad ingredients and overall there is too much sweets and pastries and lack of healthier options. It is the same everyday and it was a letdown to be honest. Sometimes the outside tables and chairs are wet in the early morning and staff doesn't adress that. Overall the service at the breakfast is just not that attentive. - car parking. There is no shade so the cars are blazingly hot everytime!! - restaurants. There should be an all-day burger or pizza service available not just at the room service! By the way the Ecru restaurant seems weird as it functions as a hallway to outside and is the main way get to the pool area. Feels strange. - bath amenities. Stefano Ricci bath amenities didn't feel good enough for the resort standards. They come across very chemical and perfumy heavy but not as nice quality as other standard brands. I didn't like them and would totally replace them. - value services. Most the services in the property feel overpriced and some of them could even be free, for instance normal bikes and some kind of activities.

Breakfast

Pool bar menu and lunch menu very limited choices