We stayed in this hotel for 10 days in early September. Only positive impressions. Very friendly staff, clean, large rooms, excellent restaurant, a nice pool. The hotel is situated on a hill, away from roads and urban noise, making it the perfect place for secluded relaxation. At the same time, the nearest port towns are easily accessible by bus (5 min) or walk (30-40 min), in addition, the hotel provides a shuttle service to Castiglione thermal park and Porto Ischa center. We highly recommend this hotel to anyone who wants to distract from the daily hustle and bustle. Special thanks to hotel staff, who tried to do everything possible to make our vacation a truly wonderful!

I stayed there in late july 2011. somewhat secluded in the hills of ischia, away from the towns, but that is part of its charm--very scenic, quiet location. not too far from Casamicciola town--you can walk in about 20 minutes (if you don't mind hills and walking in the sun) or take free scheduled shuttle (or taxi). Ischia town is about the same distance in the other direction but less walk-able.

great family-run business with friendly, helpful staff. lovely pool (not heated) and sun loungers, nice meals. high level of service and amenities but without being a huge over-crowded hotel. stayed at a room in the main part of the hotel, it was spacious, clean, quiet, modern, but with a nice touch of local colour in the form of blue tile floors. was there a week with no problems.

We visited grifo hotel this september as a part of our wedding trip in Italy. Almost everything was great, just few things were not as good as they could have been.

The hotel is situated a bit high over the coast, so the terrace seaview is remarkable. The road to hotel goes up through the picturesque pinetree grove. Staff can drive you up to the hotel and down to the main road if you want, so there are no problems with the hotel situation.

Rooms are nice and clean, room service is pretty good. The only problem we encountered was the internet access - no wireless service provided, only LAN access with a very slow speed.

The breakfasts and dinners were just perfect. Breakfast meals include all general stuff. For dinner, one can choose 1 of 3 options for the 1st course (generally pasta and smth else), and 1 of 3 options for the second course, and 1 of 5 options for the dessert. All courses are delicious and the variety is very high - ve have never seen same courses. In addition, an appetizer buffet is at your service. The waiters are serving at the top level, we liked the service very much - very polite, gently, and professional.

The hotel posesses a SPA zone, where you can relax and take some rest after sunbathing, We were gifted a free massage session, that was very pleasant.

To summarize - the hotel is perfect and I would advise it to anyone who goes on Ischia.

Pros:
Spotless, nice pool, good atmosphere, balcony rooms available, free parking, internet. A facade of perfection until you open the pandora's box.
Cons:
1. We booked rooms with seaview + balcony and it seemed we had 2 of the best rooms on the second floor, but the seaviews were mainly obscured by large trees and seaview is at a distance. Therefore, if you pay premium for the seaview rooms, don't expect a true, panoramic view.
2. There are mosquitos throughout the hotel, so you may not find the balcony to be very useful.
3. One of the impressive things with this hotel at first sight is the leaning towards high-tech gadgets. For example, the AC was a digital panel, but we never got it to work to adjust the temperature lower from the fix 24.8C to 18C to make the room cooler. We spoke to the staff who used the front desk computer to apparently reset and control the AC system, but it never worked, so we had 3 days without AC in both rooms. Since this was September and cooler than middle of summer, it wasn't a big problem, but it would've have been more comfortable if it worked. Room keys need to be updated daily, sometimes twice a day at the front desk downstairs in order to work. You won't know until you walk to your room to realize the digital key isn't reading.
4. Free internet advertised does not mean much because it is spotty if you are used to broadband, it's like going back to a 56K modem. They should really upgrade on the internet and just charge for usage. The hotel is located up in the woodsy mountain and it's secluded, but if you plan to relax at the hotel and catch up on emails, plan on being there ALL DAY! It took 30 minutes to even load up the page.
5. We booked HALF Board which includes dinner. It's convenient because you don't need to go back down to the town and find restaurants to dine at. There's an excellent buffet style salad and grilled vegetable spread. Some fried risotto balls, potato mozarella filled rolls, and bruschetta - enough to be dinner all on their own eventhough they were meant as starters. However, the pasta and protein menu is limited and the food caters more for local Italian taste, but I didn't think it was really Italian traditional cooking method or style. All the dishes had heavy cream sauces, served lukewarm like college dorm food. One night we had spaghetti carbonara as a choice and it was not edible. The pancetta was not crispy, the fat in the cream sauce separated like a poorly made bechamel sauce if that is possible. I wasn't sure whether it was a bad alfredo want to be carbonara dish because there's no egg and cheese toss in the spaghetti, but then again how could the egg cook if the pasta is lukewarm. It was definitely not considered a carbonara by any means. The protein choices were also poorly executed as well. I had the chicken with tomatos as the main one night and it was inedible. The chicken with skin was burnt on the outside, the meat needless to say was dried, the tomato cooked separately or added last to the chicken was probably the only item to pick at.
6. SPA -review for anyone thinking of a facial... ugh.. if you can call it that. Located on the lower level of the hotel (basement liked), not air conditioned, a small floor fan is used, felt like a dark and musky smelling extra large closet. And only morning appointments were available (don't know if they were really fully booked or just 1 staff available and has afternoons off). It is hard for me to believe that this so called Spa can be that popular after my over priced under valued 45 euro so-called facial. It began with the hot steamer on my face for 20 minutes to open the pores, then it felt like the 200 pound esthetician put all her weight into my face to squeeze the black heads and after 10 minutes of excrutiating pain, she only took the quickest 2 minutes to clean and massage my face with some lemon meringue smelling cream. Following the cream was an acidic application of lemon citrus liquid which I thought was another cleanser, but it turned out to the "cold mask" part used to close the pores. 20 minutes later, that was cleanse off, more lemon meringue cream applied, and that's it!
For anyone who have had facials before, this spa hotel is not for you. My regular facials at Shisheido for US$60 includes the following: Steam to open pores and removal ,cleanse approx. 20 minutes, eyebrow shaping 10-15 minutes, massage on shoulders 15 minutes at least, ice cold minty mask application 30 minutes to close pores, 15 minutes to have another moisturiser application to finish. If that's what you're used to, stay in San Francisco and take an afternoon off.