We have 6 days/nts in early June. We are staying in Ravello for 2 nts. and 1 nt. at a small hotel in Sorrento marina piccola. We like to move around and take in the different views any suggestions would be appreciated.

Spanning quite a wide range...

- the Santa Caterina in Amalfi (expensive but the best hotel I've ever stayed in)

- the Poseidon in Positano (medium to expensive but very nice, fantastic views & very good food - and we don't normally eat at our hotels)

- Le Sirene outside Positano (pretty basic beach bar with a few rooms, wonderful seafood, a couple of bays down from Positano with the hotel shuttle being a boat !).

Le Sirenuse in Positano, hands down. One of the reasons I don't go back to the Amalfi Coast is that I can't imagine staying anywhere other than Le Sirenuse, yet can't bring myself to pay the current price!

Hi LJ,

We very much liked www.lesirene.com in Praiano. This is not the one mentioned by CE.

What is your hotel budget?

We spent a wonderful week in the amalfi coast last September.Yuo can see my report if you click on my name.We stayed the full week in amalfi,going everywhere via rhe public transportation service.
There are dozens of hotels to choose with prices to match every buget.
If you have any question,I will be glad to help.Have a nice trip!!!!

Thanks so much! My hotel budget is about 200 Euro/nt.

Loren,

I've stayed in Praiano both visits. First visit at La Fiorelli, owners were family friends of boyfriend, a comfortable *** across the highway (upside) from Tramonto d'Oro **** (very nice).

Second visit at Le Sirene *** at Ira's recommendation. Just loved it. Quiet, lovely, wonderful owners and very good breakfast. LOTS of stairs down, but the whole coast is that way - either up or down, very little level.

It's about 400 stairs down to the tiny beach/cove at Praiano. We counted.

Stay in Positano if you like touristy, resorty shopping/restaurants and nightlife. Stay in Praiano or one of the other small towns if you want a more local experience.

Recommend dinner at La Brace in Praiano. Very good and wonderful service. Be sure to have La Signora's grilled veggies. YUM!

Buon viaggio

ira---you always come up with the greatest properties. The Lesirene sure has some plain -jane rooms, but what glorious views at a great price.

The Santa Caterina and La Sirenuse have always been on my "if you win the lottery hotels" but the Lesierene is so much more doable.

If I can ever still my love for Paris and go to Positano (on my bucket list) I will look into the Lesirene.

I've stayed in Positano, Sorrento (both of these quite long ago) and, more recently, Amalfi.

I preferred Amalfi.

Our stay in 2008 prompted me to write a glowing review on Trip Advisor, something I've only done a few times:



http://www.hotelfloridiana.it/en/index.asp



My trip report:


http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...and-naples.cfm

OP - I am looking for a hotel in Sorrento - which one are you staying at? have you stayed there before? Thanks! and as to YOUR query - do you plan on going to Capri? perhaps stay there for 3 nights instead of an additional stop on the AC.

Last spring I stayed at La Grotta dei Fichi, a private villa along the Amalfi Coast between Sorrento and Positano. There were 9 of us in my group. This villa may not be what you are looking for, however the owners had just finished a small apartment annex (1 bedroom) adjacent to the villa. They were planning to rent the annex individually or as part of the whole villa for larger groups.

Here is the villa website:
http://www.grottadeifichi.it/

I did not see any mention of the annex on the villa website, but if you are interested I suggest sending an email to the owner (Vincenzo)through the villa website and ask about renting the annex. The views are stunning!

That villa looks amazing, but the Hotel Floridana looks more in our price range.

For Capri www.hotelweber.com comes recommended by freinds of ours, they just loved it and the price is not too high. We haven't stayed there, but it's on our list of places to go.

Thank you again for responding with websites this really helps. For suec1 we are staying in Sorrento at the www.marinapiccola73.com. It got good reviews and it was at the marina. Since we are arriving by ferry from Amalfi, I thought it convenient to stay close. Not planning on Capri. Although loved it last time we were in Italy. Strongly considering Ischia. Did ekscrunchy finish the trip report yet, I haven't looked lately?

We rented an apartment in Praiano and loved the location. Public transport made getting around easy and an adventure.

We've been to Ischia as well. Our first stay was at the Hotel La VillaRosa, which was like a slice of heaven.

www.lavillarosa.it

I did not finish the Ischia report yet. I have an official dispensation due to an ongoing renovation of my apartment. This should be finished within a month or so, and then I will be able to exhume my notes from their dust-covered temporary grave and get back to the report. I am truly sorry for my awful procrastination, but I will do my best to answer any questions as best I can in the meantime.

While you wait for ekscrunchy's trip report, here's mine covering our first stay on Ischia - http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...2&tid=34830452.

We loved it so much we went back and stayed a week at the same place the two following years (so most recently last year).

Caroline, problem with my recent post, hope not a duplicate. Anyway thank you for reference to your trip report of ischia. We are strongly considering Casa Celestino too. I have emailed them 3x but they don't get back to me. ?? I'll try again in Feb. Perhaps i'm an impatient american. Question about Sant'Angelo, Can we walk to the beach or do we have to take the little boats to Maronti beach? What would be the 2nd best place to stay, in your opinion, in Sant'Angelo (in case the Celestino doesn't respond)? Whick ferry company/line would be best to use to arrive at Sant'Angelo, the one for Ischia Porto or the one for Forio? From the port, it would take about 50 mins by bus right? A lot of questions but I appreciate the travel experience on this site Loren

Loren I will wait for Caroline to answer those questions. I think you can also descend some steps to hotsprings that shoot out of the water near San Angelo.

You are probably better off taking the ferry to Porto because the buses depart from there and you are more likely to get a seat with your luggage. The time of the trip depends a lot on traffic but I think 50 minutes is about the longest time it would take in early June. We noticed more traffic around lunchtime and then at the end of the school day. The buses are very easy to navigate. You may be able to get a bus schedule online; you can certainly get one when you arrive at the little booth opposite the places where the buses pull in--the "deposito."

San Angelo is beautiful!

Hi Loren. Yes, I wouldn't expect an answer from Casa Celestino until about February. The same happened to me the first two times - I emailed them before Christmas, they replied around February. (The third time, they emailed me first !)

Sant'Angelo has its own small beach (next to the isthmus and about a 3 minute walk from the hotel)and we like that; but there are small boats at the harbour which will take you to various other beaches including Maronti.

I don't know any other hotels in SA and none leaped out at me as looking as nice and being as central - some could be quite a long walk back uphill from the beach, restaurants etc. I did research all the hotels I could before we went the first time, thought CC looked the nicest and was thrilled with it.

As eks suggests I also prefer to get the bus from Ischia Porto as it's the beginning of the route and you can wait for an empty bus to arrive so you can get a seat (they are very frequent). Sant'Angelo has the same advantage going back. The journey time can vary depending on which bus you get & the time of day, but 50 mins is probably about average. We did take an hour and a quarter once. The CD is slower than the 1 or CS but tends to get less crowded.

Just reread this thread & noticed eks's ref to steps down to hot springs near Sant'Angelo, which I'd missed before. I think she must mean Sorgeto which we went to on our 2008 trip but didn't like much - trip report here http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...2&tid=35160710. We got a boat there from Sant'Angelo harbour but there are steps (a lot) going down to it from a couple of miles back up the main road above SA.

And just for completeness here's my 2007 trip report which also has a brief paragraph about Ischia, at the start - http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...2&tid=35050594.