I have just returned from a stay at the Majestic Palace in Sant 'Agnello near Sorrento in June 2008 for a week with Thomas Cook but booked through MyTravel for £570pp inc transfers. (don't book the inflight meal, you get it anyway and it's awful).

Location, it is approximately 1.8km from the center of Sorrento and although described as a 20 minute walk, with the 30c+ heat, I would not consider the hotel to be in easy reach of Sorrento. Walking via the main road is a couragous walk with the manic Italian scooters, and the more scenic route down from the hotel is at least 30 minutes. There is a shuttle bus from the hotel to Sorrento, but it does not go into the centre (main square) and drops you off some 1/2km+ from the centre. So whatever anyone says, it is not close to Sorrento and you really need to take the bus from the main road at the top, you get tickets from the news agents for around €1 each one way trip. One day I got a taxi from the square in Sorrento to the hotel, 1.8km, it cost €12, so be warned.

Hotel, the room was very nice considering we had a basic room, nice furniture, satellite TV, matrimonial bed (2 singles put together, if you want a double make sure you contact them before hand), mini bar, Air con, phone etc... The room was also very clean and the maids were excellent. All the rooms have tiled floors, so if you have someone above you, and they move a bed or chair, it is extremely loud!

Food, this is where the hotel will win or lose your vote. The problem is that eating out in Sorrento is extremely expensive, you should budget €70 a night for a dinner for 2, hence most people will stay at the Majestic half board. Breakfast was good, Bacon, Sausages, Tomatoes, Scrambled egg, cereals, toast, some pastries, yogurt, fresh juice. However evening dinner, if you see the words Gala night, go out!!! It means you have no choice with the food you are given and it is typically not good ( I am being generous with my comments here), however when it's a normal night, it's a menu with Salad to start, 5 first courses, 5 second courses and lots of deserts, these nights were typically very good. Now if you have seen the grand buffet on their website, forget it, it NEVER happens!!!!! If you want to forgoe your evening meal, they will prepare you a packed lunch instead, but you have to ask. If you are vegetarian, make sure you tell them well in advance, for some reason they don't cater for vegetarians well.

Lounges and Bar, nice lounge areas and the bar is fine, including the foyer, there are 5 distinct areas all next to each other with TV in the main room for Football, but I would not call it a sports bar in any way, it was nice. Wifi is available at €20 for the week, or they have a PC you can hire in 30min chunks. 400ml beer is €4.5, 200ml Coke €2.5, coffee ~€2.50. I used the wifi for internet calls home and it was fine and worked by the pool as well.

Pool areas, the pool is not heated and at the beginning of the week, the water was very cold, but as it's now 30c, it did heat up a little. There are lots of very nice trees, i would describe it as compact but very leafy and nice to be outside. There are around 30 loungers, but it's the usual towels at dawn from some of our bavarian friends :( There are also 2 other areas on the second and fifth floors, nice places, but a little sparse with astro turf. At the back of the hotel is a large orange and lemon orchard, with some covered hammock beds, nice but not many people used them. There are no outside bars, but some tables that doubled as an outside restaurent during the day.

Staff, mostly very friendly and extremely helpful, but you do need to keep a rough check on your bill when you leave. There were a few people with problems on their bills with the mini bars and drinks being charged to wrong bills, however this was not a problem for me.

If you want car parking, and I do not recommend hiring a car as traffic in sorrento is extreme in the evenings, it is €15 per day, or 2 x €3 per day on the street. I was quoted €70 for the whole week to use the hotel car park, although you should confirm that yourself. Train station in nearby for a trip to Pompei.

The total holiday cost me over £2000 including spending money for trips, etc.... and we ate out at night 3 times. It is a very expensive place to go for a week. If the standard of the food was consistent and they gave the guests a more cost inclusive feel to the hotel, I would rate it above average.

Pros - Staff, room cleanliness, very few children, nice 4* atmosphere, food (on non Gala nights)

Cons - Location is out of town somewhat, Gala nights food (it was really bad), no proper double bed, Sorrento (Italy) very expensive to go out in that area. Very few bars or restaurents near by.