Weadles

The jr. suite terraces at the Poseidon are sizeable enough to accomodate a small table, two chairs, and as I remember, at least one lounge chair.

I also just wanted to mention that there are ( or were a year ago) spa services available upstairs at The Poseidon. The swimming pool itself is nothing to get excited about ( I always call it the oversized bathtub) but the actual sun terrace surrounding it, is really lovely, and has spectacular views.

If you still are having trouble deciding, you could check out tripadvisor.com, if you haven't done so already.

Have a wonderful honeymoon!

WanderingTexan

It will be wonderful, whatever you decide but I must add my final thoughts about this. San Pietro is very nice, probably 2nd choice for me, but the shuttle wasn't all that dependable and the staff unfriendly and they are apparently undergoing some construction. The food there was very good IMO. I have an allergy to mold and I smelled it the moment I entered our room and by the time I got back to Rome, I was sick. I think because it is built into the mountain, that will always be a problem if you are sensitive to it. BTW, I am not afraid of mold, I just get stuffed up!
My family stayed at the Murat last year. My daughter had her wedding reception there. Before the wedding, my daughter had room 1 or 3 I think, but it was very, very nice. It was split level with the bath above, four-poster bed and had a view. No, the view wasn't as good as Le Sirenuse, or some of the other hotels, but it did look out over the Church and is very convenient to everything. The hotel was lovely and I think the restaurant serves the best food in Positano. So don't necessarily rule out the Murat. They have very nice balconies in their newer garden rooms, surrounded by flowers, but the garden rooms do not have views.

awbaker

Ok, just to throw another idea at you. Check out http://www.marincanto.it/index.html. We considered this hotel as well. The Michelin guide ranks it well.

Here's a report from a fodorite:

Author: pjmay
Date: 06/07/2004, 11:17 am
"I am so happy to top this message with a GREAT review for Marincanto Hotel!

We just returned from our honeymoon, & havent had time to do a trip report yet, but the one thing i definitly wanted to do when we got back was give this hotel a good review. We too couldnt find many fodors recommendations on it but loved the website & the rates were way more reasonable than the Sirenuse & many others, so we decided to go for it.

We booked a Junior Suite Special - 320 Euro/ night, & it was fabulous! It honestly looked exactly like the pictures on the website, we were not disappointed at all. The room was huge with a living area & a big white bed separated from the room with tall white sheer curtains - so romantic! the bathroom was pretty big, nice new tile, with a good sized shower. & the BEST part of the room was the double jacuzzi! it was connected to the bathroom, but could also be accessed from the terrace. it faced the ocean on one side & the other side was glass doors looking out onto our terrace with the same view as our terrace - the ocean & the town. The terrace was very big, i think the standard rooms had smaller terraces, but even they were a nice size, but ours was larger & the view was unbelievable.

The hotel staff was really nice, and as mentioned, there are no steps to worry about here. you enter from the street level & take an elevator down to the lobby. The breakfast was good, & the hotel has beautiful views from the breakfast patio, as well as a large sun deck they have with lounge chairs - no pool though.

Honestly, i know everyone raves about the view from the Sirenuse, but I cant imagine much better views than those from our room & from the hotel itself. We even went on the Sirenuse balcony to see what we were missing, & felt like we werent missing anything. The view from there was spectaular, but so was ours. "

kem513

Hello all. I just wanted to thank you once again for all of your advice and suggestions. You've helped tremendously in our decisions... Our final choice? Hotel Poseidon! It just seemed to offer the best combination of nice room (with a view), good hotel amenities, great reviews and (relative) value. And it seemed a little more "honeymoon-ish" than Miramare. After Positano we are going to finish off our honeymoon with two nights at the Palazzo Sasso in Ravello. We are looking forward to it, and will be sure to post results and opinions after we return! thanks again!

Weadles

kem513,

Have a wonderful honeymoon! I am sure that you will really enjoy The Poseidon! Please post when you get back.

All the best.

CFP

ken512 - When are you going on your honeymoon? I am also planning my honeymoon, for mid-October and am trying to decide where to stay in Positano. I'd love to read your report when you get back!

