Half board holidays in Italy

[wowowo]

Can anyone recommend a half board hotel in Italy for the summer holidays? Ideally around Naples or somewhere else coastal. For a family of four (two young children).

Thank you!

Go further north , Tuscan coast or Sardinia for example. The beaches around Naples are not extensive or sandy.

Thank you - great tip!

Any specific hotels/resorts to recommend too?

Just about any resort will have a range of hotels. It depends where you want to stay and what you want to pay!

As well as hotels, for half board in Italy, consider Agri Tourism. They are farm based holidays, which might be nice for small children, with the emphasis on local produce, and home cooked meals.
Some have sophisticated facilities for guests, so it's well worth spending an evening doing some research into what is available.

Why half board? One of the beauties of going to Italy is eating all the lovely food. Go B&B and enjoy the local trattorias and pizzerias in the evening. They love kids there and Italy has to be one of the easiest places to feed kids!

We made the mistake of booking half board at Lake Garda. Dinner the first night was OK, in that it was tasty and well prepared, but it was a fairly basic set menu, and we knew a week of it (would have been variations on a theme) was a big mistake. The very kind hotelier offered us a 'packet lunch' instead and we ate pizza and pasta to our hearts' content in the evening. Our lunch was lovely bread with antipasti and fruit, which was perfect.

To your actual question - would you consider the lakes? Very child friendly, as good as being coastal (beaches, lots of water). Or Sicily has some lovely coastal areas.

The reason for half board is that the food is taken care of. It's for the children - the thought of them trying whatever they liked from a buffet is more appealing than spending €15 on a pasta dish only for them to reject it. But maybe it won't be like that?

Lakes - totally. And we love Sicily, but the cultural aspect will be lost on the children.

Grand Hotel Aminta in Sorrento. Lovely hotel.

Ah yes - such a great suggestion. We ate the best food at an Agro Tourismo farm in Tuscany. And had a cooking lesson with Momma and her (not unattractive) sons too.
Not sure there are many coastal ones though. But if you're open to a 2-centre holiday, it would be a great option for a couple of nights.

My experience of half board in Italy (a grand total of 3 hotels!) is that it's a set menu, not a buffet. So make sure you check that. I'd have thought most Italian restaurants would have very simple pasta dishes (and they'll all have pizza) for a lot less than €15.

It sounds like you want something more akin to a big(ish?) resort hotel if you're thinking buffet though. I'm sure they exist somewhere in Italy, but it's not such a big thing as in other European countries.

If not the food or the culture, what's behind your choice of country? Why not go somewhere equally beautiful like Mallorca where you have the beaches and the kind of accommodation you're after in spades.

Lake Garda!

Then you can take a trip to Verona and Venice too, as well as a lake trip.

Reading your comment about having a buffet for the children @wowowo , most Italian hotels for half board, offer a set meal perhaps with two or maybe three choices. Occasionally you might get a small buffet of anti pasta charcuterie/salads for a first course.
You will have to check with the hotel what they offer, or you won't get what you are looking for.

The thinking behind Italy is that we used to go a lot before children, and loved it. Sorrento was a particular highlight, hence thinking Naples to start with.

I'm being talked out of half board... my children are so picky though, my thinking was that with half board they'd have unlimited bread and cheese etc.

I've been half board in Italy and each time the evening meal has been a la carte (with a certain spend included) never seen a dinner buffet

Italian restaurants though are amazing with small children, I really wouldn't worry

Ok no half board 😊

We would like somewhere close to an airport, with nice beaches. Where might we go?

Via Reggio from Pisa? Coast north of Genoa? Are you driving?

I wouldn't discount half board if you're in a resort as it works out cheaper usually and we've always eaten well - no buffet though except for salad as Ada describes.

Why not Ischia, lovely island and lots of hotels that do half board and close to Naples?

Puglia might be worth a look, lovely beaches

Sorry that I can't recommend an seaside place in Italy for you. I've been to Italy maybe 8x, from Sicily, Napes, Rome and multiple ski resorts. I've done half board only a few times. The only place we got a buffet was Hotel Du Col in Sestriere- a ski resort, but I imagine they have things going on in summer if you didn't want the beach.

IF you fly into Naples, its the only place I wish I'd pre-booked a taxi/private to the town. The taxi drivers all felt very dodgy and the price was double what we paid to get back to the airport! Felt safe walking about there though- BUT- I did replace my wedding ring with a fake one and didnt wear any flashy necklaces etc. I know anywhere can have crime though.

We did a day trip via local train to Pompeii and Herculaneum which I really enjoyed. If your kids are very young though- it might be lost on them. All the actual artifacts are in the Naples museum though! Let us know where you end up OP. 🏖

Sicily! Fly to Catania and head to the south coast. You'd need to hire a car I guess, but the beaches are lovely.

The lakes have beaches and plenty of water activities for the kids. Malcesine (sp?!) is a lovely town. Maybe not as near to an airport as you'd like though.

We went to Viareggio in 2019. I wouldn't recommend it for a week's holiday with kids. It was a good base for us to explore a few places locally, but I wouldn't have wanted to spend the week there.

There are beaches not far from Rome I think?

But if your main criteria for a holiday is 'nice beaches', I'd go somewhere else! (and I say that as someone who tells anyone who will listen that Italy is my favourite country).

@Notthisnotthat did you go recently? Does it have a nice pool?

@bendmeoverbackwards we went before covid so 3 years ago now, having been there 20 years ago on honeymoon.

The pool is lovely and heated with a gorgeous view, it's at the top of the hill out of Sorrento but there is a courtesy bus, we would walk down through olive trees but always needed a ride home.