So which area of the island do those who know it recommend for a first time visitor? Forio?

re: the 2008 question about the hot springs. Perhaps the one is question is the one near Forio and Panza (I think it is the Bay of Sorgeto?).

You walk down 200 stairs to a rocky cove. There is a restaurant there with its own little 'beach' area, or you can hang out on the rocky narrow shoreline and under an overhang in a kind of cave.

There was an aging hippie guy who had set up shop in the cave, named Leonardo. He was giving mud facials (the mud from the hot springs is fabulous) and selling it (the mud) in bottles. Quite a character.

When I was there (2005) the restaurant let us use their changing room and bathroom. We did buy glasses of prosecco, which we took back to our rocky perch.

The hot springs bubble up from the floor of the cool Mediterranean. We spent a fabulous afternoon wallowing (no other word for it!) in the water, moving from hot spot to cool to hot. Ahhh. Heaven!

The bus system was on strike (well, more or less) that day, so we took a taxi there from Casamacciola. When we were ready for dinner, we walked to Sant' Angelo (it took some time) and had a great seafood dinner.

Annabelle: Where on the island did you stay?

I am hoping to visit later this year but for a newcomer, the various locations are difficult to decipher..I hope to get some responses here about the pros and cons of various towns and areas..

We stayed in Casamacciola; none of us had been to Ischia before, and one friend took on the planning of the Ischia portion of the trip.

I think she just found our hotel on line. Honestly, it was a kind of funky crazy place (the hotel, not the town) so I'm not sure if I would recommend it.

What I liked about Casamacciola (I am not sure if I'm spelling it correctly, sorry), which is divided into a lower and upper town, is that it was centrally located and populated with locals as well as tourists. The ischiaonline.com site is useful for reading about other areas of the island.

When are you going? I was there in late May, and it was gorgeous. I guess summer is a little nutty with many Italian and German tourists, but May was not bad. Things were open but not busy. Everything was blooming, the skies were blue, the water temp fine - very relaxing.

What we liked:
taking the bus (when it was not on strike) around the island; exploring most of the little towns; visiting the wonderful Botanical Gardens and attending a chamber music concert there; enjoying fresh delicious food and the tasty Ischian wine; meeting local people; the hot springs I described in the previous post; and a festival (maybe for Ascencion?) celebrated with flower-petal art on the sidewalks, a parade with little girls in angel wings and a really bad brass band and the local priest and officials, and fireworks to cap it off.

Nice interlude on a three week visit to Italy.