Where to stay in Matera
In Matera you are not choosing a district but a type of room — ordinary, or carved into the rock — and the second kind books out months ahead.
- Dorm bed
- €20–25
- 3-star, in a cave
- about €45–55 per person for a double
- Booking
- Months ahead for a cave hotel
A cave hotel is the point of staying in Matera: only at night, once the streets go quiet, do you feel what it was like to live in the Sassi. A good room books out months ahead, especially for a weekend or in summer.
Why a cave, not an ordinary room
The Sassi are caves cut into soft limestone and lived in for thousands of years, right up to the forced evacuation of 1952. Today those same caves are hotels. A stone vault holds the temperature, the wall is thick, and in the better rooms a piece of furniture is left as a reminder of the earlier use. An ordinary, cave-free room also exists in the Sassi, but outside that kind of stay there is little reason to pay Matera prices, since the same room is cheaper in any other Italian city.
Two budgets
A dorm bed runs from €20–25 a night, outside the caves, much like in any other city. A three-star hotel inside the Sassi itself is a different matter: about €45–55 per person for a double room. Two named three-star hotels in the Sassi show it; the room rate in both moves with the date, hence "about".
The car stays outside
The old town is a ZTL zone with cameras along the streets of the Sassi; a fine for driving in without permission arrives by post, at the home address. Parking is found outside the camera zone, around Via Lucana. The last few hundred metres to the hotel are on foot, luggage down the steps and all. That is part of staying in a cave hotel.
Before you go
Short answers to what people ask most before setting out.
How far ahead should you book a cave hotel in Matera?
Months ahead, especially for a weekend, summer or a public holiday. There are not many good rooms in the Sassi, and they fill first.
Can you drive right up to the hotel?
Not into the old town. The ZTL zone covers the whole Sassi, so park around Via Lucana, outside the camera area, and walk the last stretch.
Ready for Matera?
Where to next
What to eat in Matera
→Basilicata's peasant cooking: nothing goes to waste, the pasta is durum-wheat semolina, and the bread carries…
Bari · 55 km
→An Adriatic port where women still make pasta on the street outside their doors
How well does Matera suit you?
→Six questions: a score for this place and others like it.
Front row for the next trip
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