ItalianBreaks Opiniones 6

The house and whole property is very nice and super clean, as well, you have absolute full privacy!!!
The (heated) swimming pool is great and clean, as well as the outside (warm water) shower!
Unfortunately, the outside 'living area / kitchen' is really far from what you expect for the price you pay for this property. We had quite some rainy days during our stay, and we could not sufficient use the outside living area as the roof is far from water proof, and really leaking all over the place. No fun at all, as there is no inside living room.
The wind is often very strong in this area of Italy, but the 'wind blockers' they created in the outside living area are far from sufficient. It was really not possible to find a comfortable (dry and some less windy) place to sit outside. And as there is no inside living room, this was really disappointing.
Due of the same wind, there are no parasols, so you have to sit in the full sun, or in the (very windy) shadow of the house / outside living area.

While the agency was very responsive regarding our queries and we enjoyed the help of a nice and competent concierge, our overall experience with this rental was horrendous. The pictures and description of the house did not correspond to reality. The misleading wording said nothing about only two bedrooms of three being airconditioned (imagine trying to sleep in a room with no A/C in the Sorrento region in August). The "villa" is not actually a standalone house but rather then bottom two floors of a very rundown house; despite the very steep 300 meter hill leading down to the house, there is no privacy: you can literally hear the owners on the top floor when they scrape a chair against the floor or chat over morning coffee on the balcony. What's more, the house is wedged among others, so you can also hear and see your neighbors talking on the phone or splashing in their pool. The house and all its finishes literally predated the creation of the standardized European electric outlets. Everything is unfresh and grimy. I had to drag a chair into the shower and descale the showerhead on our first morning there in order to be able to use the shower (otherwise water came out of one or two tiny spouts of a large showerhead). The sparkplug on the stove did not work. The downstairs living room, which happened to also be the only indoor sitting area in the entire tiny house, smelled so awfully of cat litter that even with regular airing out it was impossible to be in that room for longer than 30 minutes. We had to use the gross foldout couch with mattresses stacked on top of it because it was unusably uncomfortable otherwise; however, when I made the mistake of looking under it, I discovered unspeakable amounts of dust, hairs, and god only knows what. As a result, after paying through the nose for what we thought would be a lovely, private five-day getaway with a lot of family time, we basically had to scatter to the two air-conditioned bedrooms or try to spend time outside the house (especially infuriating given the cost of the rental). The full frontal views of Capri touted in the description were very much exaggerated. The sparkplug on the stove did not work. What was grandly termed a swimming pool was basically a tiny soaking tub about 3 feet deep at the deepest part and maybe 10 feet across. While the housekeeper diligently cleaned it every other day, the pool looked just as unappealing as the rest of the house: rusty scratches along the floor, grimy uncomfortable chairs around it. To top it all off, this was probably the LEAST well-stocked rental property where we had ever stayed. No perfunctory samples-sized toiletries, the kitchen wiped completely clean of any spices or condiments whatsoever (we had to buy salt and black pepper). They gave us four towels too small to serve as bath towels plus small towels over the bidet. No hand towels, no paper towels or napkins in the kitchen. THREE (!!) dishwasher pods for a five-night stay. While I appreciated having the option of "porter service" given the steep incline, 5o euros for someone to load suitcases into a small car and drive it to the top of the hill was exorbitant as well. In short, awful experience that I'm afraid has forever turned our entire family off to that entire part of Italy. The concierge was THE ONLY redeeming part of the whole stay.

We booked a staying at Villa Caramella in Calabria through mid August for 10 days.

Luliana at Italian breaks was really helpful with arranging our booking and being our point of contact for the booking. She replied quickly and was also available on the phone.

The villa was well equipped. We had all the necessary amenities. A good size swimming pool, plenty of room in the kitchen and seating areas and bedrooms were a good size. Everyone had their own bathroom. Air conditioning available through the whole property.

Plenty of parking onsite and the property is very safe. No concerns regarding unexpected visitors.

Only negatives were issues with food storage as we had issues with the fridge but this was resolved. We could also have done with another clean of the property during our 10 days stay with some extra towels too.

As for Polistena, there isn’t a huge amount to see. The villa was a good base to use to relax and get away to the beaches and other sites. But the town is quite small and not much to do or see for more than 2 days. Having a car is a must, so that you can get to other destinations.

Overall, I would still recommend using Italian Breaks. They were very accommodating and helpful with recommendations. Price was very reasonable. I would use again.

Villa Ema (aka Indigo) in Kanic, Croatia was really modern, beautifully designed 4 BR villa. It’s a little isolated so quiet. The host laid on wine and lots of food for our arrival - which was a very nice welcome.
Plenty of towels and Villa was very clean, spotless actually. AC works well. The hot tub and sauna on the roof are an added benefit. Local restaurant is ok. Local beaches are small but nice. Adriatic Sea is amazing, so blue! Excellent experience!

One major issue with this agency, based on my experience: the surcharge vs. direct booking is astronomical.
We stayed at what is called "Ragusa Apartments Quadri" on Italian Breaks website. In reality, this is "Apartment-suite Ibla" within the Relais Parco Cavalonga hotel - though the desciption on Italian Breaks makes sure not to make any mention of this. When we got there, I checked with the hotel and it turns out that we paid Italian Breaks c. 40% more than what we would have paid by booking our stay directly with Relais Parco Cavalonga, i.e. more than €600 loss.
It turns out that it can get much worse. I just checked how much it would cost to stay in this apartment for 7 days at the end of September. Price via Italian Breaks: €1,686. Price on the Relais Parco Cavalonga website: €886.55, i.e. the Italian Breaks surcharge is c. 90%. Mad.
I emailed Italian Breaks raising this issue. They told me that this is because they don't work directly with the property, they get it via an agency in Sicily. Still inexcusable - I would expect them to check the price is right as part of their service - but it also calls into questions the claim that properties are handpicked, personally visited etc. etc.
On this basis, I can not recommend this provider. Two stars instead of one because the communication was good and there were no other issues with the booking.

We had a lovely holiday in the Villa Brolio in central Tuscany. The on hand owner Claudio was fabulous with lots of info, and Luliana from Italian Breaks was a wonderful help with trying to find us a property, all in all a fab holiday. Thank you