Getting to Sorrento proved to be a little bit...shit. Frankly. Breakfast and checking out of the accommodation was easy enough, nothing to complain about there. We had two options for walking to the train station - we chose what we thought would be the easier option but turned out to be us fighting for space on the footpath - we just ended up on the road for most of it - with a group of Asian tourists. The train station was right next to Pompeii, so we expected a little bit of traffic.
With all our luggage and in the hot sun, we make it to the train station and we grabbed a couple of tickets to wait for the next train in about 25 minutes. We found a little place to sit outside, and then suddenly the tour group joins us on the platform. Huh? The tour is getting on the train?
As we sat there, another three groups of Asian tourists join us on the platform, making a total of 4 groups with about 20 or more people in each. This train is gonna be packed. It was of course running on ish time, so it was quite late, and when it did arrive there was a serious amount of pushing and shoving to try to get on. Dan and I finally made and found a corner to stand uncomfortably in - we put most of our bags on the floor as there was no room to keep them on, and it wasn't going to be an overly short journey.
I've had worse, but it definitely wasn't a great train ride. At one point, a bunch of buskers with saxophones got on, and all the tour groups got very excited by this (although less excited when they were asked to pay). Finally though, we popped out in Sorrento.
Our next accommodation was going to be quite different. The cheapest option we could find was a camp site a little way out of the city. This was ok, because it was near the port - we actually really wanted to do a boat cruise of the Amalfi coast and Sorrento was a great place to do this from. Sorrento itself we didn't need to explore all that much. I found last minute that the camp site offered free shuttles from Sorrento to the grounds, except the pick up point wasn't at the train station. It was, an Italian "5 minute walk" from the station. Probably closer to 15 with our heavy bags, and I was pretty unimpressed when we got there.
I didn't want to have done that hike when we could have paid about €1 for a bus that would take us to the camp site door, but come 12pm a mini bus did in fact show up with the camp site name on it, and so we saved ourselves €2 and gained all that extra walking time (although to be fair we got a seat on the shuttle, which may not have been the case on the bus).
The shuttle deposited us right at reception, and so we joined the small queue, waiting our turn to check in. We paid the remainder, was given a couple of maps and excursion options, and then not so long after we hopped in a shuttle and we were driven down to our room. Another couple was dropped off first - a lot higher up. I got a little concerned how low we were going as it meant we would have to go up again...
We stopped and hopped out, shouldering our luggage. We were taken to a small cabin and shown inside - this'll do nicely! It was much nicer than some of the accommodation we have had, that's for sure! We opted for a cabin with our own bathroom instead of cheaping out, and I'm so glad we did. I would have probably broken all my bones trying to get too and from the cubicles in the middle of the night! Our cabin had a bunk bed with a double on the bottom (which was actually just another single pushed up against it with a double mattress on top, but it worked fine). We had a little toilet and shower too, and outside we had a nice balcony with a bench table where we would end up sitting a lot.
The place was totally devoid of air and stuffy and hot, so we opened the door and the window to let some air through. We read all of the timing instructions for each of the services on the camp grounds - the restaurant was open 24/7, the mini market had divided morning and afternoon times, the swimming pool closed at 7.30 and the beach area at 7pm.
I was naturally starving so lunch was a top priority. Before then though, we went all the way back up to reception to book into one of the excursions they had on offer. It was a boat tour along the Amalfi coast, stopping at Amalfi and the pretty Positano on the way, as well as a few other highlights. I had seen similar tours advertised on Viator when I had been researching for a higher price, and this one would pick us up and drop us off at the camp grounds, so I wanted to book it in.
When we got to reception, first I asked what the ferry prices were between the different areas, and it would be more cost effective for us to book the tour. "For tomorrow please."
"No, Monday," the man replied.
"We aren't here on Monday. Is it full tomorrow? That's very disappointing."
"Not running tomorrow," he continued. This was in direct contrast to what the lady had told us when we checked in - she just said come up one day before you're interested in a tour. Turns out, until the 15th of May the tours didn't run every day, and this was a few days after so the rule no longer applied. He must not have realised the date, so he said something to the lady and then went ahead with our booking. I'm glad I kept pressing the issue and didn't just accept his first answer!
Lunch time now. The restaurant was up on this level too, just a short distance away, with the mini market next to it. It wouldn't reopen again until 4.30pm. At the restaurant, we made our way inside and through onto the balcony which had a really lovely view over one of the Sorrento bays. The man acknowledged us but didn't bring any menus, so Dan grabbed a couple from a pile and we had a look through.
Food and especially drink was not extortionate, surprisingly - a little higher but not the kind you'd expect on a camp site. It was quite a posh looking restaurant too, not like the others I have been privvy to in the past, so we were quietly optimistic. He didn't come to our table to serve us so I jumped up to go to him, but then he wandered over with a big smile. He was very friendly - just my starvingness was making me a bit hasty!
