TR: Two weeks in Campania with the children
Jul 11th, 2009, 12:52 PM
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TR: Two weeks in Campania with the children
I've looked at these boards so much for information, I thought I'd write about our trip, especially as we had our two children (9 and 13) with us and family questions often arise and we spent a week in the Cilento where most people don't seem to get. It's a bit long...
It was our second trip to Campania after a great vacation two years ago. Various factors shaped our choices: keeping the children happy, avoiding crowds which make my husband crazy, beach and swimming as well as sight seeing. Last time we went for nine days - with a day at Pompeii and a week in Santa Maria di Castellabate which included a day driving the Amalfi Coast as we moved down and a day in Amalfi and Ravello via the metro del mare. We came in from France and went on to London for work reasons, so this was our everyone's on vacation section. We found nine days wasn't long enough last time, s we decided on two weeks!
Logistics: We flew from France into Rome, picked up a hire car and drove to Pompeii - two and half hours, no problem. Easyjet - our second trip to Europe using them for internal fights. No problem ad the price is great. If you are ok with Southwest, you'll be fine with Easyjet. If you avoid Southwest, you should probably avoid EasyJet too. Hired a car via AutoEurope - it was EuropCar and we ha da Fiat Panda. Husband always plays a game to find the smallest car that will fit us all to keep the cost down, facilitate driving, and minimize petrol consumption. We just got in but it was a great car for Italy. Husband has no problem driving there and he enjoyed it. The issue there is parking on the AC which is still impossible but the driving he finds fine. I think that's a personal matter - if you're used to driving in many situations, you won't mind. If you only usually drive in a quite suburb, it will probably give you a nervous breakdown.
Pompeii - as before, we decided to stay in Pompeii. We like the ease and convenience of being right there. We stayed again at the Iside which we recommend. Simple, clean, very close to the ruins. We went to Pompeii the first day - got there at opening which I think is the key. You get the quiet and cool part of the day. As before, it was just amazing early on. We went to a locked house (the Golden Cupids) which we enjoyed very much. Thanks for all the hints on that. Thanks too to everyone who mentioned the cafe inside being closed
as we would have relied on lunch, and ice creams tops there to cool down and rejuvenate like last time. But instead we took a picnic. Even then and with constantly cooling off at the water fountains, we left after five hours - making 11 hour in all over our two visits. We finally feel as we have "done" Pompeii!
Saturday - we caught the circumvesuvius train to Herculaneum for our first visit there. (Watch for a mistake we made and many others make - the entrance in straight down the hill from the train station but at the first island after the train station, there's a sign pointing to the ruins back up the hill - we followed the sign, saw three others do likewise and talked to a fourth couple on the train back who'd done it too. Ignore that sign...) It didn't blow us away as Pompeii has twice. Partly I think you can always seen the modern buildings and it seems a bit dark in that big pit. But it was very interesting and we all enjoyed the wood, furniture etc. If I only had time for one, it would be Pompeii.
Trained back to Pompeii to get the car from the Iside - their (locked) car park behind the hotel is in a beautiful lemon grove, and they invited us to take some lemons. We took six beautiful classic Campania lemons and made wonderful lemonade with them later in the week.
Drove straight down to Castellabate - 90 minutes very easy. Here's the often asked kid question - what about beaches. Two years ago we ended up going to Santa Maria di C for a week for a sandy beach for the children and we did so again. We stayed about five hundreds yards close to town along the beach this time in an apartment booked through the summerinitaly website. Like most people, I can't say enough good things about summer in Italy. So efficient, helpful, straigtforward etc. We asked for an apartment with a big terrace with a table for all of us and a great view and that's exactly what we got. (It's the Villa Barbara complex is you want to check their website - www.summerinitaly.com)
Incredibly clean, very smoothly run complex, awesome views over to Capri and the Amalfi coast.
We had a wonderful week - lots of beach time. SM is delightful - basically one shopping street. It isn't a gourmet restaurant area but the food is good and reasonable priced and the local ingredients - above all the buffalo mozzarella - are superb.) And excellent gelato. There are very very few English/American tourists there and very little English spoken. We walked along the beach in the other direction to San Marco di C sometimes
(note that when the beach ends and you follow the road up, after a couple of hundred yards the road goes to the left but a pedestrian only path goes straight ahead and follows the shoreline around to the harbor). The walk there is fine but the walk back - wth Castellabate on the hill, Santa Maria down the shore, and the Amalfi Coast an Capri on the horizon is absolutely extraordinary.
