Capri Travel Guide | Quisisana Hotel Review + Best Capri Restaurants + Amalfi Coast Itinerary (Part 1)

This week, I'm checking a hotel off my bucket list and inviting you into my hotel room at the Grand Hotel Quisisana in Capri, Italy. I'm joined by my absolute favorite travel partner, someone who has taken me on adventures around the globe since my first trip at 6 months old, and who continues to explore new destinations and create unforgettable memories with me...MY MOM, Lisa Konsker! Find out the best restaurants on the island of Capri, our favorite beach clubs, can't miss activities in Capri and Anacapri, and why it took us 2 days to get to Italy! Stay tuned for our very special edition of The Strip Down where we rate a famous dish found in the Amalfi Coast. You won't want to miss this episode if you're already planning your summer vacation. Don't forget to subscribe, rate us, and leave a review. 

Follow us on Instagram at the links below for more When In Robes action and exclusive clips! 

Follow the Podcast:
Instagram: @WhenInRobesPod
TikTok: @WhenInRobesPod
Threads: @WhenInRobesPod
YouTube: @WhenInRobesPod

Follow the Host:
Instagram: @CarlyKonsker

Transcript

0:00

(Transcribed by TurboScribe.ai. Go Unlimited to remove this message.) Hello, hello, welcome back to Winnin' Rogues. I'm Carly Konsker, and today I'm coming to you from Capri, Italy. I am here with a very special guest, somebody who, oh my God, stop. I'm here with my mom, Lisa Konsker. Mom, say hi. Hi, everyone. Oh my gosh. Okay, this is her first podcast, so bear with us, but we've been traveling since I was six months old, and we first traveled to Nevis together, and I was just a baby, but a lot of my love of travel comes from my mom, so I figured it was only right to have her on the podcast because we are here for a very special trip. We're in Europe for her 60th and my 30th. You probably hate that I just said your age, but. Either way, we're here in Capri. We had a little bit of a hiccup traveling to get here, but we made it, and it's been absolutely beautiful. We're staying at the Kisisana Hotel. It's right in the center of town. It's beautiful. The hotel has a gorgeous pool overlooking the water. Our room has an amazing balcony that overlooks the entire sea, and we have a massive room. For Europe, this room is huge. It has stunning orange and, I guess, orange and orange tile, but it has stunning tile on the floor, and the bathroom's massive. It has both a tub and a shower, a bidet and a toilet, and plenty of amenities in case you forget your own. Our bed is a king-size bed, and we also have plenty of closet space. We were both able to have full hanging in the closet, which has been great since we did not pack light, but this has been such a beautiful place to stay. They have stunning amenities, which we will get into, but first, Mom, I'll let you talk for a little bit. This is not your first time in Capri, so tell me about the last time you were here. I was here a very long time ago with a girlfriend when we graduated from college, and basically, it's the same. Nothing's changed? A little bit. There are more modern stores, and I'm sure there are some new hotels and more modern restaurants, but the beach clubs are the same that I went to. It's the same feel. The Italians have the public beach part. There are private beach clubs. It's beautiful lunches, and it's just, you feel like you're transported to another place, which is amazing. It's so relaxing here. We are currently in the Kissi Sana robes, and I was a little upset to find out that the inside of the robe isn't as soft as the outside. It was very deceiving to find out that the inside's just very hard terry cloth and not typical soft robes, even though I do love the logo on it, and this logo is everywhere in the hotel. It's on the towels, the bath mats, it's in the pool, so you can find this logo everywhere, which is great, but the robe is not something that I wanna stay in, unfortunately. For such a beautiful hotel, it's not up to par, in my opinion. I agree. The outside robe is softer than the inside of the robe, but I also think that we've been in them for a little while, and they are softening up a little bit. And we also have the Kissi Sana slippers on. The slippers have a slightly different logo. They are just a mustardy gold, like a deep gold, but unlike the rest of the crests around the hotel, but it's still, the slippers are very soft and comfy, and they fit. Before we get to know a little bit more about my mom, we're gonna talk about the amenities at this hotel. We visited the spa yesterday, and the gym. It has a beautiful gym with plenty of machines, and it also has a personal trainer there. During most of the day, there's one hour lunch break, kind of, that the trainer will be there, but for the most part, if you want personal trainer there to help you, they will be there. There's also an indoor and outdoor pool at this hotel. For kids, I believe they have a free swim morning for children, but kids are allowed at the spa. Otherwise, it's for adults. And the spa also has steam room, sauna, red light sauna, right, infrared sauna? Red light sauna, yeah. Red light sauna. They have plenty of treatments you can get, from massages to getting your hair done and your nails done, and different facials. So definitely check it out if you're here. Besides the