Pantelleria, Italy

Sikelia Luxury Retreat

Price per night from$373.37

Price information

If you haven’t entered any dates, the rate shown is provided directly by the hotel and represents the cheapest double room (including tax) available in the next 60 days.

Prices have been converted from the hotel’s local currency (EUR320.00), via openexchangerates.org, using today’s exchange rate.

Sikelia Luxury Retreat Photos

Style

Sleek island lair

Setting

Magical volcanism

Explore

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Hailed as one of the best new stays around by the sort of magazines well-heeled travellers peruse, Sikelia Luxury Retreat on the tiny Italian island of Pantelleria is well deserving of the hype. An elegant white-washed outpost on the wild and windswept isle, whose name is derived from the Arabic for 'daughter of the winds', Sikelia's a first-class escape amid the farmsteads and their rough-hewn volcanic-rock walls. Outside, the traditional dammuso-style structures with their domed roofs have an archaic appeal; indoors, the style is contemporary, the spa treatments serene, and the creative cuisine is the island’s very best. It’s a ‘paradise found’ sort of spot, the kind worth writing home about… unless you’d rather keep it to yourself, of course. 

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Facilities

Photos Sikelia Luxury Retreat facilities

Need to know

Rooms

19, all of which are suites.

Check–Out

11am, but flexible, subject to availability. Earliest check-in, 2pm.

Prices

Double rooms from £322.03 (€352), including tax at 10 per cent.

More details

Rates usually include a full-English breakfast; there’s an array of buffet details on offer each morning, too, including home-made cakes and jams.

Also

The hotel has its own Tunisian fishing boat standing by to whisk you away for offshore adventures; it can even serve as your private chef’s table, with your meal cooked and served up at sea. Cooking classes can be arranged back on dry land, too.

Hotel closed

Sikelia’s closed from autumn to late spring each year – dates vary.

At the hotel

Free WiFi throughout. In rooms: iPod docks, satellite television, Frette linens, Morettino coffee machines, Hermès toiletries and air-conditioning.

Poolside

The pool – it’s outdoors and unheated – is curvy, beautiful and surrounded by sunloungers. (Order snacks or drinks to your poolside perch if you’re peckish.)

Spa

The small spa – it has just two rooms, one for couples – uses local oils, capers, oregano and rosemary in treatments inspired by the ‘perfumes and essence of Pantelleria’. Massages, beauty treatments and reflexology can be arranged in the serenity of your suite, too.

Packing tips

Bring your finest layers: when you're staying on an island that's name was inspired by how notably windy it gets, you'll want to be prepared for the odd breeze. (It's a warm wind from the neighbouring North African mainland, though, so isn't usually too chilly.)

Also

There are rooms adapted for wheelchair users, but most common areas have steps and the island in general isn’t easy to get around in a wheelchair.

Children

Over-12s are accepted, but not especially catered to: this is very much a grown-up stay.

Food and Drink

Photos Sikelia Luxury Retreat food and drink

Dress Code

Break out the Armani – part-time Pantescan Giorgio has long fhad a villa on the island, and has been known to stop by Sikelia.

Hotel restaurant

Sikelia’s restaurant Themà, helmed by Diego Battaglia, serves up a menu that reflects the island itself: Sicilian cuisine with Arabic influences, resulting in something rather magical. It sounds slightly bizarre, but definitely try the tiramisu topped with capers. The flavour combination's like nothing else. 

Hotel bar

The restaurant's elegant bar is open from 11am to 11pm every day. Feel like making a dent in Sikelia's stash of 600-odd bottles of wine? Ask for recommendations from among the local favourites; you know the wine collection will be good when there the hotel’s owner’s first foray into Pantescan hospitality was a vineyard, taking advantage of the island’s fertile volcanic soil. (The cocktails are top notch, too, of course.)

Last orders

You'll breakfast at leisure here, between 8am and 11am in the restaurant or on the terrace. Next, lunch between noon and 3pm, before dining from 7.30pm to 11pm.

Room service

Order full meals or snacks to your room whenever you'd like, day or night.

Location

Photos Sikelia Luxury Retreat location
Address
Sikelia Luxury Retreat
Via Monastero snc Scauri TP
Pantelleria
91017
Italy

Pantelleria’s perched just off the coast of North Africa, closer to Tunisia than mainland Italy. You’ll find Sikelia towards the south end of the tiny isle, above the small town of Scauri.

Planes

Flights from around Italy touch down at Pantelleria’s tiny airport, and transfers to the hotel – about 20 minutes away – are free.

Automobiles

A car could come in handy for exploring the island – there’s not much public transport. There’s free onsite parking at Sikelia.

Other

If you’re a seafaring type, there’s an overnight ferry from Trapani in Sicily: it leaves at midnight and pulls into Pantelleria’s port at 6am – it’s not luxurious, but it makes for a memorable sunrise. (The Strait of Sicily can be rough, so it’s not uncommon for the voyage to be cancelled, depending on the weather – check before setting off with your suitcase.)

Worth getting out of bed for

You can easily while away your days going from lounger to restaurant and back again – the food is first class, and the pool the perfect place to soak up that just-off-North-Africa sunshine. But you'd be missing out on Pantelleria's unique delights, which Sikelia's staff will be happy to share: boat trips to explore the island's rugged coastline, discovering natural saunas in volcano-side caves and hiking to geothermally heated lakes can all be arranged (at the 'Mirror of Venus' lake, take a dip in the always-warm waters then cover yourself in the volcanic mud for the ultimate skin-softening treat). There are the archaeological remains of ancient villages to discover, horses to ride and customised diving excursions on offer, too – the chef will even pack you a picnic lunch to ensure your adventures stay gourmet.

Local restaurants

Whenever hunger strikes, Sikelia's staff should be your first source for up-to-the-minute local recommendations. A few of their favourite spots for lunch include La Vela, on Via dello Scalo, U Trattu 1957 and Ristorante Il Cappero on Via Roma. For dinner, try Le Cale, in one of Pantelleria's most beautiful seaside settings, Il Principe e il Pirata or restaurant and winebar La Nicchia. 

Reviews

Photos Sikelia Luxury Retreat reviews

Anonymous review

By Mr & Mrs Smith

Every hotel featured is visited personally by members of our team, given the Smith seal of approval, and then anonymously reviewed. As soon as our reviewers have returned from this luxury hotel in Pantelleria and unpacked their Pantescan olive oil and capers, a full account of their Italian island break will be with you. In the meantime, to whet your wanderlust, here's a quick peek inside Sikelia Luxury Retreat in Pantelleria…

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