Hotel Mary

“Did not want to leave !”

The hotel is spotless , the rooms are made up everyday and again are spotless. The staff contribute to the overall experience , being very friendly and attentive. Well worth eating at the hotel for an evening or 2 as the food was delicious . The view really grabs the attention it’s spectacular !! … more

The hotel is spotless , the rooms are made up everyday and again are spotless. The staff contribute to the overall experience , being very friendly and attentive. Well worth eating at the hotel for an evening or 2 as the food was delicious . The view really grabs the attention it’s spectacular !! I fell in love with it . Do visit the sea club , a great walk down many stone steps shaded by olive and lemon trees . I would highly recommend staying here, easy to travel in to Sorrento and to other attractions . A wonderful break .

less

“Fabulous hotel in Vico Equense”

What can I say - our first visit to the amalfi coast and what a gem to find, fantastically helpful staff and on reception Giusy was always helpful, patient and appreciative of English humour :-) Fantastic location in Vico Equense a short train ride from sorrento and a real peaceful authentic Ital… more

What can I say - our first visit to the amalfi coast and what a gem to find, fantastically helpful staff and on reception Giusy was always helpful, patient and appreciative of English humour :-) Fantastic location in Vico Equense a short train ride from sorrento and a real peaceful authentic Italian location. Loved the walk into town for dinner at pizza Metro with a glass of wine on the way. Breakfast was plentiful and superb Boat trip to capri organised with the hotel was super efficient and well planned also with a professional team on the boat. We will be back most likely same time next year now I know where it is Giusy ! Views from hote were amazing and also the beach club was super nice - we felt like millionaires !

less

“Not Perfect, But Probably Unbeatable, All Things Considered”

This is a deliberately long review to give you all the information I wished I'd been given before staying at Vico Equense and Hotel Mary, plus visiting Pompeii, Herculaneum, Sorrento and Naples. The idea is that you can print it out and use it as a reference guide when you're 'there, if desired. … more

