While day-trippers pack onto Capri, Neapolitans head for Ischia — the largest island in the Bay of Naples, known as the Green Island for its fertile volcanic slopes. It's where Ferrante set parts of her novels, Hollywood filmed Cleopatra and The Talented Mr Ripley, Truman Capote wrote, and, more recently, where Dua Lipa honeymooned. It's also an island built on heat: the same volcanism that raised Monte Epomeo feeds more than 100 hot springs, from free wild pools at Sorgeto Bay to thermal parks like Giardini Poseidon Terme.
The pick of the clifftop options is San Montano Resort & Spa, perched on a terraced outcrop on the island's northwest coast, with citrus and olive trees and views across the gulf to Vesuvius. Founded in 1972 and now run by the third generation of the local De Siano family, it spreads 11 outdoor pools across its promontory: mineral baths held between 32°C and 38°C, seawater pools, cold Kneipp circuits, and a spa offering volcanic mud therapy plus a steam cavern cut into the rock.
There are 64 rooms and suites in warm southern Italian style — terracotta floors, Vietri ceramics, equestrian-print wallpaper — stocked with Acqua di Parma products and Smeg kettles. The standouts are the Infinity Pool Suite with its private heated seawater pool, and the Lighthouse Suite, new for 2025, built from an old naval watchtower with a glass-walled winter garden at the highest point of the headland. Breakfast is served outdoors over San Montano Bay — made-to-order omelettes, salumi, prosecco mimosas. Come evening there's wood-fired pizza at the poolside Acropoli, modernised local dishes like linguine con vongole at La Veranda, and a piano bar pouring a My…groni made with Ischian gin, cinnamon and citrus peel. Doubles start from £290.
Beyond the hotel, the island rewards a few days. Maronti Beach runs over 2km of volcanic sand on the south coast, lined with seafood shacks; locals arrive at the Bay of Sorgeto by evening to soak where thermal vents push water up through the seabed at up to 90°C — find the spot where it mixes with the tide before you get in. Near Ischia Ponte, Giardino Eden beach club lets you snorkel over the submerged Roman town of Aenaria. And skip the seafood for dinner: the island's signature is rabbit stew, best ordered in advance at inland spots like Il Focolare or La Vigna di Alberto.
One caveat: the hilltop site is all stone staircases, so wheelchair users should note the pool decks are stepped and lack pool lifts — golf buggies, accessible rooms and step-free taxis can be arranged with notice. For everyone else, it's a convincing case for choosing Ischia over its flashier neighbour.
Review first published by Suitcase Magazine.
