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Adults-Only Hotels in Puglia: Danni Duncan on Finding the Right Kind of Quiet at Palazzo Piccinno
There is a difference between a place that simply does not allow children, and a place that has been intentionally created for adults.
At Palazzo Piccinno, our adults-only identity has never been a side note. It is part of the atmosphere, the rhythm, the reason many people choose us in the first place. We are not trying to be everything for everyone. We are trying to offer something specific: a boutique adults-only stay in Puglia where quiet is not emptiness, but presence. Where mornings begin slowly, conversations stretch over breakfast, and the whole experience is shaped around a more considered way of travelling.
This is why Danni Duncan’s words stayed with us.
Danni, founder of The Others Club — a global community for people without children, created to help them connect, share, and feel less alone — visited us last summer during a wider journey through several adults-only hotels in Europe. She was not simply looking for beautiful places to stay. She was trying to better understand why adults-only travel resonates so deeply with so many people now: solo travellers, couples, friends, and thoughtful travellers who want time, calm, and a sense of ease.
When Danni arrived in Puglia, what struck her first was not silence in the obvious sense, but something richer: a full quiet. Music somewhere in the background. The smell of something being cooked. Light moving through old windows. No rush. No performance. Just a place that seemed fully aware of what it was.
That observation says a lot about what an adults-only acommodation in Puglia can be at its best.
For us, adults-only does not mean cold, exclusive, or formal. It means intentional. It means creating an environment where the energy is softer, the pace is slower, and guests can properly arrive — mentally as much as physically. It means designing a space for grown-up conversation, long breakfasts, afternoons by the pool, evening drinks, and the kind of intimacy that is often lost in louder, more distracted environments.
In a region like Puglia, that feeling becomes even more natural. This is a place that rewards slowness. The meals take their time. The landscapes ask to be noticed. The towns unfold gradually. You do not come here to rush through a checklist. You come here to settle in. And that is exactly why an adults-only stay in Salento can feel so right.
Danni has become more than a guest to us — she has become a true friend of the Palazzo. After her stay with us last year, we were so pleased to sit down with her and reflect on her experience, the atmosphere she found here, and what made her child-free holiday with us feel so special. We are sincerely grateful to her for taking the time to share her thoughts with such generosity. What follows is a conversation about adults-only travel, Puglia, and the value of spaces designed intentionally for grown-ups.
To begin, what does “Adults-Only travel” mean to you?
For me, it's less about excluding anyone and more about being intentional. When you travel without children around it's not because families with kids are not wonderful, but because that's simply not the environment you've chosen - it's about slowing everything down. You can have a conversation at dinner without competing noise. You can linger. I think more travellers are seeing that now because daily life is so relentlessly full. People are craving spaces where they can actually arrive somewhere mentally and not just physically.
You visited several Adults-Only hotels across Europe last summer. What was the intention behind creating that trip?
Honestly? I wanted to put language to something I'd been feeling for a while. I kept recommending Adults-Only stays to my community at The Others Club and I realised I was doing it instinctively, without being able to fully articulate why they worked so well. So the trip was partly research, partly personal reset. I wanted to stay in places that had made a deliberate choice to cater to grown-ups and understand what that choice actually produced - in terms of atmosphere, service, design, the whole experience.
When you arrived in Puglia and stayed with us, what struck you first about the Adults-Only experience here?
The quiet. Not an empty quiet - a full one. There was music somewhere, something low and unhurried, and the smell of something being cooked, and light coming through old windows in that particular way it does in Puglia. But underneath all of it was this deep calm. I remember thinking: nobody here is rushing. Not the staff, not the guests. And that set the tone for everything that followed. It felt like the place had a personality - like it knew exactly what it was.
What does an Adults-Only stay allow that a standard hotel experience does not?
Emotional space. You don't realise how much low-level noise you absorb in a mixed environment until it's gone. At an Adults-Only hotel, there's room to think, to connect with people around you,, to just be without performing or managing your surroundings. And for solo travellers especially, there's something really comfortable about knowing the energy around you is tuned to the same frequency.
How would you describe the energy of Puglia as a destination for Adults-Only travel?
It's almost too perfect for it. Puglia doesn't perform. It has this quiet confidence. The food takes time. The landscape rewards slowing down. The locals aren't rushing either. There's an older, earthier rhythm to the region that naturally suits a slower kind of travel. You'd feel slightly ridiculous trying to cram Puglia into a three-day itinerary.
At the Palazzo, you often mentioned the intimacy — the quiet mornings, the slower pace, the personal welcome. What moments stayed with you the most?
It's the details that tell you whether a place has been thought about with care and at the Palazzo, they had. But what really stayed with me was connecting with Richard and Marco, the owners. That's quite rare. When the people behind a place are actually there, actually present and generous with their time, it completely changes the experience. They know Puglia the way only someone who has made it their home can and they shared that with me. The food recommendations, the back roads, the history behind things. I wasn't just a guest in a hotel, I was a guest in their world. That's not something you can manufacture. You either have it or you don't.
Adults-Only doesn’t mean “exclusive” — it often means “intentional.” How do you see that reflected in your work with The Others Club?
Everything I do with The Others Club is about curation over quantity. I'm not trying to build a mass audience - I want to speak to people who are thoughtful about how they spend their time and money. Adults-Only travel aligns completely with that. It's a choice that says: I know what I want from this experience. That self-awareness creates a really interesting kind of community. Conversations go deeper faster. There's less small talk at the pool because people have actually arrived - they're present.
What advice would you give to travellers considering their first Adults-Only holiday in Puglia?
Give yourself more time than you think you need, at least a week. Don't try to see everything. Pick a base, settle into it, and let the region come to you. In terms of choosing a hotel, look for places with genuine character and a sense of who they're for. Does it feel like someone made considered decisions - about the design, the food, and welcome? Or does it feel like a generic luxury product with the kids' club removed? The best Adults-Only stays have a point of view. The Palazzo has one. You feel it the moment you walk in.
From your perspective, what makes a boutique hotel truly suitable for Adults-Only stays?
It's not any single thing - it's the coherence between all of them. The design should feel grown-up without being cold. The service should be warm and personal without being performative. The food should feel like somewhere with a real kitchen, a real philosophy. And the atmosphere has to be considered. Noise levels, lighting, pacing - all of it. What I look for is whether the hotel seems to not just accommodate their guests but understand them.
And finally, if you had to describe us as an Adults-Only home in just a few words, what would they be?
The kind of place you're already planning to go back to before you've even left. And I just so happen to be going back this year.
Thank you, Danni. It has been such a joy to share a little of your world, and a true pleasure to welcome you into ours. We are so happy our paths crossed, and we cannot wait to have you back with us for more slow, magic days in Puglia.
Vita a Palazzo