Villa Oriana Relais, Sorrento

Advantages: Beautiful scenery
Disadvantages: Traffic noise

...Sorrento is located about a 90 minute coach ride south of Naples. Once you have escaped the urban sprawl of Naples the winding coast road gives you some beautiful views of the Gulf of Naples on your right whilst all the time the imposing height of Vesuvius is receding behind you. Sorrento is often regarded at the gateway to the Amalfi Coast. It is a bustling unashamedly tourist dominated Italian town with a population of 20,000 people which is swelled to bursting point in the summer months. Our visit came at the end of August and the first week in September and coincided with the last weekend of the Italian holiday month of August. As such we go to appreciate Sorrento with all its home base and foreign visitors and a slightly quieter Sorrento when it played hoist to mostly English and to a lesser degree German visitors. Other... Read review

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Advantages: Excellent, inexpensive public transport
Disadvantages: Traffic is very heavy don't even consider a hire car

.... Capri can be reached by catamaran from the harbour at Sorrento. Take the little bus from outside the hotel directly to the harbour. Be warned, it’s a long very steep walk down to the harbour from Sorrento. Bus tickets from the station or the hotel receptionist, the latter is more expensive due to some racket that the local authorities run. The ticket offices are at the harbour and the catamarans operate roughly every hour. There are also catamarans to Naples but we did not go there. From the harbour to the town you can take a bus or a funicular. A further bus ride of about 3km will take you to Anacapri where you can spend an enjoyable hour or two visiting the villa and gardens of San Michele the home of the Swedish doctor Axel Munthe. Don’t be tempted to walk, it is a long up-hill trek and the bus, although crowded to sardine... Read review

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Advantages: Interesting town, great weather, good base to explore the area
Disadvantages: Traffic and pollution

...Sorrento, on the west coast of Italy, south of Naples, is an ideal holiday spot, whether you want to lie on the beach all day or get out and about soaking up the local culture. The scenery is absolutely stunning from the volcanic black sand of the beaches to the craggy cliffs overlooking the bay. In the height of Summer the temperature is pretty uncomfortable for most Brits, and the heat is quite draining even in September when I visited. The average temperature was around 30C (it had been over 40C in July), so sun screen, hat, and plenty of water to drink are essential items for a day by the sea, or wandering through the town. We did get one day of rain, which coincided with the great blackout of 2003 when the power was off in all of Italy and many other parts of Europe. We still managed to enjoy our day, and it didn’t spoil... Read review

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