When working away from home, you want to try and stay somewhere with some reasonable comforts (especially if someone else is paying!), that is generally why I try to stay in the Holiday Inn chain of hotels, you always know what you are getting - and I get points to allow free stays!!
*** What is it? ***
The Holiday Inn is a one of the bigger hotel chains in the World, with a presence on all continents. The Holiday Inn hotels are owned by Three Continents Hotel group.
This hotel has 330 large rooms, including 32 suites, and 26 executive rooms, there are two restaurants, a bar. There are conference rooms, wired and wireless Internet connections.
*** Where is it? ***
The Holiday Inn Naples is situated in the heart of the financial/business district - well I must be truthful here, it is the last building! But with development plans going ahead, the old areas past this hotel will soon be developed.
Holiday Inn Naples Centro Direzionale Isola E6 80143 Napoli
Tel 0039 081 2250111 www.holiday-inn.com/naplesitaly
*** Booking ***
As a member of the Holiday Inn Priority Club, I went on the club site www.priorityclub.com and made my booking direct, just select the dates you want, the city you want, the options are then listed in front of you. There were many options to go for, I went for the "best flexible" also I chose a "standard" room, as being a Platinum Priority Club member I knew that I would get an upgrade to an "Executive" room. Cost for the rooms are from 90 Euro a night, up to 150 Euro a night. The Hoilday Inn booking allows advanced booking where you cannot change the booking, but it works out cheaper. My room cost 85 Euro a night Friday, Saturday & Sunday, 105 Euro the other nights (I was in for 13 nights!)
*** What has it got? ***
As a well known hotel chain, it has got the majority of facilities you would expect, very comfortable rooms, relaxing bar, great restaurant, it has a gym, which has a few cardio-vascular machines, I didn't use the gym on this stay (I did enough walking!), in fact I never saw anyone in there!
*** Getting there ***
From Naples airport, I just got a taxi. The journey was an "interesting" 25 minutes in fairly heavy traffic! The fare including a tip was €35. I've taken quite a few taxis in Naples, this ride was the least complicated, and probably the safest!
*** Checking In ***
The taxi dropped my at the very unassuming front door, the road that leads to the hotel, is pretty rough to be honest, rubbish everywhere, the buildings opposite are in a run down state, so it was a bit like an oasis getting into the foyer.
In front of you there is a large desk, when I arrived there were 3 receptionists on duty. They were all in uniform, which gave a great impression. They all had badges with various flags on, which indicated the languages they could speak - I was really impressed with the girl who had England, Spain, Japan and Germany badges! That seemed a bit of a random selection of languages to speak (later in my stay a coach of Japanese arrived, and she was deep in discussion with them, I was impressed!)
So in my quite bad Italian, I asked for my room ( I was earlier than my scheduled check in) The receptionist dealt with me very quickly and professionally, she took my passport and made a copy there & then, which was good, as I'm wary about leaving my passport. She confirmed my reservation, and then upgraded me to the executive room. The reception area has a number of televisions on the wall running various news channels, no sound just pictures. There is an internet point to one side, 5 Euro for 1 hour. The gym is located just off of reception.
The hotel also has garage parking, but as I WILL NOT drive around Naples, I cannot say how much this was.
In the reception area, there are a number of leaflets, with ideas for days out etc. There is also a free courtesy shuttle bus to take you to the airport, central railway station and city centre, and back, don't expect a comfortable drive though, imagine Lewis Hamilton driving a truck the against the traffic in the Monaco Grand Prix - you won't be far wrong! That said the bus is every hour, the last pick up from the City Centre is 23:00, so it is an ideal way to get to and from the main part of the city.
I was going to get a boat to one of the islands (Ischia) so I asked the receptionist, she promptly went on-line and printed out the boat timetables for me, she also suggested the best place to get the boat from, and which port on Ischia to head for.
One thing worth mentioning is they do not sell stamps, so, if you buy postcards, you may well need to buy stamps from somewhere before you give them to reception to post. Just along the main road from the hotel is a post office, so you should be able to get stamps from here.
*** My Room ***
My room was on the 20th floor, so great views of Vesuvius, and the more industrial part of Naples every morning when I wake up
The rooms are accessed by means of a credit card size plastic swipe card. Once in the room, there is a slot on the wall to put your key, which turns on the electricity, personally I bend up a bit of card, and leave that in the slot, as it also indicates you are out (for room service!)
To the left is the bathroom, this had all the normal fittings you would expect, the wash basin is mounted in a large marble worktop. On this was a basket full of soaps, shampoos, shoes cleaning kits and so on. A large mirror covers the wall, there is also a magnifying mirror, a shaver point and a hair dryer alongside. The bathroom is provided with 3 large very full white bath towels, and two hand towels. There is also a white dressing gown, and white slippers!
Opposite the bathroom door is a large three door fitted wardrobe, the doors have mirrors on. Inside the wardrobe of plenty of hanging space, and hangers are provided. There is also a safe (which I never used)
Moving into the main part of my room, there are 2 large beds - (these were very comfortable), with a central console with a radio alarm on.. There is a small table with a kettle, and a good selection tea and coffee. As I was in an executive room, there was a complimentary bottle of water and juice every night.
There is a draw unit, which you can put your case on. The room also has a trouser press. There is a large desk, with a flat screen TV on. This has quite about 20 channels, but I really only watched BBC World, there was a Japanese and an Arabic Channel! You can also get films, and web access, but I never even looked at these functions.
