Hotel guide · Positano, Amalfi Coast
The Sersale family's old villa in the middle of Positano, above the church and the beach, with its terraces facing the bay.
Facts checked
01Is it for you?
02The hotel
Le Sirenuse was the Sersale family’s house in Positano, Villa Giulietta, where the family came from Naples for the summers, and it is still theirs. When they made it a hotel they named it after the islands on its horizon: Li Galli, whose old name is Le Sirenuse, for the sirens of the Greek myth. The hotel has grown up the cliff around the old villa and its cross-vaulted rooms, its façades a wine red that the hotel says the ancient site of Oplontis inspired, its floors laid with tiles made for it in an old Salerno ceramics works, and plants on every terrace — the hotel says it has no garden because it is one.
For the coast around it, our Amalfi Coast page covers the towns, when to go and the routes. The other Positano hotel we feature is Il San Pietro di Positano, on its headland east of the town above its own beach; in Ravello, Caruso trades the town for height and gardens. Rome and the Amalfi Coast sets those two side by side.
Every room is different, white-walled and many of them cross-vaulted, and the choice is the view and the outdoor space. The Courtyard rooms (about 22 m²) look onto an inner courtyard, and the Pool Terrace View rooms over the pool terrace, with a partial view of the sea. The sea-view rooms climb from the Classic Sea View (about 24 m², on the lower floors) through the Deluxe and Superior to the Executive Sea View (about 40 m²), each with a private balcony over the town and the bay. The Junior Suites Sea View add a sitting area and a balcony or terrace, and the Junior Suites Superior, on the highest floors, larger terraces and an oversized bath. At the top, the One Bedroom and Two Bedroom Suites join a Junior Suite Superior to a living room, the larger to a second, sea-view bedroom as well — about 110 m² in all.
Within a category the rooms differ in layout, terrace and angle of view, in the hotel’s own words. Tell us when you enquire what matters — the view, the outdoor space, the bed arrangement, step-free access — and we confirm it with the hotel for your dates before anything is booked.
On the practical side: every rate includes breakfast, the pool and the gym, by the hotel’s account. The drive from Naples airport or station is about 75 to 90 minutes by the hotel’s reckoning, and we plan the transfer with you; arriving by sea, the stairs from the landing make porters the easy answer, and we book them with the hotel’s concierge. There is no garage; valet parking is available for a daily fee. Pets are not accepted, and the hotel’s many stairs and high balconies matter for small children. If children are travelling, we confirm the hotel’s children’s policy for your group before anything is booked. A day at Le Sirenuse Mare goes through the hotel’s concierge, subject to availability. The hotel opens for the season in March, in its own words, and closes for the winter; the beach club’s season is shorter. We confirm both for your year.
La Sponda is the restaurant, a long room of white arches looking straight at Positano’s houses and the church’s tiled dome, lit at night by hundreds of hanging candles; Gennaro Russo’s cooking is, in the hotel’s words, “a culinary love letter to Naples, Vesuvius & the Amalfi Coast” — pasta al pomodoro, grilled branzino, a Neapolitan babà. Aldo’s, named for Aldo Sersale, one of the founders, is bar, bistro and grill on a candlelit terrace over the sea: oysters, seafood off the boats, Neapolitan classics. The Pool Bar, for hotel guests, serves lunch by the pool, and the Don’t Worry Bar, at the heart of the house, is for cocktails and records after dinner. We reserve the tables.
03Location
Le Sirenuse stands on Via Cristoforo Colombo, in the middle of Positano, just above the church of Santa Maria Assunta and the Spiaggia Grande. By a pedestrian route the church and the beach are a few minutes’ walk down from the door, and Fornillo beach, round the point to the west, about a quarter of an hour — approximate times, all of it steps and slopes, downhill going and uphill coming back; the ferry landing is a short ten-minute walk, by the hotel’s reckoning. The map shows it with what is around it. For the coast itself, see our Amalfi Coast page.
Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors
Le Sirenuse
Santa Maria Assunta
Spiaggia Grande
Fornillo beach
The ferry landing
04Alternatives
More hotels from our Amalfi Coast selection, each with a different character.
Positano
A hotel cut into the cliff east of Positano, with its own beach at the foot of the rock, a lift through the rock to reach it, a pool and a tennis court between the rock and the pebbles.
Ravello
An 11th-century palace at the top of Ravello, 350 metres above the sea, with a heated infinity pool, frescoed salons and gardens on terraces.
Amalfi
A family-run hotel on the cliff at the edge of Amalfi, its gardens on terraces down to a beach club, a salt-water pool and the sea.
Conca dei Marini
A 17th-century monastery on the cliff at Conca dei Marini: 20 rooms and suites, four levels of gardens down to a heated infinity pool, and a spa in the old vaults.
05Planning
Le Sirenuse puts a stay on the Amalfi Coast in the middle of Positano, as the whole of a week on the coast or the coast nights of a journey from Rome. Before any payment, we send a written proposal with a quoted trip price and what it includes — such as your room, the transfer from Naples airport or station, Capri by private boat, Pompeii and Herculaneum with a guide, and reservations at La Sponda — and refine it with you. Once you approve the proposal and complete the agreed booking requirements, we confirm your arrangements. We coordinate the details and support you while you travel.
How we choose hotels. For their size and character before their brand, and for how they suit the way you travel. No hotel is on our list simply because it sits on a preferred-partner programme. More in our story
Financially protected. When your stay is part of a package trip, your payments are covered against our insolvency by a guarantee with AXA. A hotel booked on its own is not a package. Plan with peace of mind
A sea-view room with its own balcony, or a suite's terrace over the town: tell us your dates and who is travelling.
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