Reviews

Fun Trip!

This is a great trip for seeing the Amalfi Coast. You cover a lot within a week. There were 2 hikes for more active group members. There is also a chance to see the beautiful Italian architecture in towns such as Amalfi, Positano and Ravello. Our guide (Sev) integrated us into the Italian culture well and made everyone laugh! The hotel is a friendly warm place. The staff host cooking demonstrations some of the evenings, which was great fun.

11 june 2022

The Amalfi Highlights is a wonderful holiday; marvellous sites, marvellous scenery. Basic but very comfortable hotel. Good food. We felt the ambience was relaxing and the trip was full on. The hotel laid on fun evening cooking events.

Wonderful trip

It was a wonderful trip to the Amalfi Coast, although it was very hot, particularly on the day we visited Herculaneum and Pompeii. Severio was a very good leader. The hotel was very clean and comfortable and I enjoyed the evenings that we had the pizza and pasta demonstrations. On the whole the food was very good, although we could have done with a bit more choice for the evening meal, but breakfast was excellent, although a little chaotic with so many people trying to serve themselves at the same time.
My only disappointment was that we did not have a chance to get away from Bomerano on our day off as I would have liked to go either to Naples or Vesuvius.

Good in parts

This was not as good as other Exodus tours we’ve been on for a variety of reasons. Main problem was the itinerary. The order changed, for no apparent reason, causing the tour to be unbalanced. The rescheduling meant the first 3 days were excellent and full on, covering Amalfi/Positano, Herculaneum/Pompeii and Capri, but the following 4 days were too relaxed with not much going on. Ravello is a lovely hilltop village but we were left there unguided for over 5 hours, far too long. The walk on “path of the gods” was the only thing planned on the penultimate day but was only a linear walk (not circular as in the trip notes) 5km total, about 2 hours. It was foggy up in the hills that day and the last day so we couldn’t see the views (not the fault of Exodus!)

The final day we were kicking our heels waiting outside the hotel for the bus to the airport. The group flight back to London didn’t leave until after 7pm – Exodus should look at offering an earlier flight or putting on some activity for that day.

The hotel was very comfortable and largely dedicated to Exodus tours. The staff and management were very helpful. The evening meals were very good, and the local wine was good and reasonably priced. Breakfast choices were limited but good quality. Only real drawback was no wifi in the bedroom.

Soooo disappointing

A very disappointing experience from start to finish. Arrived at the hotel after a long day traveling only to be bundled into a large dining room with pre prepared food awaiting us. No chance to get to our rooms and freshen up before dinner. The whole dining experience throughout the holiday (both breakfast and dinner) can only be described as being done on a shoe string with very little imagination. Very limited choice of food and mostly dinner had to be pre-ordered for the next day.
The first half of the week was pretty full on with excursions (which was fine) but by the second half of the week the guide appeared to be flagging. The trips to Pompeii and Herculaneum should have been done on separate days and the trip to Ravello should only have been for a couple of hours, as we were left with about 3 hours with nothing to do after having seen the gardens. The trips to Positano and Capri were really enjoyable.
On the last full day of the trip we did a short walk on The Path of the Gods. One of our party for left behind on the way back. The weather was not good due to a lot of cloud cover and therefore was quite a precarious walk. The tour guide just sat waiting for her to return and in the end another of the party had to go and find her.
The tour guide did not appear to be at his best. He had an argument with one of the guests at a pre dinner briefing meeting. He shouted at her and stormed out of the meeting. This caused some animosity between him and some of the guests for the remainder of the holiday. He did not turn up for dinner on the last evening.
It was a great shame as many of us had waited a long time for the holiday.
The swimming pool was out of action for most of the week and so any free time could not be enjoyed around the pool. There are very limited eating and drinking facilities at the hotel during the day. It is essentially a walking group hotel (there were three large walking groups at the hotel in addition to our party of 17) and does not really cater for anyone else.

Super holiday

My first holiday with Exodus and everything went very smoothly. The programme organised by Exodus was just right for this lovely part of Italy and our group leader was excellent. The hotel was good and all members of the group were good company.

Poor hotel food and mixed itinerary

We only stay at one hotel the entire trip, which we had a very mixed experience of. The room was nice and large , cleaned well each day, a lovely big balcony. Sadly the TV had the capability to connect to the internet and Netflix but this was disabled by the hotel which is a shame.

I am very surprised so many reviews of this tour rate the food at the hotel positively. We had high expectations but found it was mediocre at the best of times, and terrible (and made us both sick/get a dodgy stomach) at the worst of times. They clearly designed all the included meals to feed a big group as cheaply as possible — and the health and safety standards were frankly for a first world country. We were invited into the kitchen several times for cooking demonstrations but no one working the kitchen wore hair nets or any other basic hygiene equipment and we weren’t required to wash our hands or wear hair nets or anything else despite standing very much in the centre of the food preparation. It didn’t surprise me that I got ill from the food probably as a result of this. It’s a shame as we only had a couple of ‘free’ meals to experience properly excellent Italian food.

The breakfast supposedly starts at 7am but we went down there at 720am and nothing was out yet — we had to wait another 15min to eat after we found the woman managing it and she set it up. Again, pretty poor hygiene standards as she grabbed the bread slices out with bare hands after touching lots of other things in the setup. The breakfast is a very basic continental and we were pretty sick of the very limited selection by the last couple of days. The pastries started out nice and fresh tasting the first day but I think they re-use them multiple days (we saw her take out the same ones from the last day) and they were really hard and disgusting by the last breakfasts.

The two owners are also the two chefs and they both made lots of very inappropriate comments during their cooking demonstrations — one said that he needs to beat the pizza dough to get it out of his system so he doesn’t beat his wife. He also said the olive oil needed to be Italian, ‘not Greek or spic stuff.’ They both also made repeated negative comments about vegetarians.