This is a deliberately long review to give you all the information I wished I'd been given before staying at Vico Equense and Hotel Mary, plus visiting Pompeii, Herculaneum, Sorrento and Naples. The idea is that you can print it out and use it as a reference guide when you're 'there, if desired. Overall, Hotel Mary is very good, but below are some considerations to bear in mind. We paid a lot of money to get one of the so called executive sea view suites. It cost as much as some 5 star hotels to stay at this hotel, so that sets the bar for my expectations. Despite being one of the best rooms, ours was still small. The standard rooms we saw were very small - as in a squeeze to even walk round the bed. There is a fridge and safe, but our safe wasn't bolted to anything, so could just be picked up and walked away with. There is no actual 'head on' sea view possible in any room, because of the hotel's orientation to the bay - the hotel should really class all the rooms on the sea side of the hotel as being a side view room. The hotel is very clean and the staff are very helpful, especially the 2 ladies who are on reception, who are oustanding. The marble floors are very practical in the rooms, but do make the corridors noisy, at night. Speaking of noise, the valley to the left of the hotel has a small holding, with what I assume are free roaming guard dogs. You won't need an alarm clock, because from dawn, the dogs start barking continuously. You will also hear your neighbours, because insulation is poor, between rooms. Breakfast is reasonable, but nothing special - the 'orange juice' actually tastes more like squash and there is no egg station, so forget having any eggs, except buffet style scrambled, or hard boiled. Tea and coffee are self service. There are no big tomatoes (in Italy??!) just the same tiny plum tomatoes every day. There are some nice Italian cakes and pastries, though, plus good cheese and hams. The small pool area is good, but the (infinity) pool itself is freezing cold - much colder than the sea, which I simply can't understand, bearing in mind that we visited at the end of summer. The position of the hotel is very good - about a 10 minute walk to the centre of the small (but busy) town of VE, so it's close enough to the action, but quieter than being in the middle of town. Just bear in mind that the walk to the town centre from the hotel is uphill and along a narrow uneven pavement, so challenging if you have mobility issues. The town itself is much quieter than the manic atmosphere of Sorrento, but is still very busy, with lots of traffic and narrow roads. The train station is a 15 minute walk from the hotel and gives you access to the main rail line running from Naples to Sorrento, so you can get to Pompeii (20 mins), Herculaneum (45 mins) Sorrento (20 mins) and Naples (one hour). The trains run about every 30 minutes, they are very basic and often get crowded, but they are also dirt cheap. Not all the trains stop at Herculaneum, so it's better to take the Naples train from Vico Equense, then change trains at Annunciaton and get another Naples train from platform 3, which stops at all the stations on the way. Remember it's the stations marked 'Scavia' that are where the ruins are. For Pompeii, stop at Pompeii Scavia station, come out of the station and turn right, IGNORING ALL THE STATION TICKET TOUT BOOTHS. Walk for about 100 yards to the main entrance and buy your tickets there (22 Euros) then go to the info room next door and get a big free map, then get the superb audio guide (2 for 13 Euros) for which you will need to leave your driving licence. Why are the audio guides superb? Because they are big Galaxy phones that have an excellent interactive map that (wait for it!) has a built in GPS tracker, which means you will never get lost (Pompeii is BIG and all the streets look the same). The audio guide map highlights all the important Pompeii buildings. Once you've got the hang of it, you will find it to be excellent. Wear stout footwear for Pompeii (the big cobbles are hard on feet and ankles) and look at where you're going, because it's easy to slip or twist an ankle. Stay until it closes at 7pm and you will find it much quieter, plus easier to get a train later on. Use the toilets by the main entrance - there are others, but they are harder to find and much more crowded. There's also a cafe, but the queues are often very long, so better to take food in from one of the vendors outside the main entrance. Mostly junk food, but the aranchini balls are ok. Small rucksacs are allowed into Pompeii. For Herculaneum, get to the Ercolano Scavia station, walk down the steps, turn right (food vendor on left) then turn left and get onto the main High Street and walk straight down it for about 10 minutes to the very bottom, where you will find the main entrance. Herculaneum is much smaller than Pompeii (about the size of a couple of football stadiums, but is fascinating because the buildings (specifically the rooves and the ceilings) are more intact. Use the toilets at the entrance and buy a map (1 Euro) plus hire the audio guide. Surprisingly, neither map or audio guide is as good as at Pompeii and remember that at some buildings (eg underground theatre) are not open every day. Again buy food before entering Herculaneum. There is a cafe on site, with self service vending machines for drink and sandwiches. Small rucksacks are ok to bring in. For the Naples archaeological museum (which houses all the Pompeii and Herculaneum treasures) take the Naples train from Vico Equense (buy a return ticket at VE to avoid the queues at Naples) get off at Naples Garibaldi an hour later, then climb the stairs to where the ticket buying booths are, ignore them and turn right, then left, following signs for the M1 Metro. Enter the covered underground Garibaldi Piazza and stop half way along at one of the ticket booths and buy return tickets to the museum (3 E each). Go down the escalator and choose the platform that takes you in the right direction (like you would on the London underground). Keep your belongings close at all times - we saw a pickpocket on the Naples underground, right in front of our eyes. He knew we were watching and he just didn't care. Sent from my Galaxy This is a deliberately long review to give you all the information I wished I'd been given before staying at Vico Equense and Hotel Mary, plus visiting Pompeii, Herculaneum, Sorrento and Naples. The idea is that you can print it out and use it as a reference guide when you're 'there, if desired. Overall, Hotel Mary is very good, but below are some considerations to bear in mind; We paid a lot of money to get one of the so called executive sea view suites. It cost as much as some 5 star English hotels to stay at this hotel, so that sets the bar for my expectations. Despite being one of the best rooms, ours was still small. The standard rooms we saw were very small - as in a squeeze to even walk round the bed. There is a fridge and safe, but our safe wasn't bolted to anything, so could just be picked up and walked away with. There is no actual 'head on' sea view possible in any room, because of the hotel's orientation