Naples Help!
 

My husband and I are planning a trip to the Amalfi Coast this fall. Is it worth flying into Naples and staying there a few days? I hear only negatives. What is a good area to stay in that is safe and any hotel recommendations (not over $175 a night). What is not to be missed while there?

Hi loc,

If you do a search here for "Naples", you will find many Fodorites' trip reports who have enjoyed Naples. I'm one of them. Although I only had 1 night in the city itself, I would have liked to spend at least a couple more days there. Lots to see and do.

I stayed in the Chiaia (SP?) district, the nicest part of town. I spent 4 12/ hours on my 2nd visit to Pompeii on the way to Naples. The next day, I spent the morning at the Archeological Museum, amazing! There is much more too see besides the museum.

Buon viaggio!

Hi Dayle. I'm also planning to visit Naples, next May/June. Which hotel did you stay at & would you recommend it ? I haven't really started researching Naples yet as I'm first trying to decide where to stay in Ischia, the week after; all I have booked so far is flights & tickets for the opera !

We spent three days in Naples in June and easily could have spent another two. Some of the things we enjoyed (excerpted from trip report):

-The Archeological Museum.

-Napoli Sotterranea - tour of the underground aqueducts, tunnels and caverns that date to the city's Greek beginnings. Highly recommended!

-The Duomo, and the Greek and Roman ruins beneath it.

-Capella Sansevero, which has some amazing sculptures, including the veiled Christ.

-The unique tiled cloisters of Santa Chiara, as well as the very well done museum that depicts the church before and after the war and the adjacent ruins of Roman baths.

-Various other small churches. Take your pick; there are 300+ in the historical center. Like Pio Monte della Misericordia, which has Caravaggio's The Seven Acts of Mercy at its altar.

-Certosa di San Martino atop Vomero hill. There couldn't have been more than 10 people visiting while we were there. Very interesting complex, and fabulous views over Naples. Vomero, by the way, is like being in another world; very quiet compared to the chaos below it.

-Castel Sant'Elmo, next to the Certosa. Even better views. It now hosts various exhibitions, and we happened upon one with a very extensive collection of works by Escher.

-Walking along the bay in the Chiaia/St. Lucia area, and a late afternoon at Castel dell'Ovo on a spit of land near the harbor. More fabulous views.

-Palazzo Reale.

-Wandering through the narrow streets of the historical center, taking in sights and smells, with fish stalls next to world famous pizzerias, next to gold shops, next to craftsmen creating nativity figurines.

-Oh, yes, the pizza.

We never even made it to Herculaneum, Capodimonte Museum or Caserta.

Some photos, if you're interested:
http://community.webshots.com/album/377036698SgHjQy

We stayed in a unique bed and breakfast in the historical center (http://www.discovernaples.net/pages/donnaregina.html). It was perfect for us but may not be for everyone - location didn't feel unsafe, but it was on a street closed for construction and was located in an apartment building (i.e., no dedicated ground floor entrance). There are a number of hotels located on/near the waterfront in the Chiaia area.

One point for thought - we stayed in Naples at the end of our 12-day vacation rather than the beginning, enabling us to dive in when we were more acclimated and relaxed, and for us I think that worked well. On the other hand, it's always nice to end a vacation on a relaxing note....

Hi Caroline!

How wonderful to get tickets to the opera! Lucky you.

I stayed at the Hotel Pinto Storey, a 3*, 80E / night in Sept w/o A/C. Paid 11E extra for A/C. Yes, I would recommend it. Great location and neighborhood, very nicely renovated. OK staff, not great, had to wait 1/2 hour for desk clerk to show up before I could check out! Nice, sound proof windows, on the 5th floor if I remember correctly. Very good value for the price.

Have fun!

Hi Dayle, thanks very much for the hotel info - that sounds like a very good choice.

Thanks also to ms_go for the great list of recommended sights.

PS - Caroline,

The Pinto Storey is listed on venere.com. If it tells you it's not available, contact the hotel directly on their web site. Sometimes venere.com doesn't show availability very far in advance. I was booking 8 months out and most of my choices came up as "unavailable", but when I contacted the hotels directly, I got all my first choices.

Two hotels that I have bookmarked for the future are:

Constantinopoli 104: http://www.costantinopoli104.it/index.jsp

Portalba 33: http://www.portalba33.it/english/home.html

I've found some revies of Constaninopoli and they are great. Other than an article on Naples I found on the internet, I haven't found much of anything on Portabla, but it looks really nice!

If you end up at one of these, please report back!

Sally

Hi L,

We enjoyed our few days in Naples.

You might find my trip report helpful:
http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=34451044

Ira’s Italy Photos
http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=34552733

We stayed at one of the hotels in the Sansevero group.

http://www.albergosansevero.it/

((I))

Yes there are negatives to Naples but there are positives too. We stayed in Naples for two nights primarily as base camp for Pompeii and Herculeaneum. While we did have some time in Naples itself we left feeling that there was much more worth seeing than we had time for.

The Constantinopoli 104 looks gorgeous & is #1 on Tripadvisor, but unfortunately is out of our price range on this trip - I saw €170 mentioned :-( (The upside is we are on a budget of c.€120 pn as we are going for 3 weeks - huzzah !)

I just found another Naples hotel that looks pretty good and the price is very reasonable.

Donnalbina7 - http://www.donnalbina7.it/inglese/indexframeing.htm

I can't tell much about the neigborhood, but it looks to be Constantinopoli which I think I was previously told by someone (Ira maybe?) was in a good spot.

The price is 85 Euro with breakfast. And they have some specials.

If anyone knows anything about this one or it's location, please post!

Thanks,
Sally