We did stir ourselves to go to Paestum (again - still fantastic) and Velia (interesting and a great drive along the Cilento coast on a road much like the AC one - breathtaking views, narrow road, little villages, the beaches and sea are amazing in that direction).
Our week was up all too soon. We all love Santa Maria di C - our daughters think we should forgo all other summer plans and start going there for two weeks as often as possible! It's so beautiful. The beach and sea are great. The snorkeling is super. The views are awe-inspiring.The costs and hassle are much else than the AC. Child paradise, parental nirvana!
As I was standing on our terrace enjoying the view one last time, I felt a spasm in my back. That's strange I thought. I climbed in the car and by the time we got out at Maori for lunch 90 minutes later, I couldn't walk across the road. Agony. Proceeded to our hotel in Praiano (the Onda Verde of which I've written a review on TA so I won't repeat here), still agony. Wondered what we would do. Took two connecting rooms with a big terrace in case I had to spend the week lying on a sun lounger on the terrace... Started said lie down, accompanied by a handful of ibuprofen. (Message to self - in future take more ibuprofen than you can possibly imagine you might need...) Children and husband went off to explore...
Our plans for the AC had been all hiking and swimming - so we were in disarray. Children were very dissatisfied with the beach and swimming at the OV which is by the La Praia cove - stony beach of course and shady, busy with boats small cove. Snorkeling difficult due to the above. I feared for what was to come.
Situation redeemed by resort to the free boat shuttle to coves and swimming - thanks so much forum posters! The first day we took the bus to Positano and took the free boat to the cove that the Sireneuse and da Adolfo restaurants share - they each have their own boat from the dock in Positano and I think the experience is very similar although the Sireneuse boat came first so we did that. Free sun beds, umbrella, boat ride in return for lunch - which was great. Incredible views, the cove is great for swimming, the boat ride is a lot of fun. The last day, we took the free shuttle from the La Praia cove in Praiano (the Gavitella shuttle) to a similar - fantastic views, great for swimming/snorkelling/jumping and diving off the rocks. There the boat ride is free . You choose whether to get beds (12 euros) and eat (at lunch, panini and salad type - I think fancier at night).
We also took the bus to Ravello one day. It's still lovely! The view from the Cimbrone Belvedere is still unforgettable! But I was dismayed not to be able to walk down to Amalfi because the last time that walk was one of the highlights of my life. So if you go, walk down (free map from hiking office and very well signposted).
We didn't of course get to do the Path of the Gods which I had fantastized about for months. Instead, driving over to Sorrento on the last day, we drove up to Montepertuso and Nocelle to get a taste of it - I can't even describe the views. they make Ravello look ordinary. The towns thmselves are uninspired though we we didn't see any sign of waymarking/signs for the walk which made us wonder if that's more difficult to navigate than we had expected (and we've hiked a lot).
We were happy we stayed in Praiano - quieter etc. We enjoyed the walk down to the beach in Positano and it's so beautiful, but the chaos ... Amalfi for us isn't quite as charming and doesn't have the views. Ravello would be lovely but too far from the sea for swimming and I think getting up and down would become a hassle.
But we all ended up loving the AC, despite my back!
On to Sorrento - I know a lot of people love Sorrento, and we only passed though for one night before, but its charms absolutely escaped us. We stayed n the hills at the Il Nido which offers peace, quiet, great views and cooler than the city (as well as very friendly service and a reliable free shuttle into town), but the town... so touristy, so English, so much fixed on the you don't have to deal with being in Italy at all because you can have everything you do at home. We like the views better on the Amalfi Cost and santa Maria sides. It was very hazy the two nights we were there over Naples Bay - pollution apparently as we discovered when we flew through the pollution layer out of Naples.
And the girls, who can never beach enough, wanted one last day of swimming. Sorrento being hopeless on that score ( the in town bathing docks in grimy water were even worse than we expected), we drove to Marina Del Cantone. Very pretty drive through lemon groves with beautiful flowers and opening up to some great views of Capri. The cove is nice, but only nice - nothing comparable to the coves we visted on the Amalfi Coast) The beach chairs were expensive (15 euros!) as was the parking.