pool, there's also a beautiful breakfast buffet here that we enjoyed in the morning. You can do either a la carte or the buffet. The buffet has everything you can imagine, from scrambled eggs to cheese to meat to pastries and cereal and fruit. So there's something for everyone, and I personally love the little donuts that they had. And the scrambled eggs weren't amazing, but I'm a sucker for bread, so the sourdough toast. And they did have, for people who need it, the gluten-free section. So yes, if you're gluten-free, then you have options. They do have two tennis courts, which I did not know about prior to coming. One is for the pro, and one is if you have someone to hit with. And my mom's a very big tennis player. She's also an amazing tennis player. She played her whole life, and she played in college. So she's the type of person that will bring a tennis racket on vacation and try to play wherever she is. If you're like my mom, then this is a great opportunity for you to play tennis while you're in Italy, because it's very rare that hotels here have tennis courts. I think, I haven't seen many. No, I agree. So Capri has Anna Capri, which is up in the mountains with beautiful views overlooking everything, but it's very high up. And then there's the main city of Capri, where we're staying and where a lot of the hotels are. And this is closer to the beach clubs, because the beach clubs are all the way down by the water. So if you're coming to Capri, you have to wear shoes that you can walk. I haven't worn heels once since being here. Either of you. Sneakers every day. We've worn sneakers, and even to the beach clubs, we'll wear sneakers to walk to the beach clubs and then change into sandals once you get there. My mom also brought water shoes, which she recommends. Highly recommend, because a lot of the water is shallow. And so when I was standing on the rocks, I had water shoes on, so it was easier, but I would have been upset. I wouldn't have been able to, it was too slippery. Right, and a lot of the beaches here, they're all rocky, and the water has a lot of rocks in it. So if you feel the need to bring water shoes, bring them. I didn't bring them, and I'm doing just fine. But to each their own. I recommend doing the stair master before you come here. Yes, there is a lot of walking. So if you're not in the best shape, just be prepared. You'll probably be sweating, and you'll probably be walking up and down. There's also sometimes boats to a lot of these beach clubs. So we, on our first day, we went to Fontolina, which I absolutely loved. It's a beautiful, private beach club with beach lounges and a restaurant. We ate at the restaurant and then enjoyed a beach lounge. And you have the choice of either a mattress bed, or you can have more of like a chair. And they have their own private area where you can walk down into the water. And then you can either take all the stairs back up to Capri, or you can take a five-minute boat ride to Marina Piccolo. And we chose Piccolo. And we chose the boat ride because it was so much easier. We were also sweating as we were walking down. We didn't realize how far it was. I'm happy that we did the walk because it was beautiful. And we got to see amazing views on our way down to Fontolina. And the food at Fontolina was incredible. It was amazing. And, you know, you work up an appetite, whether you're swimming here or walking downstairs or up the stairs. You had a seafood salad, and I had an amazing shrimp arugula Parmesan salad. It was very simple, but delicious. And then we shared a lemon, the dessert. Oh, lemon granita. What? Granita. Granita? Granita. Anyway, so we shared a lemon granita. It's basically a lemon slushy or like a lemon icy. And it was so refreshing, especially on such a hot day. I also highly recommend if you're coming to Italy in the summer or to Europe in the summer is to bring a fan. It has saved our lives every single day. I brought my small one that fits in my beach bag. It fits in my bag from the nights out. Truly, I don't know what I would be doing without it because I've been sweating so much, but it's been a lifesaver just to have it. So I highly recommend investing in one. It's so cheap. So it's not even that big of an investment, but I'll try to link the fan so that you can get the exact one I brought. I highly recommend to bring it. So let's discuss our second beach club. Yesterday, we enjoyed going to Lido del Faro. It's another beach club, but this one's in Ana Capri. And I loved it. I think you liked this one better than Fondolina. Is that true? I loved it. I think this has to do with the age difference because in Fondolina, the chair is like kind of a sack. And at Lido del Faro, you have a full lounge chair with an overhead protection for sun and you can get an umbrella. I prefer not to be in the sun, so I appreciated the extra coverage. Right. And so Lido del Faro had a beautiful pool that was filled with the ocean water. They had a restaurant as well above where you had a great view and great food. And then we had reserved two lounges in advance, which I highly recommend. Always make reservations in advance so you're guaranteed a spot. If you just show up, they probably are going to be booked. So you might not get a seat and then you won't be able to enjoy the beautiful view and amenities. So Lido del Faro, I will say the