The first day lunch is not an included meal but we were forced to buy it at the hotel. I asked the guide if we could go find somewhere else (we had tons of time between getting to the hotel and our orientation walk) and he made it out like we had to go to the hotel restaurant. It was very expensive and small portions and very mediocre quality for what it was. A few days later we had a not included dinner so we went to a very good and very cheap pizza place literally across the road from the hotel. Wish we were given the chance to find this the first day instead of being forced to eat at the hotel (I’ve never been on a tour where we’ve not been given a choice for non included meals for where to eat). I paid 11 euro for a tiny piece of not very good sea bass and an extra four euro for a very lame side salad. The pizza place across the street does you an excellent big pizza for 6-8 euros.

The village we were based in was really in the middle of nowhere. The positive of the location is this clearly is a major hub for starting beautiful walks from. But besides that it’s so remote that you feel a bit trapped.

A pool is advertised but when we stayed, it wasn’t being cleaned or maintained at all — which they don’t tell you. It was full of rubbish so they clearly just don’t maintain it in winter but Exodus should really make that clear or else saying there’s a pool is false advertising.

The itinerary hilights for us were 1) the stunning boat ride along the coast from Amalfi to Capri and 2) the archaeology day we spent doing Herculaneum and Pompeii. Many people told me we would need a full day for Pompeii alone but actually we found 2-3 hours at each site was enough to see the hilights just fine.

The biggest itinerary disappointments included the walk of the gods. We did a very lame short version of this where we walked about 2km one way and then turned back and walk back the same way we came. There was endless faffing and unnecessary short breaks on this shortened walk. I also expected we were doing a BBQ lunch back at the hotel afterward as per the trip notes but the lunch instead was a cold lunch with a cheese and salami platter . I would have much preferred doing the full walk of gods and then getting transport back from Positano, because we really didnt benefit from a guide (just the opposite) to do a tiny there and back again chunk of this walk followed by a lunch at the hotel and nothing to do afterwards. This entire day again felt like false advertising from the trip notes.

The first three days (Capri, Pompeii, Amalfi and Positano) felt like full days and the last two non-free days felt very much like half days (Ravello was very pretty but not enough for a day).

Most Inspirational Moment

Lovely countryside

Reply from Exodus

We would like to thank Mira for her feedback, although we are very sorry that some aspects of this trip and the accommodation fell below her expectations. We have been using the Hotel Due Torri for around 20 years and the feedback we usually receive about it is positive; in 2019 the hotel catered for approximately 1700 Exodus clients. The hotel has replaced the old televisions with smart TVs which have over 100 foreign channels, mostly in English. Whilst we were very sorry that Mira was not impressed with the food on this trip, we feel it pertinent to mention that other members of Mira’s group who privately completed Holiday Evaluation Forms (HEFs), rated the food on this trip as ‘excellent’. The breakfast buffet includes cheese, ham, white and brown sliced bread, yoghurt, fresh boiled eggs, muesli, popped rice and cereal alternatives, fresh fruit, jam and honey, plus dairy free alternatives, fresh coffee and cappuccino and freshly squeezed orange juice. The kitchen at the hotel follows rigorous hygiene standards when it comes to food preparation; staff wear professional clothes and hats/hair net as needed and clients who are selected to help with the cooking demonstrations are given an apron and a hat/hair net and are asked to wash their hands before touching the food. We regret that Mira was not aware that the hotel pool would not be open at the time of year that she visited; this pool is usually open from mid-April to mid-October, depending on weather, and we have now included this information in our trip notes. Whilst we are sorry that Mira was disappointed with the location of the hotel, and aspects of the staffing and itinerary, all members of her group who privately completed HEFs rated the accommodation, itinerary, staff members as ‘excellent’, and rated their overall trip experience as 5 out of a possible 5. We appreciate that everyone’s experience is different and we regret Mira’s feedback, but because, as of January 2020, the 78 people who have left reviews of our Highlights of the Amalfi Coast tour on our website have awarded it an overall rating of 4.6 out of a possible 5, we are confident that this trip is running in line with our expectations. Marta Marinelli – Product Manager

Bucket list trip

Since a child, my imagination has been full of the stories of Pompeii, Vesuvius and the Roman Gods; as I grew older, the romantic delights of Italian food and scenery also inspired me. Finally to have the chance to see it all without the stress of planning a complicated itinerary, having just returned from out first amazing holiday with Exodus, I booked this holiday as soon as I read about it. An impulse never to be regretted!

Wonderful holiday!

The varied itinerary, stunning scenery, and friendly and comfortable base at the Hotel Due Torri in Bomerano (with lovely poolside bar and excellent four-course dinners!) all made for a memorable holiday that exceeded my (already high) expectations. We packed a lot into the week, but the pace was not overly rushed with plenty of free time both in the places we visited and at the hotel in the late afternoons/early evenings. The small, friendly group (18 including people from Canada, the USA and Australia) and our brilliant guide, Eduardo, also contributed greatly to my enjoyment of the trip.

Walking the Amalfi coast

An excellent week’s walking along the Amalfi coast. There were some challenging steps down to the coast- over 2000 at one point but the views were spectacular. Staying in a village away from the hustle and bustle of the coastal towns was a bonus and the hotel was excellent. The food demonstrations were great fun and very interesting. The staff were very friendly and helpful even providing some rice to put our wet phone in! We paid for a room upgrade as it was a special occasion and we had a lovely balcony and beautiful bathroom. We found a walking pole was useful on some of the walks to give extra stability on descent and on the slightly rocky parts. The Walk of the Gods was stunning and we enjoyed the fruit drinks at the end!