Cheyne

No, no, no! There is no need for you to book a room at Le Sirenuse in order to enjoy its splendors. As many veteran travelers know, you can "avail" yourself of these palatial hotels without staying in them. The most beautiful part of Le Sirenuse is its multi-leveled lobby (make a sharp left as you walk in the door and scoot downstairs)---interiors rooms filed with elegant antiques and yet covered with clinging vines! This leads to the drop-dead pool area, where you can enjoy the sleekest of lunches under a jet-set awning. You can then go back into the lobby rooms and sit there and have a Campari and meet other travelers. If you really want to splurge, go to the hotel restaurant at night. I think it is called Le Cambusa and it must be one of the best in Italy as it is certainly the priciest. Appetizers for $28, entrees for $55, etc., etc. I'm not kidding. All these places---the pool, the lobby, and the restaurants overlook picture-perfect Positano. For honeymooner luxe, you might try the much cheaper Hotel Covo dei Saraceini---this is the one hotel in Positano RIGHT on the beach by the water! Actually, if you want a really ascension-into-heaven stay, forget Positano and head some miles down the coast to hilltop Ravello, perched over the sea on a 1,000 high cliff. The most glorious hotels are here. Not the nouveau luxe over-restored Palazzo Sasso, but the Hotel Villa Cimbrone, set in the most magical gardens with a villa that once sheltered Greta Garbo. With a belevedere terrace over the sea where you can spot New York City! This hotel should open this year after a big renovation. Go to Yahoo and find the web site for Villa Cimbrone. The gardens are open to the public but the hotel is very private and in a Gothic villa. The web site alone is a vacation in itself. EnJOY!

J9

We got engaged last year in Italy. We stayed at Le Sirenuse, which we called Le Siren-useless at the end of the stay. We were booked into a deluxe room with a view. It turned out to be a balcony room with a sea view, but you first had to overlook the rooftop and some electrical wiring. We stayed in the room that night since it was spacious and we could enjoy the view from the pool. Unfortunately, we were awoken by constant pings from the pipes and the plumbing above us. It was like water torture! When I complained, we were told that our room would be switched that afternoon while we were out sightseeing. When we returned five hours later, our bags had not been moved. We were then escorted with our luggage to a tiny room immediately adjacent to the pool. We had no privacy at all as people could look from the pool into our room if we kept the windows open or we could close them and miss out on the view. We were then moved to a third room with a small terrace that evening. The manager seemed annoyed at me for asking to change rooms again. But, we were paying I believe 780 euro, so I wanted to be satisfied. The next room was fine but at 2:00 a.m. the idiot next door was talking (shouting) on a cell phone to NYC and stepped out on his terrace to not disturb his sleeping wife!! We called the front desk to complain and nothing was done, so I had to go outside at 2:30 a.m. to ask him to let us sleep!
We had the exact opposite experience in Capri at the Hotel Punta Tragara where we were treated like royalty and given a spectacular suite overlooking the famous rock formations and at Villa Cimbrone in Ravello where the staff bent over backwards to accomodate us. They arranged for our dinner and concert tickets without us even asking! They sent us flowers and champagne the night we got engaged in their gardens with a lovely note. I forgot an inexpensive straw hat on our terrace and they shipped it to me in Chicago the day after we got home at no cost with a lovely letter thanking us for our stay and offering us a discount if we came back after the renovations were complete. I would stay away from Le Sirenuse if you go to Positano and splurge in Capri and Ravello!

spinesrgn

We stayed at Le Sirenuse in July, 2003. The hotel is pretty and so is the view. The hotel, however, is quite overpriced and we would not likely stay there again. I would opt for one of the many other (cheaper) hotels with a view of the bay.

SusanMargaret

I see you have already stayed at Villa Rosa, which has very nice rooms, each with a terrace, for E150 a night. We just returned from there and loved it. For something between LS and VR have a look at Hotel Ancora - next door to LS. Friends stayed there recently and loved it. I think they paid around $300 US a night.

princessre

Le Sirenuse is sooooo incredible. If $$ is no issue, just stay there and you will be so happy.

If $$ is of some concern, then maybe stay somewhere else for first few nights, and stay at Sirenuse for the last couple.

But please do not forego the view. It is INCREDIBLE. I would not pay to stay at this hotel if I didn't have the view.

princessre

i forgot to say i've been to cimbrone, but nothing beats sirenuse if you want a beautiful room where you leave the window open all night and just stare out into the stunning sea view.

ravello is really really gorgeous, but doesn't feel as festive to me. it feels more like on a mountain. i do like cimbrone and palazzo sasso but it is not as mediterranean feeling b/c it's higher up.