We ordered a margerhita - as we are now doing every time, and Dan chose the other pizza this time - corn, sausage and - french fries! It was actually really tasty - sometimes I ate the fries on the pizza, sometimes I ate the fries off the pizza. The wine was stupidly cheap too for a quarter carafe, and I thought I ordered rose but I ended up getting a red. Dan ordered a really large local 660ml beer. After we finished, we weren't quite ready to go back down so we ordered another round of beverages, this time I got a white wine so I could have a slightly cool drink!
By now we were feeling pretty hot so - swim time! Back down to our cabin, we wiggled into our togs, grabbed our towels, I grabbed the ouzo and our sippy cups, and we started the LONG DESCENT to the waterfront. I mention that it was a LONG descent because we realised...we would have to come back up this at some point. Countless stairs later, it levelled out at a flattish rock where people were sunbathing on sun beds and others were sitting on their towels. We found a flat little spot in the sun, and made our way over to the waters edge.
I oped to go in first this time - probably because I was overheating pretty bad - and started climbing down the ladder. Because I didn't know what the rock situation was like, I wasn't willing to jump straight into the water. It was pretty cold, but after the waterfall at Kravice - I can get into anything! Dan followed suit, although without his glasses he lost me, I didn't realise I had swum so far away.
We paddled in the water for about half an hour. I had the waterproof camera and he had the gopro, so we took as many photos as we could while trying to stay afloat. I tried to hang onto the rocks at one point, but the waters from some passing boats were smashing me against them too roughly which wasn't pleasant, and I scraped my foot a bit. All good though! Soon we got a bit cold and tired so we paddled slowly back to the ladder and climbed back out. It was rather a beautiful setting - Mt Vesuvius was in the background on the other side of the curve.
We dried in the sun sitting on our towels, and I whipped up our ouzo, watching as it went milky when the water was added. It smelt worse than it tasted, and we had definitely had worse drinks in the last few weeks! The sun was creeping further and further across the rock, and as chairs delved into shade, the staff members were packing them up for the night. Finally our little position succumbed to shade, and it was time for us to go back up.
The ascent wasn't actually as bad as I expected, and when we popped out near our cabin we continued allllll the way back to the top, as the mini market would now be open. We already had crackers from Venice (and yes I'd been carrying them around since), so we thought cheese would be a good idea. A quick dash around the market - prices were a bit overboard but again not too painful. We got a squishy cheese and a small hard cheese, some ham, cherry tomatoes, a couple of those enormous beers and we found a bottle of cleanskin wine for €2.50, so that was thrown in too.
We set ourselves up on our bench and table, and munched our way through dinner. We kept the beers for tomorrow - we definitely didn't need those! The wine was fizzy and pretty tasty, especially for the price! We didn't finish all of the cherry tomatoes so we kept some for the next day.
By now it was getting pretty late, and we had an early start in the morning for the boat tour, so we called it a night.
Til next time,
xx
With all our luggage and in the hot sun, we make it to the train station and we grabbed a couple of tickets to wait for the next train in about 25 minutes. We found a little place to sit outside, and then suddenly the tour group joins us on the platform. Huh? The tour is getting on the train?
As we sat there, another three groups of Asian tourists join us on the platform, making a total of 4 groups with about 20 or more people in each. This train is gonna be packed. It was of course running on ish time, so it was quite late, and when it did arrive there was a serious amount of pushing and shoving to try to get on. Dan and I finally made and found a corner to stand uncomfortably in - we put most of our bags on the floor as there was no room to keep them on, and it wasn't going to be an overly short journey.
I've had worse, but it definitely wasn't a great train ride. At one point, a bunch of buskers with saxophones got on, and all the tour groups got very excited by this (although less excited when they were asked to pay). Finally though, we popped out in Sorrento.
Our next accommodation was going to be quite different. The cheapest option we could find was a camp site a little way out of the city. This was ok, because it was near the port - we actually really wanted to do a boat cruise of the Amalfi coast and Sorrento was a great place to do this from. Sorrento itself we didn't need to explore all that much. I found last minute that the camp site offered free shuttles from Sorrento to the grounds, except the pick up point wasn't at the train station. It was, an Italian "5 minute walk" from the station. Probably closer to 15 with our heavy bags, and I was pretty unimpressed when we got there.
I didn't want to have done that hike when we could have paid about €1 for a bus that would take us to the camp site door, but come 12pm a mini bus did in fact show up with the camp site name on it, and so we saved ourselves €2 and gained all that extra walking time (although to be fair we got a seat on the shuttle, which may not have been the case on the bus).
The shuttle deposited us right at reception, and so we joined the small queue, waiting our turn to check in. We paid the remainder, was given a couple of maps and excursion options, and then not so long after we hopped in a shuttle and we were driven down to our room. Another couple was dropped off first - a lot higher up. I got a little concerned how low we were going as it meant we would have to go up again...
We stopped and hopped out, shouldering our luggage. We were taken to a small cabin and shown inside - this'll do nicely! It was much nicer than some of the accommodation we have had, that's for sure! We opted for a cabin with our own bathroom instead of cheaping out, and I'm so glad we did. I would have probably broken all my bones trying to get too and from the cubicles in the middle of the night! Our cabin had a bunk bed with a double on the bottom (which was actually just another single pushed up against it with a double mattress on top, but it worked fine). We had a little toilet and shower too, and outside we had a nice balcony with a bench table where we would end up sitting a lot.
