Best Western Hotel La Solara

This is an honest and thorough review, so bear with me and read to the end for a genuine insight into our week at La Solara. The positives... La Solara is an out-of-town hotel, so the setting is generally relaxed and peaceful. The pool area was particularly quiet during our stay, which was lovely if you’re looking for somewhere to unwind away from the hustle and bustle of Sorrento. This was exactly what we wanted when not out on trips, so was great from that perspective. The shuttle bus service into town is excellent and, given the hotel’s location, is essential. Without it, getting into and out of town would be difficult. Don't attempt to walk into town, the roads are hectic and narrow. The hotel is exceptionally clean, particularly the main communal areas around reception and the bar. There are also some very long-serving members of staff who clearly take pride in maintaining the hotel’s traditional routines and standards. Whether you see that as a positive or negative probably depends on what you’re looking for from your holiday. There were always plenty of sunbeds available around the pool. Pietro, the lifeguard/pool attendant, deserves a mention for keeping everything very tidy. He was constantly clearing and arranging sunbeds and parasols almost immediately after guests left, so the pool area was always immaculate. Again, there is a slightly regimented feel to this, but everything is certainly kept in order. Its' worth noting that you are absolutely forbidden from putting your own brolly up, which is good from a service perspective but we did see some guests being refused to have their brolly put up due to wind, when we and others already had our up, it wasn't consistent. There were a few highlights with the evening food. The cannelloni starter was very nice, as was the excellent ravioli and Parma ham/mozzarella starter served on gala night. It would be unfair not to mention these, but unfortunately they were among only one or two highlights during the week, with the majority of the food being fairly bland and repetitive. Of all the staff, Marcello deserves a particular shout-out. He is a great character — very friendly, bubbly and polite — and was always a pleasure to encounter. Overall, if you’re looking for a quiet break away from the busier parts of Sorrento, La Solara has a lot going for it in terms of its peaceful location, cleanliness and general atmosphere. However, based on our experience, I would recommend booking room only or B&B rather than half board. The food available in Sorrento is considerably better, reasonably priced and well worth experiencing. The negatives... You’ll see a number of responses from the manager to other negative reviews saying that feedback will be passed on or considered. Unfortunately, many of the same issues mentioned in those reviews are still very evident. Our overall impression was that the hotel is not particularly receptive to criticism or suggestions and you'll see that in the lack of response to any negative feedback on reviews. It often felt as though guests were expected to follow the hotel’s established way of doing things rather than the hotel adapting to its guests. Rooms and check-in: Check-in was very slow. We arrived around lunchtime and, as our room wasn’t ready, all arriving guests were directed into the bar to wait. We were given a complimentary drink, crisps and nuts, which was a nice gesture, but after that there was no further communication about when the rooms would actually be available. The lengthy wait seemed to be regarded as perfectly acceptable by the hotel. However, after travelling, most guests understandably just want to get into their room, unpack and have a shower. We eventually got into our room at around 3:30pm, and only after I chased reception again. It appeared to be the same situation for everyone who had arrived that morning. This was far later than we expected and we lost tiem in our day due to this long wait. The rooms themselves are clean, but very dated and definitely in need of refurbishment, particularly the bathrooms. The shower arrangement was especially disappointing. There is an old-fashioned folding screen that has to be positioned alongside the bath when showering. It makes the shower feel very restricted and is also extremely frustrating because the screen swings open with the slightest movement, resulting in water ending up all over the bathroom floor. I would also question how suitable this is for older or less mobile guests. Getting in and out of a bath to use the shower may be difficult for some people, and I wouldn't consider it the safest set-up. It needs modernising and replacing with walk-in showers. There is also no bottled water provided in the rooms. Given the hotel’s relatively remote location and the lack of shops nearby, providing a bottle of water would be a small but thoughtful touch. Be careful when booking a "sea view": This is something I would strongly recommend checking before booking. Our original "sea view" consisted primarily of trees to the right and rear of the hotel, with trellis separating our room from the neighbouring room on the left. The sea itself was hidden behind the trellis. I raised this with reception and received what I felt was a rather frosty response. The impression was very much that we should simply accept the room we had been given. I then spoke to the TUI representative, Rosanna, on day one and followed it up again on day two, showing her the room and the supposed "sea view". To her credit, Rosanna was extremely helpful and chased this up for us. We were moved on day 2 to a room with a genuine sea view — something we had, after all, paid a premium for. Had we not pushed the issue, the response from the hotel was simply "you got the room you booked". I disagree with that response, I booked a sea view, not a tree view. I've included photographs of the views from our original room so you can make up your own mind. Food and dining: For a four-star hotel, we found the food disappointing overall. Some of the pricing at the pool snack bar was also very questionable. For example, €10 for a plate of chips feels excessive when similar portions can be found in Sorrento for around €5. During our trip we even had pizza in Anacapri for around €13, so €10 for chips seemed particularly disproportionate. Breakfast was almost exactly the same every day and became very boring. The continental selection was small and the hot food offering was limited, bland and largely unchanged throughout the week. I've included photographs of the breakfast selection so you can see for yourself. We also noticed some food from the previous evening appearing to be reused at breakfast. Some of the choices were rather unusual — boiled potatoes, for example. It would have been much more appealing if these had been transformed into something such as hash browns rather than simply presented again. The dinner menus looked good on paper, with several choices for each course, but the meals themselves were generally mediocre. One particularly disappointing aspect was the hot food cabinet, where the food was often cold. I never managed to get a genuinely hot side dish from this section. Cold arancini and cold battered courgette flowers aren't particularly appetising. There was also a selection of cold vegetables, including peas, carrots and mushrooms. At least these were intentionally cold, albeit an odd choice to present cold veg in the first place. The salad selection was small and limited too. I was really looking forward to trying gnocchi, but on the menu I noticed it was described as being made with semolina, not the traditional potato gnocchi. On researching whether this was another italian recipe, it seems that the semonlina verison is a cheao and quick way for chefs to make a version of gnocchi for ease of prep and storage. For me, I felt cheated by this cheap approach to what should have been a lovely and traditional italian dish. I chose another dish, which turned out to be underwhelming like most others. The gala dinner: The Sunday gala dinner felt particularly formal and regimented. There was a set menu with no alternative choices — one item per course, and that was it. The whole meal was also unnecessarily drawn out and took over two and a half hours. The saving grace was the pianist, who played a mixture of popular tunes, along with a few more unusual choices, which at least provided some entertainment while we waited between courses. Another thing we found strange was the seating arrangement. You are allocated a specific table from day one and are expected to sit there for dinner throughout your stay. You cannot simply choose another table. Given that breakfast allows guests to sit wherever they like, it seems strange that dinner has to be so rigidly organised. Some of the food choices were just outright odd and there were a few combinations that left us scratching our heads: Lamb chops served with crisps. Yes — actual packet-style crisps as a side dish alongside lamb chops and potato wedges. Why? Another example was a small but nicely cooked piece of sea bream accompanied by the "side dish of the day", which turned out to be potato wedges, plus an inedible lettuce leaf taking up much of the remaining space on the plate. This seemed to happen quite frequently: large pieces of garnish or lettuce being used to fill plates that otherwise looked rather sparse. Overall, we found the food boring, repetitive and lacking the care, creativity and passion you would expect from a four-star hotel in this part of Italy. Our advice would be simple: eat in Sorrento instead. There are plenty of restaurants where main courses start at around €13, and in our experience the quality was considerably better. Entertainment: Entertainment was limited to only a couple of nights during our stay, and unfortunately what was provided was fairly poor. For a hotel of this standard, we expected a little more variety and quality in the evening entertainment. Overall verdict: La Solara has some genuine positives: it is exceptionally clean, peaceful, has a lovely relaxed pool area, plenty of sunbeds, good shuttle transport into Sorrento and some genuinely friendly staff. However, the hotel also feels stuck in a very traditional and regimented way of operating. There is a strong sense that guests are expected to fit into the hotel's routines rather than the hotel being flexible around its guests. For us, the dated rooms, very slow check-in, issues with the advertised sea view, repetitive food and rigid dining arrangements took away from what could otherwise have been a very enjoyable stay. If your priority is peace, quiet, cleanliness and getting away from the busy town, La Solara could suit you well. If you do stay, though, our recommendation would be to book either room-only or B&B and eat out in Sorrento. You'll have far more choice, better food and, in our experience, much better value for money.

