Amalfi Coast Trip – Day One (Villa Bellavista Hotel in Praiano)
This was the accommodation in Praiano after our first day of walking.
The entrance area seemed welcoming and I liked how the trees were growing through the patio. The check-in process didn’t take too long and the hotel was just a short walk from the town centre.
The balcony of the hotel with some rather lovely views over the sea.
The bedroom was clean, tidy and modern in terms of its decor. I didn’t like the lack of room information folder and the unpriced minibar and there was unfortunately no view. So nothing exceptional, although the wi-fi worked well when I wanted to upload some files.
The breakfast was decent, there were muffins, tomatoes, croissants, cold meats, cheeses, doughnuts, biscuits, yoghurts, cereals and bread. The juices ran out a little too regularly and weren’t replaced particularly quickly, but the coffee was readily available. The staff didn’t really engage with us, but the surroundings were comfortable nonetheless.
One thing that did irritate me about the hotel is that booking.com said that the total fee would be taken by card including the local tourist tax. At the hotel they claimed this was incorrect and the tourist tax would be taken in cash. The hotel then promptly proceeded to charge me twice for the entire stay, although they did apologise and refund one of those charges promptly when I told them about it a week after.
The hotel is currently rated the worst in Praiano on TripAdvisor, coming 20th out of 20 hotels in the town. I can see where the problems causing that are, as although I didn’t intend to use the swimming pool it was shut and no-one mentioned that in advance, there was a general lack of information and the payment debacle I had wasn’t ideal. There’s a remarkable review on TripAdvisor on how the hotel managed to lock a guest out that’s quite involved and exciting. Overall, I probably wouldn’t stay here again, but the quality of sleep was good and the hotel was clean, so it was by no means an entirely negative stay.