Villa Emanuel

Firstly, we were warmly greeted by Irma, the manager, and she was just so friendly and helpful throughout our stay. I would say an asset to any hotel. All the staff were helpful and friendly during our stay, and genuinely so. This villa is a relatively small hotel but is very clean and comfortable, you can see a lot of effort is put into this. We had a king sized bed with a high quality mattress. The villa is off the main road and is a 5-10 minute walk to Sant' Agnello station and buses. It's about a 20 - 30 minute walk to Sorrento (or the train / buses). The villa is on a back road and, for a short while, we thought we might be on the wrong road, but, like so much in the whole region it was stunning once we found it. There is a continental breakfast with yoghurts, fruit, cheese, ham, tomatoes, cakes and more. Plus the coffee is great. The breakfast is very good and suited us. There is only a continental breakfast offered here (at the time we stayed anyway) so if you like a fry up or all inclusive / half board then this possibly isn't for you. As we were out nearly all day on each of our 9 day stay the breakfast only suited us. There's also a new swimming pool here and we managed to cool off a few times. It's fairly deep once you go down the steps into the pool so possibly not totally child friendly. The food in the whole area is just excellent, which is another reason to consider breakfast only. The bread and pastries are as good as you can get anywhere. And the coffee. There is so much to see in the whole region our 9 days really wasn't long enough, though it does depend on what type of holiday you want. This villa was once a monastery and has been renovated to a very high spec. As I said at the start, very comfortable and the air conditioning is a relief if you've been out all day. We have stayed in hotels that were equally comfortable and pleasant but what made this one stand out for us is it's uniqueness and the staff. Irma & Co. (Dori, who was up sorting the breakfast and coffee & the housekeepers) were all so helpful and friendly which, for us, makes it the best place we've every stayed. I couldn't recommend highly enough. Brilliant.

One piece of advice, DO NOT STAY HERE. We arrived and the room was spacious and the air con worked great; however, these were the only positives. Firstly, we noticed that it took a few times to lock the door. We thought this was the design of the door so carried on as normal during the first day. The second day we tried to lock the door but the key would just not lock. We informed the lady who worked there, tall and blonde hair, who did not seem surprised about the door and tried it herself (obviously it did not work). We asked for a different room as we were on the ground floor and expect a secure room! She proceeded to say there were no other rooms so we requested a refund so we could find somewhere else which she simply replied ‘not possible’. We were left with no options and she proceeded to tell us it is a very expensive problem which is OUR FAULT!!! She did not apologise nor seem to care. Also, there is a review below which states the same issue with a door so we were probably given that room without it fixed, trying to make us pay! In the end we had to stay in a room with no lock, on the ground floor!!! The walls were covered in marks and the towels were dirty but rolled up the next day to look like they were fresh. We were told breakfast was free but after discovered the leaflet stated €15 when it was just yoghurt and fruit. There were no glasses/mugs in the room so had to resort drinking out of a mouthwash cup, plus there was no one to ask as there was only ever 1 person working who was never around. Another issue was the pool… it was GREEN (see photos). This is obviously due to the huge amount of algae and we chose this place specifically for the pool, it was simply disgusting. When checking out, there was a different lady with glasses and a man. They looked me and my friend up and down and started chatting to themselves, I’m guessing they knew we were the girls with the door issue… My friend asked to check out, to which they both just stared at us and held their hands out for the keys. They simply said ‘we will unlock the gate’ and did not ask how our stay was. Save your money and go somewhere else!!!