Travel Editor’s Tips: How to explore the Amalfi Coast

Truly great hotels have the capacity to reassure, like sanctuaries remaining unchanged in a fast-changing world, but should also be able to surprise and inspire. Le Sirenuse does all this and more, offering the elegance, traditions and grand trappings of an aristocratic summer villa, but always with a twist. This destination hotel – with its evolving collection of contemporary art, Michelin-starred restaurant and vintage Riva boat offered to everyone who books a suite – is certainly deserving of all its accolades. Join the young and beautiful queuing around the block for a table on the high open terrace at Franco’s Bar, overlooking the town and Tyrrhenian Sea below.

Further up near the Path of the Gods, you’ll find the rarefied, artistic musical enclave of Ravello, which has hosted every writer and artist from D.H. Lawrence to Gore Vidal. Hole up at the charming Palazzo Avino and spoil yourself with spaghetti alle vongole in the hotel’s beach club, followed by an aperitivo in the Lobster & Martini Bar, set beside the heavenly gardens with peerless views across the coast.

Casa Privata is a restored fisherman’s ruin turned into a six-bedroom retreat, often booked as a unique rental for weddings and landmark birthdays. Situated on a steep and peaceful cliffside in Praiano, between Positano and Amalfi, it is built onto a series of terraced gardens, making it the dream hideaway for those seeking seclusion and peace.

The super-yacht tenders head to the honeypot trattoria that is Da Adolfo for the thrill of just-caught sea urchins and the signature mozzarella grilled in lemon leaves. But you can also hail a taxi-boat or wait for the gozzo (the trattoria’s personalized fishing boat, complete with the legendary red fish ‘Da Adolfo’ insignia) from Positano, which chugs along to the tiny beach where sunbeds cover the sand.