Village Camping Campogaio Santafortunata — Hotel in Sorrento

There are many positives and many negatives to Santa Fortunata Village.

To start with the negatives: 2 days into our stay, construction of two (wood) tent structures begun. Power tools, loud radio, and topless men spoiled our view and mood. There was no warning of construction and no compensation. Not to mention that reception said the construction would stop at “around 6:30” with power tools still going past late into 7:00.

The bus, although generally good and convenient, the bus was our main source of stress throughout the stay. They operate “cash only” for the bus service, it’s very cheap. On our way back to camping from Sorrento, I dropped a euro in the bus and couldn’t find it. So we were one euro short of the fee. (At 11pm) The worker denied us entry, and stated that he “needs the 1 euro”, he humiliated us by giving us no other option than to walk down the queue and ask people if they had… one… euro. After a lovely family offered to give us a euro from the change they would get, the worker seemed irritated and only gave them €2 coins etc. After getting a euro, we paid the man and he chucked the money in his pot and said nothing. We asked the man previously if we could use their ATM, we had used the bus several times, and he knew we had the money to pay, but we were short one euro, the ATM was out of service for the whole week.

So now we are back at camping, with no more cash euros, their own ATM is out of service, reception refused to exchange cash. As well as the shop. The nearest ATM was out of service as well. Meaning we would have to walk on the roadside 40 minutes to town in the heat. Or pay €33 euros for a taxi. Bearing in mind the bus cost €2 each… they could not make an exception one time, or allow us to pay them back. That is not how you do business.

The tent, had a lovely view, but was clearly not made for Italian heat. A tiny fan which just spreads the hot air around, does no job of cooling us down. I understand we will be hit, but if you’re going to make an effort to add a fan, make it a working fan.

General rudeness, some staff members were lovely and helpful, but every staff member we spoke with was not very accommodating. Asking about the bus situation left us with “book a taxi for €30” or “we can’t give cash”. The man who initially showed us to our tent was extremely kind, but the second we inconvenience him/the rest of the staff, they get an attitude.

The food, although we did not eat at the restaurant, we asked about breakfast, and were told the buffet costs €15 per person per day. For our 7 day trip that would be €210 euros, obviously you can get other things, but that is ridiculous pricing. For a family of 4/5 that would cost €420/€525, for just breakfast. We chose not to eat at the restaurant due to the numerous extremely negative reviews on the staff and food there.

The shop, the shop is convenient, but pricey like any shop in Sorrento. The staff are somewhat short and not very welcoming, telling my partner to put some more clothes on, which is strange considering the previous couple went in wearing less clothes, I guess they pick and choose who the rules apply to.

-The facilities - the showers were dark during dark hours with minimal lighting, one of the 4 showers closest to us was out of order, as well as one of the 4 sinks.

-The beach, the beach is beautiful but I do not recommend going in bear foot, I cut my foot badly (read later).

The (few) positives:

The pool was fantastic, it was free entry, and required you wear a shower cap (€2.50 each to keep).

The lifeguards were friendly and one in particular was extra kind. On the second day I cut my foot badly on the sharp rocks that cover the private beach floor. The lifeguard greeted me as his friend and sorted me out. Bandaging me up and making sure I was okay.

The view is fantastic (unless there are 6 half nude builders in front of it).

The bus is hugely convenient, as long as you have cash in hand. There is one very kind bus driver lady.

We met many kind Italians on our trip, only 2...

We arrived at the camping at 15:00 as it said that would be the time for check-in to the three bungalows we had booked for the week. When getting out key we were told that our bungalows had yet to be cleaned and that we had to wait another 2 hours before we could get access to them. We were allowed to but our bags on the little porch while waiting.

When the cleaners finally came, they quite rudely asked us to move our suitcases until they were done cleaning. The rudeness of the staff came to be a red thread during our stay at Camping Santa Fortunata.

When we finally could get inside our bungalow we discovered that it was a cute little house with a AC that was very appreciated. The house was clean and with all the accommodations one would like. We later discovered that most equipment needed to cook a proper meal was missing. No knife, cutting board nor kitchen cloth to mention some things…

We got to unpack and happily took our belongings to go find the beach. On our way we met another Swedish family who informers us that the beach was closed. Closed, we said. How can a beach close at 18:00? And the free beach? Nope, all closed - and the swimming pool too. At that same time we learned that to use the beach you have to book and pay a fee for every day. So even though the village has a Privat beach - they charge you for it. It said on the website that the premises were not handicap friendly - which was an understatement. We understood that to get to the beach there were going to be steps, but the accessibility to the swimming pool and the bungalows where equally hard when travelling with toddler in a pram. The pool area was very clean, but nothing special. It was just a pool with no extras for the kids.