None of us would go back to Sorrento. It's much vaunted advantage as a transport hub is overrated I think. You spend SO long on the buses to go to the AC from there, and then you're in Sorrento... We still like what we did - stay in Pompeii for one or two nights, depending how much of a classical world buff you are and move on to the AC or Cilento for the rest of the time,
And so to Naples airport - very easy for the hire car drop off and to get too, being right off the autostrada (or actually the "tangenziale," a phrase that amused us).
Overall- Family wise, I think Sorrento and even the AC is very hard work compared to the Cilento, and our children are now older, very well traveled (our older one was having her 14th trip to Europe...), adaptable, adventurous, and able to go with the flow. The AC strikes me definitely as only for older children.
Buses - we did use the Sita bus on the AC because parking is so difficult even though we had the car. We didn't find it that appealing, mainly due to the overcrowding and disorganization (absolute chaos in Amalfi at the end of the day in the pouring rain over which bus was going where, for instance....)
I've just put a photo our daughter took of the sunset over Capri from our terrace in Santa Maris as our screen saver. A fantastic holiday. I hope we'll be able to go back....
It was our second trip to Campania after a great vacation two years ago. Various factors shaped our choices: keeping the children happy, avoiding crowds which make my husband crazy, beach and swimming as well as sight seeing. Last time we went for nine days - with a day at Pompeii and a week in Santa Maria di Castellabate which included a day driving the Amalfi Coast as we moved down and a day in Amalfi and Ravello via the metro del mare. We came in from France and went on to London for work reasons, so this was our everyone's on vacation section. We found nine days wasn't long enough last time, s we decided on two weeks!
Logistics: We flew from France into Rome, picked up a hire car and drove to Pompeii - two and half hours, no problem. Easyjet - our second trip to Europe using them for internal fights. No problem ad the price is great. If you are ok with Southwest, you'll be fine with Easyjet. If you avoid Southwest, you should probably avoid EasyJet too. Hired a car via AutoEurope - it was EuropCar and we ha da Fiat Panda. Husband always plays a game to find the smallest car that will fit us all to keep the cost down, facilitate driving, and minimize petrol consumption. We just got in but it was a great car for Italy. Husband has no problem driving there and he enjoyed it. The issue there is parking on the AC which is still impossible but the driving he finds fine. I think that's a personal matter - if you're used to driving in many situations, you won't mind. If you only usually drive in a quite suburb, it will probably give you a nervous breakdown.
Pompeii - as before, we decided to stay in Pompeii. We like the ease and convenience of being right there. We stayed again at the Iside which we recommend. Simple, clean, very close to the ruins. We went to Pompeii the first day - got there at opening which I think is the key. You get the quiet and cool part of the day. As before, it was just amazing early on. We went to a locked house (the Golden Cupids) which we enjoyed very much. Thanks for all the hints on that. Thanks too to everyone who mentioned the cafe inside being closed
as we would have relied on lunch, and ice creams tops there to cool down and rejuvenate like last time. But instead we took a picnic. Even then and with constantly cooling off at the water fountains, we left after five hours - making 11 hour in all over our two visits. We finally feel as we have "done" Pompeii!
Saturday - we caught the circumvesuvius train to Herculaneum for our first visit there. (Watch for a mistake we made and many others make - the entrance in straight down the hill from the train station but at the first island after the train station, there's a sign pointing to the ruins back up the hill - we followed the sign, saw three others do likewise and talked to a fourth couple on the train back who'd done it too. Ignore that sign...) It didn't blow us away as Pompeii has twice. Partly I think you can always seen the modern buildings and it seems a bit dark in that big pit. But it was very interesting and we all enjoyed the wood, furniture etc. If I only had time for one, it would be Pompeii.
Trained back to Pompeii to get the car from the Iside - their (locked) car park behind the hotel is in a beautiful lemon grove, and they invited us to take some lemons. We took six beautiful classic Campania lemons and made wonderful lemonade with them later in the week.
