CAlex

I read this thread in detail and have few questions for fellow FTers who stayed at this hotel:
- how is weather in first half of july? Is it summer-hot (28-33 degrees), or boiling-hot that you can't go out in the sun with children (34-37)?
- can you swim in the executive lounge pool, or is that for decor, like the one at the Doubletree in Kos?
- for a 7-night stay, would you fork out 1020 EUR or 262k HH points? I have the points but somehow it feels like a steep price when the non-refundable rate can be as low as 145 EUR/night on the same dates...

mosher2k

- can you swim in the executive lounge pool

it is small and narrow... but yes !

CARose

There are a lot of recent reviews on TA about changes to the EL. Several diamonds report there are 2 lounges. The one on the 7th floor with the pool has been re-named, the other on the 2nd floor. Similar to WA Rome. Difference here, Sorrento is not a WA. Reports unless staying on 7th floor, you will only have access to 2nd floor lounge. Others report that they were given access despite not being on that floor.

This change concerns me as this lounge/property is one of my favorites. Any recent experiences, or anyone familiar with this change? Planning a return trip in September.

ernie8575

Stayed there two weeks ago. The lounge on the 7th floor was closed and we were directed to the bar/lounge behind the check in desk. Also ate breakfast behind the check in desk. Hotel was not crowded at all and was enjoyable getting drink and snacks by the fireplace. Others there had to pay for their drinks. We were upgraded to the 6th floor and the view was absolutely beautiful. Saw elevator and luggage coming down from 7th floor so assume people were staying there too.

oldtirednbusy

Stayed last week, 2 nights on non refundable rate.
First of all, upon walking in, we agreed our stay was not going to be long enough. Check in was seamless, Diamond status immediately noted. The executive lounge was closed due to low season, however we were told we were welcome to visit the lounge for snacks and drinks, no charge. Breakfast was wonderful with many choices as well as you could request cooked to order.
Our room was beautiful and on the rooftop terrace with an amazing view of Sorrento and the By of Napes. A bottle of Limoncello and bottles of water were arrival gifts.
The staff was excellent and this is a place to which we will definitely return

ScreenGuy

Does anyone have an update on the lounge situation? I am thinking about staying here in a few weeks (booking normal room as a diamond)

BlondeBomber

staying here now and was upgraded to 7th floor (lovely). Originally had us on 4th floor but said we would have access to exec lounge (Settima Club) on 7th floor. Saw others coming up in elevator (need key card access) to 7th from other floors.

CARose

Thank you BlondeBomber

I look forward to hearing more on your trip. We stayed there a few years on ago on the 7th floor, and really enjoyed the room and the executive lounge. Going back in September and hope they are still as good to their Diamonds.

How did you go from the 4th - 7th?
Did you select the NOR 1?

BlondeBomber

The front desk upgraded us 4-7 at checkin without us asking. I can't remember what I did with NOR1 but I didn't put in for anything that cost more.

We were on a points stay and paid standard points per night.

Rooms on 7th seem to be a large size. Maybe they aren't suites, but they look big enough to be considered junior suites of some kind.

We had a car (driving all over southern and central Italy) and couldn't park on street (and wouldn't). Worth the 15 Euros for the parking/day to have it in a secure lot and not worry about getting out being jammed in if you could find a spot on the street (there never was a free space anyway).

Food in lounge on 7th floor was good for breakfast but I wouldn't rely on much at other times but was good to always be able to get free drinks at the non "meal" times of lunch, afternoon tea and dinner and some alcoholic ones at other times. Seemed to always be wine around I think, even at non-meal times.

We would rather go elsewhere to eat some good food anyway. Ate in the hotel restaurant once but other area restaurants offer better choice (even if they don't have the great view). We liked La Favorita-O' Parrucchiana just a short walk away (10 mnutes?) better and the atmosphere was great with lots of flowers in the back garden seating area--fuschias and lemon trees etc. Food was really quite good as well and moderately priced and good variety.

letsgofire

Just wanted to further expand on some other posters' comments in the thread...

The major upside of this Hilton is the Septimo Club Lounge on the top floor. I stayed as a HH Diamond and received access to it, and it is a major benefit to guests. There are soft drinks, wine and snacks all day, self served. They also bring in some lunch and dinner items, as well as beer and spirits during the evening. You can snack there all day as you relax by the pool. Speaking of the pool, it is a long and narrow on that is more suitable for a quick dip. The main area of the hotel has some huge pools; the one at the lounge is small. There are also lounge chairs by the pool as well as indoor and outdoor seating at the lounge for eating and drinking. Inside the lounge there is also a business center. The wireless internet works throughout the area including by the pool. In my opinion, these are a great benefit for a guest and really add a lot to your stay, as you get all this "for free."

The common spaces of the hotel (lobby, etc) are very nice but the rooms are very cheap looking. Mine was painted orange.

Also, for those of you thinking of walking from the train station / bus station to the Hilton with luggage, I would strongly recommend taking a taxi. It is expensive (like 18 EUR for a short trip) but the path is uphill and not really signposted.

Be sure to get a Vesuvius room as the views are outstanding!

Idranet

Recently stayed here for 3 nights on an award stay. We are just HH Gold. We had booked king sea-view room and it was lovely, overlooking Naples Bay and Vesuvius. We did not receive any further room upgrades, nor did I ask if any were available. Our room had 2 complimentary bottles of water, and a complimentary bottle of Limoncello (this was a nice, unexpected touch).