We were told that you could not book your sunbed at the pool, but there were signs at the two best seats saying it was occupied. Apparently those seats were booked by the owners family, who needed the two best umbrellas by the pool every day. Adding to that, having the lifeguard bring their, belongings every morning for them AND having him serve them drinks. Unfortunately, my uncle hurt his toe really badly in the pool and needed medical assistance. There was a First Aid-tent by the pool and the life guard took care of it professionally

We booked continental breakfast with our stay, which was satisfying the first days. Scrambled eggs, sausages, “bacon”, loads of sweet pastry’s, and pancakes. Unfortunately the juice was so sweet you couldn’t drink it and some yoghurt would have been nice. After a couple of days all the sweet and the few savoury options kind of wore you out.

From the village you could walk down to Sorrento centre, but you need to be careful because the first 2-300 m are without sidewalk and people drive like crazy. After one morning walk my mother put her shoes outside of her bungalow - and never saw them again. According to reception staff this happens “now and again”…

The village also offered busrides to the centre. We bought our tickets and were told that face masks were required. Fine by us, we have our masks. -No, those won’t do said reception staff, you need to buy them from us. When asked why, he just said that was the law and got very rude. When my uncle got annoyed with him the man left his little house and came out to argue. Almost thought he would fight my uncle! Well, the bus finally came ( 20-some minutes late) Unfortunately we were tickets 18-23 so there was no room for us on the bus, so the bus driver told us to wait another hour until next bus. This got us really upset since we had been waiting for half an hour in the heat with a toddler, why didn’t staff tell us that the bus was already full??

Other things that was disappointing was that there were no activity’s after 18:00 when pool and beach closed, nothing for teens to do nor natural meeting points...

Resort Campogaio is the most disgusting accommodation I have ever come across, predominately the attitude/service of the staff. The location of the campsite is completely undesirable, far from town and on top of this when you enter you still have to walk uphill even further to get to your accommodation which is all dirt road. When arriving to my cabin I immediately noticed how hot it was, it was 5 degrees hotter inside than it was outside and then we turned on the air conditioning which just made it even hotter - the air coming out was incredibly hot. The bedsheets were stained/dirty/unwashed. When we realized we could not stay here for the above reasons we told the front desk we would like a refund and they said no. I explained I would be happy to pay for the first night but would like a refund for the rest and again they said no without an explanation. I explained that the terms and conditions stated that we could not show up and only the first night would be charged and the rest would not be and they said this was not true. They took me to the cabin and when I showed them the paper they said it was only for no shows but I explained I may as well not have shown up, mind you when I was showing him this term in the conditions on the piece of paper I had he had lit up a cigarette and was smoking. The man we spoke to at the front desk was incredibly rude not only to us but to another customer who was facing the same issues. He was incredibly condescending and told me "I didn't understand" and that it was "our own fault" and kept walking away from me while speaking to me. I asked to speak with the boss/his superior multiple times as did the other customer and he REFUSED and said we are not allowed to and that the boss did not want to speak to us. We asked nearly 10 times each and he kept saying "no you're not allowed" - as though we were children and were being told what we can and cannot do. When I told him he was rude he admitted it and said he was and suggested we should leave if we aren't happy as again, it was "our own fault". While all of this is going on the two girls at the front desk were watching and laughing at us like it was a show that we had put on for them and they thought it was hilarious we weren't getting a refund. I have NEVER come across such disgusting customer service even though I have travelled to more than 15 countries in my life and have stayed in many different types of accomodation. We were at the campsite for 30 MINUTES and were charged the FULL price of being there. This place is an absolute SCAM and they are not there to provide a service. They are there purely to take your money. Furthermore the photos are completely deceiving and look absolutely NOTHING like in real life.

For such a bad location and poor quality accommodation and staff they even charge you for WIFI and the very short shuttle bus to the town center. There is nothing good I can say about this accommodation and I will be telling EVERYONE about this until I...