The place was totally devoid of air and stuffy and hot, so we opened the door and the window to let some air through. We read all of the timing instructions for each of the services on the camp grounds - the restaurant was open 24/7, the mini market had divided morning and afternoon times, the swimming pool closed at 7.30 and the beach area at 7pm.
I was naturally starving so lunch was a top priority. Before then though, we went all the way back up to reception to book into one of the excursions they had on offer. It was a boat tour along the Amalfi coast, stopping at Amalfi and the pretty Positano on the way, as well as a few other highlights. I had seen similar tours advertised on Viator when I had been researching for a higher price, and this one would pick us up and drop us off at the camp grounds, so I wanted to book it in.
When we got to reception, first I asked what the ferry prices were between the different areas, and it would be more cost effective for us to book the tour. "For tomorrow please."
"No, Monday," the man replied.
"We aren't here on Monday. Is it full tomorrow? That's very disappointing."
"Not running tomorrow," he continued. This was in direct contrast to what the lady had told us when we checked in - she just said come up one day before you're interested in a tour. Turns out, until the 15th of May the tours didn't run every day, and this was a few days after so the rule no longer applied. He must not have realised the date, so he said something to the lady and then went ahead with our booking. I'm glad I kept pressing the issue and didn't just accept his first answer!
Lunch time now. The restaurant was up on this level too, just a short distance away, with the mini market next to it. It wouldn't reopen again until 4.30pm. At the restaurant, we made our way inside and through onto the balcony which had a really lovely view over one of the Sorrento bays. The man acknowledged us but didn't bring any menus, so Dan grabbed a couple from a pile and we had a look through.
Food and especially drink was not extortionate, surprisingly - a little higher but not the kind you'd expect on a camp site. It was quite a posh looking restaurant too, not like the others I have been privvy to in the past, so we were quietly optimistic. He didn't come to our table to serve us so I jumped up to go to him, but then he wandered over with a big smile. He was very friendly - just my starvingness was making me a bit hasty!
We ordered a margerhita - as we are now doing every time, and Dan chose the other pizza this time - corn, sausage and - french fries! It was actually really tasty - sometimes I ate the fries on the pizza, sometimes I ate the fries off the pizza. The wine was stupidly cheap too for a quarter carafe, and I thought I ordered rose but I ended up getting a red. Dan ordered a really large local 660ml beer. After we finished, we weren't quite ready to go back down so we ordered another round of beverages, this time I got a white wine so I could have a slightly cool drink!
By now we were feeling pretty hot so - swim time! Back down to our cabin, we wiggled into our togs, grabbed our towels, I grabbed the ouzo and our sippy cups, and we started the LONG DESCENT to the waterfront. I mention that it was a LONG descent because we realised...we would have to come back up this at some point. Countless stairs later, it levelled out at a flattish rock where people were sunbathing on sun beds and others were sitting on their towels. We found a flat little spot in the sun, and made our way over to the waters edge.
I oped to go in first this time - probably because I was overheating pretty bad - and started climbing down the ladder. Because I didn't know what the rock situation was like, I wasn't willing to jump straight into the water. It was pretty cold, but after the waterfall at Kravice - I can get into anything! Dan followed suit, although without his glasses he lost me, I didn't realise I had swum so far away.
We paddled in the water for about half an hour. I had the waterproof camera and he had the gopro, so we took as many photos as we could while trying to stay afloat. I tried to hang onto the rocks at one point, but the waters from some passing boats were smashing me against them too roughly which wasn't pleasant, and I scraped my foot a bit. All good though! Soon we got a bit cold and tired so we paddled slowly back to the ladder and climbed back out. It was rather a beautiful setting - Mt Vesuvius was in the background on the other side of the curve.
We dried in the sun sitting on our towels, and I whipped up our ouzo, watching as it went milky when the water was added. It smelt worse than it tasted, and we had definitely had worse drinks in the last few weeks! The sun was creeping further and further across the rock, and as chairs delved into shade, the staff members were packing them up for the night. Finally our little position succumbed to shade, and it was time for us to go back up.
The ascent wasn't actually as bad as I expected, and when we popped out near our cabin we continued allllll the way back to the top, as the mini market would now be open. We already had crackers from Venice (and yes I'd been carrying them around since), so we thought cheese would be a good idea. A quick dash around the market - prices were a bit overboard but again not too painful. We got a squishy cheese and a small hard cheese, some ham, cherry tomatoes, a couple of those enormous beers and we found a bottle of cleanskin wine for €2.50, so that was thrown in too.
We set ourselves up on our bench and table, and munched our way through dinner. We kept the beers for tomorrow - we definitely didn't need those! The wine was fizzy and pretty tasty, especially for the price! We didn't finish all of the cherry tomatoes so we kept some for the next day.
By now it was getting pretty late, and we had an early start in the morning for the boat tour, so we called it a night.
Til next time,
xx
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