Only good things to say about this hotel. We booked through TUI and spent 7 nights in June 2026, I always check trip advisor and the travel agents own reviews. Although the majority of reviews were good, the number of negative reviews were worrying but I thought we would risk it, very happy we did, room was basic but cleaned every day and had plenty of storage space. We usually do b&b but as it was out of town we had the half board option. The food reviews worried us at the time but we were very happy with nearly all the meals we were served , the exception being the gala night which there was no choice and if you didn’t like it, there was nothing to change it to. I was really struggling to like anything on the menu on gala night, so not very happy with that meal. The hotel itself is lovely, the staff were all really friendly and helpful, special mention to Marcelo in the restaurant and the pool bar, really worked hard to make sure everyone was happy. As you pay for everything on your key card it’s difficult to keep track of your spending, we settled our bill every couple of days, so we could keep a check on what we were spending. There was no hassle getting sunbeds at anytime of the day, we came back from a trip to Pompeii around 2pm and easily managed to get beds by the pool. We used the shuttle bus to get into Sorrento town a few times and each time the bus was on time , only issue was one night we got the 10.15 bus and it was very very crowded, not sure what would happen if it was the last bus of the day and there was too many wanting to get on it.The only negative for ourselves was that , after a meal we like to take a walk and walk it off before going for a drink, sadly there was nowhere to go unless you get the shuttle into town,only a slight little niggle really. I would definitely recommend this hotel if you want a peaceful relaxing holiday, so much so that we have already booked for 2027 and are going for 10 nights, can’t wait. I’ve added some pictures of the nightly menu, we found that there was always something we could have, except the gala night as previously mentioned.

Beautiful hotel up in the hills above Sorrento. The staff are so attentive and cater to your every need. Plenty of sunbeds morning, noon and evening and the shuttle bus that takes you down to Sorrento takes around 5-6 minutes on the hour every hour and picks you back up is fantastic and always on time. Rooms are clean and large enough. We will defo return to this chilled out little slice of paradise. Thank you so much to all of the staff

Had a lovely time here. Staff were helpful and friendly and location was beautiful and peaceful. Breakfast was good. There is a shuttle bus which is useful and on the hour, but you can also use the public bus which stops outside the hotel. There were some issues, pool was not open the times they advertise, sometimes it closed early. The buffet in the evenings was terrible, poor choice and poor quality and the same stuff everyday. Most things were tinned olives and tinned sweetcorn. There was entertainment a couple evenings but not everyday so there isn’t lots to do. Overall a nice hotel but evening food should improve.