No access to 7th floor lounge, but the 2nd floor lounge was more than sufficient for the time we were there. We had breakfast there one day, but had the full restaurant buffet the other 2 mornings. The lounge was open from 7 AM - 11 PM, and always had soft drinks, water, juices and coffee (the self service machine was a welcome feature). The lounge also had snacks and other assorted food items, depending on the time of day. Wines and other alcohol were available from ~5 - 8:30 PM.

We loved sitting on the balcony to our room. There were partitions on the balcony separating rooms, so there was adequate privacy, and there were no smokers on our floor.

As for the walk from the train, we might use a taxi next time, but it really wasn't a problem with rolling luggage. If it's very hot, though, or if you have a lot of luggage, a taxi makes more sense. Returning to the train was a lot easier since it was all downhill.

All in all, it was a great end to our travel in Italy, and I'd love to get back there again.

halldavi

My family just came back from the Hilton Sorrento, and I would agree with all of the recent comments made by others. I would like to also add that the staff service was outstanding, answered all of the typical tourist questions about the hotel/town/restaurants/etc with big smiles. They were very welcoming. My family was using two rooms, and we asked if we could have a late checkout (2pm) for one of the rooms, as we had a late train to catch (and the kids wanted to use the pool before hand). They said, "no problem". In addition, they really hustled in the Executive lounge in terms of keeping it clean/well stocked, and kept the pool area clean as well.

sent

We stayed here earlier this week. Coming from Naples, we were unexpectedly surprised by Sorrento in a good way. Having stayed at The Cavalieri last year and not really seeing what the big fuss was about that hotel (you can read my complaints on that thread), this hotel proved to be much better experience for me. We are gold and had booked a sea-view room. Upon check-in, we were given access to the 7th floor lounge and told specifically that our breakfast was to be taken in the lounge even though my HHonors MyWay says "breakfast." We only ate breakfast one of the three days but walked through the main restaurant breakfast to see the difference. Seems like the main things we missed were the crowded omelette station and the breakfast potatoes (one of my favorites), but we didn't have time for breakfast to really push for wanting to eat there.

The lounge access was nice to have, but the food is really more of the nibble variety than the hearty meal kind. Which was fine for us as we wanted to try the local restaurants for dinner.

This hotel has a different price if you input 2 adults versus 1 when booking a paid room. Based on the advice here, I booked the room for 1 and wrote "HHonors Gold, spouse stays free" in the notes section. I didn't have any problem at check-in regarding this. I don't know if we weren't offered the full breakfast due to this note however since I didn't pay the increased rate for 2 adults when I booked the room.

I always read Flyertalk to prepare for my trips, and then read TripAdvisor when I get home to see how my experiences compared to others. On TA, people were complaining about outdated orange rooms and tacky furniture. We had room 605 and I didn't notice anything wrong with the room during my stay. It felt clean and modern to us. What I did notice is the fabulous view from the balcony. There was the feast of some saint during our stay so we got to see fireworks going off at the harbor from our balcony. We could see the fireworks going off in Naples at a distance as well. Only one wall was painted orange. The bathroom was huge. We had a flat screen TV, not a CRT. Yes, the TV was on some cheap looking metal cart but I didn't notice this until I read the complaints on TA. I immediately recognized the side table as IKEAesque, but it seemed to blend with the rest of the room decor so it didn't bother me. I'm pretty sure our bed was a real king and not the twin-pushed-together-as-king kind. If it wasn't a real king bed, then I didn't detect any seams at all.

It is about 1000 steps from the hotel to the main road at the bottom of the hill. It was a 10 minute walk to the main downtown area and 15 to the train station. This is a healthy and reasonable amount of walking for us so we were happy with the hilltop location of the hotel. We didn't discover a shortcut to the train station until the last day when a taxi took us a shorter way. The only reason we had to call the taxi on the last day was because the hotel didn't give us a wakeup call and we overslept the backup alarm my husband set. When I asked about the missed wakeup call, they looked in their book and didn't have us down for one. We had called the front desk the night before from our room asking for the wakeup call. If you ask for one at this hotel, I recommend doing it in person at the front desk and making sure they write it down in their "wake up call book" so you get called. A taxi to the train station will cost 13 - 15 euros.

There is a direct bus from the Sorrento train station to the Naples airport that we took to catch our return flight home. It is 10 euros per person. We also caught the SITA bus for Positano/Amalfi from the train station. On the SITA bus trip home, the bus goes down the main road near the hotel so if you pay attention and ring the bell at the right time, you can get dropped off at the bottom of the hill and can cut your walk home shorter than having to walk back from the train station.

We got 1 bottle of water in the room daily, a newspaper each morning, and a bottle of limoncello. The bath products were Peter Michael Roth brand, and the shower gel had micro beads in them. I always use shower gel with micro beads at home ever since I discovered them, so I really appreciated this.

We will be happy to stay here again in the future. We hiked the stairs leading to the chapel right at the corner of the hotel. After the chapel, the path keeps going and you will eventually come across a sign with arrows saying "S. Agata 2300 m, Sorrento 1000 m." There are homes up here. My husband wanted to keep going and get to S. Agata, but I had to convince him to return as we had not left prepared to hike this. But if you enjoy exploring, ask about this nearby hike at the hotel and report back here as we want to do this next time.

CARose

Does anyone have updated email/contact info for the GM of Sorrento Palace? Thanks in advance,

FL-Boater

Paolo Pedrazzini - General Manager
Hilton Sorrento Palace
Email: [email protected]