NYerr

haha, post started in March 2005, they are probably married for a year now. Wonder how the trip was.


KEM513 if you are out there - post a trip report.

kangamom

Ha ha, I know this is a year too late, but we did stay at Le Sirenuse in a room w/o a view. We still loved the hotel and enjoyed the amenities immensely.

There are so many public areas of Le Sirenuse that you can enjoy the view for hours, maybe from the pool or one of the many terraces.

We also loved the complimentary boat ride on the antique fishing boat. We had the boat stop so that we could swim in the Mediterranean right outside the "Siren" islands.

We also used the hotel pool, spa, and complimentary DVDs. The location is great and its nice to have the private walking path to the water.

My husband and I try to pick hotels with very nice amenities and get the cheapest room and try to maximize the amenities as much as possible!

We loved our stay there and would do it again in a heartbeat!

DianeandRocky

Anyone ever stayed at the Domina Inn Royal in Positano?

kem513

Hi. Well, over one year later, I'm finally posting a trip update. Our honeymoon was fantastic! I can't even begin to go into the details on this forum, because it would quickly become a novel, but suffice it to say, I don't think we would have changed a thing in terms of the choices we made and the places we stayed. In Positano, we ended up staying at Poseidon. It was amazing. Our room (which cost SIGNIFICANTLY less than the least expensive, non-view, room at Sirenuse) was enormous. It was more like a suite than a room (we joked that it was bigger than our Manhattan apartment). It had two full rooms -- a lovely living room/sitting room, plus a huge bedroom (even the bathroom was large). The bedroom had floor-to-ceiling arched windows that formed a sort of sitting area, with a panoramic view of the sea and all of Positano. We slept with the curtains open so we could awaken to this wonderful view. Our living room also featured large windows and glass doors which opened up to a lovely private terrace with a table and a few chairs, where we could sun ourselves and take breakfast with a stunning view. We thought the hotel was beautiful as well - absolutely charming. The pool area was terrific, on a lovely stone-paved terrace with large flower pots and the same incredible panoramic view of the water and town as our room. Right off the pool area was a beautiful outdoor sitting/dining area, where you could either sit in the sun, or in the shade under a trellis with a thick overhead canopy of flowering vines (my husband thought this area was so pretty that he actually preferred eating breakfast under this canopy of vines than on our private terrace). Overall, the Poseidon was beautifully maintained, and had a lot more "personality" than Sirenuse. We went to Sirenuse for a drink one evening, and while it was undeniably "fancier" than Poseidon, we found it a bit antiseptic and somewhat overly-commercialized (and certainly stuffier). Additionally, the service at Poseidon was great. The staff was very helpful. When we arrived on the main patio to watch the sunset, they could not have moved faster to bring us drinks and snacks. They also arranged several dinner reservations for us at various restaurants in town, and helped us organize a day-trip by boat to Capri (they made all the necessary calls and arrangements for us). Also, when we visited Sirenuse, everyone we chatted with seemed to be from the NY area! Poseidon had more of a mix of Americans and European tourists, which we felt added to the overall character of the place. SO - between the lower cost, the huge size of our room, the fantastic view from the room, the lovely pool/patio area, and the overall cuter/more charming nature of the hotel itself, we were SO glad we did not pick Sirenuse, but chose to stay at Poseidon instead.

Weadles

kem513,

I'm so glad that you enjoyed your stay at The Poseidon. Where else did you go and how were the hotels?

dok94901

Do you have a website for the Poseidon?

aliced

If you stay at the Sirenuse, take the room with view. It is a spectacular place. We told our kids to honeymoon there -- neither did go to Europe -- but it is a once in a lifetime treat. Save in other ways, like taking the Seta blue bus over to Amalfi or Ravello, Sorrento, etc. Chez Black in Positano is a great place for a nice meal, right on the beach and reasonable. Enjoy!

LuiseB

We stayed at Le Agavi. I think we paid about $500 a night. The room was typical but the view from the private walkout balcony was breathtaking. I would not stay anywhere else in Positano after staying here. It is perched high up so you are far enough away from noise at night. Shuttle runs every fifteen minutes down to the centre of town. Incredibly laid out property. Wouldn't recommend hotel restaurant for dinner, but breakfast was great and the views from the terrace better. Good luck!