Hotel La Palma by Jamie Dunford Wood

A small and elegant luxury hotel right in the heart of the old town of Capri, and very close to the Piazetta. From 1822 it has been offering hospitality to visitors and 'grand tourists', which dates it before much of the glamourous activity in Capri of recent times.

The facilities

Unfortunately those establishments with better views have overtaken the Hotel La Palma, and people prefer to get away from the now crowded streets around the Piazzetta. Nor does it have a pool, an essential in sticky summertime Capri. Its sea views are marred by a more recent arrival, and now the leading luxury hotel on Capri, the Quisisana, which stands in front, and can offer its guests extensive gardens, a terrace pool, and views of the distant sea.

However, the prices now reflect this. While the vaulted reception area with its heavy baroque furnishings is rather gloomy after the brightness of the street, the rooms upstairs are lighter, with the traditional Caprese majolica tiled floors, baroque Venetian table lamps and blue/grey/gold painted 'antiqued' furniture.

The rooms

The renovated deluxe rooms have been somewhat over decorated, with corporate striped fabrics, which is a shame, since seaside hotels should be spare in tone. The 15 standard rooms at the Hotel La Palma are small and unremarkable, while the superior rooms are generally (though not always) bigger and have balconies, and the deluxes have bourgainvillea covered terraces with views of the mountain, town or the aforementioned Quisisana. Hotel La Palma’s bathrooms are small and prettily tiled in yellow or blue, many with frescoed walls. Some of the rooms have delightful seaview frescoes, too.