Casa D'aria Beach House

We spent an amazing week at Darias Beach house at the beginning of October. Daria is a really nice host and always available the help if any issues arise. The place features three separate bedrooms with double beds, two baths (one with a shower and one with a tub), a kitchen, and a living room/dining space. Even though the place is not luxurious, it is very clean and well kept. The highlight of the house is the outside area and the location - it's not even 5 meters from the sea and you can constantly hear the waves crashing on the small bay nearby. Although there is no beach nearby you can go into the sea on some cliffs right outside. You would have to be a good swimmer to be safe there though. The next beach is a 30 minutes walk or 5 minutes via car away. It is close to Avola, a small town with plenty of supermarkets and restaurants. You will definitely need a car to get around because the city center is pretty far on foot (about 1h) and the streets are not safe to walk cause often times there isn't a sidewalk. But there is plenty of parking everywhere and it only takes you about 5 minutes to get to the next supermarket or restaurant by car. The house is very closely located to the highway between Syracuse and Gela, and about 1h from Catania, which makes it an excellent spot to stay for discovering South-east sicily.

My family and I, a total of 8, stayed at House of D'aria, Aug.14-22, 2022. Sadly, the description of the property on the VRBO site is different than what it is actually like in person. There is no continuous water supply to the home and a truck has to deliver the water into a well. It is the responsibility of the traveler to pay for and determine if the water in the well is running low. While we stayed there, we did run low on water, since there were 8 of us taking showers, washing clothes, washing dishes, cooking. etc. The water was ordered but did not arrive until two days later. Image our distress over not knowing if we would have enough water to last until it was delivered? In addition, there is no playground, grill, high chair, garage or travel crib on the property that is listed on the VRBO site. Parking becomes an issue, since the public is allowed to park in the same area that the renter uses. The kitchen table only has seating for 4, therefore we needed to use the outside furniture to accommodate all of us. There are stray cats that roam the property and are constantly meowing for food. It is heart breaking! I tried to communicate with the owner about these misrepresentations, (who does not speak English), but she would not acknowledge any wrong. I would not say these things without truth and evidence, which I have communicated and sent pictures/video to VRBO for review. I hope this review helps future travelers....