Our family with 3 teenagers stayed at the Hotel Raito for 5 nights in June 2011, and our overwhelming memory of our experience is the number of weddings which occurred during our stay. The restaurant was off-limits to us for lunch or dinner because there was literally one--if not two--weddings per day/night. The staff was as nice and helpful as they could be, but they were understandably distracted by the wedding preparations and guests. It seemed that the wedding guests were not even hotel guests as each morning the breakfast area was full of a tour. We quickly learned to check the tour schedule for their breakfast time and planned our breakfast accordingly.
That being said, we enjoyed Vietri sul Mare as the anchor of our Amalfi coast experience. We decided on on this location because several members of our family suffer from motion sickness, and we did not want to have to negotiate the crazy roads every time we went exploring. We were able to visit Pompeii, Herculaneum, and part of the Amalfi drive from here (we had a car). Vietri sul Mare had several decent restaurants, and there was a hotel shuttle which made this very easy. However, if any of the staff tells you "it is a short walk to town", do NOT believe it! It may not take you that long to walk down to town, but you take your life in your hands to attempt it (as we did).
We ended up getting 2 rooms, and booked a junior suite for our 3 teens in the old wing, and a deluxe double for ourselves in the new wing. We were rather far apart (the old rooms are upstairs from the reception desk and the new rooms are outside and down an elevator from reception) but that did not bother us. The junior suite--though a bit expensive--was a great decision because it was roomy enough for the three kids, it came with free entry to the spa (for the girls), and it had a huge gorgeous deck. The deck alone was worth the price. Since we could not eat dinner in the restaurant (!) we got into the habit of having a nice restaurant meal at lunchtime, and having a family picnic on our deck in the evenings. Several nights we had front row seats to the fireworks over the water--probably courtesy of the wedding-du-jour! Our room, on the other hand, had a tiny balcony, and was very quiet & private--which is just the way we like it.
- Raito Hotel Vietri Sul Mare
