If you are bringing children to Procida, the choice of area counts for more than the choice of hotel. The Chiaiolella has direct road access, flat ground, the widest and best-equipped beaches on the island and the services along the seafront. The rest of Procida has steps, climbs and views.
The Hotel Crescenzo sits right on the little harbour, at Via Marina Chiaiolella 33. Ten rooms, some with a direct view of the boats, others with a balcony. The family rooms take four people with bunk beds, and the property has cots and bed rails. From 70 EUR a night, with a restaurant-pizzeria downstairs that Procidans know better than tourists do.
The rooms, and how they work with children
There are ten. Some look onto the little harbour, others have a balcony. The view over the boats is the one everybody asks for: ask for it when you book, do not count on it by default.
The useful part is the family rooms for up to four people, with bunk beds. That is not a given: on the island most properties have double rooms and nothing else, and a family of four ends up taking two. Not here, and the difference over a week’s bill is large.
Cots and bed rails are available on request. Ask for them in advance, not on arrival: in ten rooms there are not ten cots. We have no verified check-in and check-out times, so I am not writing any: ask on the phone along with the cot.
The pizzeria: why the island knows this address
The in-house restaurant and pizzeria is very well known on the island, and that is not a courtesy line from a hotel listing. The wood oven has been working since the 1960s, three generations have followed one another in the kitchen, and the "Corricella" pizza is their own creation.
For anyone sleeping here it is a huge practical advantage, especially with children: dinner happens downstairs, with no bus, no steps, no walking back in the dark. On the Chiaiolella seafront, though, there are also Da Mariano and Da Girone, the latter in the 20–40 EUR bracket, and it is right to alternate. The full picture is in the guide to the restaurants of Procida.
The position: the sea, Vivara and the bridge
From the little harbour, the Chiaiolella beach is right there: dark volcanic sand, shallow safe water, beach clubs and bars along the front, sun all day. The southern stretch is the one many people call Ciracciello. It is the busiest beach on the island, and it is also the only one you reach without steps.
A little further north the Ciraccio beach begins, longer and windier: in the afternoon it takes the mistral and the sand flies. With small children, the Chiaiolella is the more comfortable of the two.
From the other end of the little harbour the footbridge starts for the Vivara nature reserve. Walking as far as the gate is free and the stroll is worth it at sunset; to go in you need an online booking, walking boots and a guided slot of two and a half hours, as the page on the guided visit to Vivara explains. Monday it is closed.
Terra Murata and Corricella are about twenty minutes on foot, or by the L2 bus to the harbour and then the route up the hill. It is the only real limit of this area: the postcard Procida is not here, you go to it.
How you get here with the luggage
This is the practical reason the Chiaiolella wins when you are travelling loaded. From the landing at Marina Grande you take the L2 route, which crosses the island and reaches the little harbour; failing that, a taxi. Either way you arrive in front of the hotel, on a road, on the flat.
The comparison is quickly made. At the Hotel La Corricella the cases go down a stairway by hand, because the village has no vehicle access. At La Casa sul Mare you climb up to Terra Murata. Here, no: you push the wheeled case from the bus to reception. With a pushchair, a high chair and two tired children, that is the difference between a holiday and an expedition.
The real timetables of the bus routes and the summer traffic rules — in summer the movement of non-residents’ vehicles is restricted and the rules change from year to year — are on the page about getting around Procida. For the ferries from Naples and from Pozzuoli, start instead from ferries to Procida.
Animals and the season
The property is pet friendly. On the island so are the Albergo La Vigna and the Tirreno Residence: ask for the exact conditions when you book, because the policies vary between sizes and supplements.
On seasonal opening we have no verified information for this address, and we are not inventing any. Procida shuts down a great deal in winter: between November and March a substantial part of the properties reduce or suspend their activity. If you are travelling off season, the checking phone call is compulsory; the only address on this list with a stated year-round opening is the Tirreno Residence, a few hundred metres further on.
Who it suits
It suits families, full stop. Rooms for up to four people, a flat beach, dinner downstairs, animals admitted, 70 EUR to start: it is the most sensible combination on the island for anyone travelling with children, and the page on Procida with children explains why the other areas make life harder.
It suits less well anyone who is after the postcard. From the Chiaiolella you do not see Corricella, nor Terra Murata: you see them by going there. If your trip is built on those images, sleep up on the hill — La Casa sul Mare — or inside the village, at the Hotel La Corricella, accepting the steps that come with it. The comparison is in where to stay at Procida.