My family of 3 (including 7 year old kid) will be in Sorrento apr 8-12. We are planning to use it as a base to go to Pompeii, Capri, Amalfi Coast. After searching this message board for accomodation, I've picked few hotels to choose from
1. Il Nodo 118 EURO
2. Settino Cielo 148 EURO
3. Grand Due Golfi $162 - my travel agent sugestion, but it's not in Sorrento and I have no idia how to get to bus or hidrafoil.
Is Il Nido similar to Howard Johnson hotes chains or better? I've read they have free shuttel bus to bring you to the center of Sorrento. I try to keep rate no more than $150, but warry about quality of Il Nido.
Any comments or advise will be very welcome.
Thanks a lot
Mariya

Mariya, we've stayed at Il Nido, as have several other people who use this forum. Don't have any worries about it! Have you checked their website and looked at the photos? It's very accurate. The hotel is not what I would call romantic--it's your basic boxy 1960s kind of architecture, so I wouldn't recommend it for a honeymoon, but it is very family oriented. They're used to having children as guests. The hotel rooms are very spacious and the views from the balcony are wonderful! The entire hotel is spotlessly clean. We had half board there, and the dinners are beautifully presented and delicious as well. We weren't sorry to have gone that route in regard to meals. The shuttle bus will bring you to town or back every hour. In the mornings we never bothered with the bus. We'd walk down (there are two paths you can take) and it took only 25 minutes. Sometimes we returned to the hotel by 7:00 and ate an early dinner and went to Sorrento for the evening. Other times we'd stay out until 9:30 or so, eat dinner on the hotel's terrace, and then call it a night.

I just want to second the comment on on Il Nido. We stayed there for five days this past July. The hotel is located on a hill overlooking the Bay of Naples and Mt. Vesuvius. The rooms are fine and the service was excellent. The shuttle into town worked out great for us. On our last day they made a special trip to take us into town at 6:30 a.m. because we had to catch an early bus. We ate one night at the hotel (on a terrace overlloking the bay) and the food was fine and reasonably priced.

We've been to Sorrento twice and both times stayed at a little hotel directly off the main square (Piazza Tasso). Villa di Sorrento.

10 minute walk down the stairs to the marina.
4 minute walk to the train (commuter to Pompeii or Naples).
3 minute walk into the old part of town.

Spotlessly clean, small room. In fact we had a room on the fourth floor that had a balcony overlooking the square.

The room was very small (my wife had bruises on her hip from bumping into the desk).

Just checked on tripadvisor.com to see other comments. Great location, nice clean hotel, could be a little noisy in a front room due to street activity.

I think we paid about 135E including breakfast.

Would stay there again unless we decided on a luxury upgrade.

One of the hotels you are considering is the Hotel Settimo Cielo. You show a price of 148 euros. If you got this price from a booking service or travel agent you should know that if you book directly with the hotel it is much cheaper. I paid 83 euros there last October and got a 10% reduction off that price for paying in cash. The hotel has a fantastic view of Naples Bay, Mt. Vesuvius and the city of Naples's lights at night. They have a nice pool on the bluff overlooking the bay, a forgetable breakfast buffet, clean but spartan rooms, no CNN on tv although they do have BBC. If you want a budget hotel that is clean, great view and a 20 minute walk (or bus stop in front of hotel for 1 euro) into the center of town this is your hotel but you should book directly with the hotel at: [email protected].

Have fun,
Larry J

Might want to check out Hotel Mignon. It is in your budget range. We stayed there last November and were very pleased. It is about 2 blocks of Piazza Taso but was very quiet. The rooms were spacious and everything was spotless. Very friendly staff. I really liked being within walking distance of everything and not having to depend on a shuttle.
April

One idea: Consider an apartment instead of hotels. We stayed at La Neffola, booked through [email protected]. Old houses converted, on the edge of camping ground but lovely and quiet, except for vespas. The manager was most generous and helpful and we had our own kitchen with espresso maker. Easy walk to Circumvesuviana train to Pompeii etc.
Best wishes for a wonderful trip.

I don't recall how much it was, but I've stayed in the Hotel Dania twice. It's on the Via del Capo, about 10-15 minutes outside downtown Sorrento by bus. The hotel is high up on a bluff overlooking the Bay of Naples. If you get one of the triple rooms, you'll see EVERYTHING from your room: olive groves, lemon groves, Vesuvius, Naples, Ischia, ... And it's a 10 minute walk from the beach, through those same olive and lemon groves.

In addition to the hotel restaurant, there are a couple of bars nearby, a salumeria, and (at least as of 1997) a great restaurant called L'Angoletto. Ask for the aglio e olio, even if it's not on the menu.

Thanks a lot for all recommendations.
I'm still didn't make my mind. As for IL Nido, I guess there is nothing around this hotel like restaurant or place to walk, so we would have to eat in their restaurant or take a shuttl in center. So I guess Settimo Cielo gives you more flexibility for food and short walks in evening. But I have a lot of troubles to contact this hotel. I've used their web sites and send them few emails. Got response once and don't know how to book with them. They said for cash is 10% discount. But how to make reservation? Credit card? When I've called them I've got just message in Italian.
Please help!
Thanks a lot Mariya

mariya, that's a nice hotel you've settled on. My husband and I walked past it a few times. Why don't you try sending them a fax? Give them all the particulars about size of your party, when you want to stay, etc. and ask them how they would like to handle payment. For some reason, lots of hotels that don't pay attention to their e-mails have no problem with faxes.