Drove straight down to Castellabate - 90 minutes very easy. Here's the often asked kid question - what about beaches. Two years ago we ended up going to Santa Maria di C for a week for a sandy beach for the children and we did so again. We stayed about five hundreds yards close to town along the beach this time in an apartment booked through the summerinitaly website. Like most people, I can't say enough good things about summer in Italy. So efficient, helpful, straigtforward etc. We asked for an apartment with a big terrace with a table for all of us and a great view and that's exactly what we got. (It's the Villa Barbara complex is you want to check their website - www.summerinitaly.com)
Incredibly clean, very smoothly run complex, awesome views over to Capri and the Amalfi coast.
We had a wonderful week - lots of beach time. SM is delightful - basically one shopping street. It isn't a gourmet restaurant area but the food is good and reasonable priced and the local ingredients - above all the buffalo mozzarella - are superb.) And excellent gelato. There are very very few English/American tourists there and very little English spoken. We walked along the beach in the other direction to San Marco di C sometimes
(note that when the beach ends and you follow the road up, after a couple of hundred yards the road goes to the left but a pedestrian only path goes straight ahead and follows the shoreline around to the harbor). The walk there is fine but the walk back - wth Castellabate on the hill, Santa Maria down the shore, and the Amalfi Coast an Capri on the horizon is absolutely extraordinary.
We did stir ourselves to go to Paestum (again - still fantastic) and Velia (interesting and a great drive along the Cilento coast on a road much like the AC one - breathtaking views, narrow road, little villages, the beaches and sea are amazing in that direction).
Our week was up all too soon. We all love Santa Maria di C - our daughters think we should forgo all other summer plans and start going there for two weeks as often as possible! It's so beautiful. The beach and sea are great. The snorkeling is super. The views are awe-inspiring.The costs and hassle are much else than the AC. Child paradise, parental nirvana!
As I was standing on our terrace enjoying the view one last time, I felt a spasm in my back. That's strange I thought. I climbed in the car and by the time we got out at Maori for lunch 90 minutes later, I couldn't walk across the road. Agony. Proceeded to our hotel in Praiano (the Onda Verde of which I've written a review on TA so I won't repeat here), still agony. Wondered what we would do. Took two connecting rooms with a big terrace in case I had to spend the week lying on a sun lounger on the terrace... Started said lie down, accompanied by a handful of ibuprofen. (Message to self - in future take more ibuprofen than you can possibly imagine you might need...) Children and husband went off to explore...
Our plans for the AC had been all hiking and swimming - so we were in disarray. Children were very dissatisfied with the beach and swimming at the OV which is by the La Praia cove - stony beach of course and shady, busy with boats small cove. Snorkeling difficult due to the above. I feared for what was to come.
Situation redeemed by resort to the free boat shuttle to coves and swimming - thanks so much forum posters! The first day we took the bus to Positano and took the free boat to the cove that the Sireneuse and da Adolfo restaurants share - they each have their own boat from the dock in Positano and I think the experience is very similar although the Sireneuse boat came first so we did that. Free sun beds, umbrella, boat ride in return for lunch - which was great. Incredible views, the cove is great for swimming, the boat ride is a lot of fun. The last day, we took the free shuttle from the La Praia cove in Praiano (the Gavitella shuttle) to a similar - fantastic views, great for swimming/snorkelling/jumping and diving off the rocks. There the boat ride is free . You choose whether to get beds (12 euros) and eat (at lunch, panini and salad type - I think fancier at night).
We also took the bus to Ravello one day. It's still lovely! The view from the Cimbrone Belvedere is still unforgettable! But I was dismayed not to be able to walk down to Amalfi because the last time that walk was one of the highlights of my life. So if you go, walk down (free map from hiking office and very well signposted).
We didn't of course get to do the Path of the Gods which I had fantastized about for months. Instead, driving over to Sorrento on the last day, we drove up to Montepertuso and Nocelle to get a taste of it - I can't even describe the views. they make Ravello look ordinary. The towns thmselves are uninspired though we we didn't see any sign of waymarking/signs for the walk which made us wonder if that's more difficult to navigate than we had expected (and we've hiked a lot).
We were happy we stayed in Praiano - quieter etc. We enjoyed the walk down to the beach in Positano and it's so beautiful, but the chaos ... Amalfi for us isn't quite as charming and doesn't have the views. Ravello would be lovely but too far from the sea for swimming and I think getting up and down would become a hassle.
