Hotel Minerva

“Great place!”

We loved this place - our biggest regret is only staying 3 nights. It's very clean, nice staff, the restaurant is good, the pool and pool deck relaxing, and 10 minute walk to town. Our room had a balcony with table and chairs - perfect to enjoy late afternoon wine before getting ready for dinner.… more

We loved this place - our biggest regret is only staying 3 nights. It's very clean, nice staff, the restaurant is good, the pool and pool deck relaxing, and 10 minute walk to town. Our room had a balcony with table and chairs - perfect to enjoy late afternoon wine before getting ready for dinner. I would definitely stay here again!

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“My friend has been staying here for 25 years and won’t stay anywhere else. It is great”

Great views. fabulous rooftop pool. Wonderful breakfast and the bartender Antonio was the best. Easy walk to town. I would highly recommend this place and have already done so to strangers I met along my Italy travels Not sure what else to say, review requires 200+ characters (that’s not on the h… more

Great views. fabulous rooftop pool. Wonderful breakfast and the bartender Antonio was the best. Easy walk to town. I would highly recommend this place and have already done so to strangers I met along my Italy travels Not sure what else to say, review requires 200+ characters (that’s not on the hotel).

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“Paradise under your feet!”

The Minerva is a family run establishment and we could sense it . At the reception desk, they were very kind and helpful. The welcome we received was good. The location of this hotel cannot be surpassed as all rooms overlook the Bay of Naples from the room and the balcony. They allocated us one o… more

The Minerva is a family run establishment and we could sense it . At the reception desk, they were very kind and helpful. The welcome we received was good. The location of this hotel cannot be surpassed as all rooms overlook the Bay of Naples from the room and the balcony. They allocated us one of the best rooms in the hotel, room 715 which was a corner room providing a panoramic view and privacy. There were inevitably a few issues! The daily room cleaning was inconsistent in that they at times did not refill the shower gel or left tea bags. Bed linen wasn’t changed despite our request. The restaurant’s dinner menu needs to be complimented. We had a plateful of various deep fried fish one evening, lamb cutlets, steamed fish and crazy fish on different evenings. Really delicious. The waiting staff were just wonderful. A small suggestion though is that they need to provide a change of breakfast menu as repeating the same breakfast every morning for nine mornings was a bit too much. Guiseppe (probably wrongly spelt) was just an amazing professional who took care of each and every guest. All in all, I would recommend this hotel because of its location and the staff.

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“Fantastic location, good for a day or two. Forgettable food.”

Others have mentioned the wonderful view over the lower town of Sorrento, the bay of Naples and Vesuvius. Most rooms will have this view since the hotel is tall, wide but not deep. The walk up from the town surprised me in that fat and unfit as I am I could still manage it without blowing a gasket,… more

Others have mentioned the wonderful view over the lower town of Sorrento, the bay of Naples and Vesuvius. Most rooms will have this view since the hotel is tall, wide but not deep. The walk up from the town surprised me in that fat and unfit as I am I could still manage it without blowing a gasket, the gradient is just about bearable. If you can't fancy the walk be prepared for outrageous taxi fares - €30 for the 8 minute drive from the port to the hotel was paid by our room neighbour, €20 for the three minute drive from the town centre. There is a bus service goes past, would take a bit of work to figure out where the stops are in town and timetable but possible I suppose. Regarding food, we seem to have stayed in a different hotel to some other reviewers! Whether the main chef was already gone after the high season was over or not I don't know. Whoever was in the kitchen during our stay was just combining ingredients in the vague hope something edible emerged. This method had somewhat mixed results. Fish, beef, liver all overcooked. Breakfast hot options were restricted to scrambled or fried eggs, the scrambled texture was as if they had been microwaved, certainly done to death. Accompanied by a couple of slices of bacon - if someone told me they had been in a low oven since the previous night I would believe them, rock hard, deep brown almost black. More cakes and sweet tarts than other breakfast choices, dry mini pastries, underwhelming. So location is excellent, Sorrento itself is worth a bit of a wander round. Naples is easily accessible by train or boat. (NB the Capella Sansevero needs advanced booking to gain admittance, we missed out). Capri and Amalfi also available by boat. Pompeii is very manageable by train independently or of course there are many organised tours. Perhaps I have been a little unfair singling out this hotel for its mediocre food, it would appear to be a widespread issue. There was quite a discussion on the subject on our Pompeii tour coach and no-one had a good word to say about their hotel food. Coming home and mentioning it to friends received comments along the line of "yes, we thought that". I can only imagine that as we were in a bucket list area, there is very little return business and the hotels have just grown complacent, providing the bare minimum. A shame in a country with a proud tradition of fine food.

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