Hotel Rivage

From the start of our stay (5 nights) until the morning we left, we were treated to excellent and friendly service. I would particularly like to thank the team that were servicing Breakfast each morning. Raffaellie was an amazing chef cooking eggs and bacon for my partner and I each morning. He was also very funny. Grazie!

A really nice hotel. Staff are friendly. We had a nice view down the beautiful valley to Marina Grande with hotels on the hillside and limestone cliffs. Breakfast was ok with limited cooked options which you order, a coffee, sweet stuff and cereal. Seemed to be a lot of brits there but all were well behaved. You step out the front door and within 100m you’re on the Corso Italia where everyone promenades esp at night….it’s awesome and for men I’d recommend an ironed short sleeved shirt and shorts or chinos to fit in with some very beautiful and glamorous people. We had a peaceful beautiful stay in this hotel which seems to date to the 1930s and with some remaining Art Deco touches. The rooms are tiled and large and cool. Youlll love this stylish but Unfussy place and be ready with your buongiornos and Grazie Mille in the mornings.

Where should I start with my review? There are definitely 2 sides to this place with equal pros and cons. With opinions obviously being based on my personal stand point. Firstly its location. Positioned at the far western end of Corso Italia it’s a walk to the centre of town. Personally I didn’t mind this. And situated at the base of the cliffs with a decent sea view from the sun terrace was certainly picturesque. Next the hotel itself. It’s a nice and clean and the staff are courteous and friendly. The hotel has an odd layout, that being its pretty much upside down, with the reception being on floor 4 and the rooms being on the 3 floors below. Our room. We drew the short straw it seems by getting allocated room 114. This is at the bottom of the hotel and whilst our booking said terrace view, our actual view was of a tiled floor and a wall. 2 plant pots in an inaccessible alley doesn’t constitute a terrace. This made our room extremely dark and drab feeling. Not the sunny Sorrento room we’d hoped for. There’s a cupboard with a hanging rail with 8 hangers and 2 drawers. No other storage is available. The shower is small but functional, with hot water always on tap. But there are some strange wooden steps in there which I have no idea what are for. But if I stub my toes on these one more time, they will end up on the “terrace”. The tv is on the dresser, taking up valuable space. This could be on the wall. The soundproofing of the room is abysmal. Every bump and scrape from adjacent rooms was heard. I’ve lost count how many times the room above flushed their toilet!! It sounds like our room was flooding. Awful. We were also awoken quite early (7am ish) on numerous occasions by what sounded like maintenance being carried out. Not ideal. The bed is very hard with pillows that offer very little support because they’re so soft. So all in all, what with the noise and the bed, we rarely got a good nights sleep. I’ve never done this before but I actually asked the front desk if I could pay for a better, brighter room but was told no, the hotel is full. We accepted this and settled for our lot. However, looking on Booking.com, I could’ve booked a room. Strange. If you can get any sea facing room on floor 3 you’ll be fine. These have nice balconies. The food/restaurant. The view at breakfast was lovely with great views across the bay. The staff were also lovely with a genuine good morning smile. This sadly is where lovely stops. Breakfast was at best “okay”. They will cook you eggs (omelette or fried) with ham, cheese or wurstzel (sausage) but these vary between under cooked or over. Again this is perhaps personal preference. Should you choose a healthier option, the choice of fruit is melon or rock hard kiwi. Then there is toast, croissants or cake. Lots of cake. There’s no salt, pepper or sauce on any tables but I did find some salt and pepper pots stashed away to use. Facilities. The sun bed area was never full and had lovely views across the bay. You could always get a bed. The pool area, adjacent to the sun terrace was smallish, with a couple of chairs and a rather chilly pool. This also had nice views though. The hotel offered access to an ironing room, which proved to be most useful for making our clothes (which had been stored wherever we could stash them) a little more presentable. Overall. In the whole, this wasn’t the worst place I’ve ever stayed in but there were a few things which if addressed would’ve made our stay a lot better. PROS. Nice location (views etc) Friendly staff Very clean Floor 3 balcony rooms if you can get one. CONS. Room 114 (noisiest, darkest room ever) Hard beds Soundproofing of room Standard of breakfast Could be too much of a walk to town for some.

Lovely little hotel in Sorrento which is the ideal location for exploring the area. Pool area was really nice and it was a real bonus for us having it there to enjoy. Room with balcony is highly recommended we loved the view. Only downside was the beds were so hard and uncomfy.