Would we return to stay at the Youth Hostel Sorrento. Yes, but only if we were being chased up the absurd half hour hill towards it by the rabies infested dog that we encountered en route.

Having stayed in hostels all over europe, australia and africa between us, myself and my partner felt confident that, based on it's hostel bookers advert, this would be a great hostel, more like a hotel in fact! What we experienced as we finished the excruciating hill climb couldn't have been further from our expectations. One thing we will say is that the room was relatively clean, although the same could not be said for the shower area. When we arrived there was nobody there to greet us. I had to resort to an emergency bell which alerted the owner. She then instructed me to find an old man who would be sitting out by the garden! After locating said man he turned out to be the worlds biggest gooner. Not only unable to speak English, unusal in a hostel environment but of course we couldn't speak anymore italian than he could english, but he was also rude, unfriendly, slow and generally less competent than the rabies dog at providing guest service. We had booked a private double with air conditioning and were shown to a four bed dormitory, unsurprisingly no air conditioning. We complained and eventually after much pointless listening to him bamble in italian we spoke to an english person via intercom. she agreed to let us have the room at price of a dorm but could offer no explanation as to why this mistake had occurred.

while staying there we saw two very fed up japanese girls who the same man was providing equally horrendous service to. We also met another english couple who had the very same experience as us but had not yet complained about it. Clearly they charge people for private doubles that either don't exist or they are certainly then unwilling to provide. once we had finally decided to stomach it (we were only staying one night), we were then subjected to constant cars and bikes flying past and beeping (the hostel is on a hairpin bend). To add insult to in jury you are treated to a 4am wake up call by a rooster who makes a racket for the following half hour or so. This all on top of roasting august heat! there really is no end to the lying they do on their advertising as well. the supposed 'swimming pool' is in fact a child's paddling pool for example!!!

We went to hostel sorrento hoping for a friendly atmosphere and a cheap but cheerful experience. What we got was our only negative experience of accommodation during our journey around italy and we urge anyone considering going there to seriously think twice, I will be amazed if it proves to be a worthwhile experience.