http://www.dailymail.co.uk/travel/article-1321141/Italy-holidays-Cilento-undiscovered-gem-near-Naples-Amalfi-Coast.html

http://www.fodors.com/community/europe/cilento-where-to-base-on-a-week-long-trip.cfm

http://www.italyheaven.co.uk/campania/palinuro.html

http://www.discovercilento.org/castelcivita.html

http://www.cilento-travel.eu/

I have visited Cilento several times obver the last few years, and we have always stayed in the Castellabate area (Normally San Marco).

There is a great beach between Santa Maria and San Marco, lots of decent restaurants, some excellent walking.

I think your problem may be your Budget. The first week in September is at the tail end of high season, so €100 might not go far.

willit - why do you stay in Castellabate? What is it that draws you back there?

What do you think of Marina di Camerota? Is that area lovely? Or Pisciotta?

We're flexible on budget. It's really more a target as DH is happiest when things aren't too posh or costly. Have you stayed at Residenza D'epoca 1861? The reviews are good and the price seems fine. Just a little bit above what I'd prefer to spend.

I also noticed the Marulivo Hotel in Pisciotta: www.marulivohotel.it Oh my: the terrace. Wow.

zeppole: you are the best! Thank you. The daily mail article is great. BTW, this does not describe the trip I'll be having -

"a rather earnest lot, we found - who spend their days criss-crossing the hot green slopes and their evenings sitting outside their apartments obsessively cleaning their expensive-looking boots"

I'll be the one with the glass of cold white wine on the terrace surrounded by lemon trees

There are some really nice white wines in that region. I think you'll be very happy with your plan.

"why do you stay in Castellabate? What is it that draws you back there?"

It is a bit of a bolt hole for us. If I had a couple of hundred thousand € spare, I would gladly buy a house in the area: we feel very comfortable there and it is not too far if we decide to go sightseeing. Facilities are good (As said before - good choice of restaurants, great beach for swimming and we like to walk (although we are not obsessive about boots).

It is an easy drive to Agropoli which has a mainline train station. A good base for exploring the national park (some of the drives down the old main roads through the hills are slow, tortuous but spectacular).

I have never been to Marina di Camerota, an have only ever driven past Pisciotta (And every time have meant to stop there, but never quite got around to it) Certainly the drive down from Castellabata to Palinura is scenic, and you can now get back fairly quickly as the main road back from Sapri to Agropoli is complete.

There are a couple of my pictures of Castellabate here:
https://picasaweb.google.com/113430368395035895534/AroundCastellabate?authuser=0&feat=directlinkThe Temples are at Paestum - 25 minutes drive away.

I've stayed at three different places in the Cilento (Palinuro, Pisciotta, and Sta. Maria di Castellabate) on a trip last fall. This is the thread I began before that trip; maybe you will find useful information within:

http://www.fodors.com/community/europe/cilento-where-to-base-on-a-week-long-trip.cfm


The coastline of Palinuro is, indeed, gorgeous, and there are many excellent beaches, some of which are accessible only by boat which can be hired from the marina area. I would not stay in Palinuro village itself (although I spent a night there) which is more of a purpose-built holiday center than an actual town. All the stores cater to tourists; you will see limoncello in colors that you might never imagine. There are agriturismi outside the town, including the one linked ahead, but I am not familiar with those.

http://www.iscadelledonne.com/

The road between Pisciotta and Palinuro is pretty good, and you could conceivably stay in Pisciotta and go to the beach in Palinuro.

I stayed in Pisciotta which is picture-postcard beautiful. Our agriturismo there was excellent (I will give you info on specific rooms andmoreo details about the hotel if you would like) but they do not serve dinner on a regular basis. You can, however, walk to the town quite easily from the hotel. And one night we dined at the SlowFood restaurant, PerBacco, and the owner sent someone to pick us up and return us to the hotel after dinner. There is at least one excellent restaurant in Marina di Pisciotta as well, a 5 minute drive from the hotel. The views of the town and the sea from the hotel terraces are divine.


http://www.amachina.it/amachina.it/


This is another well-regarded azienda not far away; see the photo on the site for an idea of what this coastline looks like:


http://www.principedivallescura.com/




I spent three nights in Sta. Maria di Castellabate (below the hill town of Castellabate) and agree that it is lovely and quite lively. The beach is perhaps not as good as some of the others I've mentioned, but still very nice. There are many more foreign tourists here than in the other places I mentioned, yet it does not have the feeling of being solely tourist town. There is a good "downtown" area, with shops catering to locals, not tourists like in Palinuro or the towns of the Amalfi Coast.

There is a recommended agriturismo outside town that reportedly has good food:

http://www.cilento-travel.com/en/accommodation/hotels-bb/castellabate/la-giacaranda.html

Another town that looked lovely is Marina de Camerota, which has an excellent wide sandy beach. Not excellent in terms of the Caribbean, mind you, but far above what you find in much of Italy. We went to the beach there but did not stay overnight.






I would say that Pisciotta, being a hill town that looms above the coastline of Marina di Pisciotta, is the quintessential southern Italian town, while Sta. Maria/Marco Castellabate are a resort towns. Just so you understand the difference. You can drive to the beach at Marina di Pisciotta in a few minutes and the beach there is, again, wide and good.



I would recommend getting a copy of the Carla Capalbo book, THE FOOD AND WINE OF NAPLES AND CAMPANIA, which has a good amount of detail on the Cilento. And I'm happy to provide further information, just say the word.


One last note: From Castellabate, we drove to our next stop, Ravello, which was the first of three Amalfi Coast bases on that trip. We felt as if we were suffering from culture shock when we saw all the tourists, and noticed the stratospheric prices, of hotels and restaurants on the AC, after coming from Cilento.

The Cilento has so much to offer; it astounds me that, while a good percentage of the posts on the Italy section of this forum deal with Amalfi/Sorrento, almost none focus on the untouristed lands just to the southeast.

willit, thank you for sharing your photos. Beautiful! I think buying a house in Castellabate sounds like a great idea! Do you have a hiking book or a map book you recommend for walking in the area?

ekscrunchy - thank you for the information. I'd read your trip planning thread a couple of times this past week and as a result, I've focused on Pisciotta and south. I'll look more carefully at the places you've listed here this evening. I will have more questions!

I placed the book you've recommended in my Amazon cart. Is there a helpful guidebook for the area? The two I've been using - Fodors and Fred Plotkin's (yes, not a guidebook but helpful) - are silent on the Cilento.

DH did find a 4-part charming video series on the Cilento on You Tube which we watched last night. Corny but sweet and Pisciotta, Castellabate and the water look wonderful. They show beaches that only have boat access and one with a restaurant on one of the boats. It looks fun.

We're looking at this place near S. Giovanni a Piro as the reviews and location in the south part of the area caught my eye: http://www.terredibosco.it/index-eng.html They do serve dinner. I started planning this trip thinking that I wanted to stay at an Agriturismo that serves dinner and I'm determined to spend at least one night in such a place!

And then we'd like to also stay near Pisciotta for a night. After that we have 4 nights above Positano at www.rifugiodeglidei.it. I'm considering 3 nights there now to spend more time in the Cilento. Our plans for Positano are to hike along the pathway of the gods and be in the sun.