to the bay - the hotel should really class all the rooms on the sea side of the hotel as being a 'side sea view' room. The hotel is very clean and the staff are very helpful, especially the 2 ladies who are on reception, who are oustanding (Roberta & Giusy). The marble floors are very practical in the rooms, but do make the corridors noisy, at night. Speaking of noise, the valley to the left of the hotel has a small holding, with what I assume are free roaming guard dogs. You won't need an alarm clock, because from dawn, the dogs start barking continuously, pretty much all day. You will also hear your neighbours, because insulation is poor, between rooms. Breakfast is good, but nothing special - the 'orange juice' actually tastes more like squash and there is no egg station, so forget having any eggs, except buffet style scrambled, or hard boiled. Tea and coffee are self service. There are no big tomatoes (in Italy??!) just the same tiny plum tomatoes every day. There are some nice Italian cakes and pastries, though, plus good cheese and hams. The small pool area is good, but the (infinity) pool itself is freezing cold - much colder than the sea, which I simply can't understand, bearing in mind that we visited at the end of summer. The position of the hotel is very good - about a 10 minute walk to the centre of the small (but busy) town of VE, so it's close enough to the action, but quieter than being in the middle of town. Just bear in mind that the walk to the town centre from the hotel is uphill and along a narrow uneven pavement, so challenging if you have mobility issues. The town itself is much quieter than the manic atmosphere of Sorrento, but is still very busy, with lots of traffic and narrow roads. The train station is a 15 minute walk from the hotel and gives you access to the main rail line running from Naples to Sorrento, so you can get to Pompeii (20 mins), Herculaneum (45 mins) Sorrento (20 mins) and Naples (one hour). The trains run about every 30 minutes, they are very basic and often get crowded, but they are also dirt cheap. Not all the trains stop at Herculaneum, so it's better to take the Naples train from Vico Equense, then change trains at Annunciaton and get a different Naples train from platform 3, which stops at all the stations on the way, including Herculaneum. Remember it's the stations marked 'Scavia' that are where the ruins are. For Pompeii, take the Naples train at VE and stop at Pompeii Scavia station, come out of the station and turn right, IGNORING ALL THE STATION TICKET TOUT BOOTHS. Walk for about 100 yards to the main Pompeii entrance and buy your tickets there (22 Euros) then go to the info room next door and get a big free map, then get the superb audio guide (2 for 13 Euros) for which you will need to leave your driving licence. Why are the audio guides superb? Because they are big Galaxy phones that have an excellent interactive map that (wait for it!) has a built in GPS tracker, which means you will never get lost (Pompeii is BIG and all the streets look the same). The audio guide map highlights all the important Pompeii buildings. Once you've got the hang of it, you will find it to be excellent. Wear stout footwear for Pompeii (the big cobbles are hard on feet and ankles) and look at where you're going, because it's easy to slip or twist an ankle. Stay later (it closes at 7pm) and you will find it much quieter, plus easier to get a train later on. Use the toilets by the main entrance - there are others, but they are harder to find and much more crowded. There's also a cafe, but the queues are often very long, so better to take food in from one of the vendors outside the main entrance. Mostly junk food, but the aranchini balls are ok. Small rucksacs are allowed into Pompeii. For Herculaneum, get to the Ercolano Scavia station, walk down the steps, turn right (mobile food vendor on your left) then turn left and get onto the main High Street and walk straight down it for about 10 minutes to the very bottom, where you will find the main entrance. Herculaneum is much smaller than Pompeii (about the size of a football stadium, but is fascinating because the buildings (specifically the rooves and the ceilings) are more intact. Use the toilets at the entrance and buy a map (1 Euro) plus hire the audio guide. Surprisingly, neither map or audio guide is as good as at Pompeii and remember that at some buildings (eg underground theatre) are not open every day. Again buy food before entering Herculaneum. There is a cafe on site, with self service vending machines for drink and sandwiches. Small rucksacks are ok to bring in. For the Naples archaeological museum (which houses all the Pompeii and Herculaneum treasures) take the Naples train from Vico Equense (buy a return ticket at VE to avoid the queues at Naples) get off at Naples Garibaldi an hour later, then climb the stairs to where the ticket buying booths are, ignore them and turn right, then left, following signs for the M1 Metro. Enter the covered underground Garibaldi Piazza and stop half way along at one of the ticket booths and buy return underground train tickets to the museum (3 E each). Go down the escalator and choose the platform that takes you in the right direction (like you would on the London underground). Keep your belongings close at all times - we saw a pickpocket on the Naples underground, right in front of our eyes. He knew we were watching and he just didn't care. The musrum is fabulous - download the Rick Steeves audio guide (free) for a very good brief 1he tour, but allow at least 2 hrs to see all the wonderful frescos, mosaics and treasures from P and H (icluding the collection of erotica!). You can also take the train from VE to Sorrento - very crowded by the station, but OK down in the marina area, as long as you are physically fit enough for all the steps (we lost count at 200). Other thing to do in VE is to take an all day boat trip from the marina to Capri. Not cheap (they all cost about 150E each) but a once in a lifetime experience and well worth it. We used Crystal Waves , which is down by Hotel Mary's Beach Club. They were excellent. Good luck hope you have a wonderful holiday!

less

“Excellent”

Hotel Mary - This hotel has lots to offer from luxurious amenities, exemplary services, and prime location are what grabbed our attention to the hotel. We loved everything!; I highly recommend Hotel Mary for its cozy rooms, friendly staff, serene atmosphere and amazing customer service. We were … more

Hotel Mary - This hotel has lots to offer from luxurious amenities, exemplary services, and prime location are what grabbed our attention to the hotel. We loved everything!; I highly recommend Hotel Mary for its cozy rooms, friendly staff, serene atmosphere and amazing customer service. We were met by Josie at the front desk who was increably helpful and accommodating with any requests we had. She was a "Gem". As a whole the entire staff were incredible. A big thumbs up! Hotel Mary has the perfect blend of historic charm and modern facilities. Did I mention the views from the room, unreal...so beautiful truly like a postcard. S. Zicarelli Toronto, Canada Sept 2024

less