Castellabate area holiday apartment: Santa Maria di Castellabate

We stayed in the Saracena apartment in Villa Elaia the first week of September 2009 as a base for exploring Il Cilento.
Both the area and the Villa can be highly recommended. The scenery of the National Park is indeed breathtaking and Santa Maria di Castellabate is one of the most attractive villages on the coast. Recommended trips: old medieval hilltop villages like Castellabate & Lustra, Paestum, the walk from S. Marco to Pta Licosa, the coastline south of Sapri. No mass tourisme which makes a complete different atmosphere. Friendly and helpful people, delicious food.
The apartment has contributed a lot to our good moods :-)
The description and pictures on the website are accurate. The house is clean and very well maintained. What we really appreciated was the immense private terrace outside the apartment; we have spent hours there bbq-ing fresh fish and reading our books under the olive tree. It is a 5 min (steep) walk to the village beach which is nice, sandy and romantic with all these old buildings at the background. Try lunch at the terrace of "new hotel Sophia" on the beach; perfect fish dishes. Alfonso the owner lives in a village nearby. He is friendly and very helpful. Thinking of something negative the only thing that comes to mind is the problem with the garbage that lies around in the area. It has not spoiled our fun though. If you like to explore a new region in Italy, don't like mass tourism and prefer a central and comfortable place to stay Villa Elaia can be truly recommended.