Sorrento Italy

 

We had 7 days staying in Sorrento on a half board holiday with Newmarket Holidays visiting Pompeii, Capri and the Amalfi Coast, we also added an extra tour visiting a farm for a demonstration of cheese making complete with lunch.

We started our holiday by driving to Cophall parking to leave the car and then a 15 minute bus trip to Gatwick Airport where we stayed overnight at the Hilton before heading into the north terminal at 5am the next morning. Our reason for choosing the Hilton is that it is within the airport complex and its just a matter of catching the monorail to the North terminal for the flight.  Checking in was easy and we boarded the flight and even took off early.   

 

         As we flew out the sky’s were clear blue and not a drop of cloud until we were well into Italy. We could see the ground all the way and a very clear view of the mountains, I think this was Switzerland. We made good time and landed half an hour early, however it took us an hour to clear immigration. I could see the queue outside the airport building when we landed, unloaded and 2 buses full of people were taken to a large marquee with 13 electronic entry terminals in it, we all filed passed as none of them were working,the queue then went back outside zig zagging to the main doors of the terminal building, inside and up to two booths with chaps stamping passports.    
Once cleared we had an hour to wait for the Heathrow flight. We were aware we may have to wait an hour and it gave us the opportunity to have some lunch and also visit the loo where I spotted this notice.

Another thing about the toilets in restaurants and bars in Sorrento is that hardly any had a toilet seat, they were all spotlessly clean where ever you went but apart from our hotel we only saw two more with seats .
Then it was a coach trip to Sorrento dropping guests off at each of the three hotels. We were staying at the Eliseo Park's Hotel which was less than 100 mt. from one of the other hotels being used by Newmarket holidays.
The Hotel was very welcoming and spotlessly clean, the staff truly friendly, The hotel has had a recent makeover and I suspect we were in one of the original bedrooms, again spotless and very roomy, but the bed was a tad to firm for my taste, it was however very wide. 
Another thing of note was the instant hot water from the taps and shower, no standing while the shower above the bath went from cold to warm and then hot.

At first we thought the hotel was quite old with a modern bedroom block built on and we were in one of the few bedrooms in the old part but it turned out the who;e building had been revamped a few years previously  by the present owner’s parents. Dad was now in a wheelchair probably following a stroke but they came to the hotel for diner every evening. Being Italy glass is very high on the décor and was designed and made specifically for the hotel.

The new block all with balconies overlooked the swimming pool, but it was too early in the season for it to be in use. Of course there were also lemon trees in the garden. 

 

The only down side really was that the hotel was a bit too far out of town to find a bar for a drink after diner, We did visit a couple of the other hotels for a drink that were right on the cliff top.