We recently enjoyed a week at the Hotel Alpha, as part of a package. The hotel caters for those wanting half board (bed, breakfast and evening meal).
The location is great for those wanting to be close to Sorrento, but in a slightly quieter location - Sant'Agnello is a few miles to the east of Sorrento. The easiest way to get to Sorrento is by train. These run about every half hour, the journey takes 3 minutes, and the hotel is 10 minutes walk from Sant'Agnello railway station.
If you want your history/culture fix, trains from Sant'Agnello also run directly to Pompeii (40 minutes), Naples (70 minutes), and (with a change) to Herculaneum (about 60 minutes),
If you want to stay out late in Sorrento, you can get a taxi back. (I would not recommend walking; it is a 40 minute walk, and I would normally be happy to do this, but the pavements are very narrow and the road is busy.)
The hotel itself is a modern white-washed building; there is a spacious reception and lounge area, with a bar; a large dining room; and nice landscape gardens around, with a lemon grove and a swimming pool. There is a small outside bar next to the pool. Limited parking is in an underground garage (booking essential). Most of the bedrooms have balconies. There's very good free Wifi everywhere in the hotel.
The rooms come in two variants; standard and superior. We had a superior bedroom, in the original hotel building, now called the "annex". The room was spacious and well equipped, although it did not have the USB points available in the main hotel. (Superior rooms main hotel also have a sofa, which we didn't have.) On the plus side, it meant our room was very quiet. We had a nice few inland from our (very private) balcony.
Superior rooms come with air-conditioning, a safe, a small fridge, TV, and plenty of hanging space for clothes, but not much shelf space. The bathroom had a shower, toilet and bidet, with a hairdryer and shaving point, bathrobes, slippers, and lots of fluffy towels. These were changed every day with room service. (Bedding was also changed in the middle of the week.) Everything was spotlessly clean.
The only downside in our particular room was that the shower head was too close to the ceiling, so you had to stand right under it. But there was a separate handheld spray attachment, so it wasn't a problem for us.
Breakfast consisted of a buffet, and is very Italian, so the cooked options were quite limited (bacon, small sausages, and scrambled egg). There's a toast machine, with a selection of bread and rolls, hard-boiled eggs, cheese and salami. If you have a sweet tooth, you will be very well catered for, as there are lots of croissants and pastries. Staff serve tea and coffee.
Evening meals consist of three courses, with an additional salad buffet. Each evening though was a choice of at least three mains, three starters and three desserts. There was always a vegetarian option, but you could also have salad. (That said, watch out if you're vegetarian, due to the Italian propensity to add ham into some of the mixed salads!) NB: Even with half board, you pay for all drinks.
The food was perfect perfectly decent, but not exceptional. If you wanted the full Italian gastronomic experience, you could always eat out, as there are plenty of restaurants nearby. The hotel also has its own pizzeria, with excellent pizzas. This is not included in the half board package, but during weekdays you can get a small discount.
Staff on reception were a little bit variable - always pleasant and helpful, but one lady didn't speak particularly good English. The rest of the staff were very friendly, efficient and helpful. While we were there, a couple were celebrating their diamond wedding anniversary, and the staff went out of their way to make a real fuss of them.
Overall, we would be happy to stay there again.
Bear in mind the Sorrento area isn't really aimed at beach holidays; the towns are on cliffs, with steep roads (but also lifts) to the black sand beaches or bathing stations below; access to either involves a fee. read more