Il San Corrado di Noto — Hotel in Noto

We had a lovely 3 night stay at this resort at the end of May in a suite. We felt genuine Sicilian hospitality and service was overall very thoughtful and well executed. ||We were picked up at the airport with a pre-arranged transfer with the hotel. Corrado picked us up. No issues. One hour ride to the hotel. We arrived late and the staff were thoughtful enough to have prearranged food in the room in case we were hungry - a lovely gesture. ||The resort is picturesque and feels expansive with one large pool and one very long pool. Despite its its there are thoughtful corners with flowers and antiques and cute lemon trees. The overall vibe is rustic understated Sicilian elegance. ||The resort is very serene. Our suite had a patio that opened up to the long pool. Lovely patio to chill or take your breakfast. The suite is well designed with his and hers closet and sinks. Modern and elegant. The shower was very special - large, great rain shower head with strong water pressure. The basin of the shower served as a unique large bathtub. It didn’t look like it would be comfortable to sit it, but it was and two people fit nicely. ||We had dinner at the more casual pasta restaurant. The food was excellent. Lorenzo had excellent knowledge of Sicilian wine and food. He went as far as to write out a list of recommendations for us for the town of Noto - that is service above and beyond and well appreciated. During dinner our servers were worried about bugs and so they brought an electronic bug repellant - little touches that show the staff care about your having a good experience. ||Concierge and management were very gracious and spoke English well. Lorenzo at the concierge desk in particular provided with thoughtful planning and advice. ||The resort has 3 dogs and we met 2 of them - Mia and Mandrake. One of them is a rescue dog and they are now living the good belly rub life in Sicily ! ||Corrado took us to Catania airport at the end of our stay to pick up our rental car. There was an issue with our rental car (welcome to Sicily!) and it took a long time but Corrado stayed with us and our many pieces of luggage until the rental car was sorted and our luggage loaded, and he even went inside the airport to buy lunch for me as I was hungry. This is genuine good service. ||Overall this resort is an excellent authentic option near Noto which provided some much needed rest and serenity after busy travels. I highly recommend the resort. Noto is worth exploring - it has history, it’s small enough to be quaint but has just enough sophistication and good restaurants and a great roof top bar near the church for sunset drinks. ||I was trying to think of suggestions for any improvement to the resort and the only thought I could think of was wifi is not strong in certain areas. Maybe that was intentional - disconnect and feel serene. ||Noto is a 15 minute car ride away. A private transfer in a Mercedes van is 50...

The time spent at Il San Corrado di Noto was really wonderful. The main building was an ancient monastery which has been turned into a Resort. All the spaces of the hotel and the interiors of the rooms are well distributed. The common spaces have been designed in a way that you will never see or meet too many guests at the same time. The quiet atmosphere definitely is what impressed me the most, apart from the excellent service, from the reception to the restaurants to the cleaning ladies. The swimming pools are masterpieces: the green one has the pavement made of marble from Nicaragua, the blue one (100 meters long) is perfect for swimming. Water is not warmed up but if the air temperature is more than 25 degrees then you won't have any problem to swim, after the first 20 seconds your body will get used to the water and you will forget that water is not warmed up. The resort has also some villas not far from the main building, with small private swimming pools. There is a library with a pool, books and board games. Wifi is working very well. If you want to use the regular data connection of your phone, be aware of the fact that signal is not very strong and stable: in any case phone calls from the stationery phone of your room are for free. There is a small boutique with nice clothes and jewelry: a bit pricey but with high quality. Food at the restaurant was superbe (I only tried the restaurant by the swimming pool and not the gourmet one), they also have pizza. The private beach is 15 min by car. There is a private parking right in front of the beach and the hotel is also offering a free transfer upon request for those who don't have the car. Breakfast is excellent and the staff is very careful about any single request the guest might have. After the pandemic many 5 stars hotel struggled to offer a high quality service again, but at Il San Corrado they are definitely exceeding their guests expectations. The GSM signal for mobile phones is not so strong, the WiFi network is working perfectly.

PS. Allow me to reply to those who complain about the location in the middle of nowhere or about the prices of transfers to Noto: when you plan a vacation and choose an accommodation it's enough to open a map and check where the hotel is located to see if it matches what you're looking for. If you don't want to pay for transfers you can just rent a car at the airport of Catania, saving a...

If you’re on a honeymoon and don’t plan on leaving this location then this is a possibility. Everybody else, this is NOT the place to stay.

Let’s start with location. It’s in the middle of nowhere. Noto is a quiet town 15 minutes away. If you can’t grab the free shuttle service then you need to reserve a taxi. The taxi is 160 euro round trip. Anyone who claims inflation has subsided is out of there mind. This is absolutely absurd and one reason NOT to visit this resort.

Noto has 1 main street and that’s it. If you want to see Taormina or Siracusa then the hotel can arrange a car service for 600 euro for the day. It takes 1:45 hours to get to Taormina- too far. By the end of the day, your exhausted.

Siracusa or Ortigia is worth going to and only 30+ minutes away. Much more doable. So location is a 1 star.

Service was spotty. The worse was in their fine dining. We did the 7 course chef tasting. It was disastrous, and had 3 courses in 3 hours. Could not wait any longer and had to abruptly leave. The servers never came over to explain the issue. I had to inquire what was going on. The excuse was somebody ordered gluten free pasta and backed up the entire kitchen. If that’s the case then tell me. Diffuse the situation before it gets out of control.

Anyways, the food was mediocre and considered Michelin Star worthy? One female server had a horrible unfriendly face before the problem in the kitchen. The experience almost ruined our trip. When you potentially spend 1000+ euro dinner it better be ABSOLUTELY PERFECT- SERVICE OVER THE TOP AND FOOD EXTRAORDINARY. The server did credit the 3 courses and had us only pay for the drinks. However, the restaurant should have compensated us for the entire meal which is the right thing to do. I suggested that to concierge but they did nothing.

I will say the causal restaurant was excellent. The food was delicious and service was friendly and attentive. It was so good that I had to bump the service rating to 3-star. 1 star for fine dining and 5 star for casual gets you average of 3 star.

Rooms were modern and clean. Plenty of space in the suite so no complaints here. We also had a swimming pool which was really enjoyable. Used it everyday.

Overall, again I would NOT recommend this place if you want to explore Sicily beyond Noto. If you want to stay at the resort and do nothing then by all...