negative of it is that it is next to a public beach or a public swimming area. So it is a lot more crowded than Fondolina. If you're trying to have a more relaxing day, there's just going to be a lot more people. But that being said, I do think they're equally as beautiful. I still was able to relax. And it's still a private beach club just next to a public beach. And it's a very small public beach and a gorgeous alcove for the water. And what I liked about it better is that basically every single, whether it's Instagram or photo that I've ever seen of a beautiful Italian alcove with hills in the background, mountains in the background, rocks. This was it. This was my picture perfect area. The colored towels, the colored umbrellas. There were, I would call them small mountains, but some people would just say rocks. People were climbing up them. People were jumping in at all different heights. And I liked the action. Yeah. I agree. I think it was fun to see people jump in from massive heights. Something I personally wouldn't do because I would be too scared. Also, you have to climb up and that scares me. But yeah, it was definitely entertaining to see and really cool to watch people do it. So that was Lido del Faro. We enjoyed lunch there as well. And we had fried calamari. We had some raw fish with like a raw fish platter. Crudo. Raw fish crudo. Thank you. And then we split what Capri is known for and Amalfi Coast is known for, which is spaghetti bongole. And it was so delicious. Did you like it? I loved it. It's one of my favorites. I really enjoy it back in America and it's even better here. There's nothing like eating fish or shellfish in Italy, right? It's all fresh, honestly. So today we went to Riccio and I think Riccio has been my favorite meal of the trip so far. So Riccio is part of the Capri Palace Hotel in Ana Capri. But there are separate locations. They're about a mile apart. But the hotel has a shuttle to take you from the hotel to the restaurant. The restaurant is a beautiful blue and white overlooking the water. You're high up so every seat has a view. I had the king crab salad with a carrot and cucumber couscous. It was absolutely stunning, the plate. The presentation was incredible. And it came with a spicy mayo. I finished the entire thing. There was not one piece of crab left on my plate. I had a grilled langoustine, which was delicious, simple, and great. And then we shared a lobster and seafood pasta. It had mussels, clams, and lobster in it. And it was in like a lobster sauce with linguine to die for. When I tell you probably one of the best pastas I've had in my life, it blew me away. It was homemade pasta. Was it? Yes. I will say the only fault of the pasta was that the mussels were cold and I didn't enjoy that. But the clams and the lobster were delicious. So after our lunch today, this restaurant has a dessert room. Not just like a dessert menu, but an entire room where you go and you can select your dessert. It was beautiful and the pastry chef was there being allergic to nuts. They were very, very helpful with what we could have, what we couldn't have. And so we were able to taste a number of things. So we enjoyed the tiramisu, the lemon tart chocolate mousse we could have, and the lobster tails, which is a pastry filled with cream, which I absolutely loved. The chocolate mousse and the lemon tart, I could do without. But the tiramisu, which I'm not even a fan of, was delicious. And so was the lobster tails. So I really enjoyed this restaurant. Probably one of my top restaurants of the trip. No, I loved it. I thought it was picturesque and festive. Okay, I thought you were like gonna disagree with me. No. Okay. And as I mentioned, we're celebrating my mom's birthday. So I had them bring her sparklers to celebrate her birthday since it's still her birthday week. And it was so sweet and so cute. And everyone in the restaurant was clapping and enjoying and having a great time. And this restaurant has a collaboration with Dior and they have a Dior pop-up below the restaurant, which was really cool to see. They had all these sand sculptures and very tiny, but it was absolutely beautiful. It has many exclusive items that you can't get anywhere else. They have 3D sculptures that are bags that look like they're made out of sand. When I say this store has the most stunning view, you look to your right and you're looking out at the ocean. So for such a tiny store, it's absolutely beautiful. I will say the restaurant is probably one of my favorite meals we've had so far on this trip. I absolutely loved what we had for lunch, but I loved even more the drink I had with my lunch. And I had a Caprito, which is cranberry juice, limoncello, lemon juice, and soda. And they put lime to finish it off. And it was so delicious and beautiful. And I had to not have one, but two because I finished it so fast. It was unreal. I thought that the restaurant was extremely picturesque and very indicative of Capri with the blue and white, as you said. I thought that it was a lot of fun and I've never seen a better view from a bathroom in my life. The bathroom was really nice, but I would say the food was really the winner. Before we talk about a little more about the activities on the island and the nightlife on the island and where we've gone for dinner, let's get to know you a little better.