But we all ended up loving the AC, despite my back!
On to Sorrento - I know a lot of people love Sorrento, and we only passed though for one night before, but its charms absolutely escaped us. We stayed n the hills at the Il Nido which offers peace, quiet, great views and cooler than the city (as well as very friendly service and a reliable free shuttle into town), but the town... so touristy, so English, so much fixed on the you don't have to deal with being in Italy at all because you can have everything you do at home. We like the views better on the Amalfi Cost and santa Maria sides. It was very hazy the two nights we were there over Naples Bay - pollution apparently as we discovered when we flew through the pollution layer out of Naples.
And the girls, who can never beach enough, wanted one last day of swimming. Sorrento being hopeless on that score ( the in town bathing docks in grimy water were even worse than we expected), we drove to Marina Del Cantone. Very pretty drive through lemon groves with beautiful flowers and opening up to some great views of Capri. The cove is nice, but only nice - nothing comparable to the coves we visted on the Amalfi Coast) The beach chairs were expensive (15 euros!) as was the parking.
None of us would go back to Sorrento. It's much vaunted advantage as a transport hub is overrated I think. You spend SO long on the buses to go to the AC from there, and then you're in Sorrento... We still like what we did - stay in Pompeii for one or two nights, depending how much of a classical world buff you are and move on to the AC or Cilento for the rest of the time,
And so to Naples airport - very easy for the hire car drop off and to get too, being right off the autostrada (or actually the "tangenziale," a phrase that amused us).
Overall- Family wise, I think Sorrento and even the AC is very hard work compared to the Cilento, and our children are now older, very well traveled (our older one was having her 14th trip to Europe...), adaptable, adventurous, and able to go with the flow. The AC strikes me definitely as only for older children.
Buses - we did use the Sita bus on the AC because parking is so difficult even though we had the car. We didn't find it that appealing, mainly due to the overcrowding and disorganization (absolute chaos in Amalfi at the end of the day in the pouring rain over which bus was going where, for instance....)
I've just put a photo our daughter took of the sunset over Capri from our terrace in Santa Maris as our screen saver. A fantastic holiday. I hope we'll be able to go back....
Jul 12th, 2009, 05:45 PM
#2
Interestingly, your negative views on Sorrento fly in the face of many Fodor's posters. As you point out, it is much heralded as the only place to stay because of transportation. It is nice to hear some reality. IMHO it is no substitute for the actual Amalfi Coast.
Ian
Ian
Dec 27th, 2009, 02:50 AM
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Texastrips - I just read your lovely trip report as you posted to my,,,, dreaming about Hvar post. I think we have similar travel interests, although my children much younger still.
The driving in AC has always been a barrier. I was there once at 17 and took trains and buses then. I remember being a little nervous in the bus and don't know if I would survive my husband driving and my children in the back.
But after your descriptions it might go on the list sooner than later!
happy new year
The driving in AC has always been a barrier. I was there once at 17 and took trains and buses then. I remember being a little nervous in the bus and don't know if I would survive my husband driving and my children in the back.
But after your descriptions it might go on the list sooner than later!
happy new year
Jul 23rd, 2010, 05:49 AM
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I'm glad you are familiarizing more people with beautiful alternatives to the touristed core of the Amalfi, and that you've underscored the transportation difficulties getting to and from the Amafli coast, and even around the Amalfi coast by SITA bus or car. As a base for moving around for sightseeing (except for view seeking with hikes), the Amalfi coast is problematic.
I think you happened by chance upon the charming parts of Sorrento, filled with lemon groves, on your way to the Marina del Cantone. I don't think it works as a transportation hub for visiting the Amalfi and like you, I would stay right in Pompeii, to beat the heat and the crowds.
Hope your back spasms have disappeared for good. My one bout with them came wearing new flat shoes (with hard soles) in an area where I was constantly climbing stairs. I got rid of the shoes.
I think you happened by chance upon the charming parts of Sorrento, filled with lemon groves, on your way to the Marina del Cantone. I don't think it works as a transportation hub for visiting the Amalfi and like you, I would stay right in Pompeii, to beat the heat and the crowds.
Hope your back spasms have disappeared for good. My one bout with them came wearing new flat shoes (with hard soles) in an area where I was constantly climbing stairs. I got rid of the shoes.
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