This is a great little hotel in Sorrento. It's a bit of a hike to the town (a hilly but beautiful 15 minute walk), but we loved staying near the fishing village/marina. It seemed less touristy, and we loved seeing the locals fishing and the old women sweeping their front stoop!

We booked a room for 4 people for 135 Euros a night on Venere.com. and we stayed for 3 nights. The room was small, and I kept hearing my husband bang his arms on the shower door, but that was pretty common everywhere we went in Italy. The staff is very helpful though. One of the receptionist actually spoke 4 different languages, and put us Americans to shame. They have a nice entrance/lounge area where we would have a few beers after a long day of sightseeing. They also have Internet access downstairs which was handy.

There is a bus that stops right in front as well, and we used it only to get to/from the train station since we had luggage to carry. Otherwise, we pretty much walked everywhere. I would definitely stay here again!

Using the bus to get to the hotel helps greatly, but you must know that the Marina Grande bus is no longer called "Linea D" - it's now simply called "M. Grande". The good news is, you can catch the "M. Grande" bus right at the train station now (even the lady who sold me the bus ticket at the station Tabacchi shop didn't know this!), and just take the bus to the end of the line (which is just a few hundred yards from the hotel - you pass the hotel going down the hill to the stop). And the bus seems to run only once an hour or so - check the schedule posted at the bus stop at the train station, directly to your right when you leave the station. The bus is only 1 Euro per ticket and well worth it instead of walking up the hill into town; I took the bus up but walked back down which is easy unless you have luggage.

As the other reviews state, the Hotel Del Mare has very tiny but clean and modern rooms, and they can be a bit noisy (my room, 101, was at the end of the hall near the steps, and I could sometimes hear the "clomp, clomp, clomp" of people climbing the steps). Otherwise I thought it was a decent place for the price. Bathroom is small but good. Staff was friendly, helpful - definitely an attitude of "customer service" - and spoke excellent English. Breakfast was good.

The hotel offers no wireless internet but has a computer in the lobby you can use for 1 Euro per 10 minutes. I chose to use my laptop up in town instead - I was lucky to find a few open networks to use in a pinch. Otherwise there are some Internet Points with wireless in town but they often seemed to be in smoky bars.

The rooms at this hotel use the bizarre "room key controls the room power" method of conserving energy. So after you enter the room, you must insert the room key card into a slot on the wall to have the lights come on. When you leave and remove the card, the lights, TV, AC, etc. all shut off. My room's controller was flaky; sometimes it would shut the power off even with the key in place. Usually just re-inserting the card does the trick, but it was kind of annoying, especially when reaching for the light switch at 3AM to find the bathroom and have the lights not work.

The hotel staff here went out of their way to make my stay better!

The hotel had a great location, along Marina Grande, which actually is the smaller marina in Sorrento. This location is a negative only for those who cannot walk...the walk to the main areas of town is less than a kilometer but involves a set of stairs that elderly or debilitated persons could not negotiate.

There are plenty of nice outdoor restaurants there, and the hotel was nice and clean with excellent breakfasts. The rooms are small, but clean.

However, most impressive was the service:

1) My luggage did not reach Rome when I landed there on a Saturday. (Sept 15, 2007). I left the hotel on a Wednesday. The innkeeper had one of his workers drive to the Naples airport to retrieve my luggage as soon as it became available there; they saved me from living out of my carry-on for one more day. There was no extra charge for this favor, although I offered.

2) I left a photo memory card from my camera in my room inadvertently, when I left. When I phoned the innkeeper the next week, he indicated that the item had been found and he kept it aside, awaiting me to email him with an address to which to send this item. Again I offered to pay for this service and postage, and the innkeeper declined.

3) The night desk person, "Pasquale", was exceptionally nice and attentive.

I feel obligated to write this review as a payment for the kindnesses extended to me, hoping that it may persuade readers of reviews of the wisdom of staying at the Hotel del Mare.

In addition, it was wonderful, after arriving late on Saturday, well after dark, to open my shade and look across the Bay of Naples to Mount Vesuvius, with fishing boats in the foreground working the waters off Marina Grande!

Great location. Only a pleasant 10 min. walk into Sorrento town.
Very clean. Staff very helpful. Breakfast very good quality.
Room was a bit too small for two people and air conditioning was problematic but the positives far outweighed the negatives. Great value for money in Sorrento!