Where to stay in Sorrento: the best areas and hotels

Sorrento's heart is Piazza Tasso, a busy, café-lined square built over a ravine. From here Corso Italia runs through town, and the old quarter's narrow lanes are packed with limoncello shops, inlaid woodwork and trattorias. Below the cliffs, the old fishing harbour of Marina Grande is the place for seafood, and Marina Piccola is where the boats leave for Capri, Naples and the Amalfi Coast.

Staying in town means you can walk everywhere, and the best hotels have terraces hanging over the bay with views across to Vesuvius. Some sit on rocky outcrops right above the sea; others are tucked into gardens a few minutes from the station. Out on the western edge, towards Capo di Sorrento, the ruins of a Roman villa overlook a natural rock pool that is perfect for a swim.

Sant'Agnello begins where Sorrento ends, and you can walk from one to the other in 20 minutes or so. It's quieter, greener and flatter, with old villas set in gardens of orange and lemon trees, and a string of clifftop hotels whose panoramic terraces look across the bay to Vesuvius.

Some of the peninsula's most characterful hotels are here, including a former Jesuit residence set in a centuries-old park, and the local station has trains to Sorrento and Naples, stopping at Pompeii and Herculaneum along the way. Beaches are a mix of sand and pebble, usually reached by steps or a lift down the cliff.

East of Sant'Agnello, Piano di Sorrento and Meta are where people on the peninsula actually live: busy shopping streets, local bakeries and grand churches, with the train stopping at both. They're less polished than Sorrento, and all the calmer for it at night.

Hotels tend to be family-run, some up in the hills with sea views and others close to the small beaches below. On the edge of Meta, the Alimuri bay has a resort with its own private beach and views right across the Gulf of Naples. Sorrento is a short train or bus ride away.

West of Sorrento, the peninsula grows wilder as it narrows towards Punta Campanella, its tip, which faces Capri across a narrow strait. Massa Lubrense is a scattering of villages, terraced olive groves and fishing coves such as Marina Lobra and Marina del Cantone, the latter known for its seafood restaurants. Up in the hills, Sant'Agata sui Due Golfi looks down on both the Bay of Naples and the Bay of Salerno.

Hotels here are all about views and peace: clifftop terraces facing Capri, a lavish adults-only resort halfway to the Amalfi Coast, and a restored 19th-century colonial house in a park full of citrus trees. Sorrento is only a few kilometres away, but a car or a hotel shuttle helps.

Vico Equense stands on a cliff at the start of the Sorrento Peninsula, its old centre and church perched right on the edge. It's famous for pizza sold by the metre, and for having more of a beach than Sorrento: the bays below town, such as Marina d'Equa, have beach clubs and hotels right by the sea.

Hotels range from family-friendly four-stars with private beaches to a spa resort on its own headland, and one has been welcoming British holidaymakers since the 1950s. Sorrento is a short train or bus ride away, and the line runs the other way to Pompeii and Naples.

Castellammare di Stabia sits where the Sorrento Peninsula meets the Bay of Naples: a busy, working town with a long seafront, natural springs and the ruins of ancient Stabiae, whose Roman villas were buried in the same eruption as Pompeii. In summer, a cable car climbs Monte Faito behind the town.

It's less pretty than Sorrento, and doesn't pretend otherwise, but it's very handy: the Circumvesuviana puts Pompeii, Herculaneum and Naples close by, and Sorrento is further along the same line. Hotels include a four-star on the seafront, spa hotels with private beaches and pools, and a country residence with a spa outside town.