I used the wireless Internet facility, and it was reasonably priced compared to some hotels I've stayed in. It cost 5 Euro for 1 Hour, or 10 Euro for 3 Hours.
The room is air conditioned, and I found it to be very comfortable. The room service always draw the curtains during the day, to prevent the sun heating the room up.
The best feature of my room though by far, was the view, I could look out of the window, straight to Vesuvius!
There is a mini bar under the desk, the prices were cheap for a mini bar in an hotel, beer 5Euro, Scotch 6 Euro etc.
*** The Bar ***
The bar area is on level 0 - there is a very comfortable seating area, with cream sofas and low tables. The bar itself has nice low padded armchairs, the problem I found one night was that they were so comfortable I spent far longer in the bar than intended, and I had one hell of a thick head in the morning!
The bar has a good range of drinks, cocktails form 9 Euro, beer is 5 Euro a bottle, spirits are 9 Euro, bottles of wine are around 12-15 Euro, Champagne is anything up to 160 Euro! In the evening when you order a drink, you are given 3 dishes, with crisps, peanuts and savoury biscuits.
I spent Sunday morning in this area writing up reports etc, drinking Cappuccino (2 Euro) With my cappuccino, a plate of pastries was given to me, I tried one, but they were far too sweet for me!
There is a piano in the corner, where they have a pianist play in the evenings, when he is not there, some fairly bland middle of the road stuff is playing, I found I could switch off from it quite easily.
*** The Restaurant ***
Well what can I say, I ate here a few times during my 2 week trip, and I can honestly say the food was fantastic, in all the Holiday Inn hotels I've stayed in and eaten in, I would say this was probably the best by far!
When you are shown to your table, the waiting staff brings fresh bread, and a glass of champagne. The staff all spoke very good English; they seemed to appreciate me trying my Italian on them!
As with most Italian meals there are endless course, but you can have as many or as few as you like.
A typical meal from the A'la Carte would be Shrimps & green peppers with pink sauce 12 Euro Slices of beef, with oysters on a rocket salad with chipped potatoes 15 Euro Strawberries & Cream 8 Euro
I can heartily recommend the Linguine!
Not cheap by Italian standards, but fantastic food.
As you would expect from a major port city, there was plenty of fresh fish on the menu, the dishes I saw prepared looked delicious.
I had meals from the buffet, and A'la Carte and they were of the same quality,
The price of the buffet was fixed at 30 Euro, but you could eat what you liked.
I'm not really a pudding kid of guy, but when the restaurant manger explained the Neapolitan speciality cheesecake, well I had to try it, Ok a little sweet for me but wow!
All the food was extremely well presented, and very tasty
I would say that if you are in Naples, and fancy a real quality gastronomic night out, then look no further than here.
Breakfast - the breakfast is a buffet. You get shown to a table, the waitress asks what drink you require (tea of coffee) you then help yourself. There are plenty of choices, eggs & bacon, fruit, cold cuts, breads, fresh juices and so on, the best has to by the machine where you put a complete orange in, and a fantastic fresh red orange juice comes out.
Breakfast costs 15Euro - when I booked my room, I did not go for the breakfast option, as I knew I had to be out of the hotel each morning before breakfast started. Breakfast is from 07:00 - 10:00
*** The Staff ***
I can honestly say that the staff were all a great asset to this hotel, no request was too much trouble, from the receptions to the bar man, to the restaurant staff. My room was always immaculate when I arrived back from work. I even as a test left a few Euros on a table; it was all neatly stacked up for me when I got back.
*** The environs ***
The Hotel is as mentioned in the financial district, to get out of the hotel, take the lift to floor 0 (reception is on -2) and just walk out. You are immediately in a pedestrianised area (be aware, some people drive on it, mainly police cars!!) One point though which I did notice was that anyone could walk in, walk to the lifts and get to any floor, without being challenged. I'm not sure how good the security is, The hotel did some security guards wandering about now and again.
Walking around the area when I got in (Sunday night) it was completely dead, however when I leave for work every morning, the cafes are starting to open , the shop keepers are getting things ready, people are walking to work. So to really get the best out this area, you need to be around during the day.
I felt perfectly safe walking around here, it is a nice light and airy area. Vesuvius dominates the skyline, although sometimes the top can be shrouded in cloud. In the evening teams of youngsters arrive with their footballs, setting up matches, it is good fun to watch them, and you can certainly see why Italians are so good at football!
Moving off towards the Railway station (10-15 minute walk) the area is a bit run down, but everybody I went past said Buongiorno, there is a great market a few blocks away too. Coming back late in the evening is a different matter, there is a road just off of the financial area where ladies of the night ply their trade, so there may well be some strange people lurking! That said nobody accosted me or gave me any hassle.
You will notice rubbish everywhere, piles of it. This is apparently some local Mafia thing where they control the rubbish collections! Don't be put off by it, just walk around it. The streets are cleaned every night, then they just put the rubbish in big piles everywhere!
Thanks for reading this, ok this hotel is a little bit away from the centre of Naples, but a short walk, and a 1.10 Euro train ride, or a free shuttle you are soon in the hub of things, so you really can't go wrong.
If you do stay here, then enjoy it.
Note:
the picture provided by Ciao is not of this hotel, my pictures are actually of the hotel.
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