Hotel, Restaurante y Pizzería Locanda

Very happy with our stay at this hotel. Good location at a fair price on a beautiful beach. The rooms are a bit rustic with a peculiar interior decoration. The AC worked fine and it was clean. The service was good and the beach bar was had a good ambience. The sunbeds on the beach are very popular. While we are were here people had the habit of occupying very early with towels without using the bed. Be early to take advantage of the beautifully located sun beds (around 7am on our stay). Preferably the hotel could have had a better policy towards the guests to avoid that these beautiful sun beds are vacant most of the time. Note that the WiFi is in reliable and does not work in all rooms/areas of the hotel.

Stopped in for dinner here and the atmosphere is BEAUTIFUL. The restaurant is located out on the beach under a beautiful tree with lights. Food is good, but you pay for the atmosphere. I had bolognese pasta and it was yummy. The best deal is their two for one burgers! A couple in our group had these and said they were great. A beautiful spot to watch the sunset and have a romantic dinner

Lots to love about this place. Also quite a bit to not love Good things: location on a beautiful beach, comfortable beach chairs, wonderful and accommodating staff, very clean rooms, magical ambiance and environment, beautiful architecture, big comfortable bed, ac and hot water, beautiful pool, well taken care of and managed grounds. Delicious breakfast included. Bad things: the noise from the road, insulation for the cabinas is bad so if someone is smoking nearby it gets into the room, the water temperature is never consistent and we were always chasing the right temperature because it was too hot or too cold always, shower pan doesn't drain so you have to take a fast shower or stand in a puddle, no hot water on the sink for shaving. Sometimes they ran out of water, pillows are way too thick, restaurant is very expensive - $15 for some guacamole. Also keeping a bunch of big birds in a small cage was sad.

April 2025 update: During our recent two-week visit visit to Samara and two previous visits, my wife and I were thankful to eat breakfast daily at the Locanda Hotel. We cannot imagine a better way to begin each day than at a table on the beach, listening to the waves and birds (and, several times, Howler Monkeys), and enjoying a delicious breakfast of scrambled eggs, Gallo Pinto, tortilla, sour cream, plantains, juice, and coffee. (Our children and grandchildren, who joined us for the first week, also enjoyed the yogurt/fruit bowl and pancake options.)  Outshining even the wonderful setting and the splendid food, however, were the wonderful servers, who are so helpful. kind, and friendly, making the start of every day happy: ‘Muchas gracias”, Pamela, Arlene, Maya, Tatiana, Chris, and Jeffrey; we hope that we will be fortunate to be with you again. +++++++++++++++++++++++++ December 2024: As guests at the nearby Hotel Macao Beach for ten days this month, my wife and I were fortunate to be able to eat breakfast every morning at Restaurante Locanda. It was a pleasure in every way to do so: sitting at a table on the beach, Playa Samara, watching the waves and listening to them, while savoring our delicious “tipico” breakfasts - scrambled eggs, Gallo Pinto, tortillas, sour cream, and fried plantains - and drinking orange juice and excellent coffee - hers “negra” and mine “con leche”. (Note that other breakfast options are offered.) Completing our delightful experience were the wonderful servers: Pamela and Arlene, especially, always welcomed us warmly and were so kind and helpful. My wife and I also chose to dine at Locanda two evenings during our stay, and we enjoyed those experiences, as well. We shared a yummy veggie pizza the first evening; when we returned another evening, she ordered a grilled tuna filet and I had Pasta Sorrentina, both of which were superb. With the latter meal, my wife drank a Daiquiri, which she enjoyed immensely.

Service great, ambiance excellent, on the beach, ROMANTIC, lanterns, soft lighting, warm wood tones, bamboo, toes in the sand, food NOT GOOD. Go for a drink, skip the food. The Prawn Salad-HORRIBLE! Warm prawns on warm lettuce. There was almost an inch of shrimp pot water on the bottom of the salad. No dressing, just shrimp water, so the lettuce, olives and cucumbers were all warm from the “prawn water”. I had to peel my own prawns. which made a mess. Had to wash my hands twice for an almost $20usa salad. Had to wash my hands twice before I could eat. My husband had to "shuck" all the clams in his pasta. Another mess. If it was good it would be worth it, but he said it wasn't very good.

It has a cute atmosphere but beyond that the rooms are really expensive for not even having a/c. The service was terrible. I ordered a mojito and just sat there waiting for 30min. When i asked where my drink was she said “sorry there is no limes”… They had no parking so front desk had us park in a specific spot just to have us move twice. One time was 10pm at night and a hotel employee was yelling at our door shining flashlights in our room. And the food ridiculously priced, everything averaging $40 a plate. Literally give this a 1 star if it wasn’t for the location and atmosphere.

Tuna tartare was delicious and a very generous portion. Beach seating was fabulous - even in a downpour. Pizza was tasty as was the fish and chips. Prices were very reasonable and service was good - pay as you leave.

Honestly if you want to get food poisoning, Locanda is the place to go, order gambas empanizadas and you’re certainly going to spend the next 36hrs in the bathroom shivering. Service is also as slow as ever, it’s one of those places where they don’t care about the customer at least in my experience. Yesterday whilst I was in bed trying to sleep amongst stomach cramps, a random lady just opened my room with a plumber, not even knocking on the door to check if their guests were inside.